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Letter to the Editor

BASF'S SmartTrak2 Color Information System Offers Web Access

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Users of BASF's SmartTrak2 color retrieval system can now obtain color formulas through the Internet with a click of a button. In addition to its other productivity-enhancing capabilities, which have been steadily expanded over several releases, the newest generation of the company's computerized color information retrieval software offers fast and easy connection to the BASF Automotive Refinish Internet site.

The new SmartTrak2 release, which is based on Windows software, features better architecture, more-user-friendly navigation and improved software coding than its predecessors. Among other changes, it eliminates the old floppy disks in favor of CD-ROMs, and offers more-advanced mixer security.

The most significant advantage of the new system, however, is its ability to access BASF's extensive ARCtIC worldwide formula database on the BASF Automotive Refinish Internet site. This capability is a major step forward for body shops that are increasingly using the Internet as a business-essential resource. To access color information via the Web, a SmartTrak2 user simply clicks the "On-Line Search" button to be linked directly to the color formula look-up screen on the BASF Automotive Refinish Internet site. After selecting the proper formula, the user clicks the "Download" button, and the formula is saved in SmartTrak2.

According to Opal Privett, Manager of eProducts and Value-Added Services-NAFTA, SmartTrak2 reflects BASF's strategy of leveraging new technology and the Internet's potential to help its customers become more efficient and profitable. "BASF's electronic products give our customers choices," says Privett. "SmartTrak2 has been continuously improved to ensure that it is always the right tool for our customers."

Like earlier versions, SmartTrak2 interfaces with SmartScan, BASF's hand-held spectrophotometer, and with Sartorius ColorMix and EcoMix scales. To deliver the most accurate color formulations possible, SmartTrak2 provides advanced color look-up functions that are cross-referenced with COLOR-MAX and COLOR-MAX2 color tools. SmartTrak2 also has a VOC tracking capability that automatically creates VOC records and delivers a VOC summary report by RO number, date range, product category, and booth. Other features of the system include a job costing function and a database of current MSDS and technical information.

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