BENEFITS OF USING "SERVICE CHANNEL" WEBSITE BASED SERVICE CALL RESOLUTION AND REPORTING

Brinco Mechanical Services, now provides our customers with instant access to our data for each of their facilities. We export service history, service call status, proposal information, and performance reports to an independent web based data bank called Service Channel. (Servicechannel.com) Authorized persons can access information about their sites with real-time updates from anywhere.

There is no charge to any of our retailers for this service. Brinco is absorbing the cost of this service. In addition, any other vendors you are presently using can contact Service Channel and become Service Channel providers. The cost of being a provider is relatively reasonable.

If a facilities manager presently has Internet access, they have access to Service Channel. Of course, the particular facility's data is protected by a log in name and a password.

Long ago, we recognized the need for instantaneous reporting and resolution of service calls, as well as the need for a system, which would allow the national retailer to measure the performance of his service vendors; we believe that Service Channel meets these needs. This system saves countless hours for the facility managers we work with and our own customer service representatives, previously spent requesting and reporting the resolution and status of service calls.

We are excited about the ability to provide facility managers with this valuable tool. We believe that it allows us to do a better job managing our customers' HVAC service and maintenance by providing them with a secure means of obtaining immediate information. It also allows facility managers to perform their job more easily by eliminating time spent obtaining and attempting to obtain resolutions of service requests, and entering data.

Brinco made a presentation of a case history involving the use of "Service Channel" in conjunction with Barnes & Noble at the October 1998 Northeast Regional PRSM meeting. The following highlights the advantages to the retailer when a vendor can provide Service Channel access.

• Service Channel is an Internet databank where information can be obtained instantaneously as down loaded from a vendor's computer system, (no lag time), without compromising the security of the vendor's or retailer's computer systems.

• Being Internet based, outside of the vendors and retailers internal networks; Service Channel is completely independent from both computer systems. This independence prevents exposure to outside tampering of critical data.

• Different access levels enable regional managers and vendors to see information that they are approved to view.

• The vendors system does not have to be altered to supply data to Service Channel for the retailer's use. If the vendor can export in a one of several standard formats, Service Channel can display the information.

• Less direct calls from retailer to vendor and vice versa - a true time saving device for checking status of a particular issue.

• Facility managers no longer have to perform rote work at any time.

• Service Channel levels playing field among vendors - all information is available to the retailer at any time, so individual vendor performance can be compared with others in the industry.

• The service history, the equipment listing, and all of the data belongs to the retailer and remains continuous if the retailer chooses to switch vendors.

• All information for all trades and vendors is available in a single location, and can be viewed anywhere there is access to a telephone line.