The Beginning
Parex (then known as JJJA Advies) was founded in 1998 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Beginning as a website and database development company, Parex took its first steps into the automotive industry with our very first client - Ford Dealer Association in the Netherlands. This ambitious project with Ford in 1999 lead to the creation of our original Virtual Parts Warehouse product. This first partnership marked the beginning of our long, and continuing journey in serving the automotive industry. Although, it was a far cry from the
Parex Locator product we have today, it was able to provide accurate parts information to dealerships and presented an opportunity for further development.
Growth and success in the Netherlands
After this initial success, Parex began expanding quickly within the Netherlands; moving to a new office to accommodate this growth. In 2002, the evident value of the Parex Virtual Parts Warehouse led Peugeot Netherlands to join our growing number of customers.
Going Global
Building on what we learnt within the Netherlands, Parex set its sights on the global market. Our expansion into Europe began with a joint venture between Parex and the German Ford Dealer Association in 2003. This partnership established Parex as a trusted provider of innovative automotive software throughout Europe.
“By 2004 it was undeniable that Parex had found itself at home in the automotive market, and we began concentrating solely on delivering the best services and products we could to the Automotive industry.
In 2006 we reached a big milestone. We proudly reached 1000 customers. This significant achievement fuelled our desire to keep expanding, and seeing what else we could accomplish. By 2007, we launched our first Parex Product outside of Europe with Peugeot Australia.
Expansion and Partner Integrations
As the business grew, so did the Parex team. To meet the growing needs of the business, Parex once again moved. This time Parex moved to a new office in Hilversum in 2009 – firmly establishing the Netherlands as the central hub for Parex operations. As expansion both inside and outside of Europe continued we established Channel partners in several markets to help support and grow our products. Working with partners allowed us to provide local language support and market knowledge to our customers.In 2012 Parex was acquired by
Pentana Solutions. Becoming part of this larger innovative, automotive software development company has opened up a whole new market for the product across Asia Pacific. During this time, Integrations began to play a big role in making Parex successful. Through our Partner Integrations, we gained the ability to provide our customers with direct access to Parex Locator from within their DMS or EPC - allowing them to find the right automotive part with just one mouse click. Today, more than 100 Dealer Management System’s globally have an integration into our Parex software products and we continue to grow our integrations with Workshop software and Parts Planning software. We can even publish parts information onto customers own websites.
Expanding our product range
Prior to 2020, the main offering of Parex was on our flagship Product Parex Locator (previously known simply as Parex). However, as we grow, we continually evolve in order to match the increasingly complex needs of our customers. Identifying a need for better inventory management, we launched our web-based
Parex Forecasting product in early 2020. We are working towards launching additional solutions to provide full B2C part sales and a brokering service to specifically help customers who are looking to do business in bulk quantities of parts.
Today and beyond
Today Parex works with more than 5000 customers – Franchised Dealers, Distributors and OEMs, proudly providing industry leading parts solutions. As we move forward into the future, we are looking to extend our product range, grow our range of integrations and continue to drive efficiencies across global distribution networks.
