Evidently, someone forgot to tell Bradenton business owner John Lie-Nielsen. He hasn’t missed yet. And his latest venture is off and running.

HandySource.com, a Bradenton-based e-commerce business formed by Lie-Nielsen, launched its bid-and-purchase e-commerce Web site May 12. It targets the apartment-housing segment of the real estate industry.

“What we do is have members from the apartment industry come to our site and purchase from our vendor membership, said Lie-Nielsen, chief executive officer of the business and founder of the country's largest multiunit-housing company, Johnson American Cos., in the 1980s.

HandySource was formed in 1999 as a sister company to HandyTrac Systems, Inc., a leading supplier of computerized key control systems to the apartment complex industry, also formed by Lie-Nielsen in 1995.

A member of the industry for more than 30 years, Lie-Nielsen said the company’s average customers are large apartment management companies or real estate investment trusts.

“Much of our client base is already in place, he said. "Some of the people we work with we have known since the 1980s. People have to remember that many of these companies own as many as 50 different properties, often with as many as 250 units per property. That adds up to a lot of business in a short period of time."

Bob Milhoan, project manager and director of marketing for HandySource, said the customer would benefit from management controls features on the site.

"The HandySource.com portal enables subscribing members to streamline and manage purchasing activities for maintenance, repair and operations supplies, as well as bidding and contracting for services, through the convenience of the Internet," he said.

The typical MRO supplies in the apartment complex industry consist of paint, roofing, carpet window coverings, electrical, lighting hardware and plumbing parts, and replacement parts for appliances, cabinets and HVAC equipment. Operational components include computers and office, janitorial, pool and landscaping supplies.

The company recently signed Chad Supply, a Thonotosassa electronics-supply company, which is a subsidiary of Nasdaq-traded Hughes Supply out of Orlando.

"We truly believe that distributors are a valuable asset to our company," he said. "With the successful relationships already in place, and more to come, our customers can use them to their advantage in realizing significant cost savings in terms of efficiency and value over the Internet."

Lie-Nielsen is working with Arthur Andersen's Tampa office in developing expansion strategies and strategies for establishing additional computer sites.

The e-commerce Web site also offers multiunit-housing executives management capabilities such as the ability to set approval limits for each user based on dollar amount or commodity codes. Purchases beyond the limit of a user are electronically routed to the manager for approval.

When reviewing the master catalog, members have the option of issuing purchase orders from suppliers at a set price or bidding the product out of HandySource’s participating vendors to achieve competitive pricing.

Management and reporting tools track requests, purchase orders, expenditures and individual performance. Reports can be customized to fit a member's information needs.

Lie-Nielsen estimates that there are approximately 8 million 100-unit-or-more apartment complexes across the country.

"And the company already does business with more that 20 percent of those," he said.