Glass Industry News 

March, 2000

     "Customers involved in the replacement of architectural glass told us of their need for such a system," said NAGS vice president and general manager Catherine Howard. "The need for automation, electronic data interchange and standardization is as strong among architectural glass companies and their trading partners as it is among our auto glass partners. The new flat glass system is a logical product for NAGS to offer."

     Currently, there are many ways to determine the components and the pricing of a residential or commercial glass replacement job. There are several software estimating systems available with a wide variance in descriptions and determinations for the types of materials, fabrication, hardware, labor, services and equipment being used. Given these inconsistencies, it is often very difficult to fully understand what is involved in a particular job or to compare multiple quotes with any accuracy.

     "This has been a long-awaited development in information services to the glass industry," Howard said. "There have been numerous efforts by many different entities to devise a system that would be flexible enough to accommodate all users’ requirements. I, myself, have been involved in several of these efforts since the early 90’s."

     The new flat glass numbering system being released by NAGS represents a logical hierarchical design of all the components involved in flat glass estimating and invoicing. These components are arranged by category, type, thickness, color, attribute and unit of measure. A pricing benchmark is provided for each part number and is derived from national averages based on extensive research, market studies, and consultations with industry experts.

     The new NAGS Flat Glass Numbering System will be licensed for use by companies wishing to implement a standard internally and in trading partner e-commerce transactions. It will also be available to software providers for incorporation and re-licensing within their own software products. In addition, NAGS will be introducing a flat glass point of sale module in the next release of its own software package, GlassMate®.

     "The real beauty of the system is its simplicity," added Howard. "You can ‘build’ an invoice for just about any possible type of replacement work very easily. The system is designed to be extremely user-friendly and to standardized the billing process for replacement work—especially work done for insurers and large accounts. We will be previewing the System at a number of industry trade shows this year and look forward to feedback from the industry."

UPDATE SEPT. 2000> NAGS decides to omit benchmark Pricing in Commercial Release of Software Module.

source: Mitchell / NAGS Press Release