Every year, the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) conducts a user group meeting at the SEMA Show. This face-to-face meeting serves as a great opportunity for our team to ask the following questions.

The SEMA Data Co-op has become “data central” for hundreds of specialty parts brands, representing millions of part numbers, and tens of millions of vehicle applications. This directory is designed to guide data users to brands that have successfully undertaken the challenge to manage their product data, and to continue to expand reference as more brands are added to the SDC repository.

I was on a business trip recently and found myself with a bit of downtime in the morning. I had a couple of hours before I needed to be anywhere, so I turned on the TV and immediately became immersed in a movie. When I made mention of the movie to a colleague, she asked if I had read the book. I had not. Nor will I. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy a good book; I simply enjoy a good movie more. While some might say that the preference of a movie over a book makes me a simpleton, I disagree.

How many times have you received a product and opened the package only to find that a key component or two was missing? Maybe it was a fastener. Perhaps it was the instructions. It could be you didn’t even realize anything was missing until well into the assembly process. The result was likely a trip to the store for a replacement, a phone call to the manufacturer, or an attempt to simply make it work. Frustrating.

August is finally here. Summer vacation is coming to an end, and both parents and kids are eager for everyone to go back to school. At first, it’s all new and exciting, but things start to bog down somewhere around October. You know, just about the time grade cards are sent out.

“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” —Benjamin Franklin, 1789

Since the inception of the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) in 2012, more than 400 product brands representing more than 4 million parts have joined what is now the industry’s largest specialty parts product data repository. The SDC is designed to enable any company, no matter how small or large, to effectively manage and distribute its product data at the lowest possible cost, and the SDC’s expert staff will coach you all the way through the process.

The SEMA Data Co-op has become “data central” for hundreds of specialty parts brands, representing millions of part numbers, and tens of millions of vehicle applications. This directory is designed to guide data users to brands that have successfully undertaken the challenge to manage their product data, and to continue to expand reference as more brands are added to the SDC repository.

As 2015 rapidly comes to a close, most of us are busy preparing for the SEMA Show and getting next year’s budgets in order. If you are not yet working with the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) to take total management control and ownership of your product data, now is a perfect time to plan for engagement in 2016, just in time for the spring selling season. And remember, the SDC doesn’t charge any initial onboarding or setup fees. In fact, you don’t pay anything until your data is ready to distribute, so you can start the process today and not affect your calendar 2015 budget.