Wholesale Distribution and Supply Chain Analytics

Supply chain analytics can lead to better performance, but many distributors aren’t even scratching the surface of what they can do.

A recent article from Data Informed on the Advanced Distribution Software website reports that nine out of 10 distributors are struggling to bolster their business. There are two main reasons for that trend: the inability to view the supply chain as an elaborate system and the underdevelopment or ineffective use of analytics.

Analytics is the process of breaking down complex information into its elements, organizing the elements and interpreting them. For most companies, the word analytics is synonymous with reporting. But despite thirty years of supply chain technology evolution, the most commonly used system for supply chain planning is a spreadsheet. Companies cannot effectively model the trade-offs of growth, profitability, supply chain cycles such as procure to pay and inventory turns, and business operations complexity on a spreadsheet. As that complexity increases, most companies are unable to use supply chain systems to improve operating margin and inventory cycles.

To learn more about supply chain analytics and read more of the Data Informed article, visit the Advanced Distribution Software news blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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Distribution One's V2 ERP Helps Security Lock Distributors Achieve Growth

With over 500,000 products in stock and over 100 manufacturers represented, Security Lock Distributors is a wholesale source for lock, architectural, and access control hardware, boasting the largest in-stock inventory in the security industry.

While the company had an information-based website, it did not offer customers the ability to conduct business online or even via email. The only way to place an order was by fax or through the call center. The company's old mainframe system was extremely inefficient and non-intuitive. Unlike a Windows environment, the old system required employees to remember numerous keystrokes. This had a severe impact on productivity, taking new employees up to 30-minutes just to process a single order.

With four locations, including its headquarters in Westwood, MA and three distribution centers across the United States, it was clear Security Lock Distributors needed a modern, automated ERP system to streamline its operations, increase its visibility across the entire enterprise, and most importantly, achieve the business agility to meet the changing needs of its customers.

After considering various solutions, Security Lock Distributors selected the V2 ERP solution from Distribution One. V2 ERP is a complete system for Wholesalers and Distributors for automating all aspects of business operations, including order entry, sales, purchasing, inventory, CRM, accounting, and finance. In addition, V2 is extremely user-friendly with all screens and menus have a consistent look and feel that is similar to most Microsoft® products which reduces training and processing time for employees. Since implementing V2 and its e-commerce website, Security Lock Distributors has decreased the number of calls to its call center by 20%. The company has also increased its shipping rate to 98% because employees are far more productive and efficient.

To learn more about Distribution One, their products, and case studies, visit their vendor webpage.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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VAI Improves Inventory Management For Golden Light Equipment

For over 75 years, Golden Light Equipment (GLE) has provided restaurants, school districts, hospitals, hotels and prisons with a myriad of services such as distributing restaurant equipment and supplies, designing industrial restaurants and kitchens, and providing dish machines and cleaning products. GLE also manufactures many of the dish machine, laundry, hand and housekeeping products that are sold to and provided to its customer base.

GLE's previous ERP system limited their ability to efficiently and cost-effectively perform critical every day sales and service functions. Service billing was a labor intensive process using paper invoices that needed to be printed before going to the customers’ sites. In addition, sales and service reps didn’t have a clear snapshot of what products customers were using, what they were already billed for and what they already paid, and inventory processing and billing could be delayed by up to one full week.

To address these issues, GLE selected VAI’s S2K solution to help automate and integrate all of its ERP processes and provide an accurate, real-time view and control of the organizations’ customer and inventory data. After implementing VAI S2K remote access and service billing, the entire billing and invoicing process was completely automated, allowing GLE to significantly enhance the level of service and support they provide to customers.

Leveraging mobile technology was a key need in upgrading its service and support functions, and providing real-time access to key business applications, and inventory and customer data from tablets and mobile phone. All of the data generated from service billing is now generated real-time and automatically updated in the main system that connects to handheld devices - eliminating thousands of dollars a year in postage costs.

To read more about VAI success stories and the Golden Light Equipment implementation, visit their News Blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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Blue Link Provides Improved Efficiency for Nuovo Parts

Nuovo Parts Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Wiseworth Canada, provides custom-made parts, typically made in Italy, for various uses in the Oil and Gas industry.

Stan Thompson, President of Wiseworth, Nuovo Parts Canada and Nuovo Parts Inc., decided that a new system was needed in order to improve the efficiency of his businesses. The system in place prior was a custom-built application they had purchased more than 20 years prior. The application provided no real-time information, involved many manual processes and had many other shortcomings. Nuovo staff desperately wanted a new system, employees routinely spent hours in a file room attempting to extract information that was needed for reporting and for ongoing business operations. Clearly something needed to be done to improve efficiency.

Nuovo considered several possible solutions to implement in place of their current manual and cumbersome system and ultimately selected Blue Link for addressing all of their needs while remaining within budget. The Blue Link Elite implementation was successful in meeting Nuovo’s objectives of eliminating time-consuming business processes, vastly improving reporting functionality and automating unique business needs.

Blue Link's Automated Report Module (ARM) completely automated specific customer communication and expedited the communication to Nuovo’s customers, sending them statements automatically. This helped Nuovo save 2-3 working days a month as well as saving paper and postage. The entire system saves Nuovo about 100 days a year; clearly demonstrating the return on investment and very short pay-back period for the purchase of the software.

Visit Blue Link to read more about this business case studies and others.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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Best Mid-Market Business Award for Pronto Software

Australian business management software company, Pronto Software, has won the BRW GE Capital Mid-Market Momentum Award for Best Mid-Market Business in the $50 million to $100 million revenue category.

Pronto is an Australian software developer of next generation Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that integrates with advanced Business Intelligence (BI) solutions. With in-built intelligence, flexibility and an easy-to-use interface, its flagship product, Pronto Xi enables users to discover rich business insights. Pronto Software prides itself on actively listening to customers and adapting its services to meet their needs to reveal the best solution.

The BRW award acknowledges innovation and leadership in an industry sector, high performance in revenue, profit and employee growth. The past year has been a time of innovation and growth for Pronto Software with a major update to its flagship ERP and BI solution, Pronto Xi 710, released in May. The company opened new offices in Perth and Adelaide, and a North American operation launched in Dallas, Texas. Pronto Software is currently demonstrating the latest updates to Pronto Xi 710 via a Pronto Connect Roadshow, meeting customers in 10 cities around the world between August and November.

For more information visit the Pronto website. 

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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Infor Business Intelligence Certifies Amazon Redshift

Infor, a provider of business application software serving more than 70,000 customers, recently announced that Infor Business Intelligence (BI) has certified Amazon Redshift from Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a backend data repository.

This announcement builds upon the recent launch of Infor BI 10x and further enhances the value of the Infor Sky Vault initiative that leverages Amazon Redshift and Infor ION to manage big data. With Infor BI, customers gain an extensive set of data management tools complete with dashboards, reporting and in-memory analytics, enabling them to more easily and cost-effectively analyze vast amounts of data in Amazon Redshift.

Infor customers can also use Amazon Redshift as a data source for the in-memory Infor BI business layer to relational source data, and leverage Infor BI Application Studio to display information in easy-to-read dashboards via a web browser or tablet applications.

Sky Vault takes the offering a step further by integrating the application data with Amazon Redshift to provide pre-built dashboards and analytics by industry. Infor delivers advanced analytical capabilities through the Infor BI Analyzer, allowing users to derive additional benefits from data by utilizing its insights for forecasting and planning. The in-memory database can also calculate trends based on actual data that can be compared to targets or budgets.

Read more about the Infor and the capabilities of Infor Business Intelligence (BI).

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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CRM Systems Increasingly Popular In Distribution Sales Management

CRM systems are becoming more popular in distribution sales management because they’re flexible, innovative and easy to use.

Industrial Supply magazine recently reported that 61% of distributors already have CRM systems incorporated in their business plan. One of the main strengths of a CRM system is that it allows salespeople to access key information about their customers, all while being out in the field. Additionally, management can monitor sales in real time, so salespeople don’t have to search for data when an issue arises. Additionally, CRM also helps with sales coaching, ensuring that salespeople are targeting the right goals with their customers.

However, the biggest impact CRM systems have made is in helping to develop strategies to increase sales. According to the article, 75% of distribution executives acknowledged that improving sales is a major priority. In an effort to improve sales, they plan to “hire new salespeople, redesign sales incentives, build value-selling skills and improve coaching by sales managers.”

To read more, visit Advanced Distribution Software's News blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides for 2013 are currently available.

You can download each one directly, or visit our main website to request a copy. Please follow the links below.

2013 Distribution Software

2013 Manufacturing Software

You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

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