What we did; who we are

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/2000

Over the past few years, technological disciplines irrevocably changed the way distributors and manufacturers do business. To evaluate the implications of those changes, Industrial Distribution queried representatives of key associations in the industry for insights on where IT will lead beyond 2000.

The members of the Information Technology 2000 Roundtable:

Peter Atkins is director of information technology for 3M Co.'s industrial markets and is chairman of the Electronic Commerce Committee of the American Supply and Machinery Manufacturers Assn./Industrial Distributors Assn. He became active in both corporate and association IT work six years ago, following a chiefly financial background. His company utilizes a variety of systems that are centralized and accessed by 55,000 workstations worldwide.

Marc Beerman is president of Beerman Precision, Inc., and is also president of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Assn. His experience with IT dates to the early 90s when he decided to change his company's computer system and install networks and PCs to leverage technology to expand the business. Today the firm's systems include Prophet 21, a Novell PC network, an NT exchange server and a Citrix server. There are 45 people online at Beerman Precision.

Sam Grooms is president of Hy-Tek Material Handling, Inc., and is also immediate past president of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Assn. Since becoming CEO of his firm in 1997, Grooms has overseen the revamping of the company's IT systems, which now include Mini-Trac, a Windows NT-based system, and a sales and marketing database system which runs off a Microsoft SQL server. Approximately 80 people on the Hy-Tek staff access its various IT systems.

Jerry Nichter is president of Orr Safety Corp. and co-chairman of the Electronic Commerce Committee of the Safety Equipment Distributors Assn. Prior to joining Orr in 1991, he owned and managed a systems integration firm, a team of software engineers working in various manufacturing and safety environments. Orr uses an IBM AS/400 for managing transactional, operational and financial data, and employs a distributed architecture based on the Microsoft NT operating system. Each of the company's 150 associates nationwide routinely accesses these systems.

John Post is president of TSI Solutions, Inc., and chairman of the Distribution Technology Committee of the Fluid Power Distributors Assn. His IT experiences dates back to 1979 when his firm installed a pre-PC, pre-hard drive system with dual floppy drives. Since 1984 the company has had a DISC system that is used by all of its 25 employees.

Kevin Queenin is president of Specialty Bolt & Screw, Inc., and immediate past chairman of the Information and Technology Committee of the National Fastener Distributors Assn. On both the corporate and association levels he has been involved with various IT systems for 15 years. His company operates on a Unix platform with Hewlett-Packard hardware and Fastpac software and has a Novell network accessed by 60 employees.

Anna Riveros is vice president of operations at Bearing Service, Inc., and chairs the Business Information Management Committee of the Power Transmission Distributors Assn. Active in IT disciplines since 1980, she was responsible for selecting and implementing her firm's first full distribution software system in 1984. Systems used by the company include IBM F40 RISC UNIX AIX, NxTrend distribution software, progress database, and Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. Some 65 staff people use these systems.