Des Moines-based software maker GCommerce Inc. has entered into a five-year agreement with Activant Solutions Inc., one of the largest technology providers to the U.S. automotive aftermarket parts market. The deal could be worth tens of millions of dollars for GCommerce.

Under the contract, Activant and GCommerce will jointly offer a bundled electronic document exchange software product that will enable automotive aftermarket distributors to exchange sales-related data electronically with hundreds of aftermarket parts manufacturers.

“They are using this service to help us automate and make their wholesalers more efficient,” said Steve Smith, president and CEO of GCommerce. “It allows them to sell a lot of their future products to their customers. It is a very highly synergistic relationship.”

Activant, based in Livermore, Calif., controls approximately 70 percent of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market for the automotive wholesale industry, and is the fourth-largest ERP software provider in the United States, Smith said. “This just gives us massive leverage, massive scale,” he said. “We fully expect to do at least 10 times the volume that we’re doing today.”

As more drivers hold on to their vehicles longer, GCommerce is well positioned to benefit by helping parts providers lower their costs, said Adam Claypool, managing director of DeWaay Investment Banking in Clive. DeWaay plans to invest in GCommerce as part of a private-equity fund it has launched.

“So the valuation of that business is actually going up at a time when valuations in the public market have come down, because they continue to solve a need in the marketplace,” he said. Claypool estimated the contract could be worth between $20 million to $40 million in increased revenues for GCommerce during the next three years.

Overall aftermarket parts sales increased to $285.5 billion in 2007, an increase of 4 percent from 2006, according to the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association.

Smith said GCommerce earlier this year began installing a new software system that will enable the company to handle its anticipated workload increase, representing an investment of nearly $750,000.