Inforum 2016: The Process Improvement Journey

Are your business processes and technologies holding back current performance and future growth? Do you struggle with determining what needs to change and building the support and funding for upgrades?

Jeff Gusdorf will be presenting at the 2016 Inforum in New York City on Tuesday, July 12 from 5:00pm to 5:45pm. He will cover how to quickly analyze your business challenges, benchmark your current process performance versus industry standards, and apply best practices to create "no-brainer" business cases that get approved and deliver great results. If you cannot be there, then download a summary of the presentation. 

Download Inforum Presentation Slides On Building A Compelling Business Case To Upgrade And Modernize Your Solutions


 

What Your Employers & Customers Aren’t Telling You About Your ERP Technology

You’ve been running your distribution business on the same software for more than a decade. It paid for itself years ago and still performs the same basic functions it did when you logged in that very first time. You have every reason to feel proud of making a sound technology investment way back when.

What others — including your employees and customers — might not tell you, however, is that this same software could be slowly, inexorably strangling the life out of your business.

I recently spoke with a wholesaler who was a “power user” of one of our legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms dating back to the mid-1980s. He admitted that his software had outlived its purpose as far back as 2002. He finally upgraded to a powerful, modern solution in 2014. So, what happened during the intervening years? “We coasted, and it hurt us,” he said. “I knew I needed to make a change, but kept coming up with reasons to wait till next year.”

What this business owner would tell you today is that had he replaced his old software even four years earlier, it already would have paid for itself multiple times through increased efficiency, reduced labor and inventory expenses and improved customer satisfaction.

“It’s always easy to put off an important decision until next month or next year — especially when it involves a financial investment,” he said. “But the worst thing you can do is convince yourself that indecision doesn’t carry a price of its own. And that price can be very high.”

This business owner saw firsthand what he had been missing simply by observing his employees, who were now “willing to explore new ways to service our customers.” With the old system, they had a limited ability to capture important information on customer buying patterns. They were spending hours each day on price maintenance rather than focusing on building sales. They couldn’t analyze their business performance beyond a few canned reports.

With the new software, however, all of this changed. “I suddenly saw long-time employees who were re-energized and who had confidence that they could attack problems in new, more efficient ways. It was like they had been waiting for me to give them these tools for several years. How do you assign a value to that?”

Impact Throughout The Business

Unlike transaction-based legacy systems, unlimited access to your business data in a modern, open database environment can give employees the ability to analyze, providing real-time information to make better decisions and call out exceptions. This can lead to improved customer service and growth.

As employees accomplish more in their daily tasks, customers will see faster responses and more accurate service. For example, collaborative order entry reinforces customer confidence and prevents expensive errors from incorrect material orders and deliveries.

Likewise, mobility in more modern ERP systems can extend the application to workers outside of the office (e.g., giving the sales team data connectivity on the road to update order status). According to one distributor, “In an environment where everyone expects information now, I believe mobility with our ERP system gives our sales team access to the data needed to meet those expectations. We also receive real-time information that allows us to review open quotes, outstanding A/R, etc. to address while making a call to an account. In short, it allows us to work smarter, faster and with the most up-to-date data.”

Modern systems can also offer other sophisticated functionality that is important to HVAC and plumbing distributors, such as volume rebate tracking, customer-facing order entry, front counter capabilities, document imaging, job-based pricing, assemblies, disassemblies and modifications. For example, job-based pricing provides the ability to quote a job and store those prices for the material in a contract, so that the prices are guaranteed throughout the job.

Enabling Sales and Profits

Bob Dylan wrote, “If you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.” The same seems to be true in the context of operating a distribution business. The wholesalers who are most energized and, often, most successful, are the ones who understand that technology is a sales and profit enabler, not a cost center. They are continually looking for ways to harvest additional competitive value from their systems, and when those systems have been maxed out, they carefully select a new system with proven potential to drive their growth for the next several years.

Conversely, there are businesses that continue to rely on an outdated solution simply for the reason that it still turns on every morning. It’s no wonder that many of these business owners are working harder than ever just to maintain some semblance of the sales and profitability they enjoyed 10 years ago.

Which are you? A business owner committed to aggressive growth and to attracting and retaining high-energy employees who look forward to coming to work each day? Or are you experiencing a steady erosion of your business as customers move to competitors?

If you’re the former, I congratulate you on your willingness to seek continuous improvement through leading edge technologies. If you’re the latter, I urge you to make the investment you’ve been postponing for so long. Haven’t you already paid too high a price?

See Original Article at:  http://digital.inddist.com/industrialdistribution/may_june_2016?pg=32#pg32
http://www.inddist.com/2016/05/may-june-2016-digital-edition

Michael Lovelace is director of business development, distribution for Epicor Software Corporation.

DDI System Releases Newest Inform Software Upgrade

Adds user-defined screens, more functions and a fresh new look.

DDI System continues its commitment towards innovation and industry-specific tools with its latest release - Inform Version 21.0.10.32.

This new version provides an even greater feature set - fully integrated as part of DDI’s inform solution. DDI System expands its offerings and adds user defined screens with updated new looks, making inform one of the most advanced and user-friendly ERP solutions available today.

Additional print screen and email notification options provide greater flexibility in providing information to all applicable employees.

Enhanced warranty returns handling allows distributors to define vendor requirements for warranty returns complete with pop up notification and more.

Improved back-order release handling tools and so much more have been added with this latest release.

Thousands of DDI System users nationwide are achieving a higher level of efficiency and increased profitability with inform’s advanced capabilities. DDI continues its tradition of innovation and exceptional values with this free upgrade for DDI System inform subscribers.

Distributors can see the many benefits of the inform software at www.ddisys.com or by calling DDI for a demonstration at 877-599-4334.

Dynaline Upgrades to VAI S2K Enterprise Software

S2K Enterprise 5.0 Will Improve Business Processes and Create Operational Efficiencies to Support Company Growth

VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.), an award-winning ERP software provider, today announced that Dynaline Industries Inc., a privately-held Canadian company sourcing agriculture, automotive and industrial products to major distributors across Canada and the United States, has upgraded to S2K Enterprise 5.0. VAI S2K Enterprise software helps companies manage and analyze virtually every aspect of a company’s business processes, providing the information necessary to drive educated business decisions. 

As a growing company dedicated to a niche market, Dynaline needed a dynamic system that could adapt to the industry and support its growth. Dynaline will work specifically with S2K Financial and S2K Distribution Management to further streamline operations and create efficiencies that will benefit the bottom line. With the latest upgrade, Dynaline has access to even more reporting capabilities that export directly into Excel and provide further insight into the business. As Dynaline continues to expand, the Company will look into other modules such as S2K Sales Force and Warehouse Management that directly integrate with S2K Enterprise.

“We have been working with VAI for more than five years, and we are thrilled with VAI’s ability to continually accommodate our Company’s growth and provide solutions specifically designed for our industry,” said Jennifer Otto, operations manager, Dynaline Industries. “Not only were we up and running on S2K 5.0 in only three days, but we are happy with the software’s ease-of-use. We are already using information extracted from the system to focus our efforts on specific aspects of the business.”

“VAI is pleased to continue its partnership with Dynaline with an upgrade to S2K 5.0,” said Pete Zimmerman, manufacturing segment manager, VAI. “Scalability is extremely important to a growing business, and we’ve specifically architected S2K Enterprise to expand with our customers. We are confident that Dynaline’s upgrade to S2K 5.0 will enhance the Company’s ability to achieve its business goals and we look forward to continuing to assist with Dynaline’s growth expansion with the future implementations of S2K WMS and Commerce Express solutions.”

About VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.)

VAI is an award-winning software developer and an IBM Premier Business Partner. Designed for the mid-range market, S2K Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Suite is used by a wide variety of mid-sized companies worldwide, with a number of clients in the manufacturing, distribution, retail, food and related service industries. Advanced applications such as Warehouse Management Systems, EDI, CRM, Business Analytics and e-Business provide companies the power to leverage their information technology investment. VAI is headquartered in Ronkonkoma, New York, with branch offices in Miami, Orlando, Chicago and Oroville, California. For more information, please contact Diane Dady at 800-824-7776, ext. 236 or visit www.vai.net. 

Contact Information:

Rachel Perlmutter

SHIFT Communications

617.779.1884

rperlmutter@shiftcomm.com