There’s a new offering to make your search for Dodge products easier. The new interchange for Ball Bearings in Dodge Passport is now available. The program allows users to replace or interchange a competitor’s product with a Dodge product. Once you put in a competitor’s part number, the system collects data on that bearing and the user receives several options for the products. You can view a demo here.
“You can see the similarities and differences in the products and you can really get a detailed view, Riley Horner said. She’s an electronic specialist for Dodge products. “Normally, it’s a one-to-one comparison, but this system is more comprehensive,” Horner said.
The new program in Passport also gives data on an exact interchange. “Having the ability to see the Dodge and competitive bearing data side-by-side is immensely time-saving. You can quickly look through multiple Dodge interchanges and decide which is the best fit for your application,” Horner said.
Horner says the program is attribute and logic-driven. “People no longer have to carry around Excel sheets with all the interchanges if they don’t want to,” Horner said. “Passport is compatible with phones and tablets. This is something that’s going to work for a long time no matter who retires, who comes in and goes. This is what we’re pushing for in Passport."
The plan is to expand the options for the system in the future. “Soon we’ll have spherical and tapered bearings and then we’ll start exploring the other products,” Horner said. “We want to get people using it and get used to it now."
Horner calls the new tool a differentiator in the market. “We have what we call ‘fuzzy logic’ in there. So, if you have a competitive part number and there’s a space or a dash- some programs, if you don’t type it in the exact same way, will not show any results. But, I can put a period and put in numbers and it will still show results with the Dodge Interchange. This makes it a lot easier to use.”
The interchange system also has a filter option. “For example, you can filter seal types or shaft attachments if that’s what you’re looking for and it will push those results to the top of your search.”
Horner says anyone who has access to PT Place can place an order. “We really encourage our customers to use PT Place because they can have an account there.” Anybody can make an account in Passport, but they won’t be able to see product availability and pricing. But, they can get a part number,” Horner said. I think it’s going to be a powerful tool for people in the field who can’t just look at a competitive part number and know everything off the top of their heads. It’s going to bring the Field Sales Engineers’ jobs faster and easier.
Horner also encourages users to offer suggestions in the feedback section. “We plan on growing Passport and we would love feedback from users,” Horner said.
