source: AAIA press release

BETHESDA, MD - The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) announced today the opening of a new collaborative Web portal. This new service is available to test compliance with the AAIA Internet Parts Ordering (IPO) standard. The association would like to thank American Remanufactures Inc. (ARI) for their generosity and vision in funding the development of an important supply chain enabler for the industry. The IPO Portal was designed and developed in partnership with Prescient Technology Inc. (PTI), specialists in business and systems integration in the automotive aftermarket.

IPO is the industry standard for emergency and replenishment purchase order transactions, quotes, order acknowledgements and shipment notices. Solutions that support the IPO standard reuse the same interface to communicate with all compliant trading partners.

IPO Portal services are available to aftermarket suppliers and their trading partners to test compliance with the standard. These services introduce new opportunities for suppliers to get on board the train before it leaves the station by testing their implementations prior to generating live orders. Companies can elect to self-test as a buyer or seller, and/or participate in computer monitored end-to-end testing with actual trading partners. Each test routine provides private, third party analysis of the exchange to facilitate fast and friendly supply chain integration without the usual "finger-pointing." This is an integral step to the long-term goal of industry-wide B2B supply chain communications.