Ingram Micro to distribute Microsoft's HoloLens 2 | Amazon achieves next-day delivery through arms-length contractors | Ferguson's venture capital arm invests in home-repair platform
Ingram Micro will serve as global distributor for Microsoft's HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset. Ingram Micro will focus on sales within North America and select international regions while initially supporting Dynamics 365 software from Microsoft.
Amazon's next-day delivery is largely accomplished by third-party companies that Amazon says it does not control, including when those companies create poor working conditions or their drivers get into accidents or injure pedestrians. FedEx and UPS vehicles are federally regulated, whereas those used by companies contracted by Amazon are not.
Offering the best possible customer service using ERP It is more important than ever for today's manufacturers and distributors to be able to deliver the seamless experience customers want — and ERP can get you there. Read this report to learn why ERP is key to customer experience, how other companies use ERP to drive success and why the time is now to adopt cloud ERP.
Truck manufacturers are receiving fewer orders in response to lower freight demand, although many are still filling backlog. Many truck companies plan to cut production starting this quarter, says Don Ake of research firm FTR.
Companies should localize e-commerce sites for particular markets instead of relying on global online marketplaces for international sales, writes Craig Witt, chief revenue officer of MotionPoint. Measuring inbound traffic helps companies prioritize localization efforts even on a budget, he writes.
Adobe's Rani Mani talks in this podcast about business-to-business influencer strategies, including the need to foster trust in relationships with both employee ambassadors and external experts, setting clear goals and understanding what each individual influencer can bring to the table. "Our main objective is to play to the individual influencer's strengths," she says.
Bill Fasig explores the importance of brand trust in business-to-business marketing by comparing Amazon Web Services to Microsoft's Azure. Amazon employed the "credibility they'd earned on the B2C side as a pivot point for entering a whole new world -- the world of B2B services," he writes, while Microsoft acknowledged its low trust by launching Azure as a separate brand and "overcame their trust deficit by doubling down on the enterprise side."
Envision the business environment three years from today in terms of return on capital, what a formidable competitor would look like and whether you're retaining top customers, writes Todd Ordal. "You cannot anticipate all bad (or good!) things, but you can anticipate much change and identify how you'll win in the future environment if you peer into the fog," he writes.
Real companies are finding real solutions and practical steps to attracting and keeping their best employees with "Optimizing Human Capital Development." You've got to have the right arsenal to keep your top performers and build your competitive advantage. Grounded in research and a data-driven approach with 18 leading distributors, this study includes 25 sets of talent best practices, 16 action steps and 62 real-world distributor examples. Read the table of contents and introduction.
NAW's 12th edition of "Facing the Forces of Change," the most respected research study of wholesale distribution industry future trends since 1982, will be published in November. Because NAW is the only national wholesale distribution organization that represents companies in all lines of trade, this celebrated report is the most comprehensive study covering the future of wholesale distribution. If you want first notification when this research study is ready to preorder, click here.
Benj Cohen, entrepreneur of artificial intelligence technology and third-generation distributor, says that over the past few years, B2B distributors have learned from successful B2C companies and embraced online sales. Today, distributors must do so again and further update their e-commerce platforms. AI-driven personalization will help distributors sell more across all their online sales channels. Read his latest blog post.