Distribution Industry Solution Summit 2013 – Event Recap

On Wednesday August 14^th Beringer Associates hosted the Distribution Industry Solution Summit at the Microsoft Technology Center in Malvern, PA.  This event  brought together 18 participating distribution & CPG companies, 5 partner companies, 2 keynote speakers and a lot of great content and collaboration.

We kicked off the event with a keynote from Jason Bader, Principal of The Distribution Team.  The Distribution Team specializes in providing strategic business coaching, inventory management training and technology utilization to the Wholesale Distribution Industry.  Jason delivered a powerful presentation on customer profitability.  He emphasized the importance of determining net customer profitability and ranking your customers.  This is very synergistic and flowed very well into a demonstration’s of the Cost to Serve Module included in our product – CRM for Distribution that was held later in the event.  Jason also discussed taking one of the hardest steps…firing unprofitable customers.  We will be posting a recording of Jason’s keynote soon.  More to come on that.

Next we welcomed Michael Shoemaker of Microsoft.  Michael  is Director of Microsoft’s Distribution & Consumer Goods Industry Development,  and oversees all key areas of influence pertaining to the production, distribution, transportation, and logistics segments of the supply chain.  Key areas of focus include product evaluation, vertical solutions, and both developer and reselling partner coordination pertaining to the overall distribution & consumer packaged goods strategy for all Microsoft Dynamics® brands.  Michael’s extensive work history includes 29 years in the financial accounting and ERP industry focusing entirely on partner channel driven models.   Michael is a thought leader and a true visionary. He gave an impactful keynote focused on embracing the exponential growth of technology and data.

Following the keynotes, attendees participated in a technology “speed dating” session.  During this session participants had the opportunity to preview 6 different technology solutions that are relevant to distributors.  The solution vignettes were presented by each of the event sponsors and included:

• CRM for Distribution – A day in the life of an outside sales rep – Presented by Beringer Associates
• Go Mobile – Mobility solutions for Distribution Professionals – Presented by Beringer Associates
• Gain the Data Edge- Harnessing and Making Sense of Customer and Prospect Data – Presented by D&B
• Up Your Game with Marketing Automation – Presented by ClickDimensions
• Dynamics NAV:  ERP that drives results – Presented by iCepts
• AccellosOne WMS:  The hub of your supply chain.- Presented by iCepts

We wrapped up the day with a tour of the MidAtlantic Microsoft Technology Center – (WOW…so cool to see some of the Microsoft technology, devices and products that are available to our customers!),  followed by a session on the roadmap for Microsoft CRM 2013.   This next release is anticpated in October and has lots of new features including a completely revamped, very intuitive user experience.

It was great to see so many of our valuable clients and to meet some new people as well.   Thank you to everyone who attended and to our sponsors for helping make this such a valuable and compelling event.   We can’t wait for next year’s summit.

Beringer Associates is a leading IT solutions provider specializing in CRM Solutions, CRM for Distribution, Managed Network Services, Unified Communications, and Internet Cloud Computing.   You can contact us at info@beringer.net, 856-910-7771.