Distribution Primer

December 20, 2010

“As with other investments, IT expenditures require careful consideration and planning,

however now is not the time for undue caution or risk aversion. As long-term, profitable growth

again becomes a realistic expectation, distributors must prioritize strategic investments in IT. Those that create an agile, insight-driven,

differentiated organization will be best positioned to thrive in our increasingly complex, volatile, and

unpredictable economic environment.”

Markets for 2011

• Industrial Equipment & Supplies• Consumer Packaged Goods• Food & Beverage• Medical Equipment & Supplies

Distribution Value Chain

Planning

Procure-to-Pay

Supply Chain Execution

Order-to-Cash

Value Added Services

Enterprise Management

Suppliers Planning Purchasing Logistics Sales Customers

Distribution Value Chain

Distribution Requirements

• Order management• Inventory management• Purchasing• Financial management• Warehouse management• Transportation management• eBusiness• Complementary technology

Order Management

• Order entry– Counter sales

• Signature capture

– Credit card processing– Light manufacturing/assembly

• Kits• Multi-level bill of material

– Order management• Quotes and bids• Accessories• Substitutions/supercedes• Buy lists and historic sales

– Mobile order entry– Service and maintenance

Order Management

• Customer relationship management– Contact history– Improve customer service– Task management

• Integrated fax– Covering all functional areas

• Billing• Purchasing• Quotes

Order Management

• Expanded pricing– Mark up cost or percentage discount off list– Multi-tier pricing with breakpoints for quantity– Job-based pricing– Promotional/contract pricing– Group pricing (customers/products/product lines)

• Pricing service– IDEA/Trade Services/others

• Monthly/on demand import of products and prices• Scheduled price updates• Analytics on impact of price changes

Inventory Management

• Replenishment and forecasting– Look back and look forward– Determined by product, product group, supplier

or class– Seasonality– New product introduction– Exponential smoothing

• Lot/serial tracking and traceability• Vendor managed inventory

Purchasing

• Auto purchase order generation based upon replenishment rules– Ability to adjust to targets based upon:

• Dollars• Units• Free freight• Optimal order quantity for price breaks

• Auto PO generation from SO– Drop ship to customer– Ship to warehouse and cross dock

• Accumulative purchase orders• Blanket purchase orders

Financial Management

• Accounts payable– Rebate management and return to vendor– EDI integration

• Accounts receivable– Master accounts/hierarchy– Collection system– Lien management

• General ledger– Audit trails– Complex account structure– Financial reporting tools

Warehouse Management

• RF handheld functionality– Picking– Receiving– Counting– Adjustments

• Integrated parcel shipping• Multiple unit of measure

– Stock/pack/count

• Integrated returns– From customer– To vendor

Transportation Management

• Integrated multi-carrier parcel system– Rate shopping/least cost shipping– Shipping history/trackability– Automated paperwork/international documents

• Integrated LTL system– Least cost shipping– Cost allocation down to the order level

• Load building and routing– Either owned assets or brokered– Consolidate shipments/optimize load and route

eBusiness

• EDI– Customer focused– Supplier focused– Vendor managed inventory

• Web storefront– Real time inventory availability– Access to historic customer information– Reprint documents

Complementary Technology

• Document imaging• Business intelligence• Integrated forms designer• Mapping• Reporting• Collaboration

Vertical Fit

• Industrial equipment and supplies– Market dynamics

• Much, if not all, profit made through rebates and special price agreements

• Heavy dependence upon EDI• More commodity products than other verticals so

purchasing and forecasting more important

Vertical Fit

• Medical/dental equipment and supplies– Market dynamics

• Medical/dental equipment has specific need for serial tracking for recall/warranty work

• Medical supplies often requires expiry management and related recall/warranty capability

Vertical Fit

• Groceries, beer/wine– Market dynamics

• Groceries and beer/wine need catchweight and compliance labeling and RFID

• Beer/wine have lot considerations, expiry concerns and some HazMat considerations

Key Competitors

• Vertical players– Activant / Prophet 21 / Eclipse - $225M

• Building Material, Industrial Supply, Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC

– Infor - $100M• Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, Building Material, Industrial Supply, Paper Products

– Small Players• IBS• Gillani• Sentai• Mincron

• Mid-market providers– Sage

• MAS 90/200, MAS 500, Horizontal

– SAP Business One

• Tier 1 providers– SAP All-in-One– Oracle / Peoplesoft / JD Edwards– Lawson– Epicor

Activant

• Microsoft Dynamics message:– Leveraging $7B in R&D investment– Tight integration with familiar products like

Office– Futureproof technology choice with .NET– Delivered through local resources that

understand regional issues and opportunities– Extended through vertically specific ISV

partnerships that deliver best of breed functionality

Infor

• Microsoft Dynamics message:– Leveraging $7B in R&D investment– Tight integration with familiar products like

Office– Futureproof technology choice with .NET– Delivered through local resources that

understand regional issues and opportunities– Extended through vertically specific ISV

partnerships that deliver best of breed functionality