The shop management system is the only tool that is used for every single car that comes into a shop. The system aids in communication, efficiency, tracking, and overall sales—day in and day out. Set up correctly, the shop management system is critical to managing your efficiency, overall effectiveness, and profitability.
Since 1989, NAPA TRACS has grown to be a trusted shop management favorite for shop owners across the country, but for some, there was only one detail the system was missing.
“The lack of ordering from other systems outside of NAPA has always been the top reason customers have said ‘no’ to NAPA TRACS,” Jon Luttrell, GM of NAPA TRACS sales, explains.
But in the next generational change of NAPA TRACS, that reason will be completely taken off the table. The top shop management system is now partnering with PartsTech to offer shops a central spot to manage their shops and order parts however they choose.
Access a Full Catalog at No Added Cost
The partnership allows PartsTech to be used through NAPA TRACS Enterprise at no extra cost to users.
“For us, it’s a big departure from where we’ve been in the past,” Luttrell says. “Up until around 2016, NAPA TRACS was solely NAPA-centric for electronic ordering.”
Over four years ago, NAPA TRACS added the Epicor industry catalog to its system at an additional fee to customers as a way to expand beyond a directory of exclusively NAPA parts. Now, starting in late May, users can access PartsTech’s live inventory of millions of parts directly through the Enterprise management system at no added cost. This partnership will create a one-stop shop for NAPA TRACS users.
“We’re now giving our customers the ability to buy from who they want,” he explains. “This allows our system to essentially purchase from any vendor electronically in the network.”
The partnership between NAPA TRACS and PartsTech has been in the works for years, says Luttrell, and felt like a natural progression for the company.
“Putting PartsTech into our Enterprise solution will really help our customers find everything they could possibly need, from parts, to body parts to tires” he says.
Speed Up Your Shop Efficiency
The partnership is particularly exciting for current users of both NAPA TRACS and PartsTech. Tom Piippo, owner of TriCounty Motors in Rudyard, Mich., and his service advisor, Troy Wilde, have utilized both systems to aid in the shop’s success and speed up efficiency.
NAPA TRACS quickly became the “do-all” system at Tri-County Motors, says Piippo, but in order to purchase parts outside of NAPA, and without an added fee, they began also using PartsTech.
“With PartsTech, all of the vendors are right there in one spot,” Wilde explains. “Especially being in a smaller town here, it’s nice to have the availability to just quick search without calling, or looking at each individual website.”
Piippo says seeing the initial integration of the Epicor system into NAPA TRACS was great because of the added efficiency.
“When I saw that you could just add all these other businesses, and fill them right into the NAPA TRACS system, I was just in awe,” he says.
Now, with the PartsTech partnership, this ease of parts ordering is faster and accessible to all NAPA TRACS Enterprise users at no additional cost.
“This really gives owners the opportunity to find the part they need, bring it back, and not have to go through the hassle of rekeying data into the system,” Luttrell says.
Find Tires and Parts with Ease
To become even more essential to shop owners, the NAPA TRACS partnership with PartsTech is also offering PartsTech Tires to users.
PartsTech Tires is powered by TireConnect, and includes dozens of national tire distributors, allowing advisors a fast and efficient way to find the right tires from suppliers at wholesale prices at an additional cost.
“It’s essentially almost the same thing as PartsTech but for the tire industry, and they were able to bring it to us as a combined solution,” Luttrell says. “It is a natural fit for our customers.”
Just like the partnership between NAPA TRACS and PartsTech, this integration helps shops build jobs faster without having to jump in and out of multiple supplier systems. Making it easier to manage the shop, as well as buy and sell parts and tires.
“We feel this makes NAPA TRACS customers better,” Luttrell explains. “They can now look at everything very quickly and efficiently and find what they need. It doesn’t change the purchase process, NAPA parts or not, they hit the same buttons and follow the same processes.”
Current Legacy TRACS customers can move to Enterprise now, and get the update to PartsTech when it’s released in late May at no additional charge. The addition of PartsTech Tires is available to NAPA TRACS customers as a paid add-on. For more information on the partnership, please visit napatracs.com and partstech.com/tracs.
