NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Vertical Development is celebrating its 30th year in operations.
Based in the greater Chicago area, Vertical Development got its start as a small programming firm, but soon shifted to digital catalog development when contracting with Champion Laboratories in neighboring Albion, Ill. Today, Vertical Development is an award-winning technology development firm providing digital catalog software and services to more than 300 aftermarket brands.
“Over the last seven years, we have been standardizing our vCat application, allowing us to add features and roll them out to our clients quickly,” the company said in a news release. “We have grown from a software provider to full-service catalog services organization and will continue to operate on the cutting edge of technology to bring state-of-the-art aftermarket catalogs to our clients.”
In 30 years, Vertical Development’s reach has grown to include products at each stage of aftermarket parts sales, from digital catalog development to data mapping to eCommerce and mobile apps. The company’s base software enables customers to easily map their catalog to common industry formats such as ACES, PIES and NAPA PartsPro for distribution to wholesalers and retailers. The firm’s ShowMeTheParts database, the world’s largest public parts database, is designed to make it easy to set up websites for parts information and sales through computers and mobile devices.
Aftermarket companies such as Trico and AP Exhaust build catalogs and publish through ACES for themselves and/or their resellers in a variety of column and page formats to make paper and CD catalogs. At the same time, this information can be published on the web through ShowMeTheParts for greater access via computers and smartphones. The APIs let ShowMeTheParts work well with WordPress, particularly using the recently announced WordPress Plug-In by Spork Marketing, and can be themed to match company website designs for seamless integration.
“Today, Vertical Development continues to be on the cutting-edge of database technology with software that provides coverage reports using Vehicles in Operation (VIO) information from Experian or IHS/Polk,” the company said. “VIO reports help managers quickly find gaps in coverage. In addition, support for comment translations in French and Spanish have also been added to Vertical Development’s software, making it easy for our clients publishing catalogs either directly or through ACES. It also ensures greater readability for end users across North America.”
To celebrate 30 years in business, the company said it plans to release a schedule of presentations to help aftermarket companies and other tech firms look to the future and grow. To receive notifications of the presentation schedule and other aftermarket news, visit www.verticaldev.com/newsletter-sign-up.
