Maxxis has announced that it has become the most recent tyre manufacturer to sign up with EDIWheel. “The economic environment means that tyre retailers are looking to maximise their existing resources to reduce the costs involved in running their businesses and EDIWheel represents a no cost benefit to them because they do not have to upgrade their software to access it,” says Maxxis International UK’s managing director Derek McMartin.
When Tyres & Accessories was invited to attend TIF’s Electronic Data Interchange Wheel (EDIWheel for short) seminar in December, the magazine was pleased to attend and report on the discussions that took place for the benefit of the wider tyre industry. Following our report in the January issue of the magazine, it appears that our coverage has been something of a catalyst to the discussion of this issue within the various parts of the industry.
In December, around 70 members from the tyre industry gathered together at Coventry to attend a seminar, organised by the TIF. The seminar had only one subject – EDIWheel, or Electronic Data Interchange Wheel.
The 70 delegates represented a true cross-section of the industry and, in his introduction, David White of Kwik-Fit, said that 21 per cent of the audience were from the e-commerce sector, 20 per cent were wholesalers, 37 per cent manufacturers, 10 per cent from trade associations and 14 per cent were tyre dealers.
In the five years Tyres & Accessories/Tyrepress.com has been publishing a dedicated e-Commerce feature, one of the most common themes has been the real need for an integrated approach to selling tyres online. Now this need is being answered with the introduction of the EDIWheel eBusiness standard into the UK, linking and automating the whole approach from stock availability through to invoicing.
The online tyre market is estimated to occupy a 4 per cent market share across Europe, however, the true potential for eBusiness in the UK tyre industry is yet to be fully realised for two main reasons. Firstly the amount of ordering websites that are not integrated with the dealer’s order processing systems or processes. And secondly, the absence of an agreed industry wide eBusiness standard for core business processes such as ordering and invoicing.
According to the group of collaborating tyre manufacturers involved, these issues are being addressed by key members of the tyre industry with EDIWheel (Electronic Data Interchange Wheel – wheel representing the distribution cycle and not a physical wheel) eBusiness standard which enables the automation of stock availability checking, ordering, order confirmation, dispatch advice and invoicing. Specifically, a forum hosted by TIF about EDIWheel for tyre manufacturers, software developers, dealers and wholesalers has been scheduled for mid-November.
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