Road Rage
Whether there is an actual accident or people drawing weapons and shooting it out on a freeway, the problem is growing. The problem for distributors is that they can be drawn into a road rage lawsuit, simply because their driver is alone, or made a jester or even reacted to the actions of other vehicles. You may be one of the fortunate business owners who have not yet experienced this type of lawsuit.
We’ve had conversations with several distributors that are involved in defending against ‘Road Rage’ lawsuits. One is asking for close to $1M and another is a lesser amount.
Several years ago some distributors warned their employees not to react to road rage of other drivers. Maybe that works for your company in your state.
But with all the devices that now come on vehicles and employees personally carry (Cell phones, iPods and such) the likely hood of an incident occurring is on the rise.
3rd Party VMI grows
It is not like Square D hasn’t offered VMI to their distributors before, because they have. Now they have switched to VMI using Datalliance and the reception by distributors has been well received. Based on a Datalliance press release and a interview there are currently between 40-50 electrical distributors involved in the program. It sounds like there could be a waiting list.
Many manufacturers have found that to smooth out their production and have the right product for the distributor, they engage Datalliance and offer this as a free benefit to the distributor.
Conversations with several distributors say that they generally like the recommendations. The real advantage for distributors boil down to
- Enhanced turns
- In some cases the dollar value of the inventory goes down
- Some even get enhanced return privileges
- Some distributors will admit that their profit goes up on that line
On the Technology Front
Sadly a number of distributors who bought Epicor ERP (Formerly Activant-Eclipse) are reacting with nervousness that their ERP system may not be supported after all. Why? Because Epicor has laid off a number of support and sales staff as sales have declined. The company needs to meet its private equity loan commitments.
So what is a distributor to do that uses Eclipse?
- It has been suggested by several distributors that they find a really good Eclipse consultant that hasn’t been hired by Sonepar / One Source (who hired many of them!).
- Stand pat and wait.
- Another distributor suggestion was to start looking at new ERP systems. He is spurred on because the hardware that was purchased some 7-8 years ago will not handle the new software updates. “So, why add to old technology to a new machine, when newer software technology and hardware will bring me up to date” says the distributor. He is not the only distributor that is suggesting that they look at new and current ERP systems.
There is about to be a wave of newer ERP software systems that are in various stages of being announced that have shared their press releases with us:
- Ximple Solutions(Pronounced ‘Simple’) is a browser based ERP software system that may be accessed through the Internet or loaded on the distributor’s hardware. Ximple offers a suite of products and services for the distributor to choose from as they grow their business.
- XTuple is an open sourced ERP systems that runs on: Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix and mobile devices. You will see more about this system as they announce it over the next few weeks.
One of the most amazing re-inventions in software history is Infor. Now named INFOR10 for Distribution they have moved the software from old coding (similar to Prelude, Eclipse and others, but with a different database) to cutting edge software that offers a modern, fast, full featured ERP system that is distribution specific. Like other large software companies they are folding in recent purchases such as Lawson.
So, if you are maxed out on your hardware or a ERP that is not delivering the productivity that you desire and want, is it time to look around?
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