Floor Covering Soft is Part of Flooring B2B Association

Atlanta, GA, July 19, 2006, the Flooring Industry B2B Standards Committee held its annual meeting, and by unanimous vote, officially approved the formation of the Floor Covering Business-to-Business (B2B) Association.

Aaron Pirner, CEO of CAP Carpet in Wichita, Kansas and chairman of the board of the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA), along with Pamela Bowe, StarNet Commercial Flooring’s Technology Consultant and president of Bowe Company in Seattle, were elected co-presidents of the new association.

“I am so proud of the effort of this B2B organization! The passion and brilliance of our members is the key to our success and our future. They are an amazing group putting aside their competitive nature and doing incredible things for our industry.” said Aaron Pirner.

Pirner continued, “We’re indebted to all of the associations that have supported the effort over the past 5 years, particularly the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) and the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA), who have played key roles in the development of the organization. Pirner particularly acknowledged the WFCA for recruiting other flooring associations to join the effort and for substantial legal assistance to form the new entity.

“We’re thrilled with the continued success and acceptance for the B2B standards,” said Pamela Bowe. “This year, we again extended our annual meeting to two full days to accommodate the growing number of active participants, all of whom are working together to create B2B standards for the flooring industry. This allows companies, large and small; to take advantage of the benefits B2B technologies offer.” Bowe continued, “Over a relatively brief period of time we have watched the adoption of this technology grow throughout the distribution chain. Interest in this topic has been facilitated by seminars, educational forums and focus groups, all designed to increase awareness of B2B technology and the benefits now available.”

The meeting was attended by manufacturers representing: Shaw, Mohawk, DalTile, Mannington, Tarkett, Dixie Group, Royalty and Gulistan; software vendors representing: RFMS, CDMS, VenCom, QFloors, Compu-u-Floor, Rollmaster, Pacific Solutions, Dancik, Gartman and Floor Covering Soft; and, distributors representing: Adleta, Butler-Johnson, JJ Haines, Ohio Valley Flooring and William Bird.

Associations agreeing to provide representatives to serve as incorporators and founding directors of the Flooring B2B Association include Ceramic Tile Distributors Association (CTDA), Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI), National Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD), National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) and World Floor Covering Association (WFCA).

The mission of the Floor Covering Business-to-Business Association, a not-for-profit organization, is to facilitate more efficient business communications within the flooring industry in order to promote and enhance the customer and supplier’s abilities to do business. This includes customer/supplier electronic transactions, as well as the promotion of leadership in ethics, standards and policy throughout the floor covering industry.

Pirner continued, “The adoption rate and acceptance in the resale community is really gaining momentum. If you are not involved in this revolution then you will fall behind quickly. B2B is good for your company, join us now!”

Membership is open to any company who has an active interest in the flooring industry standard. For more information, visit www.flooringb2bstandard.com.

Floor Covering Soft Commits in Supporting Flooring B2B Standard in FloorEstimate Pro Online and FloorLink.net

FEP Online Edition supports automatic online update of vendor B2B product and price catalog (implementing Flooring B2B Standard 832), coming up on September 7, 2006.
FloorLink.net, the only web-based on-demand CRM system for flooring businesses, supports B2B catalog updates in a similar way as FEP Online.