As a member of SAP’s Wholesale Distribution Industry Business Unit, it is important for me to understand what our customers need in order to stay competitive today and into tomorrow.
Having the opportunity to frequently engage with our Wholesale Distribution customers, provides me with many opportunities to discuss their challenges and industry trends.
Many industry thought leaders are talking about drones, driverless vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, at the forefront of most Wholesale Distributors minds is how to compete and survive in our connected world. Amazon Supply is seen as a threat – not only in the US, but also in Europe. They are setting the bar for customer service, by delivering merchandise within a day and are looking to the future, to provide delivery within mere hours. How will you compete? Drones? Driverless vehicles? An undiscovered technology or delivery method?
It is time for Wholesale Distributors to get back to the basics of the Distribution business. Distributors should be thinking about how to optimize the internal and external supply chain. Also, how to get the most value out of massive amounts of the data that they collect. They should be thinking about how to leverage the visibility into the supply chain.
What about having live data during meetings with suppliers? You could show that the accuracy of deliveries in terms of quantities and timing is not always given.
What about the workforce? Can you be sure that sales orders are timely processed in accordance with customer preferences? When problems arrive, employees need to be educated and empowered to solve them.
How can you get this visibility? There are a few tools in the market, such as i.e. Celonis process mining. These tools give you the visibility you need.
Several Wholesale Distributors are relying on Celonis for process visibility and are seeing more efficient business processes and rapid growth. As a consequence, significantly improved margins.
Think about how you will stay competitive in the Wholesale Distribution marketplace and how SAP can help you fuel profitable growth.
