Lithonia Lighting, an Acuity Brands Inc. lighting business, has selected the Datalliance vendor managed inventory (VMI) service to enhance its electronic partnership with key distributors. Lithonia Lighting will initiate its VMI program implementation with a pilot distributor site and then roll out VMI to a select base of distributors who have expressed interest in its benefits.

Lithonia Lighting has identified VMI as strategic technology. “VMI will give us better visibility of actual product sales for each distributor,” said Amra Boucher, manager e-business services, Lithonia Lighting. “This detailed sales information will help us evaluate and fine tune our product offering to determine the most profitable mix of products for individual distributors. In addition to increasing sales for both Lithonia and our distributors, we expect that our distributors will benefit from VMI by decreasing inventory levels, increasing turns, and reducing stockout situations.”

George Stringer, vice president distributor value stream, Lithonia Lighting, said, “We looked at several VMI options, but it became clear very quickly that Datalliance was the best solution for us. It has a great reputation in the industry and is trusted by our distributors who are already doing VMI. The Software as a Service model employed by Datalliance is a perfect fit for our strategy. A quick implementation timeframe and no significant investment in hardware and software is very appealing to us.”

“Lithonia Lighting’s commitment to VMI is another indication that VMI is growing quickly as a business practice in the electrical industry,” said Tom Hoar, director, electrical industry, Datalliance. “In addition to being seen as an e-commerce initiative, VMI is now also being recognized as an important vehicle for growing sales.”