Even with the rapid growth of the Internet, business transactions in this industry are, for the most part, still labor and paperwork intensive. Gradually, vertical portal communities are emerging with state-of-the-art technology that enables all members of the supply chain to easily conduct efficient real-time back-office transactions. Manufacturers, distributors, and contractors will soon be able to engage in cost-effective, time-saving online business transactions, regardless of company size and technology.

Manufacturers, distributors, and contractors have not had one place to turn to for comprehensive and objective hvacr industry transaction support and product information. In fact, the Internet, currently plays a relatively small role in this industry, due, in part, to varying resources of each company. While larger organizations within the supply chain tend to be more technically sophisticated, smaller to mid-sized companies can be slower to adopt new technology.

HVAConline.com, a BuildNet community, is developing services to overcome these technology and information barriers in the hvacr community, offering hvacr businesses of any size highly efficient processes for all of their back-office business transactions.

We’re so impressed, The News now has a contractual relationship with HVAConline.com.

Win-win situation for all

This editorial is not a commercial for HVAConline.com. (If you do want to find out more about the company, go to www.achrnews .com and click on to its banner ad, located at the bottom of the opening page.) Instead, this is to inform you of our “general alliance” with this website.

Throught its Web site, The News will continue to provide an online portal presence that helps hvacr people succeed in business by giving them superior information. Our alliance with HVAConline. com will not change that mission, either in achrNews.com or in The News itself. Instead we believe this alliance extends our ability to help you do your job more profitably.

This relationship is currently in Phase One, a phase of awareness in which HVAConline.com is letting its audience know that it is out there and what its services are, as well as letting its members know about The News.

In other words, there is a synergy going on between both parties. In the current arrangement, The News is supplying HVAConline. com with the latest industry news and information. It is possible that, down the road, our two companies could do more together — and we believe you would benefit as a result.

As News publisher Taggart Henderson noted, “As the premier weekly news magazine for the hvacr contractor, The News recognizes how significant the Internet will be to the industry, and HVAConline.com is the company which soon will provide Internet-based business management tools that help contractors run their businesses more efficiently and cost effectively.”

Of course, Todd Mann, coo of HVAConline, jumped at the opportunity to ally with The News.

“By combining The News’ solid editorial commitment with our e-commerce service and many others, such as career listing services, HVAConline.com is becoming the single most active business source for hvacr professionals across the entire supply chain.”

Internet is not going away

With this cyberspace link, we definitely believe we have an improved web presence — and you can bet that this presence will keep on improving. It has to.

As Ruth King of American Contractors Exchange stated in one of her recent e-mail newsletters (Contractor Cents), if you do business with 18 to 25 year olds, you have to be on the Internet with a web page.

“That group is getting older. In the next 10 years, they will have houses, need maintenance on them, etc.,” she said. “They naturally go to the web now to find more information. This means that you will have to have a web presence.

“The Internet is a tool to help generate business, keep in touch with customers, and let them know of things that can help them,” she concluded. “It is the latest, new guaranteed tool. Learn to use it.”

We agree. Let us know what you think of this link between The News and HVAConline.com.