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May 24 & 25, 2011
Mark your calendar for the 2011 Datalliance Forum. More details to follow
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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Datalliance will attended the following Industry Events - HDAW 11
- GMA Supply Chain Conference
- NAED South
- NADA Convention & Expo
- National Farm Machinery Show
- WIT Spring Conference
- GHX
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Welcome to the end-of-year edition of the Datalliance newsletter.
The feature article in this edition of our newsletter documents the success that Siemens and one of their leading distributors, Echo Group, have had with Datalliance VMI. Vendor Managed Inventory is a critical component of the Siemens channel strategy and both Siemens and their distributors are gaining significant business value from VMI. Echo has increased sales, reduced inventory, increased turns and improved productivity through closer collaboration with Siemens. Read the feature article below or the full article here
We were very pleased to see that one of our plumbing industry customers - Canplas, and one of their distributors - Consolidated Supply, were the focus of an article in The Wholesaler magazine’s November issue. VMI has provided a competitive advantage for both organizations by allowing a more efficient and accurate way doing business. As with many industries, the plumbing industry is aggressively embracing VMI and the success of companies such as Canplas and Consolidated is being recognized and applauded. Please follow this link to read the entire article here.
Finally, I’d like to ask you to mark your calendar for the Datalliance Forum to be held May 23-25, 2011. This VMI industry event will once again be held in the greater Cincinnati area though we are moving to a relatively new Marriott hotel that is close to the airport. We feel this will be more convenient for our out-of-town attendees and provides us the space to expand the program to better address a broader range of topics. More details will be communicated in the coming months
Please feel free to contact me at carl@datalliance.com. Visit www.datalliance.com for more information on Vendor Managed Inventory and other collaborative commerce applications from Datalliance.
- Carl Hall
President, Datalliance |
Siemens Use VMI to Deliver High Value to Channel Partners
The electrical industry is very competitive, as multiple suppliers offer similar products and pricing strategies. Siemens understands this and has taken action to use Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) to provide added value to distributors in addition to their extensive line of quality products.
Celia Dayagi, Siemens’ Program Coordinator, said, “When we launched our High Value Partner program, it initially focused on manufacturing issues such as improved cycle times, streamlined manufacturing processes, and enhanced customer service initiatives. But we recognized that the missing piece was more collaboration with our distributors on inventory management. We quickly identified Vendor Managed Inventory as the right tool to address that important aspect of our channel strategy. We selected Datalliance VMI as they are leader in our industry. ”
Echo Group Inc. is one of Siemens’ leading distributors and one of their first channel partners to collaborate using Datalliance. VMI gives Siemens and Echo a forum to discuss key inventory management issues. “This dialogue has given us tremendous insight into Echo’s strategy. In most cases, we found that their desire to provide high customer service levels caused them to carry too much inventory,” said Devyn Anderson, Siemens’ Channel Sales Engineer for Echo. “Within the first six months of participating in our Inventory Collaboration Program, Echo realized significant results at their first two pilot branches. Turns increased 73%, inventory went down 27%, and sales increased 30%. To the delight of everyone, they were able to realize these gains while maintaining 99-100% customer satisfaction.”
Read the complete article.
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| Operations/Data Center Update |
In early August, the Operations group completed the migration of our production processing infrastructure from our office data center in Blue Ash, OH to a collocated facility in Hamilton, OH. This was a major undertaking and the culmination of nearly two years of effort on the part of both the Operations and Development groups to ensure a seamless transition with minimal impact to customers.
Our new production processing facility shares data center space with several notable businesses in the Cincinnati area, including two members of the Fortune 25. It features fully redundant power, electrical, environmental, and network systems, and is staffed 24x7 by both network operations and security personnel... Read the complete article. |
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| Customer Care Tip |
| Customer Care Support Tracking |
Late in 2009, Customer Care moved our support tracking to Salesforce.com and requested that all users send support requests to support@datalliance.com. We had three goals in mind when making that switch:
- Better organization and tracking of our growing list of support requests
- Elimination of requests “falling through the cracks” or going un-serviced
- Ability to report internally on support activity
We have made many strides using our new system and continue to modify our processes to improve workflow and reduce the time to resolve customer support requests. To that end, we request your assistance in submitting requests in a fashion that will enable us to assign them more quickly and, ultimately, resolve them more quickly... Read the complete article. |
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| Networking |
| Make a child smile by talking about VMI |
| The leading experts of VMI are part of the Datalliance Community and we want to help make it easy for that community to stay connected. We created the Datalliance Community Group on LinkedIn to give users of the Datalliance service the opportunity to network with each other. Many of you have asked us what other companies are doing with their VMI programs and we are offering you a chance to ask each other directly. In the spirit of the holiday season we are offering a charitable incentive to get you posting to the group. For every VMI relevant post from now till December 31, 2010 we will Donate 5 dollars to Toys for Tots. Each post must be about Vendor Managed Inventory and we will include responses to posts within the tally. Start Posting Today!! (you must have a LinkedIn account and be logged in to get to the group page) |
Join Our Community |
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