Operations is the lifeblood of a distributor as it delivers upon sales’ commitment of getting material to the customer. And at the end of the day, distribution, and customer satisfaction, is about getting the right material to the customer when […]
There are three functional responsibilities that are critical to the survival, and growth, of all distributors. They are business development (need more sales!), effective inventory management and collections (inferring that credit is provided). To achieve this companies need to be […]
Over the past month, Allen and I have discussed our observations regarding the industry and shared trends we see that we think will impact business for distributors and manufacturers in 2016. We’ve agreed upon 16 sales, marketing, profitability and operations opportunities that we’d […]
Last week we received a press release, which was published in multiple outlets, from Datalliance announcing that Legrand’s Wiremold line, Hoffman and ILSCO “are continuing to expand their Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) programs with a growing list of distributors and utilities […]
How’s your business? Has deflation shown itself to you? Our unscientific poll on Electricaltrends.com indicates that some distribution businesses are up year to date and some are down. A little bit deeper dive, indicates that depending on where you are […]
This week we’re continuing with our ElectricalTrends Tech Vision Series. One of the most, if not the most, important piece of technology within a distributor is their ERP system. It essentially is the central repository for a distributor to develop […]
We’re at that time of year. The doldrums days of summer. The time when it gets hot and many people naturally become a little more “laisse faire.” When we use the excuse of mid year, summertime, the July 4th holiday, […]
Amazon is considered one of the most innovative companies in the world, which, considering that they are a $90 billion company is pretty amazing. In fact, a Google search of “Amazon innovative company” yields 4.4 million entries! They regularly make […]
Almost thirteen years ago I started out on a joint project for IDEA to prove the value of synchronizing product data between the manufacturer and their distributors. The assumption, which was proven correct, was that the electronic flow of matching […]
Much is made of distributors needing commerce enabled websites … and it is true and is becoming a customer expectation. While ERP companies say they can support distributors in this endeavor, few distributors speak well of their ERP companies providing […]
