Arctic Cat Expands Use of ARI Products and Services
MILWAUKEE--June 17, 2003--ARI (OTCBB:ARIS), a leading provider of electronic catalog-enabled business solutions that connect equipment manufacturers with their service and distribution networks, announced today that Arctic Cat, Inc. of Thief River Falls, MN has licensed ARI's EMPARTweb(TM) and EMPARTpublisher(TM) software and expanded their deployment of ARI's PartSmart(TM) electronic parts catalog software.
Under the new agreement, ARI will work closely with Arctic Cat to simplify their technical publishing process, implement the use of EMPARTpublisher and deploy EMPARTweb as a complement to the information available today on PartSmart. In addition, Arctic Cat has licensed additional copies of PartSmart to make it available to more dealers worldwide.
"Our dealers have been using ARI's PartSmart (private labeled for Arctic Cat as PartsPro), which is integrated with our Cat Tracker Dealer Network, to look up parts and transmit orders," said Brian Espeseth, product support manager for Arctic Cat. "We recognized that in order for our dealers to meet the needs of their customers, it was essential to provide them with immediate access to the most current model information available. We are confident ARI's EMPARTpublisher will allow us to take control of our publishing process so that we can distribute updates on demand via EMPARTweb and distribute complete catalogs more quickly via PartSmart," added Espeseth. According to Espeseth, Arctic Cat expects to fully integrate EMPARTweb with the Cat Tracker system by the end of this year. "Our help desk has found PartSmart so easy to use that we plan to add EMPARTweb as well to ensure that they have access to the same up-to-date information that our dealers do," concluded Espeseth.
"Arctic Cat's addition of EMPARTweb and expanded deployment of PartSmart demonstrate their commitment to providing their dealers with the business tools they need to succeed," said Brian E. Dearing, chairman and chief executive officer of ARI. "EMPARTpublisher will allow Arctic Cat to streamline its publishing process to quickly and easily publish on the web or distribute data via PartSmart. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Arctic Cat to ensure the successful deployment of EMPARTpublisher and EMPARTweb," added Dearing. According to Dearing, under the new agreement, Arctic Cat joins the growing number of manufacturers in the Powersports Industry, including Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki, Bombardier, Polaris and Yamaha, who have extended their relationship with ARI in order to take advantage of ARI's full suite of catalog products and services. Dearing indicated that ARI's suite of catalog products includes PartSmart, EMPARTweb, EMPARTpublisher and EMPARTviewer(TM).
Arctic Cat Inc. , designs, engineers, manufactures and markets a full line of state-of-the-art snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) under the Arctic Cat(R) brand name. In addition, Arctic Cat sells related parts, garments and accessories. Leveraging an extensive network of independent dealers and distributors, Arctic Cat markets its products in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other international markets. For more information on Arctic Cat, visit their website at www.arcticcat.com.
ARI is a leading provider of electronic catalog-enabled business solutions for sales, service and life-cycle product support in the manufactured equipment market. ARI currently provides approximately 80 parts catalogs (many of which contain multiple lines of equipment) for approximately 60 equipment manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe. More than 75,000 catalog subscriptions are provided through ARI to over 20,000 dealers and distributors in more than 100 countries in a dozen segments of the worldwide manufactured equipment market including outdoor power, recreation vehicle, floor maintenance, auto and truck parts aftermarket, power sports, marine and construction. The Company builds and supports a full suite of multi-media electronic catalog publishing and viewing software for the Web or CD and provides expert catalog publishing and consulting services. ARI e-Catalog systems support a variety of electronic pathways for parts orders, warranty claims and other transactions between manufacturers and their networks of sales and service points. In addition, ARI also provides a template-based dealer website service that makes it quick and easy for an equipment dealer to have a professional and attractive website. ARI currently operates three offices in the United States and one in Europe and has sales and service agents in Australia, England and France providing marketing and support of its products and services.