Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has come a long way in less than 20 years. Originally focusing on automating back-office functionality that didn’t involve customers, ERP soon evolved to include several phases of a business’ transactional operations.
One would be hardpressed to find a distribution executive who doesn’t agree that the future of their industry is digital. Business-to-business distributors have long been behind the times when it comes to technology innovation—and slow to adopt it. Nonetheless, distributors have gradually been implementing or upgrading software and business tools and hiring more tech-savvy employees to increase the digital element of their culture.
According to CIO Magazine, business intelligence (BI) refers to a range of software applications that are used to analyze a company’s raw data and support the critically important function of business analytics. Through such processes as data mining, analysis, querying, and reporting, a robust BI system can enable unprecedented new insights into a business and positively impact a
company’s growth by helping management teams actively reduce costs, identify new opportunities, develop targeted strategies, and improve overall decision-making—even
within companies that perceive themselves as successful and up-to-date.
Pittman Supply is a leading supplier of plumbing products to wholesalers, retailers, and contractors throughout the Dallas, Texas area. With two locations and an onsite showroom, the company offers everything from a quality selection of pipe, fittings, tubs, showers, sinks, and toilets to custom, in-house design services.
MORSCO supplies more than 80,000 commercial and residential plumbing, HVAC, and PVF products to approximately 25,000 customers nationwide. Founded in 1917, the company once known as Morrison Supply has morphed into an ever-broadening family of business units operating under the MORSCO banner. Today, this includes seven separate companies consisting of 164 branches in 12 states that generate $1.2 billion in annual sales.
No other ERP provider knows distribution like we do. We are focused on the things that matter to you—from lot billing and EDI to contract pricing and front-counter capabilities. We build our software on industry best practices and 40 years of distribution experience.
Rexel Holdings USA, part of the world’s second largest electrical distributor, Rexel Group, initially selected the Epicor Eclipse wholesale distribution enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for its Rexel Inc. business in 2009. Operating on multiple legacy systems after multiple acquisitions, the company was looking to standardize its locations on a single ERP system for greater efficiencies.
If you’ve ever purchased so much as a printed t-shirt online, you understand eCommerce. Understanding how to make it work for your distribution operation is an entirely different story. The world is shifting from catalogs and cold calls to an era of convenience for the customer, and while eCommerce was once a fringe B2B sales channel for distributors, the convenience it allows is elevating it into the buying method of choice for B2B customers.
Digitalization is essential to the longevity of your business. It presents significant opportunities to address key operational issues, align products and services to the demands of today’s market, and achieve growth.
It’s no light matter to replace your enterprise software system. It’s essentially performing a heart transplant on your business. Replacement may appear to be a difficult and painful process, but done right, it can open numerous business opportunities.