What do market segments such as government, universities / higher education, life sciences, government / municipalities, sports teams, hospitals, agriculture have in common? While most are considered \"institutions\", they all are significant users of eProcurement / punchouts as part of their electrical buying process. They use companies such as Ariba, Coupa, Jaggaer, … [Read more...] about Creating lemonade at Institutions
MRO
Grainger Q2 Sales Slow … Industrial Indicator?
Grainger frequently is a good bellwether for the industrial market given their MRO focus on Fortune 500 industrial accounts. Grainger\'s performance highlights that the industrial MRO rate of growth decelerated significantly. Q2 Report From their quarterly report and slide presentation: Started off saying “the demand environment has softened throughout the year.”They … [Read more...] about Grainger Q2 Sales Slow … Industrial Indicator?
What is e-Procurement?
The article we had last month introducing Greenwing Technology as a punchout / e-Procurement resource and a new ElectricalTrends advertiser generated much feedback. Part of the reason is it is perceived that “punchouts” is “old school” and perhaps reserved for industrial customers. But, here’s the reality: What is “old” is new. Punchouts are e-ProcurementThe industrial … [Read more...] about What is e-Procurement?
Punchouts Drive eCommerce
eCommerce is more than, in the words of an Amazon and MRO analyst, “click and ship”. eCommerce is about a methodology and a mindset to do business more electronically. In fact, the commerce element can be very diversified, especially for medium to large MRO buyers. Consider Amazon Business, Grainger and MSC. Both Grainger and MSC report that over 40% of … [Read more...] about Punchouts Drive eCommerce
Amazon Business is a Nominal Electrical Distributor Competitor
Interesting article in Electrical Wholesaling, “Amazon Business is Growing. Do Distributors Have a Plan” written by Unilog essentially saying you need to either join or fight Amazon Business because they are / will be taking over the distribution business (and since Unilog placed this article in EW, presumably they believe that the electrical channel is at risk.) The article, … [Read more...] about Amazon Business is a Nominal Electrical Distributor Competitor
A changing MRO environment?
Recently I participated in a networking group that included a number of MRO buyers. The subject was trends in the MRO space. Granted many of the attendees were larger MRO buyers, but the feedback indicated a change in buyer purchasing behaviors. Over the years I\'ve sat in a number of these meetings, albeit with different attendees. The buying and eCommerce trends centered … [Read more...] about A changing MRO environment?
Distributors. Has Amazon Business Been Good for You?
Conventional wisdom is that Amazon Business is not good for MRO and construction distributors.They are a technological behemoth that knows nothing about “our space” and are only successful because they can: throw money at the issue / opportunity have the most advanced technology and know-how to mine data have access to consumers who work in companies (and hence are … [Read more...] about Distributors. Has Amazon Business Been Good for You?
