The Auto Care Association’s Technology team is pleased to launch a monthly Auto Care Tech blog series titled, “What the Tech?” This series will dive into our two leading industry standards for information exchange ACES & PIES among other technology-related topics in the automotive aftermarket industry.


What The Tech Banner 2

 

  • January 7, 2025

    API is Here!

    The Auto Care Association’s ACES®, PIES® and IPO™ reference databases (VCdb, Qdb, PCdb, PAdb, and Brand Table) currently and historically have been available to users for download through a manual download process via autocarevip.com in various formats, including Microsoft Access2007, ASCII, MySQL, Microsoft SQLServer2008R2, and JSON.

  • August 18, 2023

    Vehicle Configuration Database (VCdb) Coverage Update

    If you’ve ever thought the standards team here at the Auto Care Association is satisfied with the speed of delivery and the data content being provided in the Vehicle Configuration database (VCdb), we’re here to tell you otherwise!

  • August 11, 2023

    Top Mistakes You May be Making in Your ACES and PIES Files

    Over twenty years ago, Auto Care started to publish the VCdb, PCdb, brand table and Qdb databases which enable the industry to have a common communication method to transmit vehicle, part and qualifier data between trading partners. This content expanded with the PAdb to provide product attributes.

  • April 24, 2023

    Communifire is moving!

    We wanted to continue to provide a one-stop location for the content, events, conversations, and projects by providing a closer connection to the data within autocarevip.com. This has us moving the features that you have come to expect in communifire which will be incorporated into the autocarevip.com site.

  • April 10, 2023

    The Scoop on the “Loop” in PIES™

    PIES™️ standardizes not only the field definitions and requirements, but also standardizes the delivery mechanism used to transfer the information provided in PIES™️ XML files. It is designed in a flexible format, which allows you to “loop” (repeat) elements within a segment element group, as many times needed to meet data delivery requirements. Learn how looping occurs and more in this article.

  • January 23, 2023

    Resolutions, Real-time Data and Release Notes

    We are excited to provide these new enhancements! We hope these will help you with accessing the latest content quickly so you can sell more parts. Release notes can be found at autocarevip.com. A list of publication dates will be added to the release notes. If you have any questions, contact the Auto Care Standards team at technology@autocare.org.

  • November 28, 2022

    Leveraging the PIES Interchange Segment

    PIES Interchange Segment can help the manufacturer provide its part numbers connected to Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) part numbers and other aftermarket part numbers that are similar.

  • August 26, 2022

    VCdb Expands to Four New Latin America Countries

    This month, we will highlight four new Latin American countries that we started offering vehicle data for in the VCdb. In the coming months as research is completed, new vehicles for these countries will be added to the Latin America VCdb. The latest vehicles were added to the Latin America VCdb for the following countries: Bolivia Dominican Republic Guatemala Panama

  • July 28, 2022

    Auto Care Association Expanding ACES and PIES Reach in Peru, Ecuador

    During a time when the global aftermarket industry is facing unprecedented challenges, data becomes critical to stay current and succeed in the global marketplace. In North America, businesses in the automotive aftermarket benefit from industry-developed data standards ACES and PIES, which enable companies to be more efficient in communicating product information with their trading partners.

  • July 19, 2022

    STEP RIGHT UP: Get Your Brand Code Here!

    You have decided you are going to start to use the Auto Care databases VCdb, Qdb, PCdb, PAdb and Brand Table. Now you’re asking, “What’s the first step?” A great place to start is with the Brand Table. The Brand Table database is a standardized reference to facilitate the management and exchange of the parent company of the brand, brands and subbrands that are used throughout the industry. There are more than 2,000 brands in the Brand Table, and no subscription is required to access it within the autocarevip.com site.

larsen

I'm Jonathan

I help reduce cost out of the overall supply chain by improving the quality of standards data we provide to the industry and develop new processes that help get data to our members faster.

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