Welcome to the Fall edition of the Datalliance Newsletter. As you know, we held our 2nd annual Customer Forum in August. During my opening "Datalliance Update", I focused my comments on two primary topics:1) Datalliance growth over the past year, and 2) recent customer surveys.

Datalliance Growth

Over the past several years we have periodically updated you on the growth of Datalliance. Quantifying the growth of the Datalliance VMI service is one measure of our ongoing success and the market acceptance of our VMI solution. We generally measure "growth" based on sales dollar throughput, SKU's managed and locations managed. We have continued our consistent growth pattern of the past few years and are now processing $5B in sales transactions, managing 6.2 M SKU's and 4,600 locations. All of these measures have grown considerably over the past year and position Datalliance as one of the leading providers of VMI solutions.

To keep pace with this growth, we have continued to expand and upgrade our Datalliance staff. Over the past year we have added resources in Operations, Customer Care and Sales. These additions ensure that we will continue the high levels of reliability and customer service that you are accustomed to receiving.

Customer Surveys

Periodic customer surveys are a key component of our ongoing customer communication process. Through your responses to these surveys, we are able to monitor customer satisfaction for our Datalliance VMI service and our related services. I sincerely appreciate your participation in these surveys as the input provided on these surveys helps us define and prioritize future activities. During 2006 we conducted two separate customer surveys: 1) Datalliance Users, and 2) Project Managers.

Across both surveys 100% of the respondents were "satisfied" (60% very satisfied and 40% satisfied) with the Datalliance VMI service.

In the User survey, 100% of the respondents were satisfied with the Datalliance Customer Care and 97% found the system "easy to use". Along with the positive feedback, we also encouraged and received constructive feedback through these surveys. Four specific system enhancement requests surfaced from the survey. Three of these have already been implemented and the fourth is in process. Overall, 150 enhancements were initiated by a variety of sources (Users, Datalliance Customer Care, etc.) over the past year.

Datalliance Customer Forum --- 2007!

By all accounts, the recent Customer Forum was a success and provided significant value to all of the Datalliance customers who attended. We surveyed the attendees and 100% recommended that we hold the meeting again next year. Over 50% of the attendees rated their overall experience at the event as "excellent". I think one of the attendees summarized the event best by saying, "Excellent forum with relevant topics. Good interaction and exchange of information. A first-class meeting, by a first-class organization. I look forward to returning next year." Based on this positive feedback, we will definitely plan to hold the Datalliance Customer Forum again in 2007. We will forward specific dates in the future. Thanks again to all the customers who attended, participated in panel sessions, and provided us feedback to improve the program for next year.

As always, I encourage you to provide us with input on topics for future editions of this newsletter. Please feel free to contact me at carl@datalliance.com with your ideas and suggestions. I hope you enjoy the newsletter!

Carl Hall
President, Datalliance

Canplas Selects Datalliance for Vendor Managed Inventory Solution

Canplas is a leader in the construction and plumbing industries

Datalliance announced that Canplas selected Datalliance to be their Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) solution provider. Canplas is a manufacturer of injected molded products for the construction & plumbing industries. "The Software as a Service model utilized by Datalliance was an important factor in our decision. This approach allows us to concentrate on advancing the existing positive relationships with our customers and improving their output", said Mike Gilroy, VP of Sales and Marketing, Canplas. "We look forward to bringing this world class VMI offering to the plumbing industry."

Datalliance Operations Team Grows

Datalliance Appoints Steve Morales to Director of Operations

Datalliance announced its appointment of Steve Morales to the position of Director of Operations. In his new position, Morales will be responsible for all operational support services to ensure full reliability of the Datalliance solution. In addition to Morales, Datalliance has recently appointed 2 new customer care analysts to support the growing list of companies utilizing the services of Datalliance...

Datalliance Expands Sales Team

Datalliance Appoints Max Buchanan to Director of Sales

Datalliance announced its appointment of Max Buchanan to the position of Director of Sales. In his new position, Buchanan will be responsible for all sales functions of Datalliance in the Heavy Duty Trucking and Automotive industries. "We are very pleased to have Max join our sales team," said Carl Hall, President of Datalliance. "His appointment will expand the focus and reach of Datalliance in the Automotive and Heavy Duty Trucking industries. Max will play a vital role in providing unmatched VMI quality and service to our customers. His proven record in business development and sales will be a great asset as Datalliance continues to grow."

Vendor Managed Inventory Panel Featured at 2006 AAIA Aftermarket eForum

Datalliance President, Carl Hall; FleetPride Vice President, Hugh Charvat; and Affinia Group Director, Bob Pollock participate in VMI Panel Discussion

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) was the featured topic of a panel discussion at the recent AAIA Aftermarket eForum held in Chicago, IL. Carl Hall, President of Datalliance was joined on the panel by Hugh Charvat, Vice President Supply Chain, FleetPride, and Bob Pollock, Director of Collaborative Commerce, Affinia Group. The panel discussion focused on the business benefits VMI delivers to distributors who adopt a partner approach to collaborative stock planning and replenishment.

Datalliance Continues Strong Vendor Managed Inventory Growth Through First Half of 2006

Datalliance VMI sales volume, SKU's managed, and locations supported realize significant growth in first half of 2006

Ingersoll-Rand, Honeywell, Simplot, and Canplas commit to Datalliance VMI service in 2nd quarter of 2006

Datalliance announced significant growth in key business metrics for its Datalliance Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) service for the first half of 2006. Sales transactions processed through the service exceeded $5B annualized, customer locations increased to 4,600, and total SKU's managed increased to 6.3 million. In addition to this growth in VMI business activity, Ingersoll-Rand, Honeywell, Simplot, and Canplas committed to the Datalliance service in the second quarter of 2006.

"As a result of the business benefits that companies are realizing, VMI continues to be one of the hottest supply chain applications", stated Carl Hall, Datalliance, President. "In the first half of 2006, our Datalliance VMI service experienced strong growth in all of the major metrics that we use to monitor our business...

Datalliance Annual Forum

Datalliance VMI community meets to share successes and learn how to further leverage their VMI investment

Datalliance recently held its annual Customer Forum at the Cincinnati Marriott at Rivercenter. Program highlights for the two-day program included a keynote presentation titled VMI's Financial Impact on Distribution (Larry Mohr, The FW Webb Company), Supplier & Distributor Panels, National Economic Outlook (George Vredeveld, University of Cincinnati), and Supply Chain Collaboration (Brian Malloy, CHEP USA).

Datalliance Operations/Data Center Update

At Datalliance, we are continuously investing in our Data Center. We devote a considerable amount of time keeping all of our systems software, hardware, and computer facilities up to date. Since our last newsletter we have replaced our Fast Write Cache batteries and enhanced our data center air conditioning capacity. Both of these upgrades are examples of our proactive planning to ensure the integrity of our data center.

Customer Care Tip - How do you build and launch an order for a Location when it isn't their normal order day?

There are times, usually due to a holiday or vacation, when you want or need to build and launch an order for a Location on a day other than their usual launch day. Datalliance automatically builds suggested orders, by shipping lane, for a Location each day that a product activity transaction is received. However, PO Worksheets, the mechanism by which a Planner reviews and launches orders, are not automatically built unless it is an order day for a Location. So, what do you have to do to be able to review and launch a VMI order on a day that is not the configured order day and Datalliance does not automatically build the PO Worksheet for you? Please read the attached Customer care Tip to get the specifics on how to do this.

Webinar: VMI Implementation Issues - October 16, 2006 at 2:00 PM EST

This session will focus on the implementation effort required to roll out a VMI program. At the end of the webinar you will have the answers to the frequently asked questions regarding how to effectively get your VMI implementation going in the shortest amount of time. The webinar is presented by Datalliance Staff and is open to the public.

For more information or to sign-up, please contact us at info@datalliance.com

Carl Hall, President of Datalliance was a featured speaker at the HDX Technology Conference in Atlanta, GA on September 27-78, 2006. The conference focused on industry initiatives like data synchronization, bar coding, Web commerce, sales force automation, and cross referencing, among other topics.

Carl Hall and Bob Jennings Participate in the Electro E-Biz Forum 2006

Carl Hall, President of Datalliance and Bob Jennings, Vice-President of Sales/Marketing participated in the Electro E-Biz Forum, September 26-29, 2006. The two directed a panel discussion on why VMI is growing in the electrical industry.

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