July 5, 1999

Industrial Goods Online

Applied aims sites at manufacturing, agricultural users

By Clinton Wilder

Related links:

Solix Goes Beyond Online Procurement New Model For E-Commerce

And from our sister publications:

InternetWeek Enterprise Users Poke Holes In E-Procurement

ld-line manufacturing companies are starting to embrace electronic commerce in a big way. Applied Industrial Technologies Inc., a $1.5 billion industrial products distributor, launched two Web sites last week to sell more than 1 million different items online to industrial and agricultural customers.

The first site, AppliedAccess (www.applied-access.com), offers products such as bearings, motors, belts, and hydraulic pumps to more than 150,000 customers in large and small manufacturing companies. Customers will pay through their existing channels with the company.

In an attempt to expand its online business by selling to family farmers and ranchers, Applied also launched FarmWarehouse (www. farmwarehouse.com). The site sells components and lubricants for farm equipment and is geared toward farmers who perform their own vehicle and tool maintenance. Farm- Warehouse customers will pay online by credit card.

Both sites run on Hewlett-Packard Net Server E Series servers with Microsoft Internet Information Server 4. Applied, in Cleveland, has written custom XML interfaces to link to its homegrown inventory tracking and transaction processing application called Omnex, which runs on an S70000 mainframe from Compaq's Tandem Computers division. Customers can use the Web site to access current-order status reports as well as two-year order histories.

Applied joins other distributors such as W.W. Grainger Inc. and manufacturers such as Milacron Inc. in using the Web to sell industrial hard goods more efficiently. "More businesses are going to do procurement over the Internet," says Rick Shaw, a VP at Applied. "It's an easy and convenient way for people to buy industrial products, particularly if they know what they want."

Like other distributors and manufacturers moving online, Applied is sensitive to preserving the role of its sales and account representatives. Items ordered online are routed to one of 380 Applied service centers in the United States for delivery by United Parcel Service. New customers are assigned a regional account representative for follow-up service and sales. "The Internet can't do everything, especially for sophisticated products," Shaw says. "You still need a level of human technical support."

Back to This Week's Issue

Send Us Your Feedback

Top of the Page

---