Ford Motor Company Selects OEConnection's LinkIQ

- Business Intelligence For Enhanced Parts Efficiency -

RICHFIELD, Ohio, July 26 -- OEConnection LLC, a leader in ecommerce procurement and analysis solutions for the automotive original equipment parts business, is pleased to announce Ford Motor Company's selection of LinkIQ as an integral component in Ford's continued initiative to streamline the parts supply chain and better serve its dealers and their customers. LinkIQ, an online business intelligence tool, provides intuitive analysis for the proactive marketing, management, and distribution of in- channel original equipment (OE) parts. Currently used by hundreds of dealers across the country, Ford premiers as the first automotive manufacturer to use LinkIQ's analysis of in-channel inventory as a vital assist in parts circulation planning.

John Graham, Ford Project Manager, commented, "Ford is continually seeking tools to improve efficiency and response time for our internal and external customers. LinkIQ offers enhanced parts visibility throughout our corporate and field operations providing easy access to enhanced parts information for quick, agile decision-making."

Mark Tomasetti, OEConnection Vice President of Emerging Products and Markets added, "We're very pleased that Ford Motor Company has selected LinkIQ as its parts information tool-of-choice. LinkIQ's rapid time-to-market and ability to bridge disparate systems, normalize data and produce a single, affordable information source of in-channel parts activity rendered it the right solution for Ford."

Ford Motor Company will utilize LinkIQ's advanced methodology of data modeling to help facilitate greater insight regarding service parts management, backorder fulfillment, optimized stocking levels, idle parts control, product life cycle planning, recall support, and other parts activities for its 4,500 U.S. dealer points. Ford plans to implement LinkIQ for parts-facing corporate personnel in the third quarter of this year. Implementation plans for field level personnel are under development.

LinkIQ builds its foundation on the extensive parts information assembled in OEConnection's flagship parts procurement tools, D2DLink(R) and CollisionLink(R), used today by over 12,000 automotive dealers and collision repair facilities. Its intuitive, web-based architecture combines the analytical intelligence of market-respected data mining and reporting tools with the ease-of-use of wizard-based discovery and web-native functionality. Users enjoy access from any internet-capable workstation providing information-on-demand with maintenance-free operation. LinkIQ currently offers intelligence solutions for the new car franchise dealer and automotive manufacturer communities.

About OEConnection LLC

OEConnection is a provider of web-based technology solutions for automakers, their affiliated dealers, and others in the automotive parts business. Serving over 12,000 dealerships and collision repairers, OEConnection is a venture created by Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and ProQuest Automotive. The company is headquartered in the greater Cleveland area at 4150 Highlander Parkway, Richfield, OH, 44286. For more information, call 1-888-776-5792, ext. 1891 or visit www.OEConnection.com.