With so much change happening in the world right now, no one is quite sure what each new day will bring. Many unforeseen factors, including the work-from-home and shelter-in-place mandates imposed by local and state governments, are challenging distributors’ abilities to meet customer needs and adjust to new evolving purchase patterns.
Your technology provider or ERP software company can be the difference between smooth change management and chaos. Here are some operational insights and imperative software functionality that will keep your distribution business fast, smart and strong during these changing times:
The New Remote Reality: Managing your business virtually with technology designed for remote access is more important than ever. Cloud-based and cloud-hosted software has many advantages including data security, managed backups and the assurance of dedicated 24/7 monitoring.
Provide an Online Shopping Experience: Many of your customers are now working remotely and expect a consumer-grade online experience to find products, create orders and have visibility to customer pricing, stock accuracy and pickup/delivery options, the same way they would if they were in your store or calling with an order. Successful distributors that will thrive in the future should consider providing a content-rich webstore that unifi es both online and on-premise selling channels and connects directly to their ERP system for real-time stock levels, pricing and shipment options.
Boost Your Counter and Showroom Sales: Get your customers in and out quickly with a streamlined point-of-sale system. The ability to connect electronic cash drawers, point-of-sale receipt printers and payment card terminals will allow you to operate a tightly controlled and secure point-of-sale environment, providing your customers with a comfortable retail experience.
Stay Ahead of The Game: An ERP system that monitors product cost to automatically adjust individual customer prices provides a strategic margin-based pricing advantage. The ability to easily set and maintain unique price structures for each customer enables margin-improvement while reducing traditional price formula maintenance, which is critical in these tough economic conditions. Having the ability to rely on your ERP to handle advanced warranties, contract prices and vendor rebates, as well as having the ability to act on future unexpected cost increases while automatically adjusting sell prices, will keep your company profi table and frees up time for you to address other priorities.
Intelligent Inventory Management: Having an ERP that identifi es sporadic, recurring and unusual demand allows you to avoid overstock, balance multi-branch inventory and achieve higher fill rates and inventory turns. Even as customer purchases fluctuate, the ability to quickly identify demand exceptions drives automated, intelligent purchase forecasts that accommodate demand swings.
Connect with Customers: Providing customers with the right information quickly and intuitively strengthens relationships, incites loyalty and proves your company’s ability to deliver superior service over a competitor. Raise the bar by effortlessly providing order status, sales history and detailed customer information with embedded, easy-to-use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology.
Comprehensive ERP technology that understands your customers, products and workfl ows will keep you operating with confi dence during this time of daily change and uncertainty. DDI System provides distributors with leading-edge ERP technology and hands-on support to make sure your company experiences continued success.
For more information or to get a product tour, call 877-599-4334 or email sales@ddisys.com to speak to a DDI System ERP specialist.
