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| Pay Me Now Or Pay Me Later | |
| If you spend a little bit of money on maintenance now, you might save a huge amount of money later. Consulting on system purchases is exactly the same. | |
| Should I Hire An Accountant To Help Buy A Computer? | |
| To quote Dave Letterman, "There is no business like show business, but there are several like accounting." | |
| Out-Source The Right Thing! | |
| There are two areas where I have seen small companies prosper in letting someone handle some chores | |
| Can Tech Save The Day? | March, 2005 - "The Wholesaler" |
| What would you do if your company lost a product that represented 70% of your sales and profits? | |
| The Importance of Good Data | February, 2005 - "The Wholesaler" |
| Whether it's selling products on the web or integrating your billing system to a WMS or SCM system the importance of getting your product data correct is becoming a business requirement rather than a luxury. | |
| Are You Ready For Your Next Disaster? | January, 2005 - "The Wholesaler" |
| Recent world events have made contingency planning a hot topic for companies of all sizes across the country. | |
| Plumbing Wholesalers are TechnoPhobes | December, 2004 - "The Wholesaler" |
| When I talk with plumbing wholesalers about investing in new systems the underlying theme of the conversation seems to be, "we're happy selling the same products to the same customers and operating the same way that we've always have." | |
| Closed Minds = Open Wallets? | November, 2004 - "The Wholesaler" |
| Even if this distributor had several PC specialists to handle all the personal computers spread out across several dozen branches and their incumbent communications problems, the realistic head count for that MIS department using the proper software is no more than six! | |
| New Ways To Search |
October 2004, "NAED Tech Advisor"
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| The business of web searching has been dominated by Google for the past 5 years. Today, we may be ready for another leap forward in the area of search engines. | |
| Time For A New Browser? |
October 2004, "The Wholesaler"
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| I spent some time recently with a distributor that is not afraid to try new things. They had switched from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's Firefox Browser. One whiff was all it took and I was downloading this free software onto my computer back at the office. | |
| Get-R-Dun (Execution) |
September 2004, "The Wholesaler" |
| One of the hottest comedians on tour right now is "Larry the Cable Guy" whose raunchy brand of humor parodies one of the last remaining stereo-types that it's safe to make fun of and that is the American Redneck. Being a reformed red-neck myself, this guy is just plain funny. One of his trademark lines is "Get-R-Done". Well it turns out that getting it done is one of the biggest problems that small companies have when it comes to technology. | |
| Software Sales Tricks |
August 2004, "The Wholesaler"
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| This has become a more common sales approach in recent years. You can call it "consultative selling" or "partnering" but the results look the same. The software company salesman attempts to monopolize the customer's time and lead the prospect through the selection process by offering his time and opinions for free.... | |
| Consolidation |
July 2004, "The Wholesaler"
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| Today the rumors of buyouts are as rampant in the software business as they are among the wholesalers they serve. Every time I open up an email or read one of the industry magazines it seems that another software company has agreed to be bought out.... | |
| Who's Watching You? (Spyware) |
June 2004, "The Wholesaler"
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| Many of these "free" game sites exist for the sole purpose of installing ad-ware and spy-ware on your computer. The really bad news. The only way to completely rid your PC of these virus like programs may be to wipe out the hard drive and re-install everything. | |
| Help For The Small Guy |
May 2004, "The Wholesaler" |
| We need to be reminded that the full spectrum of distributors out there have needs. A conversation with a small plumbing wholesaler looking for a solution to a real business problem reminded me of this got me thinking about focusing on real problems and providing real solutions. | |
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May 2004, "NAED Tech Advisor"
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| Today's managers need to be able to quickly spot trends and respond to them. One of the software tools evolving to assist the beleaguered manager is CRM. | |
| Are You Ready For Instant Messaging? |
April 2004, "NAW SmartBrief"
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Instant Messaging has been a plaything now it's entering the commerical world. |
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March 2004, "NAED Tech Informer"
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| The good news is that I believe that we are on the edge of a new area in improved distributor operations and even lower cost computing power. There are a number of technologies that are making their ways through the development stage that have the power to change the future. | |
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March 2004, "NAED Tech Informer" |
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| Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is going to be next big thing that hits the distribution channel. In my humble opinion this change could be bigger than what we saw with any of the previous scares and trends. | |
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January 2004, "The
Wholesaler"
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| I recently spent the day with a distributor that had just hooked up a wireless network in their branch office. Watching as they walked through the warehouse with a laptop and spot-checked inventory got me thinking on other uses for this type of groundbreaking technology. | |
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September 2003, "The
Wholesaler"
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| I visited recently with a distributor that exists in another world. It had been a long time since I visited a wholesaler that had almost no computer system at all. Sitting down with one of the partners who was hiding behind a catalog rack brought back memories of 20 years ago when it was the standard in the industry. | |
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June 2003, "The Wholesaler"
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| Mention the word “upgrade” to most MIS managers and look out while the four-letter words fly. Almost every distributor has a horror story about an upgrade. | |
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March 2003, "Progressive Distributor" |
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| I wanted to share with you some of the most
common mistakes made on installations of packaged software products that I
have seen over the past 15 years. They
are in no particular order but each can cause you to pull your hair out. |
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March 2003 "Progressive Distributor"
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| Smarter Distribution recently conducted a survey of competitor web sites for a distributor and turned up an interesting variety of web sites. For the purpose of analysis we divided the sites into three groups | |
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February
2003, "The Wholesaler"
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| Read just about any distribution magazine that publishes articles from consultants and you will read the same advice over and over again, "train your people". Yet most of the wholesaler I visit have a problem with turn over that has only been eased by the slowing economy. I have to ask myself if the advice I’m reading from consultants and what I’m seeing out in the real world are at odds or not? I believe that the answer lies somewhere in between these two. | |
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January 2003, "The
Wholesaler"
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| Buying the right enterprise
software can be one of the biggest decisions that a wholesaler can make. Given
that most companies change software approximately every 7 years this is chore
you'll do several times in your career. Following some simple suggestions
can ensure that you'll handle this decision correctly. |
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| I spent the day with the distraught Vice-President of a rather large wholesale company recently. It seems that their installation was getting off on the wrong foot and he was worried about the best course of corrective action. Even before I arrived at his office there were a couple of tail-tale signs in his conversation that clued me in as to where he stood. | |
| Can You Hear Me Now? (VOIP Phones) |
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| The ever changing world of telecommunications is offering up some real cost savings... | |
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"NAED Tech Informer"
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| Everyone that uses e-mail dislikes spam. Here are some simple rules you can use to protect yourself from spam. | |
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| Some of you may have noticed that the monthly emails from Smarter Distribution have been irregular in August and September. The blame lies in the internet viruses that hit hard in August and changed ways that many ISP's handle their email. | |
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| Success in the on-line world takes a different set of tools than most distributors have... | |
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| The Graham method of inventory management has become the standard by which all other inventory management methods are judged. The reason Graham methodology is so popular is simple it works. | |
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| There is a theoretical difference between the way in which Gordon Graham wants you to manage your inventory and the methods that are evolving in the market place. | |
| The Ideal Purchasing Manager Personality |
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| Effective purchasing requires the right tools and the right information. Recent work has shown that there are two other important ingredients that are often overlooked. They are the right operational methods and the right purchasing agent personality. | |
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| Inventory accuracy is one area where wholesalers have always struggled. One of the reasons is that in order to solve the problem you need to ask the right questions to uncover the solution. | |
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| The old saying goes “the only two sure things in life are death and taxes”. If that person had been a wholesaler that saying might have been something like, ”the only two sure things in wholesaling are taxes and dead stock”. | |
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| There are numerous measurements of how well a distributor’s inventory performs. Some of the most meaningful that I’ve found over the years are GMROI and Turn & Earn. | |
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| Physical inventory is one of those things that comes around once a year and never seems to get the attention that it deserves from the distributor management staff. But a mismanaged physical inventory can be a horrible chore that the whole company suffers through and creates more problems than it solves. | |
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December 2002, "The
Wholesaler"
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| Most companies that implement an automated inventory control system at some point in time, begin the process of cycle counting. | |
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| There are two types of dead stock! The items that were dead the minute the came in off the UPS truck and those items that have died a dusty death in the warehouse after being productive for a number of years. This article is about the first category. | |
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| One of the topics that plague purchasing agents for manufacturing plants is the handling of their spare parts inventory. These parts make up a small percentage of the total dollars spent by a plant but it is often the area that generates the largest amount of headaches. | |
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August 2004 / Progressive Distributor Dispatch
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| Independent Wholesale distributors are under attack. The assault is coming from several different directions at the same time. | |
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| If your company is involved in selling MRO material to the Fortune 500 market place then place your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and finish reading this article. | |
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| Transforming Your Sales Force For The 21st Century |
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| Demonstrating To Win |
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| How To Grow When Markets Dont |
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