• HVACR Distributors Take on Supply Chains Biggest Challenges

    June 1, 2006
    The Heating, Air Conditioning Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) introduced its newest initiative HARDITek at its recent Mid-Year Business

    The Heating, Air Conditioning Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) introduced its newest initiative — HARDITek — at its recent Mid-Year Business Conference. HARDITek is the HVACR industry’s only total solution package for distributors and manufacturers of heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment and supplies that employs technology to take costs out of the supply channel and more efficiently service the marketplace.
    HARDITek’s mission is to identify and provide proven, supported, and readily accessible technologies for HVACR distributors and the suppliers who support their efforts, to ensure that wholesale distributors remain the most effective, efficient, and profitable method of serving the market. HARDITek is comprised of carefully selected and exclusively endorsed technology solution providers to channel processes. Members of HARDI have the opportunity to become preferred users of the HARDITek Partners’ services which HARDI says compliment one another and provide additional savings and efficiencies when bundled together. The three inaugural service provider partners were selected because of their commitment to streamlining the processes of distributors and manufacturers specifically
    in the HVACR industry; most notably through the development of a central database of products and their characteristics that can be accessed by distributors’ management systems. Trade Services Corp.®, Computer Pundits’ Catalog Builder®, and MISG’s TransLink EDI Solutions® are the first to receive the HARDITek endorsement. The three have earned seats on HARDI’s Supply Chain Technologies Committee.
    Finding, quoting, ordering, invoicing, paying for, and marketing products are usually the largest expenses between channel partners aside from inventory. These processes are rife with manual keying, errors and corrections, and customization for special orders. HARDITek targets those processes and provides flexible automated solutions to one, two, or all of those problems.
    The HARDITek Solutions Matrix and Partner Summaries on the new HARDITek section of the website (www.HARDInet.org/HARDITek) outline how the inaugural Partners can address and solve some of the most common problems faced by distributors and their suppliers. HARDI members who invest in HARDITek Partner services receive exclusive pricings and earn special differentiation and recognition as one of the industry’s most committed to being an effective and efficient channel partner. HARDI believes that through its intense focus on the intricacies of the HVACR industry and its complimentary services, HARDITek is a powerful resource for helping manufacturers maximize the wholesale channel and for contractors to have what they need when and where they need it at the best possible price.