The Cooperative for Open Dealer Applications

(CODA), an automotive industry consortium promoting open technology standards,

announced that Auto Town and the Paul Gillrie Institute have joined

as founding members. These companies join ProMax Online, Who's Calling,

California Research Tabulations, Inc. and Ocentrix, Inc. as founders.

MediaExpress also announced its membership to CODA, which was formed

with the mission of accelerating the adoption of standards-based software

development serving the retail auto industry.

CODA says its role is to unite technology providers, including software and services

vendors, as well as dealers, OEMs and trade groups, to address the retail

auto industry's historic lack of technology integration. This problem

was highlighted in a survey of automotive dealers conducted in 2001 by

NADA (DSP Satisfaction Survey), which cited system integration as "the

top driver in dealer satisfaction."

"CODA represents an effort that will serve our industry's progress well.

In order to provide auto dealers with the best possible services, technology

vendors need to cooperate. CODA is building a forum to facilitate these

activities," said Kurt Olnhausen, president and CEO of Auto Town, an automotive

retail software provider.

Dave Houssian of the Paul Gillrie Institute, an independent consulting

firm assisting dealers with IT purchasing, stated, "The open integration

that CODA can deliver gives dealers more flexibility in selecting technology

solutions that fit their businesses, which ultimately positions them for

long term growth. We are excited about working with these types of efforts

in the industry in order to provide more choices for auto dealers."

CODA functions as an independent organization in which software vendor

members agree to publish an Application Programming Interface (API) that

allows any other CODA member to exchange data with their application,

should they choose to do so. CODA also leverages existing and newly proposed

standards for data exchange, including the STAR organization's XML schema,

OAGI protocols and the W3C/OASIS SOAP standard.

"CODA helps bring open systems to dealers for true integration of fundamental

business software and services," said Jim Roche, CEO of Ocentrix. "The

seamless integration of vendors' technology, such as accounting, sales

and inventory, will allow dealers to streamline processes, have better

access to information and improve customer service."

For more information on CODA, contact Mark Fiebig, SVP of Corporate Development

at Ocentrix, at 206-625-9393 x3018 (mark@ocentrix.com) and visit www.ocentrix.com/coda.html.