Productivity Archives

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Amazon: Friend or Foe minefield

David Gordon Posted On June 22, 2014

Amazon Supply can represent different threats to different types of distributors. It could depend on where you are located and what type of vertical you are in. If you sell into the large projects market, you may not feel threatened, […]

Growth Strategies / Logistics / Manufacturers / More Insights / Productivity / Sales Channel

State of Point of Sales Reporting and the Importance to Manufacturer Reps

David Gordon Posted On June 1, 2014

NEMRA has retained Channel Marketing Group to better understand the state of POS (point of sale) reporting in the electrical distribution industry for the purpose of accurately compensating independent electrical manufacturer sales representatives for activity in their territory. Over the […]

More Insights / Productivity / Technology

Epicor Software up for Sale by Apax Partners

David Gordon Posted On May 24, 2014

The May 6th issue of The Wall Street Journal ran an article that Apax Partners (the private equity owner of Epicor) was seeking to sell Epicor for between $2.5 – $3.5 billion. Apax Partners is a London based buyout firm […]

More Insights / Productivity / Profitability

While Fishing in the Product Database…..Part of a Series

David Gordon Posted On May 15, 2014

Not the usual data suppliers I am beginning to see more than the usual suppliers of product data for electrical distributors. Most certainly the usual suppliers have been Trade Service, with a massive database for distributors and contractors, and IDEA with […]

Associations / Channel Strategies / Distributors / eBusiness / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / Lighting / Lighting2 / More Insights / Productivity

2014 NAED South-Central … Escaping Winter!

David Gordon Posted On March 3, 2014

Last week I was at the NAED South-Central which was held in Tampa. While the reported attendance was about 675-700 individuals, consisting of 75 distributor entities (including multiples of CED, Sonepar, etc), 122 manufacturer entities, and the remainder being reps […]

eBusiness / More Insights / Productivity / Technology

Clarification from an earlier post regarding Epicor

David Gordon Posted On March 3, 2014

Regarding the post from February 12, 2014. This writer expressed an opinion about Epicor that apparently was not construed as an opinion by Epicor. Such statement was as follows: “Sometimes I think that I read too many 10-Q’s and other public documents. Many […]

Productivity / Technology

Justifing Your ERP

David Gordon Posted On February 12, 2014

Publicly Justify your ERP purchase Now we are seeing some people/companies publicly justifying their purchases to gain productivity, like AirGas below. A quick ERP Business Model ERP companies have operated their business with a model where they: Put as little functionality into […]

Pricing / Productivity / Profitability

Improving Distributor Bottom Line in 2014

David Gordon Posted On February 5, 2014

2013 Electrical Distributor Performance Here we are in early 2014 and you’re looking at your company’s performance wondering how you did. Many will tell us, and tell their close “friends”, that “we only did 2-3%”…which makes everyone feel good because […]

Channel Strategies / Distributors / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / Marketing / Productivity / Research Reports

A Brick Branch or an eBranch – Let the Arms Race Begin

David Gordon Posted On December 4, 2013

As we mentioned Monday, a number of distributors, and some manufacturers, discussed e-marketing and more importantly e-commerce (commerce enabled websites) at the recent NAED Eastern Conference. It appears that the impetus for this has been the continued growth, and competitiveness, […]

Growth Strategies / Industry Consolidation / Logistics / Productivity / Technology

Epicor’s Red Flag warning

David Gordon Posted On November 25, 2013

For months ElectricalTrends has raised a red flag about the long term viability of Epicor’s products as many clients and friends have struggled to complete installs and gain or continue support. Recently Pemeco Consulting’s Jonathan Gross ( click his name […]