MALVERN, Pennsylvania - February 11, 2004
- Entigo Corporation, a leading provider of warranty chain
management (WCM) solutions, today announced a partnership
with Syncata, an automotive business consulting and systems
integration firm. Through the partnership, Entigo will re-sell
Syncata's Tread Reporting EngineSM in conjunction with Entigo
Warranty™. The combined product-set collects and analyzes
warranty data, and generates the quarterly reports required
by the Transportation Recall Enhancement Accountability and
Documentation (TREAD) Act.
"With the prospect of millions in civil
and criminal fines, fear of TREAD Act noncompliance has thousands
of businesses scrambling to piece together tons of data from
disparate systems," said Aloke Nath, co-founder and chief
executive officer, Syncata. "The Syncata-Entigo solution
prepares businesses for an audit of their data and decreases
their vulnerability to legal actions that could result in
heavy penalties."
Although the data collection and reporting
can be a significant task, TREAD Act compliance is not all
discouraging. According to an article by Kevin O'Marah and
Kevin Mixer published in the AMR Research Alert, September
16, 2003, "Rather than treating warranty as a cost of
doing business, manufacturers can make money by treating it
as a product. TREAD Act compliance may be just the spur needed
to rethink how warranty can free up cash from a traditional
cost center."
"Warranty is a relatively undiscovered
asset that durable good manufacturers can leverage to turn
costs into cash," said Steve Layne, CEO and President
of Entigo. "In addition to the legal compliance, this
solution helps manufacturers reduce costs, recover money from
suppliers, and offer new warranty products. It gives businesses
control over warranty processing and data analysis, and creates
an opportunity to cut costs and bring in much needed cash."
Entigo Warranty provides a collaborative
warranty system that simplifies a complex business process
and ensures seamless integration with warranty chain partners.
With Entigo Warranty, manufacturers can efficiently manage
warranty programs, registrations, claims, and the supplier
recovery process. The solution provides much-needed visibility
into warranty programs and product quality issues to proactively
address current problems and enable future product enhancement.
Syncata's Tread Reporting EngineSM was designed
to help manufacturers comply with NHTSA's TREAD Act, which
requires vehicle and equipment manufacturers to submit reports
summarizing information about consumer complaints, warranty,
legal claims, production volumes, field reports and incidents
of death and injury. By capturing, organizing and interpreting
data from disparate sources, this TREAD engine generates the
required pre-formatted TREAD compliance reports to submit
to NHTSA. Syncata's TREAD Reporting EngineSM also produces
internal reports which provide manufacturers with the ability
to quickly and easily access, analyze and review the data
behind the TREAD and Early Warning reports-long after they
have been submitted to NHTSA.
About Entigo
Entigo is the world's leading provider of warranty chain management
solutions. With Entigo Warranty, customers save millions by
efficiently and accurately processing claims, increasing supplier
cost recovery, and accelerating problem identification and
resolution. Entigo's Fortune 500 customers include ArvinMeritor,
Carrier Corporation, Eaton, Ford Motor Company, GE Lighting
Europe, General Motors Corporation, Honeywell Aerospace, Michelin
North America, and Volvo/Mack Trucks. Entigo is headquartered
in Malvern, PA and is on the web at www.entigo.com.
About Syncata
Founded in 1990, Syncata has helped hundreds of affected companies
comply with the TREAD Act by providing consulting, advisory
services and compliance software. Syncata also provides consulting
and systems integrations services to automotive and industrial
manufacturing companies, helping them solve specific problems
within their sales, finance, distribution and service operations.
The firm has offices in Michigan (Southfield), California
(El Segundo and Irvine) and India (New Delhi). www.syncata.com/tread
Copyright © 2003 Entigo Corporation
Contact:
Elizabeth Murray
Entigo Corporation
610.524.8204
info.request@entigo.com
Entigo and Entigo Warranty are trademarks of Entigo Corporation. All other trademarks contained herein are property of their respective owners.
