Ark Trading was established in 1980 and is one of the oldest suppliers to the building trade in Windhoek Namibia. Paul Koster bought the business in late 2015, and wished to start operating the business in January of 2016 on a new ERP system. This meant that the KCS team had to work under time constraints to configure the system. They pulled it off, however, and the K8 system was live in the first week of business. 


Risks were mitigated due to Ark Trading: 

• Using the standard K8 printing templates, so minimum time was spent on setup and testing
• Allocating a strong internal team designated to the project
• Having strong internal buy-in, and support from the staff for the new system
• Providing accurate master file and product data, with all relevant required information, e.g., PAC (product analysis codes), branch files and supplier details gains and benefits

Mid-sized industrial distributors rely on competitive advantages and business intelligence (BI) to improve decision-making, cut costs and drive strategic growth objectives. That being said, there are many hidden costs to consider related to managing proprietary BI systems that threaten to erode the value that BI has to offer. In a 2017 survey conducted by Gartner, the total cost of ownership (TCO) contains all costs including licensing, implementation, ongoing development costs, and infrastructure costs. For mid-sized businesses the average annual cost of BI is a minimum of $427,000. 


Steps to BI Deployment 
Total cost of ownership of enterprise-wide BI system deployment is sometimes miscalculated using only the cost of licenses. Successful deployment requires cost preparation across four main steps:

This FREE webinar on May 22, 2 p.m. EST sponsored by Epicor will explain what you should consider before moving your data to the cloud.

While ERP software in the cloud has been around for more than a decade, adoption rates are increasing for distributors. This is largely driven by the need to provide exceptional customer service to remain competitive. This webinar will discuss the changing landscape and suggest things you should think about before moving to the cloud.

Artificial Intelligence applications are raising the bar for business.

On March 16, 2019 at NFDA/MWFA/Pac-West Joint Conference in San Diego CA, Jeff from Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services will present an overview of basic AI concepts, take a deeper dive into AI for salesforce automation and AI for Business Analytics and propose a plan for tackling a pilot AI project.