MCLEAN, Va., June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR), a global information technology (IT) standards body for retail automotive and related industries, has released a new major version of its transport specifications.

The STAR 2011 XML and DTS repository continues to be actively modified and developed by the membership.

Enhancements to Business Object Documents (BOD) were made in the areas of Service, Parts, Warranty, and Vehicle business transactions. Additionally,  two new BODs were implemented, a Customer Information BOD to provide customer information data synchronization between Dealers and Manufacturers, and a Service Plan Information BOD that provides all available service plans, with prices, for a vehicle.

The most relevant modifications were made to the Vehicle Remarketing, Repair Order, and Retail Delivery Reporting BODs. Vehicle Remarketing now supports boats, yachts, and ATVs. Repair Order now allows manufacturers to keep dealerships updated on the service history of vehicles serviced at multiple dealerships, which will streamline communications between manufacturers and dealers. Finally, Retail Delivery Reporting will aide communications of sales leads and campaign information for dealers while providing data for trending and analytics purposes.

The STAR Transport Specification and Guidelines documents were extended with the inclusion of four Technical Sheets.

• The Large File Handling tech sheet provides recommendations for implementing the transportation of very large files, i.e. Parts Master, between Manufacturers and Dealers.
• The Notify Verb tech sheet provides recommendations for the usage of and best practices for implementing the Notify Verb.
• The Securing Web Servers and XML Data with SSL tech sheet provides information on how to configure a web server to use SSL certificates, and secure  the XML data.
• The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) with Web Services presentation covers the use of PKI to implement Identity, Authentication, Privacy, Data Integrity, and Non-Repudiation.

In addition, STAR continues to actively partner with the Web Service Test Forum (http://www.wstf.org/) to provide public endpoints that can be used for testing various implementations of the new STAR Web Service specification.

About STAR

The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the information technology (IT) standards organization for retail automotive and related industries. STAR is leading the effort to implement voluntary IT standards throughout the automotive industry. These standards are designed to support business information needs and provide secure and reliable means for dealers, manufacturers, and retail system providers to communicate. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, STAR is a not-for-profit volunteer organization and its members include dealers, manufacturers and retail system providers. As members, these companies are interested in developing, promoting, and administering voluntary IT standards in the retail automotive industry and improving the effectiveness, timeliness and competitiveness of the IT solutions needed within the retail automotive industry.

For more information about STAR and a list of current members please visit www.starstandard.org.

SOURCE STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail)

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