CODA Automotive Industry Consortium Announces Newest Members
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
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