Staying Stocked During Disaster.

The article focuses on the use of business intelligence (BI) software by United Pipe & Supply to maintain the operations of its supply lines that was affected by Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. Purchasing vice president Dan Kraxberger has generated a critical-items analysis and has sent the analysis to each vendor. Vendor feedback is the basis for the continuous update of the data. The use of BI software has enabled United Pipe to keep its regular customers supplied, and has transformed many aspects of its business operations.