HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) was lauded recently for its efforts in technology, receiving three Blue Diamond Awards for creating business impact via technology and human capital.
The Charlotte Area Technology Collaborative (CATC) presented the awards on April 7 in Charlotte, recognizing ATD for creating the business value in the deployment and use of information technology systems and making major contributions to the development and recruitment of IT talent to the Charlotte area.
The Blue Diamond Awards recognize innovation in both the creation and use of information technology in Charlotte, as the region becomes a hub for industry and finance. CATC succeeded the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce in presenting the awards, given for more than 20 years to students, innovators, entrepreneurs and non-profits, as well as businesses.
ATD won two awards for creating business impact and a third for human capital.
"When I first came to ATD, we were sitting on 80 years of industry knowledge and information that had never been fully tapped," Tim Eisenmann, chief analytics officer and senior vice president of advanced analytics at ATD, said.
"What we created, literally from scratch and in a very short period of time, was a tool to tap that vast body of information and put it to work for our customers, helping them operate more profitably and see that we were focused on their success, and in the process deepen the trust between us and our customers."
Mr. Eisenmann and Jaimie Bass accepted the award for ATD.
ATD received the first Business Impact Award for creating the Advanced Analytics Center of Excellence (AACoE) tool, which helps tire dealers maximize their profits.
ATD earned its second award for a technology solution for customers designed to simplify, automate and add complete transparency to the order placement and fulfillment process. Using a combination of technologies, ATD created a solution that makes the entire distribution process transparent to users, especially high-urgency orders that the company realized needed to be tracked in real time.
CATC judges noted that these innovations improved the replacement tire industry, acknowledging the challenges facing companies attempting to change the way traditional industries conduct business.
For the Blue Diamond Award for Human Capital, ATD was recognized for creating a work environment that was challenging and innovative, attracting more than a dozen data scientists to Charlotte in a short period.
ATD also has raised the technological profile of the Charlotte with a series of community initiatives:
- Holding the "Reinvent the Wheel" hackathon;
- Launching the "Medium" blog in November 2018;
- Launched an internship collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the Fall of 2018;
- Hosting the first Data Driven Charlotte mixer at ATD (October 2018); and
- Active participation in various area speaking engagements.
ATD President and CEO StuartSchuette said the most gratifying part of the awards isn't their focus on investment in technology, "but the results those investments delivered to our customers, our partners, our people, and the business as a whole.
"For ATD, transforming through technology has always been about unlocking the untapped value in this business for the benefit of everyone — from the manufacturer to the consumer — and that capability lies at the heart of the value we deliver to this industry," Mr. Schuette said.
