SAF-Holland announced the relaunch of its online product catalog platform with the introduction of POD Plus. POD, which stands for "Parts on Demand" focuses on providing details on available parts - including obsolete and cross-referenced parts - applicable product literature, and, access to order information.
The heavy duty chassis component supplier made the announcement during a press conference during Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) in Dallas, Texas.
The new online parts catalog development is a byproduct of a bigger project and the company’s “path of digitization” for the company, said Carl Mesker, vice president of sales, SAF-Holland.
The new POD Plus electronic parts catalog allows for real-time inventory and real-time order entry. “If you make a request for a part, in the old POD system it would refresh once per day,” Mesker said. Now, with the POD Plus, the system updates as soon as the order is placed.
Additionally, users can view order history, including orders placed through the POD Plus platform and through a customer service representative. The system provides customer-specific and scale pricing, a serial number search function, and is mobile device compatible.
POD Plus provides an overview of parts and service kits available, now displayed in a standardized format.
“If the industry goes to standardized part numbers, now we don’t have to reinvent this information,” Mesker said. “It gets us to the next step.”
To simplify the functionality, POD Plus features six sections on the homepage. They are:
- View parts catalog. This section provides full product details in a standardized format, with product images, and exploded views.
- View literature catalog. Customers can access service and repair information, for example.
- Spec a new assembly. Site users have access to new parts, the part numbers, and pricing to build a new system assembly.
- Import saved cart. This tool allows for uploading Excel docs with purchasing information.
- Fast order find – This function provides details on a customer’s current order status with the option to make updates to that order.
- Check price – The system provides customer-specific and scale pricing.
Additional functionality highlighted by the SAF-Holland team included more search functionality with additional product feature filters based on known product attributes – for instance, filtering by 1” versus 1-1/2” fifth wheel pin sizes – to improve search time.
POD Plus also provides customers with like-replacement information as well as details on obsolete products. Users can now search on the website, instead of calling the customer service center for pricing and product information.
Additionally, the updated online product catalog offers a where-used list of individual components and service kits for those components. The example used included servicing a snap ring on a fifth wheel, for instance.
Anybody can access the guest site, which provides access to the parts catalog, the literature, and specifying a new assembly. Distributors with login capabilities will have full access. The top three items listed here account for 40 to 60 percent of customer call center inquiries. POD Plus aims to address this need so users can find information online.
POD Plus is an update to the company’s original POD electronic parts catalog, launched five years ago.
