Welcome to the Fall 2007 edition of the Datalliance Newsletter

In September we held our third annual Datalliance Forum. I am very pleased to report that it was our largest customer conference to date with approximately 70 people in attendance. We have used your feedback regarding the content and format of the program from year-to-year to better meet your needs. We seem to be hitting the mark as 83% of this year's attendees rated the event "excellent" (the remaining 17% rated the event "good").

This annual event provides Datalliance customers with the opportunity to network with other customers, share experiences, and get to know the entire Datalliance staff. This year the forum also allowed several distributors to visit with of their VMI suppliers. The highlights of the program were once again the Supplier (Canplas, Rockwell Automation, and Bendix) and Distributor (McNaughton-McKay, Potter Webster, and Graybar) panel sessions. These panel discussions always bring up interesting points for everyone in the audience and provide topics that are carried over to the casual conversations throughout the event.

I'd like to share a few of the comments that we received on the forum evaluation forms:

"Getting to meet the Datalliance group will make our ongoing business relationship more personable. Thanks for the experience!"

"Answered a lot of questions for me. Strengthens our belief in VMI. Good two days of information sharing."

"Your attention to detail, knowledge of the service you provide, and the way you communicate it to a group of individuals from various industries was truly impressive."

I appreciate and thank you for your continued support of Datalliance and this important event. To obtain copies of any of the presentation graphics from the Forum, please contact us at info@datalliance.com.

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

Reprint of Cover Story from July 2007 issue of Truck Parts & Service Magazine

The cover story for the July issue of Truck Parts & Service magazine focused on the challenge for distributors to have the right part, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price. Achieving that goal requires balance between inventory and demand. The article explores the pivotal role that technology and Vendor Managed Inventory systems have played in the evolution of inventory management. The article also defines a shift in the philosophy behind inventory management that impacts strategies for maintaining ideal inventory breadth and depth.

Datalliance users (both suppliers and distributors) such as Bendix, VIPAR, Midwest Wheel, Point Spring and Driveshaft, and Arvin Meritor are all featured in this article as well as several comments from Carl Hall, president, Datalliance.

Here are some of the comments form the article:

"With VMI, the distributor's system is exchanging data with our system every night. Each day I am building one-seventh of their next order. It allows us to give the distributor a better fill rate for their customers… With VMI, when a customer wants a product, you have it. Typically, the customers who are on VMI, their out-of-stock goes down 30%." Bendix

"It (VMI) has helped us become a much better company and it's one of the things that differentiates us from the competition……We have inventory on a more timely basis. The breadth of the inventory is greater. Our systems react much quicker because it gets looked at every day and therefore, we have the right product more often when the customer needs it." Point Spring & Driveshaft

Midwest Wheel uses VMI to achieve its fill-rate goal of 97-98% for the first pick and 99% for the second pick. "In today's world people won't wait for it, unless it's a specialty product. You're just not going to hang onto customers if you are filling 90% or less." Midwest Wheel

VMI to help build stronger customer relationships through electronic collaboration and sharing of inventory and order information

Datalliance announced that Haldex, a leading supplier to the commercial vehicle systems industry, has selected the Datalliance Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Solution. Haldex is a global company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has production facilities in Brazil, China, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Mexico, and the USA. Haldex had previously been using a commercially available, non-hosted VMI application. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) approach was a key factor in the decision to switch to Datalliance

"After our experience with an 'off the shelf' solution we concluded that we needed VMI experts to help us fully realize the benefits of VMI," said Brian Long, Business Development Program Manager at Haldex. "We decided to go with Datalliance and 8 weeks later we were up and running. We really like the SaaS model because it allows us to focus on our core business while maintaining end-customer service for our products and close relationships with our key customers….

Formal relationship with IDEA makes it easier for electrical industry to realize the benefits of Datalliance VMI

Datalliance announced that they have signed on with IDEA (Industry Data Exchange Association) as an affiliate partner. Established in 1998, IDEA is an e-commerce service provider located in Arlington, VA. Through its Industry Data Warehouse (IDW), IDEA provides a central repository of manufacturer provided product, pricing, and enriched business information that facilitate synchronized order management processes between manufacturers and their trading partners. As a result of Datalliance becoming an IDEA affiliate partner, Datalliance VMI users can now choose to update product information required for VMI directly from the IDEA Industry Data Warehouse into Datalliance VMI. This efficient process of updating product information makes it even easier for suppliers and distributors in the electrical industry to do business with the Datalliance VMI service.

Carl Hall, President of Datalliance, commented, "As a major provider of VMI solutions to the electrical industry, we felt it would benefit our customer for us to establish a formal relationship with IDEA. As an IDEA affiliate partner, we are closer to the industry and can streamline our VMI solution making it even more efficient and easier to maintain. Some of our leading electrical industry customers such as Hubbell, Thomas & Betts, and IDEAL are already realizing the benefits of this relationship."

Datalliance announced the immediate availability of the latest release of the Datalliance VMI service. Delivered as a managed service via the Internet using the 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) model, Datalliance VMI makes it easy for suppliers and their customers to establish effective VMI relationships that fully align business objectives, improve collaboration, and streamline supply chain operations. All of the enhancements in this release support Datalliance's ongoing development objectives of enhancing user productivity, improving information access through flexible reporting, and incorporating technology to simplify and reduce the overall cost to implement and operate Datalliance…

Sales executives hired to focus on Consumer Packaged Goods and Electrical & Plumbing industries

Datalliance recently hired two new sales executives to support the demand for VMI in the Consumer Packaged Goods and Electrical& Plumbing industries. Bob Rice, Director of Sales, will concentrate on growing the Datalliance VMI business in the CPG industry segment. Mr. Rice is a graduate of Western Michigan University and has extensive technology sales experience with NCR and Trax Retail Solutions. Tom Hoar, Director of Sales, will focus on supporting growing the Datalliance presence in the Electrical & Plumbing industries. Mr. Hoar is a graduate of Xavier University (MBA) and Miami University. He also has over ten years of sales experience in a variety of organizations and industries.

The physical and infrastructure expansion required accommodate new Datalliance employees has been completed. To keep pace with the continued growth of Datalliance, both the Sales and Customer Care departments have hired new employees recently. We have also upgraded our IBM AIX operating system recently.

Every item transmitted by a Distributor needs to be successfully cross-referenced to a specific and corresponding Supplier item. This matching process can be very straight forward if the Distributor inventories and sells items using the Supplier's Catalog ID. However, what happens when a Distributor uses their own part number to identify an item that does not match with the Supplier's Catalog ID or if they inventory and sell an item under the individual Catalog ID but buy the item under a bulk Catalog ID? Tips to help you create accurate item cross references are included in this Customer Care Update!

Carl Hall, president, Datalliance participated in a panel discussion on Vendor Managed Inventory with John Flad, Vice President of Aftermarket Sales, N.A., for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC, John Minor, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer with Midwest Wheel Companies and Edward Kuo, Executive Director of HDeXchange (HDX).

Carl Hall, president, Datalliance spoke on the supplier and distributor benefits of VMI at the VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Meeting. VIPAR was founded in 1989 by a small group of independent truck parts distributors, VIPAR Heavy Duty has grown to over 110 Distributors strong, operating more than 500 locations throughout North America.

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