Thanks for the memory.

Last year's UPS strike didn't hurt Peabody, MA-based NECX any. It uses Brink's for its valuable deliveries.

"When you're delivering $3 million or $4 million worth of CPUs or DRAMs, you've got to be careful," says Henry Bertolon, a founder of the 18-year-old company and its chief executive.

And for a company that aspires to become the technological equivalent of both the New York Stock Exchange and Wal-Mart in the next century, Moore's Law poses a greater threat than thievery. That's the rule of thumb that computer chips become obsolete in 18 months and are replaced by silicon wafers twice as powerful - and cheaper. In 1996 a stupendous plunge in the price of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) to $1.40 per chip from $14 slashed the company's revenues to $376 million, from $448 million the prior year. Bertolon insists that business and profits, actually increased, but he doesn't have to prove it: NECX is privately owned - at least for the time being.

The 265-employee company is principally a sprawling trading operation for technological commodities, from chips and hard drives to assembled computers and peripherals. From a large trading floor at its Peabody, MA, headquarters, a trading staff of 160 labors 24 hours a day to broker deals among semiconductor manufacturers, computer assemblers, and corporate purchasing departments.

"This stuff is so broad, such a big marketplace," says the enthusiastic entrepreneur, who speaks in bullet points rather than paragraphs, and can cover a dozen topics in the same breath. "Eighty-five percent of our business is done over the phone with 160 traders, 24 hours a day, three shifts, 29 countries." The company, he explains, buys and sells commodity-based products wholesale, business-to-business. So, for example, there might be a distributor in Israel with 20,000 disk drives to sell, and a customer in Canada who wants them. "We execute the terms for that [deal]." NECX, he adds, boasts the largest database of availability in the industry and works with 20,000 suppliers - for every part from diodes to desktop servers - around the world. "So we buy 10,000 CPUs from Acer in Taiwan, and we sell them to a computer manufacturer in California, and he gets them the next day."

Since 1995, however, NECX has been betting heavily on the Internet; one of its primary goals, in fact, is to become a "virtual corporation," with almost no physical existence. Through its Web site, (www.necx.com), the company has created a shopping mali where you can browse among items from desktop computers to games software that will be delivered to a home or office within days. And while the cartons they arrive in are stamped with NECX's name, they may never have been seen or touched by one of the company's employees.

Rather, NECX forwards the order to one of 27 locations around the country, where one or more of its 1,100 business partners, such as Compaq Computer or Hewlett-Packard, takes all the risks of manufacturing, warehousing, fulfillment, and service. They pay NECX for acting essentially like a cross between the Home Shopping Network and MasterCard.

"We're doing $60 million a year now in revenue on the Web, and we're forecasting over $100 million in 1998," says the sandy-haired executive, who has built a lavish workshop in his basement to construct custom cabinetry, but is more often found hunched over his computer. "This is total third-party order fulfillment. We have no inventory, no shipping. It's a true cybercorporation," he says. "We are the ultimate low-cost provider, [because] we really wring the costs out of the operation." He adds that the company's goal is to produce $3 million in revenue per employee, a figure not that far off. Currently, NECX has 265 employees producing nearly $500 million, for 1997, which brings the total per employee to almost $2 million.

Matching buyers and sellers has bee n Bertolon's goal since he managed Radio Shack stores straight out of Salem State College in the early '70s. During a three-year period - which ended when he opted to resign rather than accept a promotion that would have meant a pay cut and a relocation - he chronically found himself shopping the world market for computer parts. He soon discovered that knowing who had what around the globe was a valuable bit of information. With a partner, a small bank line of credit, and $22,000 from the sale of his house, Bertolon began making marriages between inventory-laden suppliers and parts-short manufacturers.

Another element of the company's future is what it calls EPS - enterprise purchasing solutions. In 1997, NECX signed a deal worth $125 million over five years with MIT to become the university's sole supplier of computer-related products. The corporate objective is the same as in other business lines - providing maximum one-stop-shopping convenience at the lowest possible prices.

What's more, in the kind of electronic commerce NECX is helping to create, a college student in an MIT dorm is just as valuable a customer as MIT itself. "Our network doesn't care whether you're ordering a $24 ink-jet cartridge or a $24,000 server, so we don't care, either," he explains. "Our pricing model turns on transactions rather than margins. If we have enough transactions and aggregate the demand and cover our fixed costs, our business will grow, and there's really the opportunity for a great power shift - from large customers to all customers - for us to be the buyer's agent."

The Internet marks what retailers call the "fourth channel" of distribution, after in-person shopping, buying over the phone, and responding to direct mail. Although giant retailers like Wal-Mart and the Home Shopping Network could, in theory, jump into the business and swamp a middling-size operator like NECX, Bertolon claims few retailers ever make the transition from one channel to another - and even fewer have his database, updated daily, of who around the world has what, and who needs it.

These days, the word most often associated with Internet companies is "IPO," but Bertolon insists he and his partner are so flush with cash - the company has no debt - that outside investors can keep their money.

"We're building ourselves to be public-ready, and that's all we're doing," he said. "The company has got to be public-ready. Then, should the opportunity arise or the requirement for funding come to us, we'll be ready to take advantage of it."

But meanwhile, he enjoys running a private shop, where requests for information about matters such as salaries and profits are blithely turned away. "We make barrels!" he says with a laugh. Subject closed. For now.

PROFILE

HENRY BERTOLON Chief Executive NECX

Age: 45

Birthplace: Boston, MA

Family: Wife: Donna; children: Jennifer, Alyssa, and John.

Education: Business, Salem (MA) State College.

Greatest influence: John Parker, his boss in the '70s at Radio Shack. "He is the epitome - the definition - of success. He knew how to spend time with his family, but he was hard working, motivated, full of integrity, and he cared about his people."

Corporate goal: "Our goal is to be one of the models for the 21st century cyber-corporation - a virtual corporation."

Pastimes: Piano, golf (17 handicap), tennis, woodworking. "I also spend a lot of time on the Internet."

Cars: BMW 840ci, Chevy Tahoe

Last book read: Barbarians to Bureaucrats, by Lawrence Miller.

Origin of name: Originally New England Circuit Sales (NECS), the 'S' was changed to an 'X' in 1993 to underscore the company's focus on technology exchange.