Changing of the Guard and ERP Hang Overs

David Gordon Posted On January 24, 2012

Changing of the Guard

Here we are at the beginning of 2012 and we hear that there are cultural changes underway within some of the top distributors. Some old and etched in stone ways of doing business are being replaced with a changing of the guard that is much younger.

We note with interest that for some distributors, you no longer need to sweep the warehouse floor or drive a delivery truck to qualify to work for that distributor. In fact many of the changes that we are seeing and hearing involve sales specialists being brought in to garner market share with their current following. Some express wonder as to how long it will be before they outlive their followers. In some cases there is an effort to recruit young / new blood (college educated ones) into the industry.

While some behemoths continue to close branches seeking to garner (or perhaps salvage) some sort of profit, many are still in a muddle. Other companies such as Sonepar are aggressively rolling up some very well run companies that they see value in.

Interestingly others are making plans for summer interns as they refresh their retiring ranks. Not all retirements are friendly as others seek a safe haven to land at.

Are you in the recruitment mode? Have you thought about when your salespeople retire or the need to plan for the next generation? What do you think of management training and/or intern programs?

Hang Overs from the last Cycle

Like musical chairs, some distributors got caught in the run up of the last cycle with ballooning amounts of the wrong inventory and many decided to upgrade or change their ERP system. About the same time frame, ERP software companies were being rolled up. What were Mothership software firms, began to fade into the sunset … even to this day.

Some independent distributors got caught in the middle of an install, hadn’t been trained or worse couldn’t get the support phone line to be answered.

Just below the surface, a nervousness set in with many distributors.

Larger companies like Sonepar, took what appeared to a bad business situation and hired some of the best and brightest personnel from the ERP company, thus apparently solving their support issues. It also helped them gain access to their data, that heretofore had been run on a private database.

That will create a problem and disruption for other distributors if they can’t get support.

So the question becomes, what would you do if you got caught in the middle of an ERP system that was half-installed (talk about business disruption), or your staff was not completely trained? What if you couldn’t get the support line to answer? What would you do, or are doing?

Anonymous

January 25, 2012 at 1:05 pm

as a manufacturer we see graybar trying to change their culture by hiring many new people, and some with industry experience; wesco being a revolving door, sonepar hiring salespeople. Independents like to only hire experienced people and therefore recycling people in a territory (a haven for ex-manufacturer sales people).

Egret seems to have lots of positions that they are looking for, so someone is hiring and looking to grow. These are the companies we’re looking to get tighter relationships with – companies that are hiring for tomorrow expect to grow.

Anonymous

January 25, 2012 at 1:06 pm

Eclipse is a shell of what it used to be. Hello, is anyone home to answer the phone? Guess not as I got voicemail. Hopefully they’ll call back

Scott Schwartz

January 25, 2012 at 1:47 pm

1 year ago I made the transition to a new ERP system. My decision was to go to the smaller software company because their customer references all said that the questions were always answered within 30 – 120 minutes if not urgent and almost immediately if urgent. I have found the same to be true. Tons of bells and whistles will get you no where if you cant make the basics run. DDI System is worth a look at by any small to medium size distributor. They also have many of the bells and whistles that Eclipse offers.

Anonymous

January 25, 2012 at 1:54 pm

Dear Anonymous. How can I help?

Anonymous

January 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

If my memory servers me right, I think that Allen warned us that when a ERP company get’s bought by an acquiring company…it is all about the numbers and declining support and interaction with their existing customer base.It’s just business.
We came real close to accepting a really low price for Eclipse. Our gut instinct told us that they were grasping for money and we might have ended up with a lot of business disruption and maybe not a complete install. Now these are nice people, but they are not going to tell someone like us (a potential buyer) all their problems.That was up to us to find out.
So we looked around at other packages and choose Infor. While Infor had been silent for several years, they seemed to be providing the least amount of business disruption and in our opinion a complete install and training.

Anonymous

January 25, 2012 at 5:28 pm

By my count we are 3/4 to 80% installed. Because we are spread out over a large geographical area,our install has been fairly steady. Training up till about a month ago had been good.
But today training has tapered off and we have different trainers.

Business disruption at some of our branches is killing our productivity and no doubt our profitability.

For our side, lawyers are now in the picture.I sure hope this turns out better than it currently appears.
We’ll see.

Changing of the Guard and ERP Hang Overs

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David Gordon

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