STAR Testimonials

The Testimonial portion of the STAR eXchange is dedicated to sharing testimonials from implementers of STAR standards. These testimonials are an opportunity for implementers to share their stories of success with the rest of the STAR community as well as to attest to the benefits derived from using STAR standards in their implementations.

Click here for a pdf copy of the following STAR Testimonials.

How to Contribute

If you would like to submit a STAR Testimonial please download and complete a STAR Testimonial Submission Form and remit to STAR .

Navistar - STAR Member and Implementer

• How has your company benefited from its STAR membership?
  "STAR provides a forum for collaboration and innovation, and the STAR organization delivers quickly on all of our requests. It’s similar to having STAR data architects working alongside our developers to streamline our requirements. Ramp-up costs aside, STAR has substantially reduced the implementation time for our recent interface releases: warranty and pricing lookups. STAR also provides an objective source of infrastructure guidelines for our dealers, many of whom are looking for advice. With a wish-list of over 50 pending interfaces, Navistar will benefit from reduced time to market for many years to come."
• What STAR standards were used in your implementation(s)?
  Process PartsPicklist,
  Acknowledge PartsPicklist,
  Process PartsInvoice,
  Process PartsShipment,
  Acknowledge Parts Order,
  Process PartsReturn,
  Process PartsOrder,
  Show PartsOrder,
  Process RepairOrder,
  Acknowledge RepairOrder
• Which trading partner(s) were involved in the implementation(s)?
  "ADP, Dubuque Data Systems, Dealer Solutions, Idealease, Karmak, Procede, RIMSS, as well as some dealers, fleets and internal business units."
• How did your implementation(s) benefit from the use of STAR standards?
  "Navistar benefitted from reduced time to implementation, plus the consulting help of professional data architects."
• What was the estimated ROI in terms of percentages, e.g., time and money saved?
  "While some time and money was clearly saved during development, Navistar views the STAR implementation as a strategic effort with a future potential ROI once our base is established. In addition, the potential for ROI is much greater as standards become more pervasive and retail service providers are able to reuse their code and further reduce time to market."
• What was the level of reuse, e.g., data reuse, code reuse, etc., gained by utilizing STAR standards in your implementation(s)?
  "During our initial development, code and data reuse was not a large factor, though the potential for future optimizations exists."
• Additional Comments:
  "Think of the available profits in the transportation industry as a large pie. All of the players in our industry can compete with each other for their piece of the pie. Or, we can collaborate and work together on reducing cost, improving efficiencies and adding business value – in order to GROW the whole pie as well as all of our pieces. STAR Standards is key to the collaboration necessary to grow our industry’s profit pie."

BMW - STAR Member and Implementer

• How has your company benefited from its STAR membership?
  "Both BMWNA and our dealers have benefitted from STAR through lower costs to implement and maintain data interfaces between BMWNA and our dealer DMS systems. By using the STAR standard interfaces, we’ve been able to lower our dealers’ cost to license the interfaces and in turn, BMWNA can lower our costs by having one set of interfaces to support and maintain.
  STAR has also reduced barriers to further DMS integration because we can now take advantage of existing interfaces rather than pay the costly amount of developing a custom solution for BMW.
  This reduced barrier to integration has also afforded BMW/MINI dealers a wider range of DMS providers to choose since we are not required to develop custom interfaces with each DSP.
  Lastly, BMWNA has been able to take advantage of the use of the STAR Dealer Infrastructure Guidelines (DIG) to establish best practices and common/similar dealer network infrastructures. By using these best practices, it helps dealer lower the IT operating costs because they are using proven solutions that are commonly used in the industry."
• What STAR standards were used in your implementation(s)?
  Parts Order
  Parts Return
  Repair Order (Warranty Claim)
  Retail Delivery
  Vehicle Inventory
  Sales Lead
  Financial Statement
  Parts Shipper
  Parts Master
• Which trading partner(s) were involved in the implementation(s)?
  "ADP, Arkona, Reynolds & Reynolds"
• How did your implementation(s) benefit from the use of STAR standards?
  "Our implementations primarily benefited in the area of licensing and maintenance cost savings but the use of STAR also helped us bring integration to market much faster than before."
• What was the estimated ROI in terms of percentages, e.g., time and money saved?
  "Our estimated savings are approximately $250K-$350K per year in reduced licensing costs on the part of our dealers and reduced maintenance costs on the part of BMWNA."
• What was the level of reuse, e.g., data reuse, code reuse, etc., gained by utilizing STAR standards in your implementation(s)?
  "Since the DTS structures followed a similar format, we were able to reuse code used to parse the various files in preparation for loading data into our databases."

Karmak, Inc. - STAR Member and Implementer

• How has your company benefited from its STAR membership?
  "Being a STAR member means having input and early access to the direction of the STAR standards. We have benefited from open discussions with other STAR members and should enjoy easier implementations as OEMs implement similar services for dealerships using the same STAR standards."
• What STAR standards were used in your implementation(s)?
  Web Services Generic Transport
  Parts Pick List Noun
  Vehicle Order Nouns
• Which trading partner(s) were involved in the implementation(s)?
  "Non-disclosure agreements with trading partners prevent the publication of this information."
• How did your implementation(s) benefit from the use of STAR standards?
  "The standards have provided “ground rules” for the behavior of each implementation as well as a common language for communication with OEMs. We expect that the benefits will increase along with OEM adoption of the standard."
• What was the estimated ROI in terms of percentages, e.g., time and money saved?
  "ROI has been negligible so far but is expected to be realized as OEMs begin to implement similar services using STAR standards."
• What was the level of reuse, e.g., data reuse, code reuse, etc., gained by utilizing STAR standards in your implementation(s)?
  "Reuse so far has been minimal."
• Additional Comments:
  "Our benefits from the STAR standards will remain intangible until OEMs further adopt the standards and implement them in the same manner. Since STAR is new to the heavy duty truck community our benefits can be expected to grow as the truck OEMs continue to implement STAR-based programs."

Ford Motor Credit Company - STAR Member and Implementer

• How has your company benefited from its STAR membership?
  "Ford Motor Credit has had the opportunity to provide input into an industry standard representation of automotive financing data. The existence of this standard greatly simplifies the task of interfacing with multiple 3rd party partner systems."
• What STAR standards were used in your implementation(s)?
  ProcessCreditApplication
  ProcessCreditDecision
• Which trading partner(s) were involved in the implementation(s)?
  "Ford Motor Credit has deployed our Global Dealer Interface (GDI) to communicate with multiple Dealer Management Systems and Point of Sales Systems in Switzerland, Spain and Japan. In 2009/2010 we have plans to expand this interface to additional dealer systems in China, England, and Germany."
• How did your implementation(s) benefit from the use of STAR standards?
  "The existence of an international standard for automotive credit data that supports web services allowed Ford Motor Credit's GDI to provide a single, consistent interface across multiple markets. As GDI expands to additional dealer systems and markets, we have a proven, widely accepted message structure to offer our partners."
• What was the estimated ROI in terms of percentages, e.g., time and money saved?
  "Use of the STAR standard eliminates the need to define or revise our messages each time GDI services a new dealer system. This has reduced the time and effort that we spend on each additional GDI market, resulting in a significant return on the initial investment of implementing the STAR standard."
• What was the level of reuse, e.g., data reuse, code reuse, etc., gained by utilizing STAR standards in your implementation(s)?
  "The external web service definition that GDI provides is reused across all markets. The amount of internal code reuse we gained varies significantly by market."
• Additional Comments:
  "The STAR standard is proven and widely accepted. By offering a webservice that uses this standard, Ford Motor Credit's GDI is more attractive to 3rd party dealer systems than if we had offered a proprietary interface for them to code to."

Innovative Programming Systems - STAR Member and Implementer

• How has your company benefited from its STAR membership?
  "STAR makes communication between OEMs, dealers, and RSPs much more efficient."
  "Having an organization such as STAR is exactly what the automotive industry needs to improve communications between OEMs, dealers, and RSP."
• What STAR standards were used in your implementation(s)?
  Parts Shipment
  Parts Orders Status
  Parts Invoice
• Which trading partner(s) were involved in the implementation(s)?
  "Multiple OEMs"
• How did your implementation(s) benefit from the use of STAR standards?
  "Reduced time for development of applications maintaining a high degree of success."
• What was the estimated ROI in terms of percentages, e.g., time and money saved?
  "50-60% time savings"
• What was the level of reuse, e.g., data reuse, code reuse, etc., gained by utilizing STAR standards in your implementation(s)?
  "We wrote the data exchange one-time and we are using the same mechanism for multiple OEMs. We were able to reuse 80% or higher of code and data."

MIC - STAR Implementation Supporter

• "The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) began working with the STAR organization in 1999 to further adoption of data communication standards in the Powersports industry."
• "STAR standards provide an opportunity for substantial cost savings when building and supporting data communications throughout the value chain. Through data communication standards, our dealer network is able to focus on the customer experience rather than managing data."
• "The STAR organization has been a valued partner for discussing, collaborating, and furthering the establishment of data standards and communication protocols benefiting each of our industries."
• "The MIC currently provides implementation support for the following STAR transactions:

  Parts Locator

  Parts Order

  Parts Shipment

  In 2009 we are focusing on implementations of additional transaction sets such as
  Product Registration, Service Contract and Warranty Claim."

PBS Systems - STAR Member and Implementer

• PBS is a founding member of the STAR organization.
• "We have enjoyed having to develop once, and to customize as other members need enhancements. This has provided a good ROI on our Development team, and provides a much shorter timeline to complete applications."
• PBS Systems has "multiple versions of STAR XML and DTS deployments".
• PBS has deployed STAR standards with "multiple OEM partners".
• "In addition to the 'technical' benefits with our membership, we have found great value in the networking that the members provide to each other."

RouteOne, LLC - STAR Member and Implementer

• RouteOne, LLC has been a contributing member of STAR for over 6 years.
• "RouteOne has benefited by having a set of professional data architects working to create a standard that we can use in our messaging transactions. Without that, RouteOne, and likely each of our partners, would have to duplicate those resources. The STAR organization has consistently worked very effectively with RouteOne as we continue to rapidly enhance our products to meet the evolving needs of our integrated providers."
• RouteOne's implementation utilized the following transactions:

  ProcessCreditApplication

  ProcessCreditDecision

  ProcessCreditContract

  AcknowledgeCreditContractResponse
• Trading Partners Involved:

  TFS

  GMAC

  Ford Motor Credit Company

  Chrysler Financial

  Nearly 300 independent partners
• "Our implementation benefited by having a rigorous process for definition, design and construction of our data interfaces which were enforced by outside resources, ensuring completeness and effectiveness."