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About ASA Tire Systems

ASA Tire Systems — Corporate History

 

ASA International Ltd.

ASA Tire Systems began in 1969 when its founder, Alfred C. Angelone, left Arthur Andersen Consulting division to open his own consulting company in Massachusetts, Advanced Systems Associates, Inc. (aka ASA, Inc.). Being in the back yard of Digital Equipment at the time of the commercialization of the mini-computer, it didn't take long before the company entered the software development industry as a DEC OEM. In its early days, ASA designed and developed software for all types of businesses in the New England area. At the same time, another Massachusetts company, Business Systems Research (BSR) was developing software to run on Digital Equipment systems. Straight from the Boston College Carroll School of Management, with a Computer Science degree, Wayne Croswell entered the business world and joined BSR in 1977 as a software engineer. BSR was developing software for manufacturers, distributors, soft drink bottlers, wire makers, leather tanneries and garment manufacturers, and even for DEC's airline/helicopter scheduling system.

In 1980, BSR was acquired by ADP for its international trade software, and wanted to jettison the business systems product line as it conflicted with its existing product lines. ASA acquired the product line from ADP in 1981. Croswell was "the player named" in the deal. He joined the ranks of ASA and continued designing and developing software. Croswell was able to continue working with the original customer base, and created ASA's general business customer support department. As ASA grew in the early eighties, they began to set their sights on verticalization. In order to grow, they needed capital, so they decided to go public in 1986. ASA raised substantial capital in the initial public offering. That capital was used to execute a strategy of growth through acquisitions. To date, ASA has acquired 26 companies. ASA, Inc. changed its name to ASA International Ltd.

ASA Tire Systems

ASA began acquiring companies of equal size, and sometimes larger than ASA. The "general business" acquisition from ADP was ASA's second acquisition. In 1988, Digital Equipment contacted ASA to rescue a company that was filing bankruptcy. ASCO, based in Atlanta, GA, the leading software supplier to the tire dealer market, became ASA's fifth acquisition and launched ASA into the tire industry. At the time, Croswell was VP of Operations for ASA's international trade division. ASA had created three vertical markets, and was forming a fourth in the distribution market with a focus on the lumber, brick and building industries. ASA initially thought of putting ASCO into the distribution division, but soon realized it was a market unto itself. Here, the ASA Tire division was born, and Croswell was asked to assume the position of VP of Operations for the newly formed ASA Tire Systems Group. Soon after, ASA assessed the market and realized that many of their competitors were in financial difficulty. ASA looked into acquisitions of ASCO's competitors. Within a year, ASA acquired Snyder Computing Systems, a Pittsburgh-based company, and almost doubled the size of the Tire division. In 1989, ASA acquired the Seattle based competitor, Computers Northwest (CNW).

Croswell moved to Seattle for two years to run the west coast operations for the division. At that time ASA sold and supported three products to the market: ASCO (which evolved into TireMax), Snyder's computer system operating on TI990's, and CNW's product, TRIMS. In 1996, ASA had another opportunity to grow through acquisition. Progressive Computers, in Kirkland, WA, was available for sale. Progressive had a product called "TirePro" that was designed by one of the authors of TRIMS. Progressive had originally spun off from CNW in 1987 to start its own company, and never planned to get back into the automotive aftermarket. But there's a saying in the tire industry about "rubber dust in your veins," to which Progressive was not immune. ASA acquired Progressive and now had four products to support. Eventually ASA narrowed the new sales product line to only two products marketed to new customers: TireMax and TirePro.

Continued Growth Through Acquisition

In 1999, ASA began talks with the owner of Quality Design Systems of Boise, Idaho, and was about to conclude their fifth Tire acquisition, when Bandag came on the scene and made the owner of QDS an offer he couldn't refuse, and the deal was not completed with ASA. Five years later, in 2004, after Bandag infused a lot of capital into product development at QDS, ASA acquired the product TireMaster from Bandag. Bandag then shut down its QDS west operation. TireMaster gave ASA a Windows-based product that was originally focused on the lower-end market. The product development done by Bandag was significant. Bandag "commercialized" the product, making it a powerful feature-rich product, with interfaces to retread and national account processing. It was ASA's initial interest to have TireMaster fill the gap in their product offering at the low-end of the market.

ASA's goal early on was to become the leader in the tire industry and to bring stabilization to the technology being offered to independent tire dealers. ASA was in it for the long haul, as they say. ASA wanted to stop the constant "new guy on the block" syndrome that plagued their industry every six months. Hearing the horror stories that dealers went through with computer companies, ASA wanted to change their opinion about technology. ASA brought stability to the market, and realized the goal they set to accomplish. ASA Tire Systems has been providing automation solutions to the tire dealer market for over 20 years.

Technological Advancements

Based upon advanced technological developments, ASA Tire Systems was planning their next generation product for the tire market. They decided that the marketplace was ready to "go graphical" in a big way. ASA took all of their expertise in product design, and the best of all the features and functions in their character based products, and began to build a product for the 21st century: TreadX. In the spring of 2005, ASA accomplished the first installation of TreadX Point-of-Sale, the next generation in computing for the tire industry. ASA continued the development of TreadX over the next couple of years to stabilize the product and add necessary features and benefits.

Today, after several years of continued development, ASA is at the threshold of the next generation in ASA's product offerings. In the fall of 2008, ASA Tire Systems is coming-to-market with a new website and a new "face" for the tire industry and automotive repair market. The changes at ASA Tire Systems run deeper than just a new look-and-feel from the outside; it is far more than a change in packaging. ASA has recently engineered their diverse product line into one complete family of products, and ASA is now presenting a comprehensive product offering that is unmatched in the automotive aftermarket. ASA TreadX, ASA TireMaster, and ASA AutoRepairMaster complete the product offerings needed by 21st century automotive aftermarket business owners. Each of the products meets and exceeds the demanding needs of the marketplace today.

Our Employees, Our Customers & Our Product

ASA Tire Systems prides itself in being staffed by a team of professionals who understand the tire business like no other company, who understand computer technology, and who know how to make technology work. Many ASA employees have worked in the industry at manufacturers and tire dealer locations for many years. This experience is one of the factors which continues to set ASA Tire Systems apart from the competition. ASA's customers include 900+ independent tire dealers, representing 4000+ independent tire dealer locations, and 10,000+ users. These customers depend on ASA Tire Systems' products to help them run their businesses more profitably through technology.

ASA Tire Systems is proud to offer the next generation business owners a new family of powerful state-of-the-art graphical software products for the tire and automotive repair marketplace. This family of advanced software tools is the culmination of over 30 years of research, effort and expense by the industry leader. ASA TreadX is UNIX-based with Windows graphical clients, and ASA TireMaster is a complete Windows offering, as is ASA AutoRepairMaster. ASA TreadX is an enterprise application, and ASA TireMaster and ASA AutoRepairMaster are workgroup applications for the tire and automotive industries respectively.

These products offer complete point-of-sale, inventory, A/R, A/P, G/L, purchase order, time clock, eCommerce, national account interfaces (Bridgestone ADRS, Bandag Data Channel & Goodyear TireHQ), sales aides (Mitchell, Wrenchead, Tire Guide, Tire Brands, Pricing Uploads, and Electronic Tire Registration), retread manufacturing interfaces (BASys, by Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions, Oliver and Marangoni via Roadware, BibTread by Michelin, GTRACS NG {CIMS} by Goodyear), marketing tools (Gemini, MailMark, CustomerLink, UPS/FedX Zone Data, Postal/Zip Code Data), financial solutions (Business Intelligence, Analytix, Inventory Analyst, Financial Analyst, ICVerify, XCharge, Continental Credit Services (Abanco), Goodyear ADS Link, ADP & Pensoft Payroll), manufacturer reporting (TIMS Link and Goodyear Wholesale Distributor Report), the ASA Mobility Suite (Physical Inventory, Inventory Receipts, Inventory Transfers, and Carside), and more.

ASA Tire Systems has completed many interfaces to manufacturer's national account processes as well as the retread systems that are available from major retread companies. ASA TireMaster features connectivity to Quicken's QuickBooks accounting product. ASA's Mobility Suite offers the latest in handheld technology used to perform business functions with bar codes & wireless connectivity. ASA's Data Warehouse Suite, Analytix, provides the most powerful data-mining tool available to the industry today. ASA offers website design, development and hosting, and they are soon launching ASA's eUniversity, an online training and education lab that ASA clients can use to train their employees on all of ASA's software applications 24/7/365. With eUniversity, ASA clients can keep their employees trained and up-to-date on their own time-frame, at their own pace, and without the expense of travel and classroom time. To date, ASA's eUniversity offers over fifty different online courses. These tools are not only improving the operational flow of workloads, but also are saving companies money and improving profitability in the process.

A Commitment to the Industry

ASA stands firm by its original commitment to the automotive aftermarket. Over the past twenty-two years, ASA has provided stability to the market, protected the technology investments of tire dealers, and brought new technology to the market time after time. This commitment is evidenced by membership in twenty-eight national, state, regional and provincial associations. Further than membership, ASA currently has staff elected to board seats at the regional association level; Tommy Dukes, Immediate past-President of the South Carolina Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association, and Robert Beaver, NWTDA Board of Directors. Now President of ASA Tire Systems, Croswell serves as Chair of TIA's (Tire Industry Association) Member Services and Benefits Committee, and also on the Public Relations and Marketing Committee, and the Strategic Planning and Bylaws Committee. He was elected Secretary of TIA in July of 2007. The Secretary position proceeds through the officers' chairs that place Croswell in line for the one-year Presidential term from November 2009 through October 2010.

ASA Tire Systems is proud to have become the leader in comprehensive technology offerings to the automotive aftermarket today and will do what is required to maintain its position in the future.

Download this history in .pdf format.