Technology Newsmaker Q&A: Mark Toebben

Jan. 1, 2020
Mark Toebben is president of Direct Communications Inc. (DCi). He has also served on the board of directors of SEMA, and served as a SEMA representative in the Aftermarket Data Vision group.

Mark Toebben is president of Direct Communications Inc. (DCi). He has also served on the board of directors of SEMA, and served as a SEMA representative in the Aftermarket Data Vision group. DCi is currently leading an AAIA initiative (in conjunction with Pricedex) to define product-specific, performance and physical attributes across the aftermarket product set. Prior to his work in the aftermarket, Toebben was an executive at Marriott International.

Can you give us an update on the product attribute project that DCi is working on for AAIA?

We're about ready to move into the next phase, which will involve gathering the subject matter expert teams together and identifying attributes for each group of parts. We're gathering attribute donations from different parties, including warehouse distributors, retailers and manufacturers. Our next step is to go through those and identify the common attributes.

It's early in the process, but what have you learned so far?

First and foremost, that people are using these attributes across the industry. The thing that really solidified why this is an important project is that there is a very wide diversity in the definition of each attribute and how it is used. There are a number of attributes that the subject matter experts will take a look at and determine, is this a basic piece of data, or is this something that actually helps sell the product? That's where these definitions will come into play.

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What do you consider the biggest challenge in product data management right now?

Everybody understands how important having electronic catalog content is in the first place. There are all sorts of examples that point to how important having and using the data is. If you look at any website, if you don't have that electronic catalog data, the part is invisible to the marketplace.

When you look at attributes in particular, if you don't create a standardized group of attributes by part that will appeal to the entire marketplace, you will continue to have people creating their own attributes. You could have five different companies creating five different attributes for the same part. That's a real challenge, and it kind of defeats the purpose of having attributes in the first place. If you can't gather that information in a standardized way, it doesn't do anybody any good.

Mark Toebben is president of Direct Communications Inc. (DCi). He has also served on the board of directors of SEMA, and served as a SEMA representative in the Aftermarket Data Vision group. DCi is currently leading an AAIA initiative (in conjunction with Pricedex) to define product-specific, performance and physical attributes across the aftermarket product set. Prior to his work in the aftermarket, Toebben was an executive at Marriott International.

Can you give us an update on the product attribute project that DCi is working on for AAIA?

We're about ready to move into the next phase, which will involve gathering the subject matter expert teams together and identifying attributes for each group of parts. We're gathering attribute donations from different parties, including warehouse distributors, retailers and manufacturers. Our next step is to go through those and identify the common attributes.

It's early in the process, but what have you learned so far?

First and foremost, that people are using these attributes across the industry. The thing that really solidified why this is an important project is that there is a very wide diversity in the definition of each attribute and how it is used. There are a number of attributes that the subject matter experts will take a look at and determine, is this a basic piece of data, or is this something that actually helps sell the product? That's where these definitions will come into play.

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PAGE 2

What do you consider the biggest challenge in product data management right now?

Everybody understands how important having electronic catalog content is in the first place. There are all sorts of examples that point to how important having and using the data is. If you look at any website, if you don't have that electronic catalog data, the part is invisible to the marketplace.

When you look at attributes in particular, if you don't create a standardized group of attributes by part that will appeal to the entire marketplace, you will continue to have people creating their own attributes. You could have five different companies creating five different attributes for the same part. That's a real challenge, and it kind of defeats the purpose of having attributes in the first place. If you can't gather that information in a standardized way, it doesn't do anybody any good.

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