Kevin Price, director of the American Supply Association's Center for Advancing Technology, tells where the industry stands and where it's heading.
Supply House Times: Please give us a status report on the ASA Database project. Where does it stand now compared with a year ago, and tell us why cooperation among both wholesalers and manufacturers seems to be to no one's liking. Price: The ASA Database project is now in what we're calling a "Pre-Release" phase. What this means is the database, which is branded as the IDB for Industry DataBase, is being installed on a limited basis to a group of selected distributors who have agreed to be our beta testers. This will allow us to perfect the various procedures required to deliver and maintain the IDB. Some of the issues that will be addressed are: selecting the particular manufacturers that a distributor wants included in their version of the database, building the initial load of product data, and setting up the maintenance routine to update the files. We are developing all of these procedures so that the participant's needs can be supported via our Web site. Adding new product lines, downloading manufacturer updates - actually all of the activities associated with the IDB project - will be accessible through the www.asaidb.com Web site. On the issue of cooperation, I see it improving. Since the ISH North America event in Toronto we have seen a lot of interest in the project from both manufacturers and distributors. I believe the case we made for a centralized database was well received and accepted. We are hosting online seminars every two weeks that describe the details and benefits of the IDB and both manufacturers and distributors are responding.