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SMART MANAGEMENT Q&A with Infor Global Solutions


Distribution software an indispensable tool, now a major force in the industry A


s many readers know, I be- lieve that technology does and will increasingly deter-


mine a significant amount of the wholesaler’s competitiveness. Where computers were once a luxury to wholesalers, they evolved to a neces- sity for running a wholesaling busi- ness. Now, however, technology seems to be moving into a role of even greater importance. Certainly, this is obvious as contractors choose or disqualify prospective wholesaler-


in our industry selling ERP systems and other software used by whole- salers. So their competitors, users of their systems and industry observers are speculating, guessing, worrying or feeling relieved over the news. As I write this, there are more questions than answers. Coincident with all of this, I had the


pleasure of attending this year’s TUG meeting in Orlando. TUG is the com- bined user group for companies using distribution software provided by


distributor to focus on sales productivity and automation and on inventory management and sourcing.”


partners based upon the quality of the wholesalers’ web stores. But as we move forward, as global competition becomes even more significant in wholesaling, it may be the effective- ness of a wholesaler’s technology and its ability to integrate with other sys- tems in the supply chain both up and down that determines its success, maybe even its survival. In the last couple weeks, APAX


Partners announced their intent to purchase both Epicore and Activant for an estimated $2B. Epicore and Activant are both significant players


Infor Global Solutions of Alpharetta, Ga. It was a very productive meeting for all attendees thanks to Gary Brown and his TUG team as well as Infor who sends a significant number of people to the meeting. Andy Berry, the new vice president


and general manager of the Infor Distribution business, was in atten- dance to announce some recent changes in direction for that business. Literally minutes after he finished his presentation, the attendees were dis- cussing the radically different feeling that they had gotten. First, that Andy


OBITUARY


Jack T. Reviglio, Western Nevada Supply Co-founder


As we go to press, we were saddened to learn that Jack T. Reviglio, Western Nevada Supply co-founder, passed away on April 23 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 73. Reviglio and


Bill Higgins opened Western Nevada Supply in 1964 and were soon joined by


Jack’s brother Tom. The company has since grown into a premier plumbing, HVAC, waterworks, irrigation, indus-


trial, and PVF wholesaler with branches in Northern Nevada and eastern California. While Jack was deeply immersed in


our industry for the past 46 years, Jack was defined by his great attitude and his concern for others. When you met him he would ask you about your- self…and really care. If you asked Jack how he was doing, he would tell you about his family…his kids and grand children. He would never men- tion his untiring, selfless work to help kids, people in need, local educational institutions and his community. Jack will be missed by many.


• Be sure to visit www.thewholesaler.com for web exclusive articles and videos! •


“There are a lot of forces at play, globalization will continue to change the game, margins will continue to get tighter and the customers’ needs will be driven by their experiences outside the industry like Amazon. We think this will cause the


was in attendance. Second, his presen- tation seemed to have more substance than Infor had offered up in recent years. I spoke with one user who com- mented that he thought it was real change, for the better. He said, “If Infor had a plan in the past, they sure weren’t sharing it with their users.” During the course of the meeting, I got to meet Andy as he introduced himself to each of the service providers in the “trade show” area. This was another indication that it’s


not business as usual in the Infor dis- tribution business. Finally, Andy cre- ated a real buzz when he showed a slide that listed his cell phone number and told the attendees to call him if they had problems. Of course, this may not be everyone’s opinion but I think the overall feeling was that there is a real change happening within Infor’s Distribution business. I asked Andy if he would be will-


ing to talk with The Wholesaler about his business, the distribution software industry and on distribution. We had a chance to talk on, what was accord- ing to Andy, one of the few days he was in his office. Schmitt: Thanks for taking time


with me today. I think your last e-mail came from a jet. Do you spend a lot of time traveling? Berry:Yes, that e-mail was sent as


I was traveling back from Europe from a meeting with one of our larger customers. Since I took this job, I have traveled a lot. As we were de- veloping our plans, I wanted to get input from our customers. I think I have visited close to 1,000 customers since I joined Infor. So I have spent a lot of time on the road interacting with customers. It’s tough on the body but it was


the only real way that I could get a sense of what I could do quickly to make the biggest impact. As it turned out, the most important change was to show customers that we care because, forget technology or anything else, what customers re- ally want is a partner. We really had- n’t done the best job of that over the past couple years. Schmitt: Sometimes asking cus-


tomers about how things are going can be a humbling experience? Berry:That was definitely the case.


I’ve been to many meetings where the first 15 minutes weren’t pleasant. I lis- ten to customers’ problems, then I tell them what we’re doing to fix those


Andy Berry, VP and GM, Infor Global Solutions Distribution division


down and we’re moving forward. Creating a roadmap is very difficult and we’ve made the decision, going forward, to consolidate ourselves into one brand and one solution set. We are rebranding to Distribution Enter- prise and Enterprise i. The difference being that we can deploy Distribution Enterprise on the Unix, Windows and Linux platforms and Enterprise i on the IBM i platform. The user inter- face will ultimately be the same for both of the brands. Schmitt: Will Distribution Enter-


prise and Enterprise i be based on your SX.enterprise and A+ software respectively. Berry: Exactly. Five years down


the road, we think that both func- tional bases will become one man- ageable code set. (Turn to Global changes... page 85.)


•THE WHOLESALER® —MAY 2011


BY RICH SCHMITT Management specialist


problems and that they can hold me accountable. Most of them have re- acted fairly well. So that was a very important process. Finding out, at a very detailed level, what our cus- tomers wanted and putting simple so- lutions in place to get them there. Schmitt: Beyond letting customers know you care, what are you doing? Berry: Infor had acquired a lot of software packages with the intention of moving users to a common plat- form. Over the past several years, we hadn’t made much progress in that di- rection. We now have a strategy and roadmap for that. We’ve written it


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