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I DA U N I V E R S A L N ove m b e r - D e ce m b e r 2 0 1 4 13 number, and the next day Allied sent them a list of want-to-buys via tele-printer. In the beginning there was no inventory, no data- base—just a messaging service where Allied forwarded parts requests from buyers to member- dealers. A new overnight network was created in 1983 for farm equipment salvage yards to buy and sell used parts and attach- ments; dealers from that network started the National Tractor Parts Dealers Association. Allied pur- chased Telequip, a construction equipment salvage yard network, in 1984. Telequip used state-of- the-art satellite technology— which was also incorporated into the farm network—giving dealers a choice between instant and overnight communication. In 1989 Allied teamed up with the British Columbia Auto Recyclers and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia to create the PartScan network. The PartScan network links auto recyclers and insurance companies together throughout Western Canada. From its beginning as a private, subscription-based wholesale net- work among dealers, Allied took advantage of a variety of rapidly- changing technologies. With the advent of the Internet it just made sense to have one hub where end users could come and locate parts, and so the publicly-accessible Tractor-Part.com site was created. It is a public tool for end users looking for a specific part on the Internet, searching hundreds of parts dealers' inventories which helps end users locate and buy parts. Tractor-Part.com searches the inventories of all of its mem- ber-dealers, posts who has the particular part in stock and its condition, and lets the end buyer choose which part they want to buy, and from which dealer. How do end users find Tractor- Part.com? General Manager Eric Shaul explains that many people today use Google to search for parts, and because their database of over 12 million parts has been submitted to Google "When end users do a Google search by part number they run across our web- site (Tractor-Part.com). End users also find us through Google ads, Facebook and other social media, and organizations such as the IDA. Founder Roland Shaul concurs, "The Internet is how people locate almost everything, today." Over a third of the people using Tractor- Part.com are return customers. Software and Services By 1996, in response to the special needs of recyclers, Allied began de- veloping B.O.S.S. (Business Or gan - ization and Support System), its inventory and business management software. Today recyclers throughout the United States and Canada use software developed by Allied to run their day-to-day operations. Allied's software manages day- to-day inventory with cross-refer- enced parts numbers, makes, and models, tracks both parts and machines, streamlines yard man- agement and order fulfillment, streamlines quotes, work orders, invoices and delivery tickets, and helps track and control parts sold against payments received. It also helps track profitability by creating summary, forecasting, profitability and performance reports and graphs. It supports sales efforts with easy lookups for inventory, cus- tomer, and account data, and tracks calls and lost sales. It converts old parts numbers into new or changed numbers, searches by both old and new parts numbers, and identifies when a part will work in more than one machine. Roland Shaul says, "With our software we've made pro- visions to put the information into the database that will really give our dealers the best bang on the dealer networks and Tractor-Part.com web- site. The software tracks machines, OEM parts, non-OEM parts, used parts, and their condition. It makes a lot of difference, and gives the end buyer the choices he needs to make a decision." Taking advantage of the capabili- Eric Shaul is Allied's General Manager Software developer and testing assistant working on ABS software program Above: screen shot of the ABS management program. Continued on page 15