Arkona Inc. announced May 21 the integration of its dealer management solution with General

Motors' dealership factory communications system. According to the company, this integration provides

the more than 16,000 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac and Oldsmobile

franchises with an alternative to managing and

exchanging information with General Motors.

Arkona says their dealer management solutions allow GM dealers to receive and

transfer FACTS (financial statements), RAPID (parts management) and WINS

(warranty processing) data using the GM ACCESS system. Arkona claims their solution

is designed with efficiency in mind so that data is only entered once from

any data entry screen and is shared throughout all applications.

"The Arkona solution is extremely fast and accurate," said Allen Elggren,

controller, Chapman Automotive Group, of Chandler, Arizona. "Our parts

managers and parts personnel appreciate the simple user interface and the

powerful reporting features built into the Arkona solution."

"Arkona provides a simple solution to warranty submission. It is fast and

effective for on time claim submission and makes it easy to cross-train

warranty clerks," stated Randy Harrison, service director, Mark Miller

Pontiac-Buick, of Salt Lake City, Utah. "Arkona's warranty download

increases productivity of the warranty administrator by eliminating the data

entry of each claim line and parts."

General Motors and Arkona say they have been working on this integration for months

to verify that data is accurately transferred to and from GM systems.

They claim dealers now have immediate access and current information about their parts,

accounting and service business through the Arkona solution.

"This is a huge step forward for Arkona in its marketing and sales efforts

to GM dealers," said Rich Holland, president, Arkona. "This new integration

streamlines the flow of information to dealers and adds an entirely new

level of information access that is critical to improving their dealerships.

Arkona's software is leading-edge technology and one of the most

comprehensive dealer management solutions available.

Arkona continues to grow its dealer base each month and is rapidly moving

towards complete integration with Ford, Mitsubishi and BMW."

About Arkona Inc.

Founded in 1996, Arkona is a public automotive

management solutions company. They claim their Dealer Management Suite also leads the market

in technologically superior e-business solutions for automotive dealers that

fully integrate back office systems with a retail Web presence. In this

market Arkona says it is one of the first premier Application Service Providers

(ASP). For more information visit the Arkona Web site at www.arkona.com.