Datalliance and Midwest Wheel Present Vendor Managed Inventory at HDA International Conference

• Education session highlights business benefits of VMI for heavy duty distributors and suppliers

Cincinnati, Ohio, September 10, 2009- At the recent HDA 2009 International conference held in Indianapolis, IN, Carl Hall, Datalliance President, and Joel Mattox, Midwest Wheel Companies Product Manager, presented the benefits of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI). The session was offered three times and all sessions were heavily attended. HDA is attended by the distributors and suppliers of the heavy duty parts industry. Datalliance is the leading independent provider of Vendor Managed Inventory and other e-commerce services and Midwest Wheel is a prominent heavy duty parts distributor.

Joel Mattox, Product Manager, Midwest Wheel Companies, summarized the key points that he made in the HDA VMI presentation. "VMI is an important piece of our overall supply chain strategy. We are currently using VMI with 13 of our key suppliers and feel that VMI makes these strategic relationships much more collaborative - adding value and contributing to the success of both parties. In addition to improving fill rates, increasing turns and improving sales, one of the major benefits for Midwest Wheel is that VMI gives us much more time to focus on the critical issues that help us run our business more effectively and profitably."

Bruce McKie, President, TECTRAN, attended the VMI sessions and offered his perspective as a heavy duty supplier. "The high attendance at these training sessions is testament to the growing interest in VMI as a key business tool. We believe that this inventory management approach is particularly well suited to a multiple-branch distributor and to a broad supplier product line containing thousands of parts such as that offered by TECTRAN. We find that it complements our high fill rates and enables a distributor to achieve considerably higher inventory turns with reduced stockouts, increased sales, reduced or eliminated obsolescence cost and better utilization of purchasing resources. We believe that the biggest obstacle for those who have not yet decided to proceed with VMI is the concern that they will be handing over control of their inventory to their suppliers. In fact, the process hands over the mundane tasks to the supplier and allows the purchaser to manage the exceptional cases and to participate in higher level purchasing tasks and become more involved in the marketing of the products purchased. The reporting capability that is built into VMI provides excellent visibility and even greater control for the distributor."

Carl Hall, President, Datalliance, stated, "We were pleased to support HDA and present this educational session on the business benefits of VMI. Having VMI selected as one of the topics reinforces the success of VMI in the heavy duty industry and the ongoing interest in VMI from suppliers and distributors. Joel Mattox of Midwest Wheel did an excellent job of explaining and communicating the impact that VMI can have on a distributor's business."

About Datalliance

Datalliance is a leading provider of collaborative commerce services, and the world's largest independent VMI service provider. Delivered via the Internet using the 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) model, Datalliance solutions make it easy for suppliers and their customers to establish sales and inventory management relationships that fully align business objectives, improve collaboration, and streamline supply chain operations. Datalliance manages billions of dollars in orders, millions of SKUs, and thousands of locations for leading Fortune 1000 companies in a number of industries. For more information about Datalliance, visit www.datalliance.com

Contact: Brian Lindner, Datalliance
513-791-7272 or blindner@datalliance.com