STAR and AIAG Join Forces on Standards Development

MCLEAN, Va., April 23 -- STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail), the IT standards body for the North American retail automotive industry, and AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group), a not-for- profit organization focused on improving business processes and practices in the automotive supply chain, have agreed to cooperate together on joint standards development projects.

STAR and AIAG have signed a Memo of Understanding (MOU) that enables both organizations to exchange memberships, participate in standards development projects, and share technical documentation and specifications.

STAR is a non-profit, auto industry-wide initiative to create voluntary IT standards for the data elements and transmission format used by manufacturers, dealers, and retail system providers to communicate with each other. STAR's initiatives will result in a more efficient data exchange between dealers and manufacturers, with lower costs, more accurate and timely data, and increased levels of customer satisfaction.

"This shared effort with AIAG is excellent -- both STAR and AIAG can collaborate more effectively together on standards development. Plus, we can reuse each other's organizations' best practices," says Tom Campisi, STAR communications chair.

AIAG is an organization where volunteers from member companies come together in a neutral environment to discuss issues important to the success of the automotive supply chain. AIAG members play a unique role in the development of new technologies and the standards that govern their usage.

"AIAG firmly supports the work of STAR and believes that this collaboration helps us achieve our goal 'to do what's right for the automotive industry' by aligning retail and supply chain in an open and international standards environment," says Sally Fuger, AIAG Program Manager of Electronic Commerce.

About STAR (www.starstandard.org )

The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the Information Technology (IT) standards organization for the retail automotive industry. The goal of the STAR organization is to use IT standards as a catalyst in fulfilling the business information needs of dealers and manufacturers while reducing the time and effort previously required to support this activity.

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, STAR is a not-for-profit volunteer organization and its members include Dealers, Manufacturers and Retail System Providers (RSPs). As members, they are interested in developing, promoting, and administering voluntary IT standards in the retail automotive industry and improving the effectiveness, timeliness and competitiveness of the IT solutions needed within the retail automotive industry.

  STAR membership roster:
  Dealer Groups: NADA

Retail System Providers: ADP, Arkona, Auto/Mate Inc., Cobalt Group, DealerTrack, EDS Automotive Retail Group, NAT Inc., PBS Financial Systems Inc., Procede Software, Reynolds & Reynolds, RouteOne, Sun Microsystems, Tibco, UCS

Manufacturers: American Honda Motor Co., Inc., American Isuzu Motors, Inc., American Suzuki Motor Corp., BMW of North America, Inc., DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corp., Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Cars, Kia Motors America, Mazda North American Operations, Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, Inc., Nissan North America, Inc., Porsche Cars North America, Inc., Renault SA, Saab Cars USA, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Volkswagen of America, Volvo Cars of North America

About AIAG (www.aiag.org )

Founded in 1982, AIAG is a not-for-profit trade association of over 1,600 automotive and truck manufacturers and their suppliers. AIAG's purpose is to provide an open forum where members cooperate in developing and promoting solutions that enhance the prosperity of the automotive industry. Its focus is to continuously improve business processes and practices involving trading partners throughout the supply chain. More information about AIAG and its initiatives can be found at www.aiag.org .