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Introduction to Hinda Incentives Hinda is a privately-held, family-owned business that has evolved from a consumer electronics distributor to a full-service incentive company. Established in April, 1970 by two brothers, Ben and Nate Arkes, they named the company in honor of their mother, Hinda, who passed away when they were teenagers. Ben’s youngest son, Michael, joined the company in June of that year and took over leadership in 1986 when Nate suffered a heart-attack. Nate remained president until his death in 1994. Ben still enjoys spending a few hours a day at Hinda whenever he can. During the 1970’s Hinda functioned as a consumer electronics distributor individually shipping product to incentive program participants. We built our customer base by providing competitive prices and leading name brand merchandise fulfilled within 48 hours, entirely from our inventory. During the early 1980’s Hinda responded to our customer’s needs and expanded our inventory in order to offer them a more complete selection of products. Even today, we have maintained our focus on merchandise award fulfillment providing the market the leading combination of:
In the mid-1990’s Hinda invested in researching and then developing Internet technology for the incentive industry. In April 1997, Hinda installed our first integrated incentive solution utilizing the technological advancements driven by the Internet. The result was a highly impactful, hi-tech product that allows our valued clients to more efficiently and effectively manage their incentive programs. Incentive Exchange® is an integrated or “complete” incentive solution, which includes the awards catalog, point tracking, and electronic redemption. In early 1997, we knew we were ahead of the market and made the financial commitment to become industry leaders in this field. Incentive Exchange®, like all Hinda products and services, is flexible and competitively priced. In 2001, two new web-based products were designed and released. The first new product, innergE®, includes all of the features of our Incentive Exchange® system, plus other features appropriate for employee recognition programs. We also made modifications to the system which allow a client to easily administer their own program with 200 employees or less. The result is a powerful system with reduced administrative overhead expenses. The second new product developed was a points-based electronic auction system. Such a system allows a client to conduct a different type of program that generates great enthusiasm at a fixed budget. In 2001 we also began utilizing a proprietary data transfer system with some of our clients. This system, CDTS (Comprehensive Data Transfer System), allows our clients to establish a means for automated data exchange with Hinda in a batch process. In some of its current forms CDTS is used for automated order placing, order tracking, exporting electronic copies of the Hinda catalog and images, and automated point and participant loads. In 2002 further enhancements to our systems resulted in the development of features appropriate for specific program initiatives. One was the development of a nomination system whereby the entire individual or team nomination and approval process occurs on-line. The second was an on-line “claims” system, geared primarily for programs where participants are in an indirect distribution channel. Participants receive award points through a process where they self-enroll, enter and submit information proving they met the program requirements, with verification by Award Headquarters prior to the deposit of points. Hinda was a pioneer in the development of technology to support the incentive industry and continues to be an industry leader. We have successfully launched and supported more than 300 programs for our clients since that first program launch in 1997.
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