SAN DIEGO, CA – November 3, 2008 – Trade Service and Expert Systems Consulting (ESC) announced today that they have formed a partnership to offer distributors integrated, value-added products and services that will enhance their productivity and profitability.
 
ESC and Trade Service have closely collaborated to create a value-added integration process that enables ESC customers to easily make the transition to the Trade Service eDataFlex® Pricing Service that is utilized by over 1,000 distributors representing 7,400 locations.   According to ESC’s president John Kroah, “ESC is pleased to be able to offer ESC customers a seamless transition to the valuable services being offered by Trade Service.  Most of our customers have used Trade Service for years and are already aware of the proven benefits their services offer.  We want all of our customers to be able to enjoy these same benefits.”

Additionally, ESC has developed a utility that enables ESC customers to extract properly formatted price files that are used by the Trade Service Supplier Xchange™ platform.  Supplier Xchange enables distributors to automatically respond to requests from their authorized contractor customers to provide realistic pricing that can be easily imported into the contractor’s bidding and estimating system.  The Supplier Xchange service is free to distributors and contractors that are Trade Service customers. 

According to Bob Stone, Director of Business Development for Trade Service, “Trade Service has worked informally with ESC for years but this new partnership not only gives all of the ESC clients access to our industry standard pricing service but also enables them to participate in our groundbreaking Supplier Xchange platform.  Supplier Xchange is being rapidly adopted by the 20,000 contractor desktops that rely on Trade Service’s TRA-SER program and these contractors can already connect with over 1,700 distributor locations via the Supplier Xchange platform.”

For more information please contact:

Bob Stone
Director of Business Development, Trade Service
(317) 733-8939
robert_stone@tradeservice.com

About Trade Service
Trade Service is the leading provider of standardized product and price information to the electrical, plumbing/PVF, HVACR, industrial MRO, and office products industries. Since 1931, the company has been the leader in content acquisition, aggregation, management, publishing, and distribution, offering a variety of products, services, and systems to meet the content needs of over 21,000 distributors, contractors, and government agencies.  The range of solutions provided includes printed directories, electronic catalogs, pricing data for business system updating, and robust attributed content to fuel full-functioning Internet storefronts.  For more information, visit www.tradeservice.com.

About ESC
ESC is a consultant and application software provider to the Distribution Industry. Our client first philosophy and "whatever it takes" mentality insures high customer service levels as well as a life-long commitment to our clients. We have been conducting business in the wholesale distribution market for over a decade and have well over 100 combined years of industry experience. We currently have several offices located across the country.