Epicor Software Corporation showed off two data analytics solutions for independent repair shops at the 2021 AAPEX Show in Las Vegas. The new solutions, Epicor Predictive Inventory Assistant (PIA) and Epicor Predictive Maintenance Assistant (PMA), are designed to help users increase sales, profitability and customer loyalty by enabling world-class service levels and operational efficiency, the company said.
Epicor said its PIA leverages three Epicor technologies – an AI-driven automated decision-making assistant, inventory management tool and Epicor Vista parts replacement rates – to continuously generate recommendations for optimizing inventories at each user location based on product demand and a variety of business-defined rules. This new capability can help distributors improve their competitive position and inventory efficiency by quickly addressing new service trends and other changes taking place within their local markets. The solution also includes AI-driven forecasting of brand and part by vehicle.
“It has become almost impossible for distributors and service providers to keep pace with the rapidly evolving universe of parts and service needs represented in today’s car parc,” said Tim Hardin, senior vice president and general manager of automotive at Epicor. “Our Predictive Inventory Assistant enables these businesses to protect their single largest asset, their inventories, through an ever-vigilant virtual product manager that monitors and responds to changes in market behavior.”
The Epicor PMA solution marries AI technologies with the company’s insight into part consumption by vehicle and market to help service providers predict upcoming maintenance and repair opportunities, the company says. This capability can help independent repair shops and tire dealers accelerate growth and increase profitability by being viewed as essential to their customers, Epicor said.
“Every aftermarket business faces the daily challenge of demonstrating its unique value to their customers, whether service providers or consumers,” Hardin said. “The Epicor Predictive Maintenance Assistant can help make service chains a more essential part of their customers’ lives by identifying future issues that could affect the reliability and safety of their vehicles.
“This is the next step beyond conventional diagnostics. We’re not simply responding to problems that have already occurred but helping customers understand what could happen down the road. This represents an extremely attractive new value proposition for our industry.”
