Emerald Innovations executives like to think their company eases the stress of the holidays with its array of accessories aimed at making decorating easier -- including a stand it guarantees will end spats between moms and dads struggling to get the Christmas tree to stand up straight.

John Beale, Post-Gazette Marsha Dunmyre of Emerald Innovations in Butler displays one of her company's products, the Twinkling Snowflake. Click photo for larger image.

But the Butler-based holiday supplies wholesaler needed some help with stress of its own as it worked to keep track of large quantities of wares, from suction cups for holiday wreaths to easy-to-fold snowflakes, that it supplies to such retail giants as Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

So in 2002, Emerald Innovation's executives agreed to hear a pitch from Pine-based software and services firm TrueCommerce. TrueCommerce promised that its software could better track transactions, orders and bills than a dated accounting system Emerald was using.

The clincher, said Emerald's general manager of operations Marsha Dunmyre, was TrueCommerce's so-called EDI program -- for Electronic Data Interchange, which most retailers use to fill orders, set delivery dates and send out invoices. It was user-friendly and cheap, she said. "No one in this company is a PC genius," she said, laughing.

Companies such as Emerald are the bread-and-butter of his business, said TrueCommerce President and Chief Executive Officer George McKee. That's because small to mid-size companies need help doing business with the giant chains, most of which require their suppliers to be EDI compliant, or to use their own complex software with little support, he said.

"There are hundreds of thousands of companies who don't have the ability to comply with Wal-Mart's requirements for its suppliers," said McKee, noting that EDI tends to be "technically complex and cost prohibitive. You need to have someone in the middle to help facilitate that."

Founded in 1995, TrueCommerce survived the tech slump to grow to 71 employees. The private firm, which won't disclose sales, has raised $4 million in investment funds in the past year and plans to fill at least 15 more positions in 2005.

While smaller and far less tech-oriented -- it employs 13 and, as a private firm, would not provide sales -- Emerald also represents a company that its founders say is fulfilling a need.

It got its start in late 2001, when Cleveland-based consumer product designer John Nottingham and his partner, John Spirk, trekked to Lubbock, Texas, to buy back their invention -- a specialized Christmas tree stand they had sold to a company that had since gone belly up.

When they returned to home, they brought with them more booty than they'd anticipated: a the bankrupt company's assets were sold off, not only did the duo seize their one-of-a-kind product, but a string of other holiday decoration supplies and accessories.

So they started a company. Two years later Emerald Innovations says it easily sells to big and smaller chains, freeing it to focus on inventing products for holidays year-round.

Its line of Halloween accessories will line store shelves this fall, including a bright-orange, battery-operated pumpkin carver and pumpkin-gut remover already ordered by Wal-Mart.

Dunmyre said thanks to technology, getting truck loads of these items from where they are made in Hong Kong to the WalMart's distribution centers will be a snap.

"As a small wholesaler, It's important to have technology to sell to bigger retailers, she said. "When you're eliminating paperwork, you're eliminating cost."