VAI hosted its annual user conference Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in Las Vegas. Bob Vormittag, president of VAI, opened the conference with a year in review and summarized the outlook of technology in the wholesale industry. “The primary trend is customer self-service,” he said. Online activities are continuing to evolve, he said, referring to a survey in which 32% of respondents said they expect revenues to come from online orders by 2008. The conference included several sessions on the company's products and gave the attendees a chance to ask questions and give suggestions for improvements. Paul St. Germain, segment executive/wholesale industry, IBM Americas Small Meeting Business group, gave a presentation on trends in the technology industry and “on-demand business.” Jack Shaw, author and consultant, introduced his idea of the Autonomic Enterprise: When a company integrates technology with business processes, it can manage itself.
