News Release: October 20, 2003
Contact: Steve Wilson, ext. 245The New Jersey Business & Industry Association will present its Enterprise Award to icarz, inc. (sic) of Newton at the 2003 Awards for Excellence Dinner to be held at the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village on October 21.
The Enterprise Award is presented annually to companies that have made a significant contribution to New Jersey's economic growth through the creation of new jobs. In icarz's case, the small company demonstrated exceptional entrepreneurship and growth in creating innovative software products.
"icarz is a small company that thinks big," NJBIA President Philip Kirschner said. "By using their talent and ideas, icarz has created something special in just under three years and is looking for bigger and better things in the future. On behalf of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, I congratulate icarz for a job well done."
icarz signature product is the PartsWatch® system-a state-of-the-art inventory management system that has moved this small business into the big leagues. PartsWatch uses the tremendous connectivity benefits of the Internet to create a seamless integration of auto-parts distributors, their suppliers, and their customers. It simplifies the complex processes required to manage and control the shipping, stocking and selling of hundreds of thousands of auto parts.
Tapping into the top software development talent in the industry, icarz developed and began marketing PartsWatch within one year of the company's creation. In 2001, Pep Boys signed up as a customer, and icarz really began to take off. Later this year, Pep Boys is expected to roll-out the PartsWatch program to its 600 stores nationwide.
Not surprisingly, icarz has grown along with the success of its products. Today, the company employs 84 people, 65 of whom work in New Jersey. Its payroll has increased by more than 50 percent in 2003 alone. Many of its positions are highly-paid, reflecting the high-tech nature of icarz's workforce.
Since 1984, NJBIA annually has honored a select group of its members with an Award for Excellence. The Awards for Excellence winners demonstrate outstanding achievements in one of three award categories: Environmental Quality, Outstanding
Employer, and Enterprise. A Public Service award is also presented to one or more individual business professionals. All NJBIA member companies are eligible to be nominated.
An independent panel of judges comprised of members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) selected the winners along with three NJBIA policy committees chairs: JoAnn Trezza, Human Resources Committee; Edward Hogan, Environmental Quality Committee; and Tim Carden, Economic Development Council.
WithumSmith+Brown, the New Jersey-based accounting and consulting firm, verified the information supplied by the winning applicants.
With more than 20,000 member companies, NJBIA is one of the nation's largest state-level employer associations.
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