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The National Catalog Managers Association (NCMA) presented the President's Awards at its 36th Annual Knowledge Exchange Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., recently. For cataloging excellence, recognition was given for design and production of catalog content in a variety of media. Top honors for CD-ROM catalog went to Honeywell for the Bendix Brake CD and the top award for Web Cataloging went to Honeywell for Fram.com. Cardone Inc. was recognized for the 17th consecutive year for its cataloging excellence. This year, Cardone was honored with two Platinum level Presidents’ Awards: The “Presidents’ Award for Catalog Excellence” for paper catalogs for their 2009 A1/Cardone Select Steering Catalog, and the “Presidents’ Award for Electronic Data Excellence” presented by CSK for the accurate electronic data they submit for use in their stores. Denso Sales California (DSCA) and Four Seasons were also given Presidents’ Awards for their Electronic Data Excellence from Activant Solutions, Inc. NCMA has also awarded Beck/Arnley with a Gold Level President’s Award for Electronic Data Excellence and was presented by WHI Solutions Inc.
ATX Group, a provider of customized connected vehicle (telematics) services to global automobile manufacturers, has announced that Tom Metzger, a veteran of the automotive electronics industry, has joined as senior vice president over the company's global sales and account management functions.
Mitchell 1 has announced that Tim McDonnell, national training manager for Mitchell 1, was named a 2009-2010 Automotive Management Institute (AMI) board member during the AMI board of trustees meeting recently in Orlando, Fla.
Gates Corp. has promoted Dave Miller to vice president of Aftermarket Global Marketing and Product Management. Miller will work with all regions to develop and align product management/development plans, marketing strategies, and to synchronize product application data.
Snap-on has announced that it has been recognized as having the “Overall Best Power Tools in the United States” among its top competitors on the basis of Frost & Sullivan’s independent research, 2008 United States Automotive Technicians’ Choice: Evaluation of Automotive Tools. Technicians gave high ratings to Snap-on by a wide margin in the power tool category. Thirty-one percent chose Snap-on as the best overall power tool, making this the second year in a row that Snap-on has led the category.
Uni-Select USA has launched www.autoplus.biz, a Web site to assist customers with car care information and tips, finding service centers, promotions and rebate offers, industry trends, and links to resources such as the Car Care Council. A locator on the site incorporates all Auto Plus locations for part stores and service centers by ZIP code. Links on the site include updated compliance testing, recalls, and technical service bulletins from expert agencies throughout the country.
Kimberly-Clark Professional was named 2008 Vendor of the Year by the International Autobody Marketing Group (IAMG). Lloyd Fields, president of IAMG, also cited Kimberly-Clark Professional’s on-time shipping practices and successful promotional programs with IAMG headquarters as well its associated warehouses. Kimberly-Clark provides IAMG members with such products as Scott Shop Towels and Krew Heavy Duty Shop Towels as well as a new line of KimTech Automotive Paint Preparation products that are compatible with waterborne painting systems.
AirSept Inc. has named Greg McGuinness vice president of its Aftermarket Division. McGuinness it charged with expanding AirSept’s aftermarket presence and introducing a new series of patented service repair products. McGuinness brings experience from the air-conditioning, heat-transfer, and transmission industries.
AAMCO Transmissions Inc. has selected the Activant Integrated Service Estimator (ISE) solution to help center owners and their employees produce significantly faster, more complete, and accurate service estimates. AAMCO franchisees will use the solution to eliminate phone calls and other time-consuming steps involved in identifying and pricing parts, transmitting parts orders, quoting labor, documenting application-specific service intervals, and tracking vehicle repair history, said Brian O’Donnell, senior vice president of operations for AAMCO.
Technical training will be offered for the i•SHOP standard July 20-21 in St. Louis. The i•SHOP Boot Camp will be hosted at Hunter Engineering’s training facility and will orient application developers with the functional and technical requirements of the i•SHOP specification. i•SHOP is a standard for the interoperability of shop management systems with information servers and backshop diagnostic equipment and systems. “In addition to application developers and system architects, we encourage IT executives and product managers to attend the Boot Camp to learn how i•SHOP can be used in their products as a differentiator and added-value feature,” said Scott Luckett, AAIA’s vice president of technology standards. “The current automotive market conditions represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the automotive service environment. We want to provide the training that will lead to the products that will revolutionize and modernize the automotive service experience. ”Registration is available
at www.aftermarket.org. For more information about i•SHOP, visit www.ishopstandards.org.