Its efforts didn鈥檛 go unnoticed: in 2021, the United Nations and Bloomberg named BayWa one of the 鈥�50 Sustainability and Climate Leaders鈥� worldwide, thanks largely to the company鈥檚 big push into renewable energies, which now make up more than half of BayWa鈥檚 annual earnings.

The Challenge of Transformation

BayWa鈥檚 journey with 麻豆原创 began in 2000 when the company implemented the on-premise ERP system, 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component聽(麻豆原创 ECC). However, as the business evolved it became apparent that their processes and technology could no longer keep pace. BayWa鈥檚 four business units operated in silos, which became unfeasible for a company striving to become more streamlined.

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鈥淲e want to move to a process-oriented company, so that means we want to implement one ERP template,鈥� Lars Pischke, global enterprise architect at BayWa, explains. 鈥淲e have to transform all four business units into a single ERP template, which is a significant challenge.鈥�

To address this, BayWa set out to migrate from 麻豆原创 ECC to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, the foundation of its new . This transition marked a critical step toward unifying the company鈥檚 operations under one streamlined template. Additionally, BayWa implemented a digital platform, with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) as a key component.

“A clean core strategy for BayWa means we leave our ERP solution, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, as standard, and we implement BayWa鈥檚 specific requirements on our digital platform side by side, where we rely heavily on 麻豆原创 BTP as our main module,” says Pischke.

Lessons Learned and the Value of a Clean Core

The concept of a “clean core” is central to understanding the benefits of BayWa’s transition. Imagine a shared grain silo system on a farm. If each farmer keeps their grain in separate, uncoordinated silos, tracking quality, utilizing storage space efficiently, or distributing the grain becomes a cumbersome task. However, when all the grain is stored in a unified system, it becomes significantly easier to manage, access, and maintain quality. Similarly, having a clean core in business processes ensures that all parts of the organization work harmoniously, preventing inefficiencies and missed opportunities that arise from working in silos.

For BayWa, establishing a clean core was crucial. The standardized, non-differentiating functions 鈥� such as accounts payable, tax, and treasury operations 鈥� constitute approximately 75% of business processes across companies, regardless of industry, size, or location. These functions are essential but do not differentiate one company from another.

In the past, over-customization in these areas led to inflexibility and slowed down business operations. But in today’s fast-paced, competitive environment, agility is key and maintaining a clean core is vital to achieving this agility.

“Keeping the core clean is also key when it comes to security issues. BayWa is part of the critical infrastructure in Germany,” Pischke explains. “To use a standard software like 麻豆原创 BTP allows us to rapidly adapt to new business models and technologies.”

Gaining a Competitive Edge with 麻豆原创 BTP

With BayWa鈥檚 clean core firmly in place, the focus shifted to building a competitive edge around their operations. This is where 麻豆原创 BTP comes in. The platform lets businesses create extensions and innovate in areas that really set them apart. Pischke says, 鈥淎 shift toward standard also means simpler processes for our employees. This allows us to reduce training costs and speed up onboarding.鈥� BayWa is leveraging these efficiencies to direct more resources toward innovation.

These days, companies need to know what makes them unique and lean into those strengths to stand out. While core functions are standardized and crucial for running smoothly, the elements that drive customer choice often come from the innovative, customizable features built on top of this clean core. By optimizing these standard processes, companies like BayWa can channel more energy into innovation and long-term success, keeping them ahead of the curve.

Looking Ahead: The Role of AI in BayWa鈥檚 Future

BayWa鈥檚 forward-thinking approach doesn鈥檛 stop with ERP transformation. The company is already exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to further enhance its operations.

Pischke says BayWa has started piloting AI use cases, focusing on 麻豆原创 BTP鈥檚 Business AI. 鈥淲e believe AI should be integrated into the applications and business processes where the data is located,鈥� he explains. This integration is central to BayWa鈥檚 strategy, and the company has a growing list of AI use cases it plans to implement in the near future.

Attending industry events like 麻豆原创 Sapphire in Barcelona provides BayWa with valuable insights into the latest technologies and trends. Pischke acknowledges the accelerating pace of technological change, noting that each year brings new ideas and innovations that could be applied within BayWa. While not every use case or 麻豆原创 module is a perfect fit, these events offer inspiration and guidance for selecting the right tools to meet BayWa鈥檚 unique requirements.

Through partnership with 麻豆原创 and the switch to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, BayWa has not only streamlined its operations, but also set itself up to keep leading in sustainability and innovation. The clean core approach has allowed BayWa to focus on what truly sets the company apart, helping it continue its mission to meet the essential needs of people worldwide.

Unfortunately, this concern is becoming all too real for the industry. D2C sales in the United States alone grew 45.5% in 2020, and analysts from聽聽expect this trend to further expand over 14% year-over-year until 2023. Such actions include popular beverage brands that have launched pantry-oriented and snack-good Web shops to ship their products straight to people鈥檚 homes. Even fashion brands are seizing the moment by dramatically streamlining their retail-partner ecosystem to focus more resources on their brand e-commerce channels.

While their suppliers have certainly increased their investments in digital commerce, distribution businesses are far from standing still. In , many surveyed distributors indicated, anecdotally, an intention to invest time and resources to make e-commerce programs more comprehensive and customer-friendly to satisfy customer expectations for online engagement and convenience.

However, to be truly successful, businesses must first bridge a gaping hole in their strategy that can become a liability for their e-commerce vision 鈥� a paradigm of isolated legacy systems, spreadsheets, and clipboards.

Changing Digital Priorities for a Competitive Edge

With efficiency, productivity, and brand awareness at the top of their agenda, distributors also face considerable labor shortages, rising expenses, delayed logistics services, and clogged supply chains. This perfect storm of challenges is alarming enough that department heads demand access to real-time insights to get ahead of every ebb and flow in their operations productively, transparently, and intelligently.

This call for better data, more readily available information, and clear insights is well-founded. According to , one-third of wholesale distribution companies drive higher employee productivity and reduce manual processes when all forms of content are unified enterprise-wide on a single platform.

For many distributors, the platform that delivers on that promise is an integrated enterprise content management (ECM) solution called the 麻豆原创 Extended Enterprise Content Management (麻豆原创 Extended ECM) application by OpenText. Digitalizing processes allows organizations to take advantage of modern technologies 鈥� such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning 鈥� to capture, organize, and analyze massive volumes of data and derive much-needed insights. In return, they are better positioned to聽deliver a positive customer experience and ensure customer loyalty while boosting business productivity, performance, and聽compliance.

Distributors can also perpetually link their data to appropriate documents, transactions, sources, and workflows and embed machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities into existing applications to automatically process and analyze all that information. Furthermore, their workforce, supply network, and other stakeholder organizations can leverage insights in a collaborative workspace and manage and share critical records in a secure cloud environment.

With all these advantages of 麻豆原创 enterprise content management solutions by OpenText, distributors can close the gap in their e-commerce strategies and provide offerings that their nontraditional competitors 鈥� primarily manufacturers 鈥� cannot. They include value-add services ranging from buy-hold-sell distribution, product consulting, kitting and assembly, rentals, and logistics services to audit and risk management, product as a service, maintenance providers, and financing options.

For example, a spare parts distributor could assemble and customize hoses for a specific machine used by individual customers. Meanwhile, those in the grocery segment may cut fresh vegetables and create packaged salads per the customer鈥檚 requirements. Whatever differentiating service, the industry can evolve fast enough to drive customer stickiness and long-term profitability with a repository of real-time enterprise data and information.

Building a Future as an Anytime, Anywhere Distributor

While some wholesale distribution companies may have been slow to embrace e-commerce, it鈥檚 not too late if they learn from the mistakes and successes of early adopters. And one of the lessons is the importance of smooth information sharing and workflows when improving efficiencies across key business areas and functions such as procurement, inventory, operations and supply chain, accounting, and finance.

Now, with 麻豆原创 ECM solutions by OpenText, distributors can deliver an e-commerce experience that goes beyond products and focuses on providing the kind of customer value that helps them stand out in a D2C world.

Ready to learn how 麻豆原创 ECM solutions by OpenText can turn your wholesale distribution business into a provider that fulfills customer needs and remains profitable? Read the info sheet, 鈥�.鈥�

These trends are shaping the future of the industry and prompting companies to take a serious look at the way they will do business in years to come. Here are a few to watch in 2022.

E-Commerce 鈥� an Online Lifeline

The events of the past two years have revealed a critical trend: distributors must have a modern, online customer experience to compete and survive against global marketplaces like Amazon. Many companies have an online presence, but customers want more products and more personalized services 鈥� and they want them now. We鈥檙e at a tipping point for the industry, and distributors need to evolve, as described in

How do companies get started? While a goal may be to stay relevant against competitors, distributors should capitalize on the unique value they add, especially for longtime customers. One idea getting some traction is establishing a marketplace to offer a more extensive list of products. The article discusses six vantage points to help analyze readiness for a B2B marketplace.

But there are other initiatives that can help distributors stay in the e-commerce game. Customers are looking for personalized buying experiences, similar to their consumer purchasing. If companies can leverage data around inventory, incentives, and processes, they can support these types of engagements. Read more in 鈥�

Everyone鈥檚 Talking Supply Chain

Recently, an older, retired relative was telling me about the supply chain crisis. She never worked in the industry, and I鈥檓 pretty certain that until this year she never used the term 鈥渟upply chain.鈥� Global challenges in this area are making news everywhere, but are most painfully clear to the wholesale distribution industry that has always been the conduit for goods and services.

And while disruptions in the supply chain are nothing new, a new approach is needed 鈥� like using intelligent data to plan for disruptions. Learn how companies can be more prepared in this article,

The pandemic has also shown that distributors need more supply chain flexibility as well as more visibility. is a way to help mitigate risk and respond to unforeseen challenges. Giving suppliers greater transparency can help transform the supply chain from disconnected to collaborative.

Collaboration is just one part of the overall transformation of a distributor鈥檚 logistics processes. To compete in the global market, companies need to innovate to meet demands, but also do a better job of planning, procuring, storing, and delivering goods. discusses the challenges and offers some solutions for improvement.

Sustainability for the Future

In the past, we didn鈥檛 hear too much about sustainability from wholesale distributors. For these companies with traditionally small margins, the cost of 鈥済oing green鈥� seemed out of reach. But recently, the topic is gaining some traction as the definition of sustainability is being rewritten in this industry.

For example, a healthcare distributor might have sustainability goals around the reduction of hazardous waste or product integrity. A food distributor might focus on green logistics, zero emissions, and lowering their carbon footprint. Some companies are already moving in this direction. Read their stories in this article,

One company that is serious about sustainability is wholesale distributor BayWa, which has been recognized as one of 50 sustainability and climate leaders worldwide. BayWa is helping farmers grow profits while pioneering new, more sustainable farming models with renewable energy projects and technologies. Learn more about its innovative efforts in

The Future Is Now

There are certainly threads that run through all these trends 鈥� planning, innovation, flexibility, visibility. While these ideas have always been around, they have never been more important for distributors than now. The industry 鈥� and the world 鈥� will continue to change, and wholesale distributors must plan for the road ahead.

Lynn Lupo is solution manager for Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创.

During a recent online event, Distribution Strategy Group鈥檚 Founder and Senior Partner Ian Heller exposed five major sources of disruption for this vital industry:

1. Workforce: The youngest generations (Generation Y and Generation Z) now make up approximately 70% of the total workforce. These generations are the most technically affluent, which means they expect to be connected on any device, anytime, anywhere, with easy-to-use applications.
2. E-Commerce: E-commerce is no longer just about having a slick website. Today, distributors must have a strong technology foundation to deliver an easy-to-use, personalized, B2C-like purchasing experience for customers.
3. Cybersecurity: The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined cybersecurity as a prevalent concern as new vulnerabilities arose due to employees working from home. Phishing and ransomware attacks have virtually exploded across every industry in the past few years.
4. Cloud: To stay competitive, many distributors are moving their technology stack to the cloud to lower capital expenditures and enjoy a better margin advantage.
5. Marketplaces: B2B buyers are turning to marketplaces for a one-stop shopping experience. Distributors that can successfully adopt a marketplace model will stand to deepen customer relationships and drive growth.

Heller shared that as an industry, distributors are still working out solutions to these challenges as they continue to adjust to the ever-evolving market challenges. Digital transformation continues to be an enabler of business models, allowing distributors to go from reactive, reporting on things that are happening, to proactive, anticipating the future and mitigating risks.

Magnus Meier, vice president and global head of the Wholesale Distribution Business Unit at 麻豆原创, went on to share that high-tech distributors have started to market themselves as solution aggregators to underline how committed they are to long-term customer relationships, taking care of the product and customer life cycle. In addition, digital transformation continues to play a significant role during the pandemic, specifically in operations. 鈥淒istributors that have a modern ERP system have data on hand, which gives them a significant advantage over their competitors,鈥� says Meier.

Using Services as a Differentiator

For distributors to successfully implement everything from business strategy to operations to customer experience, they first need to determine what is most important to their business. Competitive differentiators come in all shapes and sizes for wholesale distributors, be it a great service like replenishment of bins near the production line, dedicated jobs like delivery of materials, on-site safety training, or even simply having the most responsive, proactive salespeople. Aligning business priorities with competitive differentiators allows distributors to position their business model as not just indispensable to customers, but profitable.

The big players, by and large, are not great at services. Services almost always represent the introduction of variable costs into a business model. Traditionally, distributors have rolled the costs of services into the gross margin of products, but they have not monetized them or charged the cost back to customers. 鈥淚f distributors put a general manager in charge of services, one must treat it the way that a manufacturer treats new product development. Figure out how to monetize it with a P&L to build a business that’s much different and adds value for their customers,鈥� says Heller.

The technology that enables distributors to have the right level of visibility into their business starts with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which is critical to transformation. Having the right processing system enables order-to-cash (O2C) and procure-to-pay (P2P) business processes, which are critical to operations. For many distributors, more than 50% of orders come through as e-mailed PDF or Excel files, creating a manual process for customer sales representatives to then enter the orders into proprietary systems.

Counterintuitive to what distributors assume, the number of manual orders received is increasing, not decreasing. To enable efficiency and resiliency, distributors must find a way to automate manual and redundant tasks and redirect that energy towards value-added efforts. 鈥淐onexiom can help process those orders with the same customer service expectations that a buyer experiences when placing an e-commerce order, a marketplace order, or any other type of digital order,鈥� says Erik Severinghaus, executive vice president of Business Development at Conexiom.

Preempting Issues within the Supply Chain

Whether it鈥檚 due to trade agreements, politics, or biological threats like pandemics, these is less predictability in the supply chain. A good example is what happened at the Suez Canal. The only way distributors can anticipate these issues is to have complete transparency and visibility across the supply chain, all the way through to the demand side. They need to leverage technology to gain the transparency to track which boxes are in which containers and on which ships. And if one of those ships goes astray, they need to be able to understand the implications and trigger follow-up processes to minimize disruption.

鈥淒istributors are operating at greater scale than ever before and it is essential that distributors overcome silos, talk to sellers to overcome those challenges, understand how their customers will be affected, and take mitigating action,鈥� says Meier.

Navigating the Talent Shortage

Every business is grappling with the talent shortage today. To attract the right talent, distributors need to invest in modern technology to bolster employee experience in the workplace. Distributors need to leverage intelligent technologies to automate routine tasks so employees can focus on more complex customer requirements. They need to provide collaboration tools between different teams to drive ongoing business alignment, openness for change, business agility, and improved collaboration between sales, marketing, and demand-planning teams. The distribution industry as a whole must challenge the way it has traditionally handled work-from-home policies, salaries, long-term incentives, and other benefits to make employees want to stay in this lesser-known B2B industry. 鈥淒istributors need to offer a competitive workplace environment, not just against other distributors, but against other industries,鈥� says Severinghaus.

Meier, Severinghaus, and Heller have a lot of commendable and proven advice on these topics. In this , these speakers discuss the challenges facing distributors today and provide tangible guidance on how to prepare and respond to market disruptions.

Sam Nohava is global industry marketing lead at 麻豆原创.

As we enter a new chapter of the pandemic, the use of technology within the wholesale distribution industry continues to accelerate. Distributors are in the perfect position to showcase their successes and innovation leadership as an essential member of the supply chain.

Last year, we were excited to receive a significant number of 麻豆原创 Innovation Award submissions, with six finalists and two notable distributors winning the honor. In 2021, trailblazing customers and partners truly stood out by combining their ingenuity and the power of 麻豆原创 solutions to achieve operational excellence and business innovation.

Wholesale Distribution Innovation Award Highlights

AmerisourceBergen

The leading global healthcare company makes a positive impact on the health of people and communities around the world by advancing the development and delivery of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.

In 2013, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) was passed to protect the safety and security of the supply chain due to the counterfeit drug market in developing countries causing thousands of deaths. To protect the U.S. market, the DSCSA required that drugs be traced for millions of daily shipments across thousands of companies.

AmerisourceBergen and 麻豆原创 stepped up to the plate, along with 12 other pharmaceuticalpartners, to pursue the development of 麻豆原创 Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals. This allowed them to manage the drug supply chain at the batch and unit level. 麻豆原创 and AmerisourceBergen also collaborated on the 麻豆原创 Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences to meet the messaging regulations for AmerisourceBergen and its thousands of trading partners.

This solution now tracks the supply chain at the batch level for more than 100 customers, protecting business continuity for the $185 billion pharmaceutical supply chain, 250,000 messages exchanged daily among hundreds of trading partners, and 14,000 employees protected from the burdens of these new regulations. Eighteen of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and two U.S. distributors, responsible for 65% of the distribution volume in the U.S. market, are all on 麻豆原创 Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals.

TRUSCO

The industrial distributor supports Japan鈥檚 manufacturing industry with its PRO TOOLs consumables, tools, furniture, fixtures, and other goods that are needed in factories and construction sites. To meet its growth goals, the company needed an agile, next-generation solution to support a digital transformation initiative.

To streamline business operations and eliminate manual processes, TRUSCO implemented 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 Integration Suite. This enabled the company to automate business processes and inventory management. Customers enjoyed increased convenience with improved business productivity, speed, and accuracy through automating quotations and inventory management based on historical information and sales insights of over 2 million products and 380,000 stocked items.

The benefit of improvements allowed Trusco to automate 2,949 hours per month worth of previously manual quotation tasks, shorten response time to customers鈥� orders by 29%, and reduce replenishment time from several hours to zero, offering customer-specific and seasonal inventory directly to the customer’s location.

PROMESA

The leading distributor of tools, hardware, and automotive products based in Guayaquil, Ecuador, supplies spare parts for vehicles and construction machinery, plus a long list of smaller hardware items that includes everything from nails to industrial drills.

In order to automate aging manual processes to better meet customer expectations for the right product at the right time, PROMESA implemented 麻豆原创 S/4HANA as its digital core and integrated 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, 麻豆原创 Concur, 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud, and 麻豆原创 Service Cloud solutions to shape itself into a true intelligent enterprise.

PROMESA immediately saw immense results, with a 30% increase in sales due to product design improvements, only two hours to process a typical report that normally took 12 days, and only five seconds to run an average core process that used to take five minutes. With this implementation, PROMESA was able to meet customer expectations, improving the overall customer and employee operations experience.

Bechtle AG

One of Germany鈥檚 largest IT systems houses, the European leader in IT e-commerce combines services for the operation and maintenance of industrial and public sector infrastructure. With 75 systems houses, offices in 14 EU countries, and partnerships on every continent, its business knows few boundaries.

Bechtle AG and 麻豆原创 collaborated on a warehouse robotics solution, which integrates robotics into 麻豆原创 Extended Warehouse Management (麻豆原创 EWM). On a Kubernetes backbone, the company created a smart, flexible automation system, allowing multi-vendor robots to move crates from point-to-point.

The advantage of this solution is that it can support many use cases. It hooks together robotics fleets, even heterogeneous ones, into an existing system using 麻豆原创 EWM. IT governance procedures integrate plug-and-play collaborative robots that perform 鈥�3D鈥� — dull, dangerous, or dirty — tasks in logistics and help bring operations beyond Industry 4.0, resulting in a yearly 30% ROI from this robotic project.

Border States Electric

Border States Electric (BSE), the seventh largest electrical distributor in the U.S., provides innovative supply chain products and services to the construction, industrial, and utility markets. As COVID-19 impacted supply chains, BSE needed to optimize and streamline its purchase and sales order management to specifically manage delayed and escalated orders. It was critical to consolidate disjointed systems and tools, increase cross-team visibility, and reduce the duplication of work.

By implementing an integrated order management cockpit on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, the company was able to experience end-to-end, real-time visibility into sales and purchase orders. This enabled colleagues from procurement, customer service, and application engineering to collaborate and efficiently manage material delays, escalations, reduce duplicate work thereby increasing CSP and buyer productivity by 2% and save 16,000 CSR hours so that they could deliver value-added services to their customers.

Emerging from the Pandemic Stronger

Groundbreaking wholesale distributors transformed their business models while adjusting to the change in buyer behavior and supply chain constraints, not to mention workforce limitations. They seized on these opportunities to digitally transform business to accommodate these monumental shifts in business dynamics.

In 2021, distributors have continued to ensure operations run smoothly, delivering essential goods around the world and keeping the supply chain on track, all while balancing volatility in demand. The time is now to have your innovation story heard and recognized.

Share Your Wholesale Distribution Innovation Story and Win

The objective of this year鈥檚聽 is to celebrate the achievements of cutting-edge companies that have harnessed the power of 麻豆原创 technology to become an intelligent enterprise, thrive in new business realities, differentiate themselves, achieve tremendous business outcomes, and adapt to evolving customer needs.

麻豆原创 is delighted to showcase these inspirational customer and partner stories. More information on the .聽 For details on the judging criteria and category definitions, visit the . The submission period is open now and all entries are due by February 1, 2022.聽and be sure to join the conversation online using the hashtag #麻豆原创Innovation. For more innovation stories, follow聽聽on Twitter and join us on聽.

Magnus Meier is global vice president of Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创.

Those in supply chain and logistics have made significant adjustments to help ensure that every segment — including healthcare — has continued to move forward as efficiently and effectively as possible.

AmerisourceBergen, a wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical products to nearly 100% of hospitals in the U.S., recently joined Cloud Wars Host and Creator Bob Evans and Magnus Meier, global head and vice president of Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创, for a to discuss these fundamental changes.

During the session, Jeff Denton, vice president of Global Secure Supply Chain at AmerisourceBergen, discussed the vital role healthcare distributors play to get life-saving drugs to those who need them most and how the company has managed to ethically balance supplier and customer needs.

New Normal: Customer-Centric, Patient-Focused Business

Wholesale distributors across all sub-segments have managed to keep the supply chain moving forward despite numerous hurdles on a global scale. However, distributors of today can no longer simply focus on moving products through the supply chain. The entire industry has shifted to take on new responsibilities that address the latest regulatory requirements and heightened customer expectations.

To address these growing concerns, wholesale distributors — especially those in the healthcare distribution segment — are now focused on 鈥渄oing business with a purpose,鈥� as Meier perfectly described it. By operating with a purpose, this helps ensure the supply chain is safe and secure. It also protects the integrity of the products and provides peace of mind to hospitals, pharmacies, and patients.

In the , Denton describes how creating healthier futures starts with protecting the health of people and our planet. 聽As a purpose-driven industry leader with a global footprint, AmerisourceBergen has an obligation to champion global sustainability and corporate responsibility. This includes processing more than $2.5 billion in saleable product returns annually, allowing products that would otherwise have been removed and destroyed to be reintroduced into the supply chain. This is good for AmerisourceBergen along with its customers, patients, and manufacturers across the entire supply chain.

To Thrive, Distributors Require Collaboration and Innovation

To address the new concerns and increased responsibility of the distribution industry, AmerisourceBergen approached 麻豆原创 to co-innovate and create a cross-industry solution centered around meeting the latest regulatory requirements. The result was a new and innovative solution that allows products to be tracked and traced across the entire supply chain:

The collaboration also allowed AmerisourceBergen and other industry leaders to streamline communication across the entire supply chain, from suppliers through to the pharmacies and hospitals. This supports business continuity through not only an individual enterprise but the entire business network. 聽With this technology, the AmerisourceBergen team can 鈥�seamlessly match digital data to physical data,鈥� which aids in counterfeit prevention and sustainability efforts.

Data and Purpose Will Drive the Industry Forward

AmerisourceBergen is focused on what the future holds, shifting focus beyond simply reacting to regulatory requirements to understanding the use cases for all of the new data obtained through track and trace technology.

Without the consortium brought about by AmerisourceBergen and 麻豆原创, these industry-specific outcomes and supply chain alignment may not have been possible. Moving forward, collaboration and innovation will be key aspects of the industry and areas in which distributors can add immense value to the supply chain.

New advancements, technology, and cross-industry collaborations must continue to drive solutions that keep up with the latest regulatory requirements and consumer needs.

麻豆原创 is sponsoring a research project regarding the state of e-commerce and marketplaces to understand how these market trends are evolving for the distribution industry online.

This research will provide 麻豆原创 and partner Mirakl the opportunity to gain further insights into wholesale distribution trends and expose opportunities for improvement from an industry perspective.

Market Trends Impacting Commerce for Distributors

To understand the current state of commerce, we must analyze the market conditions that are having a ripple effect in the industry and creating challenges for wholesale distributors.

First, competition is driving distributors to find new revenue sources, such as value-added services. Some examples provided to customers include light manufacturing, kitting, product training, and product management.

Customers are looking to distributors to collaborate and provide complete solutions for specific business needs, such as providing materials for every phase of a stadium renovation.聽 Meanwhile, customers are also looking for distributors to carry a wider range of products with more flexible delivery options.

To add value to the business and meet growing customer expectations, new talent is looking for roles where they can make a positive impact and leverage new technologies.

Lastly, the requirement for business resilience in the face of health, environmental, and trade challenges has moved from addressing tactical issues of continuity towards strategic decisions driving overall longevity.

Why Participate in the State of E-Commerce Research?

The research initiative provides wholesale distributors the ability to share insights related to their company鈥檚 e-commerce and marketplace ambitions in a confidential way.

Within the survey, MDM asks distributors to report on each organization鈥檚 current commerce landscape, including key capabilities or customer needs that they are looking to support in the coming years.

Example questions include:

• What is your greatest concern or reservation about the value, effectiveness, or risks of e-commerce within your organization?
• What initiatives are you undertaking to broaden and deepen your catalog?
• Have you considered launching or operating an online marketplace, where third-party sellers provide the stock and fulfill orders?

Any wholesale distributor employee who is located within the United States or Canada can participate in this survey. As a thank you for your participation, you will be entered to win a $250 gift card. This brief survey should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

To impact the future of wholesale distribution commerce, please take the today!

John McDonnell is industry advisor for Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创.

Companies have known for some time that new business models and new processes are needed to stay competitive. They have been extending their business growing revenue with value-added services, a wider range of products, and automation of manual tasks. But distributors also need new ways to ensure their supply chain is resilient, reduce cost and risk, and manage their business with intelligence, agility, and speed.

Join Us for 麻豆原创PHIRE NOW

This year鈥檚 麻豆原创PHIRE NOW offers the opportunity to learn from industry leaders that have leveraged their digital investment to protect the business and set the stage for future success. Hear how forward-thinking distributors have integrated processes to optimize performance, applied industry best practices, and built interconnected networks for speed and resilience.

The event will host eight content tracks dedicated to industry and line-of-business topics. In addition, there will be regional tracks that will include live broadcasts, breakouts, and customer round tables.

Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创PHIRE NOW: Can鈥檛-Miss Sessions

In the , look for these industry sessions:

• Gordon Food Service: Realize the Imperative for a Modern Business Platform
• Streamline the Lead-to-Cash Process with Insight from Gordon Food Service
• Discover How Novolex Transformed Its Business to Support Growth
• PROMESA: Learn About Tailored IT Solutions That Help Your Midsize Company Grow
• Zuellig Pharma: Transforming Healthcare with Best in Class Technology

Global Keynote: Hear from AmerisourceBergen

Tune in on June 2 for the 麻豆原创PHIRE NOW global keynote, where 麻豆原创 CEO Christian Klein will deliver exciting strategy updates and discuss their impact with other special guests. One story you鈥檒l hear is from wholesale distributor AmerisourceBergen, a leader in the pharmaceutical distribution sector.

Register Today

麻豆原创PHIRE NOW is a free event in 2021. Secure your spot, then watch your inbox for detailed information on this industry-leading event.

Lynn Lupo is solution manager for Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创.

Each of these industry challenges has a direct impact on B2B commerce activity, requiring distributors to work diligently to maintain, or even improve, customer experience.

Arrow Electronics, a global distributor of electronic components and computer products, presented the topic of e-commerce resiliency during a recent industrial supply webinar alongside John McDonnell, industry executive advisor at 麻豆原创.

During this session, Michelle Moore, vice president of Digital Technology at Arrow Electronics, discussed how key industry trends are impacting Arrow Electronics鈥� commerce strategy and what it is doing from an IT perspective to .

COVID-19鈥檚 Impact on B2B Commerce

High market competition is forcing distributors to get creative and find new revenue sources. To make matters more complex, today鈥檚 B2B buyers are taking a note out of the B2C playbook and demanding more products be delivered faster and with more delivery options. This trend was especially prevalent in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to accelerate.

Over the past year, distributors also saw unprecedented changes in demand 鈥� decreases and increases depending on the industry subsegment represented. Distributors have generally determined where their new baseline is, but this unpredictable demand makes forecasts highly uncertain, with more frequent out-of-stock and over-stock situations placing a strain on businesses. These tumultuous times underscored the need for distributors to quickly and strengthen their business network.

Workforce challenges involved keeping workers safe but productive, with many back-office functions working remotely. This change emphasized the importance of employee communication and pulse checks to maintain business continuity and stay in sync with organizational needs. The increase in employees working from home also caused staffing shortages in distribution centers and placed unforeseen stress on IT departments. In addition, workers had many personal challenges during this period, making it a stressful time for both leaders and employees.

Furthermore, the current health, environmental, and trade challenges have caused distributors to move from maintaining continuity towards increasing overall longevity. Technology is acting as the catalyst to bring these new business models to life by supporting distributors鈥� ambitions to increase the diversity of offerings and customer share of wallet.

Building a Resilient Business Strategy

An effective strategy to overcome the challenges brought on by COVID-19 consists of three phases: respond, recover, and reimagine.

• The response phase is the process of reacting to the pandemic and understanding how it will affect the business.
• Recovery is considered an ongoing phase that allows distributors to move forward from their new baseline.
• Distributors must reimagine business, resulting in the ability to think and act fast, by developing new business models that break traditional rules. This phase may include experimenting with changes distributors were already considering before COVID-19, just at a faster pace.

Forward-thinking distributors aspire to differentiate themselves from the competition and generate greater customer loyalty by providing more value-added services. Technological advancements traditionally used for B2C consumer experience have dramatically changed the B2B buying experience, especially during the last five to 10 years. Customers are also showing the desire to collaborate with distributors to develop complete solutions for specific business needs while simultaneously partnering with fewer suppliers who can still deliver the same great products and services they need.

Distributors are also recognizing the need to better support the business continuity of their customers by implementing flexible buying and delivery options. During the pandemic peak, customers needed to have more patience and change their expectations about when they would get their products and services. Due to unpredictable supply patterns and social distancing measures, technology served the important purpose of enabling greater transparency and supporting e-commerce channels.

Digital Transformation in Action

The pandemic has caused forward-thinking distributors to accelerate initiatives as a way to differentiate from competitors.

One solid example of this innovative thinking comes from U.S.-based beverage distributor . This company is improving its interaction with customers and suppliers through 鈥淧roof,鈥� its new B2B e-commerce platform.

The examples don鈥檛 stop there:

• Industrial distributor Grainger added a visual search feature to its mobile app, allowing customers to shop directly from a photo.
• Brakes, a B2B food delivery service, has addressed supply shortages by quickly pivoting to a direct-to-consumer business model in a mere seven days.
• Amazon Business introduced a smart shelf that restocks itself.
• Sigma Healthcare now offers personalized customer experiences on its platform with customer-specific branding and log-ons.

Arrow鈥檚 Digital Transformation Journey to Resilient Commerce

Arrow Electronics Inc. is a global distributor of electronic components and computer products that also provides value-added services. The company is based in Colorado and currently generates over US$1 billion in annual revenue across four Web properties. Its sources of revenue include the development of new products and services, the reinvention of existing ones, and acquisitions.

Arrow鈥檚 digital transformation began in 2015 when it acquired a B2B marketplace built on old technology that would not adequately scale or support the organization鈥檚 high growth ambitions.

Moore shared that 鈥淗istorically, it [commerce] was more about having a Web presence and getting something up there for people to see you, know you, and use you, across the Internet.聽 That is shifting toward overall automation for customers and simplification 鈥� the one-stop-shop mentality.鈥�

From the beginning, Arrow鈥檚 commerce strategy has focused on addressing a variety of customer bases and needs, including consumer-based B2B, e-commerce, and marketplace portals. To best meet these needs, Arrow鈥檚 primary commerce objectives have been centered around maximizing customer satisfaction while minimizing the cost and complexity of its solutions.

As a part of this transformative initiative, Arrow Electronics adopted 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud to help drive costs down while increasing capabilities. The distributor restructured data, people, processes, and technology, which thereby increased the performance and scalability of its operations. It also implemented vital data governance models and moved its commerce platform to the cloud to aid compliance and business agility.

Looking ahead, the distributor will continue working to consolidate commerce operations across its Web properties, standardize site capabilities, and implement modern search capabilities. The distributor will continue to merge key business requirements with relevant technologies, allowing it to simplify and consolidate its business architecture in a way that supports agility.

Missed the 鈥淏uilding a Resilient E-Commerce Business with Arrow Electronics鈥� webinar? .

To discuss the topic of technology adoption in wholesale distribution, I sat down with Scott Knote, chief information technology officer at Powell Electronics, to discuss the journey to become an intelligent enterprise.

During the session, Knote shared, 鈥溌槎乖� S/4HANA helped us stop driving in reverse; we can now look forward, plan, and execute on the plan.鈥�

New Market Disruptions Drive New Business Models for Distributors

Even before COVID-19 took hold, the wholesale distribution industry has continuously been a vital part of the economy.聽 The last year has further elevated the stature of wholesale distributors, as they played a vital role in the distribution of essential goods throughout the pandemic.

Considering its place in the supply chain, wholesale distributors have always been faced with a high amount of competitors.聽 This has prompted forward-thinking distributors to rethink the way they deliver value to their customers through value-added services and logistics and information service products.聽 These offerings allow companies to avoid disintermediation by offering something that manufacturers or traditional competitors cannot, aiding customer loyalty.

Another way distributors can add value is through offering tighter collaboration with customers through project-based services.聽 As the business world becomes more complex, customers are looking to consolidate their supplier base with a smaller set of strategic partners that they can trust to meet their various needs.

These trends and market disruptions are accelerating the industry transformation and thereby forcing distributors to rethink the business systems, platforms, and applications that can help them stay agile and change with the times.

Further accelerating these industry trends, COVID-19 has had a on each of the sub-segments:

• Food & Beverage: This subsegment was the most impacted, as restaurants and other food service companies have been limited seating capacity amid social distancing measures
• Industrial: As many industrial investment projects were delayed and manufacturers decreased production due to softening demand, this subsegment experienced a downturn.
• High Tech: This subsegment was well positioned to ride out the pandemic, as the influx of employees working from home and the need for infrastructure to support this shift increased
• Healthcare: The global supply chain of pharmaceuticals was greatly impacted by manufacturing hubs such as China and India, but this subsegment proved crucial to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE) and coronavirus treatment-related medication

To take a proactive approach to addressing industry trends, leading distributors like Powell Electronics are expanding beyond traditional industry boundaries to become proactive, insight-driven companies.

How Powell Electronics Transformed with a Cloud-First Approach

Since 1946, Powell Electronics Inc. has followed an unbroken record of growth to become one of the world鈥檚 largest authorized distributors of electronic components and value-added services. Contributing to that growth is the company鈥檚 ability to anticipate its customers鈥� technology, service, and product needs.

Most recently, Powell sought to provide a better e-commerce experience for customers and suppliers. Due to a massive amount of system customizations, Powell knew its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was not up to the task.

Knote shared that Powell Electronics 鈥渞ealized that the paradigm is shifting; that both the customer and buyer sides of our business are becoming increasingly complex.聽 We wanted to minimize the training requirements while increasing the speed to market for onboarding new manufacturers and technologies.聽 We wanted to position ourselves to pivot should something an external market demand cause changes to our overall business.鈥�

So, the company sought a digital transformation that could support its assemble-to-order operations, which use configurable product permutations for more than 250,000 unique end items within a catalog of 8 million SKUs. 聽Powell hoped happier customers and a better technology infrastructure would prepare the company for worldwide expansion.

鈥溌槎乖� S/4HANA helped Powell tune key business success levers and increase its speed of relevance for an increasingly complex market,鈥� Knote said.

Watch the on-demand webinar to learn more about to becoming an intelligent enterprise.

John McDonnell is industry advisor for Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创

As a central link within the economy and food supply chain, wholesale distributors act behind the scenes to source and distribute goods to those in need around the world.

Restaurants, cafeterias, industrial caterers, hospitals, nursing homes, and other users of foodservice products depend on wholesale distributors to deliver high-quality products 鈥� such as protein, produce, beverages, kitchen equipment, dining supplies, and cleaning supplies 鈥� when, where, and how they need them.

Unfortunately, approximately of the food produced for human consumption is lost each year before it ever reaches the wholesale market. Even worse, additional food is wasted at the retail and consumer stages of the supply chain.

With the #WorldFoodDay movement, leading industry practitioners are turning the tables on hunger relief, food donation, and sustainability efforts around the world.

Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together: Our Actions Are Our Future

was brought to life by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a collective initiative across 150 countries. As the most celebrated day of the United Nations (UN) calendar, World Food Day promotes worldwide awareness and action for hunger relief and healthy diets.

This year鈥檚 World Food Day theme — 鈥淕row, Nourish, Sustain. Together. Our Actions Are Our Future.鈥� — celebrates the 75th anniversary of FAO. This theme builds on decades of progress within the industry while acknowledging the recent global pandemic, which has had a notable impact on consumer behavior and the food supply chain. Depending on the ever-changing economic landscape, COVID-19 is expected to add another to the already 2 billion hungry people around the world.

To relieve worldwide hunger, one may suggest the simple answer of producing more food. Considering , there is a better way. FAO advises that the answer lies in a renewed focus on the sustainability of food systems.

鈥淚nnovative technologies, science, research, and private sector companies can help us to transform the ways in which we produce and consume food 鈥� for the well-being of our communities, our economies, and our planet,鈥� .

As a core player in the supply chain, leading wholesale distributors are dedicated to innovating with sustainable sourcing, purchasing, and distribution practices.

Celebrating #FoodHeroes in Wholesale Distribution

Wholesale distributors are acting as #FoodHeroes by effectively utilizing technology to positively impact lives around the world, transforming how food is produced, processed, traded, consumed, and wasted to ensure a resilient and sustainable future.

One inspiring example of a food hero in today鈥檚 challenging landscape is National DCP. The company was formed in 2012 after five regional companies merged into one national cooperative and has been recognized with numerous awards including for four consecutive years.

Now representing one of the largest foodservice distributors in the United States, National DCP operates as a US$2 billion supply chain management organization serving nearly 10,000 Dunkin鈥� quick-service restaurants in the U.S. and distributing products to more than 40 countries.

NDCP prides itself on imagining a different, better way whenever possible. The company is constantly seeking and embracing innovation, investigating new supply chain opportunities and practices to deliver increased value to its members. To support its passion and curiosity, the NDCP Community Connexions program supports impactful causes in the areas of healthcare, food, and sustainability that are important to its customers and employees.

鈥淕iving back to the community by supporting hunger relief, sustainability, and causes related to health and wellness is a significant priority for National DCP,鈥� said Scott Carter, chief executive officer of National DCP. 鈥淎s a supply chain leader in the food service industry, we understand the important role organizations such as ours play in helping people dealing with hunger, especially during these challenging times.鈥�

Since the inception of the NDCP Community Connexions corporate social responsibility initiative, extra focus has been placed on:

• Hunger relief: Supporting hunger needs through partnerships with food banks and hunger relief organizations
• Sustainability: Supporting a green environment through sustainable building, sourcing, and packaging initiatives
• Healthcare: Supporting research and development through partnerships with hospitals and research organizations

Through partnerships formed with Feeding America and other local organizations, NDCP has donated more than 180,000 pounds of food and over 4,000 gallons of dairy during the height of COVID-19.

Outside of the pandemic itself, NDCP and Dunkin鈥� Donut franchises have raised more than $6.1 million for the program, which aims to bring the simple joys of childhood to kids battling hunger or illness. Since 2006, the Joy in Childhood Foundation has distributed more than $26 million in grants to national and local nonprofits that provide joy to kids battling hunger and illness. In 2019 alone, the foundation provided to children and families through grants.

National DCP is one of the many hidden food heroes of the supply chain that has risen to the challenge to battle hunger relief and make food systems more resilient and robust so they can withstand increasing volatility. We hope that NDCP inspires your organization to take action to support our world鈥檚 future 鈥� however big or small it may be, every bit helps.

How to Help

Corporations and citizens alike can have a massive impact on how communities, economies, and the food supply chain respond to a range of challenges, including hunger relief and climate change.

Here are six recommendations to support sustainable food systems within an organization:

1. Promote food safety: Respect national food safety regulations and measures to protect food as well as staff. Reinforce good hygiene practices and improved food safety and quality measures along the food chains, especially in developing countries.
2. Adopt intelligent technologies: Invest in sustainable, resilient food systems supported by intelligent technologies that will adequately source based upon customer demand, quickly accommodate food diversion, track and trace, and more.
3. Share knowledge: Share expertise or technologies with other industry practitioners to help improve sustainable food production and livelihoods. For example, 麻豆原创 to develop a mobile app that helped families find food and free resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Adopt sustainable practices: Aim to source ethical products from sustainable suppliers and focus on enabling a supply chain with a solid waste reduction program.
5. Create a food donation program: Food distributors in the U.S. alone donate cases of food and beverage products and volunteer 368,000 hours to charity annually. An can positively impact communities in addition to improving your bottom line and brand image.
6. Inspire action within an organization and community: Develop a corporate social responsibility initiative like National DCP that inspires action within your team to fight hunger and build sustainable practices. Roll up your sleeves and get involved in charity organizations that align with your organization鈥檚 brand, mission, and vision to make a difference in your local community.

For more information about how 麻豆原创 can help the food service distribution industry build a sustainable and resilient future, and follow 麻豆原创 Industries on and .

Magnus Meier is vice president and global head of the Wholesale Distribution Business Unit at 麻豆原创. Follow him on and .

鈥淭丑别 COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of technology within the wholesale distribution industry,鈥� shared Magnus Meier, global head of Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创. 鈥淭his year more than ever, distributors are prime to showcase their successes and innovation leadership as a valued member of the supply chain.鈥�

Let鈥檚 take a walk down memory lane to celebrate the innovation leadership of wholesale distributors from around the globe. Then, I will share information about the and how companies can get involved.

Wholesale Distributors Win at the 2020 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards

We celebrated a record number of submissions for the 2020 麻豆原创 Innovation Award program. Among them, three wholesale distributors shined by showcasing their use of intelligent technologies to expand beyond traditional industry boundaries and become proactive, insights-driven distributors.

Applied Industrial Technologies is a $3.5 billion leading value-added distributor and technical solutions provider of industrial motion, fluid power, flow control, and automation technologies. Harnessing an intelligent data flow for performance and human capital is critical to the future of the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). For Applied, acquisition plays an important role in the growth strategy.

Applied Industrial Technologies was nominated for the 2020 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards based on its use of intelligent data to empower human capital and transform customer profitability. As the company moves deeper into the automation and robotics markets, data will travel among machines, people, and performance. Applied鈥檚 success is linked to understanding and managing these critical data streams internally and for customers.

Benefits of Applied Industrial Technology鈥檚 innovation initiative include 122-basis point increase in pricing for trained associates versus peers; 49 percent of staff utilize 麻豆原创 Jam social learning tool per month; and 800 managers trained and empowered across five regions.

Cardinal Health, Inc. is a $145 billion healthcare services company that helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and physician offices focus on patient care while reducing costs, enhancing efficiency, and improving quality. The company is one of the largest healthcare supply chain in North America that consolidates pharmaceuticals from hundreds of manufacturers into site-specific deliveries. It is also a leading manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel, and fluid management products and runs the world鈥檚 largest network of nuclear pharmacies.

Cardinal Health鈥檚 innovation story showcases how the distributor partnered with Tata Consulting Services to empower digital transformation through the modernization of its pharmaceutical division. Pharma Modernization (PMOD) is a company transformation program intended to invest in the future, aligning people, process, and technology to be a leader in healthcare.

Benefits of Cardinal Health鈥檚 Pharma Modernization initiative include 300 percent easier, simpler, and faster reporting and decision-making process; more than $20 million saved over five years; and a 30 percent increase in productivity.

Sigma is a leading Australian full line wholesale and distribution business to pharmacy and has the largest pharmacy-led network in Australia, with more than 1,200 branded and independent pharmacies in network, including some of Australia鈥檚 best-known pharmacy retail brands in Amcal, Guardian, Chemist King, Discount Drug Stores, and PharmaSave.

Sigma Healthcare, needed to modernize its aging systems to provide an intuitive and seamless ordering experience for customers. Its 2021 麻豆原创 Innovation Award nomination was entered to celebrate its ability to combine experience and operational insights to exceed customers鈥� expectations. By combining 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud with continuous measurement of its customers鈥� experience through 麻豆原创 Qualtrics CX, Sigma Healthcare can proactively identify and deliver on what customers want, driving unprecedented business outcomes.

Benefits of Sigma Healthcare鈥檚 innovation initiative include a 25 percent increase in average order value; a 300 percent increase in monthly revenue on the platform; and a 40 point increase in the monthly NPS.

A Year to Remember

As COVID-19 hit, leading distributors pivoted to transform their business models and accommodate the shift in customer behavior, address supply chain disruptions, and manage workforce constraints.

This year, distributors were challenged to help ensure operations were safely continuing with a safeguarded and digitally equipped workforce to continue delivering on their core function in the supply chain. Geographic dependency, regulatory restrictions, and manufacturer slowdowns forced wholesale distributors to quickly monitor and respond to sourcing risks while balancing a shift in the demand pattern.

Wholesale distributors have proven to be the unsung heroes of COVID-19, facilitating a nearly seamless distribution of essential goods around the world to keep the supply chain moving. Based on this year, there is no better time to have their innovation story heard around the world.

Share Your Innovation Story

This year鈥檚 aim to honor and celebrate the achievements of forward-thinking companies that have harnessed the power of 麻豆原创 technology to become an intelligent enterprise, thrive in new business realities, and create positive economic, environmental, and social impact to help the world run better.

麻豆原创 is thrilled to showcase these inspirational customer and partner stories that involve using 麻豆原创 solutions and technology to differentiate themselves, achieve tremendous results, and adapt to dynamic customer needs.

More information on the聽. For details on the judging criteria and category definitions, visit the聽. The submission period is open now and all entries are due by February 1, 2021.聽聽and join the conversation online using the hashtag #麻豆原创Innovation.

For more innovation stories, follow聽聽on Twitter and join us on聽.

The wholesale distribution-specific research initiative allows 麻豆原创 the ability to continue influencing the future of the industry while addressing market changes with customer-specific solutions that transform and differentiate.

The goal of 麻豆原创鈥檚 sponsorship is to inspire practitioners from around the world to take action toward becoming digital distributors.

Throughout the seven-part research series, entitled , distributors will learn how to formulate innovative business and technology strategies while working to ensure that their company thrives through an era of massive transformation. Each of the research reports and corresponding webinars will unveil key findings for distributors to dissect and adopt into their unique business models.

The research pulls qualitative and quantitative data from wholesale distributors, manufacturers, and end users from North America to curate a compelling and insightful picture of the market鈥檚 new, competitive supply chain. While the research was conducted within North America, it has mass appeal from the global supply chain audience given the comprehensive research and industry expertise brought by Distribution Strategy Group. This series is written by Distribution Strategy Group鈥檚 Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein, who have 60 years of combined experience and expertise to solve distribution鈥檚 greatest challenges.

鈥淭his work represents the most in-depth, compelling, and actionable exploration of the major technology trends that are sweeping through the wholesale distribution industry,鈥� says Heller. Bein adds, 鈥淲e are using state-of-the-art market research to gain understanding from wholesale distribution leaders, their suppliers, and end customers about the advanced technology that distributors are using, or contemplating using, to serve their customers and suppliers.鈥�

Through the sponsorship of the research reports and webinars, 麻豆原创 will continue to build awareness and interest in technology. 麻豆原创 believes that intelligent enterprises apply advanced technologies and best practices within agile, integrated business processes. This helps them to be more resilient, profitable, and sustainable, and become best-run businesses 鈥� no matter their industry, subsegment, size, or location.

麻豆原创 is proud to act as a sponsor of the NAW and Distribution Strategy Group on the following research topics:

• The Coming Storm of Converging Technologies
• Distributors鈥� Views on Technology Disruption and How to Respond
• How Distributor Customers Will Use Technology from Their Suppliers and Who Is Winning
• New Technology Frontiers for Distributors: Sizing Up Marketplaces and Becoming Digital Companies

For more information, visit the .
Follow 麻豆原创 Industries on and .

Paul Pretko is an industry executive advisor for Wholesale Distribution at 麻豆原创.

Even after its local government in Ecuador allowed businesses to cut employees鈥� hours amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Promesa held steadfast. But to continue working safely, operations needed to change dramatically.

To safeguard employees, Promesa halted all sales operations for 30 days in compliance with the government鈥檚 new pandemic restrictions. While this put a stop to customer visits and other sales functions, employees never stopped working. Instead, priorities shifted 鈥� teams began thinking strategically about how they could help the company succeed once operations resumed. Employees continued prepping orders to immediately supply customers at the end of the 30 days, and they proactively predicted the problems customers could face when the Latin American economy reopened.

Equipping a Newly Remote Workforce to Succeed

鈥淎t the outset of the pandemic, we looked at all of our potential business scenarios, including factors we simply can鈥檛 control. When it comes to COVID-19, a lot of things are out of our control,鈥� says Miguel Sotomayor, technology manager at Promesa. 鈥溌槎乖� solutions helped us define next steps to take during these dark and uncertain times.鈥�

Sotomayor already relied on 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to work remotely in Bolivia with just a VPN. As stay-at-home orders went into place, Promesa quickly and successfully extended that capability to the rest of the workforce. Then, the company used 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions to gain insight into how employees were working from home. The solutions provided vital feedback on employees鈥� health and well-being as well as their productivity and ability to successfully work remotely. Using the solutions, employees and managers can better communicate about important topics related to working during the pandemic.

To further support these employees, Promesa used 麻豆原创 Concur solutions to send each employee a care package. By pairing 麻豆原创 Concur with ride-share company Uber, Promesa enabled contactless care package delivery. Today, the company continues to use the solutions to facilitate payments across the business without exchanging physical cash.

Moving Operations Forward Through Uncertainty

鈥溌槎乖� solutions helped us remain an active part of the supply chain and economy throughout the pandemic,鈥� Sotomayor says.

In fact, Promesa is seeing better outcomes than anticipated. As the pandemic began, Deloitte completed an analysis on Promesa鈥檚 business operations and placed the company鈥檚 predicted income for May at US$2 million. Promesa surpassed that expectation at $2.7 million and anticipates exceeding the rest of Deloitte鈥檚 predictions as well. By June, Promesa was operating at 40 percent capacity 鈥� that鈥檚 10 percent higher than the predicted 30 percent estimate.

鈥淭丑别 anticipated 鈥榥ew normal鈥� for our industry is operating at 40 percent of what it once was, but we expect to go far beyond that at 60 percent. In spite of the challenges, we鈥檝e been given a chance to reimagine how we can work differently not only now, but also in the future. We had the time to rethink our portfolio and how we鈥檙e meeting the needs of our customers 鈥� and employees,鈥� Sotomayor says.

Today, Promesa has retained each of its employees without cutting any of their benefits, salaries, or hours.

.

But for many distributors, there is a common glitch in their innovation efforts: Customer and employee expectations often get in the way, placing unprecedented pressures on the business model.

The key to fulfilling the full potential of innovation is an experience that is attractive to customers, brand partners, and employees. Such value-added services may include light manufacturing and kitting, financing, risk audits, ad hoc virtual training, automated tracking of machine performance, third-party logistics provisioning, real-time demand prediction, and data monetization.

Running these experiences with agility, responsiveness, and quick results allows distributors to extend their business by differentiating new products and services in response to changing market dynamics. As many customers in the industry can attest, such success is best achieved with the 麻豆原创 Model Company service for Wholesale Distribution.

What is 麻豆原创 Model Company for Wholesale Distribution?

麻豆原创 Model Company for Wholesale Distribution is a foundational portfolio of prepackaged, ready-to-use, end-to-end reference solutions. It is designed to help distributors accelerate the innovation of their end-to-end business processes for sales and distribution, logistics execution, and reporting and analytics.

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Based on 麻豆原创 Best Practices packages and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, the service delivers best practices and industry standards that are proven, documented, and improved continuously. This knowledge addresses changing industry dynamics and business needs, such as scenarios for direct store delivery, condition-based contracting, and recycling administration.

To bring industry best practices and standards to life, 麻豆原创 offers a set of accelerators; for example, configuration guides, test scripts, the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA migration cockpit, templates for master data upload, and business content documentation. The 麻豆原创 Cloud Appliance Library tool quickly deploys these resources to support knowledge-sharing and enablement activities, such as a handover session and an optional business process workshop.

For customers, the service is especially useful when creating a proof of concept for an implementation project or compelling organizational users to adopt new technology quickly. The show-and-tell approach of the service allows decision-makers and users to see firsthand how processes and technologies can support the needs of the distribution business 鈥� without additional customization. Additionally, the time and cost associated with innovation activities, such as blueprinting, design, planning, training, and knowledge transfer, are considerably lower.

Find Your Edge by Innovating Beyond Conventional Industry Boundaries

The wholesale distribution industry is reaching a point where breaking bulk and maintaining personal customer relationships is not enough to stay competitive. Businesses have no choice but to start incorporating intelligent technologies to scale their interactions, deliver value-added services, and ensure every order fulfills expectations.

This reality is why 麻豆原创 offers 麻豆原创 Model Company for Wholesale Distribution. Every day, 麻豆原创 sees its distributors use the service to transform how they operate strategically. They are taking on significant opportunities and delivering experiences that matter to their customers and employees. What is more inspiring is their ability to fundamentally change how they stay competitive and sustain growth in every economic condition.

Stay in the conversation by following the 麻豆原创 Services and Support on ,听, , and聽.

Kristian Kauffmann is global head of Service Portfolio Management for Consumer Industries at 麻豆原创.