Global Fastener News

FASTENERS ON THE INTERNET: ITS, National Safety Council, Building Supply Surplus

John Wolz

ITS Combines Fastener Connection, E-Commerce
Ralph Nissen grew up in the fastener industry. More than 35 years ago his father, Peter Nissen, founded Nissen Industrial Fasteners in Montreal.
Nissen worked part-time jobs and summers in the distributorship. His brother, Chris Nissen, is now president of the distributorship.
But Ralph Nissen never took a permanent job with Nissen Industrial. Instead he went his own way and earned a PhD in biomedical sciences.
But three years ago he had an idea that brought him back to the fastener industry.
He founded Industry Trade Systems ITS Inc. to bring fastener buyers and sellers together on the Internet. The ITS network offers suppliers access to RFQs from buyers worldwide
When he launched ITS in 1997 there was just a fraction of the business-to-business e-commerce there is today.
On www.tradesys.com/fasteners suppliers fill in an online registration form with basic company and contact information and product profile.
The network has buyers submit Requests for Quotations, and the ITS engine checks each RFQ against the supplier profiles. Suppliers are notified by e-mail and are able to respond to the buyer outside the ITS system.
There is no initial or maintenance fee. Suppliers may evaluate an RFQ for free. They are charged only when they decide to access the buyer contact information.
Nissen said frequent customers include Boeing, Bossard Pte., Fastenal, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Lucent, Raytheon and Siemens.
Nissen said more than 70% of RFQs are responded to by one or more suppliers.
Buyers have procured standard and custom fasteners in quantities from 10 to container loads on ITS, Nissen said.
According to his statistics, ITS has 3,200 buyers and suppliers from more than 85 countries regularly using the network.
Nissen estimated the value of the RFQs submitted to ITS during the first quarter of 1999 at US $10 million.
Launched in 1997 when a fraction of today�s business-to-business e-commerce was being conducted, Nissen said ITS is run by members of the same family as Montreal-based fastener distributor Nissen Industrial; however, they are separate companies.
The distributorship provided the seed money for ITS and is both a buyer and seller on network, but otherwise the Internet company is independent from Nissen Industrial, Nissen said.
In addition to fasteners, Nissen wants to expand the ITS Internet business into other industries.
ITS is located at 323 McDermott Dr., Rockland, Ontario, K4K 1K9 Canada. Tel: 613 833-0540. Fax 800 501-1052. E-mail: info@tradesys.com Web: www.tradesys.com/fasteners

Safety Council Launches Web Site
The National Safety Council introduced a safety, health and enivronment search engine: www.crossroads.nsc.org
The site provides injury statistics, hazardous chemical profiles, safety data sheets, topical articles plus questions and answers.
The 37,000-member NSC is a not-for-profit, nongovernment organization �dedicated to reducing unintentional injuries in the workplace, on the road, in homes and the community.�

Building Materials Site Announced
Building Supply Surplus Inc. announced an Internet site for buyers and sellers of building materials and related products: www.buildingsupplysurplus.com
Joel Strauss said the web site allows for national and international marketing, but the source of merchandise on the site will not be disclosed.
For information contact Strauss at e-mail: bssusa@aol.com Tel: 520 888-2226 or 800 526-6465. Fax 520 888-1155.

Editor�s Note: FIN continues to receive information about a growing number of fastener web search sites. In addition to www.tradesys.com/fasteners in this issue, see the January 10, 2000, issue or visit the web sites for information about www.ConSource.com, www.e-fastener.com, www.fasteners.com, www. fastenernet.com, www.fastenersearch.com, www.fastenersources.com and www.SupplierMarket.com and the January 31 issue for www.distex.com