E-Business Hits The Midrange

Midrange systems distributors Hall-Mark Global Solutions, Pinacor Inc., Arrow Electronics Inc. and Savoir Technology Group Inc. in recent months have implemented e-business systems to fulfill product easier and more quickly.

Driving these efforts are the distributors' need to reduce procurement costs and retain the loyalty of reseller partners, observers said.

"These e-business initiatives aim to reposition the distributors from fundamentally physical to electronic portals. They have to automate to take costs out of the supply chain," said Charles Smulders, an analyst at Dataquest, a market-research firm in San Jose, Calif.

Midrange distributors, like resellers, must move faster to deliver product more efficiently, said Hughes Roberts, director of marketing development at Alliance Systems and Programming Inc., a VAR in St. Louis. "I would expect [the midrange distributors] to do what we're doing: adopt Web technology that improves our responsiveness and relationships with customers," he said.

Hall-Mark, Tempe, Ariz., has electronic links with IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., and just became one of three midrange distributors to offer resellers an entree into the e-business portal of Oracle Corp.'s virtual storefront.

Hall-Mark joins Access Graphics Inc., Boulder, Colo., and Pioneer Standard Electronics Inc., Cleveland, with access to the virtual storefront, dubbed Oracle Store, which offers Oracle product specifications, order placement and tracking, and data on services.

The midrange distributor plans to have electronics links with all of its major suppliers, including Computer Associates International Inc. and Candle Corp., by the end of the year, said George Brookler, vice president and general manger of the software business unit at Hall-Mark. Links with more than 80 smaller hardware and software makers will follow, he said.

"We're working with manufacturers to ensure the best connection to the VAR community," said Brookler. "Suppliers need these e-business links to boost market share and control costs."

Savoir, Campbell, Calif., already is reaping the benefits of improved e-business links with suppliers, said company executives.

At its Partner Conference in September, Savoir unveiled a system that offers resellers online order processing and tracking, configuration, leasing and services for its IBM AS/400, RS/6000 and Netfinity servers. The Web link, developed in-house, consolidates raw data from up to six of IBM's manufacturing locations.

"The [online] system has improved order accuracy by at least 20 percent," said Jim Teter, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Savoir. "We've also increased our sales volume by 50 percent without adding new people."

Also adopting an e-business strategy is Tempe, Ariz.-based Pinacor. The distributor uses two extranet links,QuickShip and PartnerCommerce,to place, configure and track orders internally for IBM-only products.

In addition, Pinacor offers another online service, called ECworksite, which allows resellers to place and monitor orders for Pinacor's entire product line.

ECworksite also features a virtual inventory, where resellers, for example, can secure Compaq Computer Corp. products from any of Compaq's four Distributor Alliance Program partners if Pinacor does not carry the requested product in-house.

"For resellers, our virtual inventory via the Web and [electronic data interchange] have expanded the amount of product we can supply and broadened our customer base," said Ivan Correa, director of operations for Pinacor's Enterprise Group. "The links have been a tremendous help."CRN