Software/Technology

Companies are increasingly adopting AI and automation to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance service delivery. In warehousing, automation not only streamlines repetitive tasks but also enables organizations to leverage large data sets, supporting smarter decision-making and more responsive supply chains.

Building supplies, construction, specialized tools, and fasteners are just a few of the industries that fall under the umbrella of industrial distribution. There are numerous recurring themes and issues in this varied environment, ranging from industry mergers to aging workforces and supply chain disruptions. Automation and digitization are critical to meeting these challenges and to achieving growth in this space. The software applications within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems offer an intelligent, scalable solution to complex supply chains, helping distributors adapt fast.

It has been a time of great global change and the JanSan industry has certainly felt the impacts, from the effects of the pandemic to the supply chain difficulties and related inflationary pressures of the past few years, to the steady march of technology delivering ever greater efficiencies, and the ever-accelerating trend of industry consolidation. Proactive distributors are quickly creating new business models that enable them to broaden their offerings and improve their capacity to offer end users solutions that go beyond products. The objective remains the same whether extended services or add-on services are used: to restore and reestablish the distributor's importance to facility managers and building service contractors.

While at the 2024 HIDA Streamlining Healthcare Expo & Business Exchange that took place in Dallas recently, our team had the opportunity to meet with dozens of healthcare industry businesses who shared some of the challenges they routinely face within their industry. These include optimizing workflows, future forecasting, data security, meeting the ever-changing regulations of the industry, improving efficiency in warehousing and distribution operations, and handling vendor chargebacks.

For years, many businesses have struggled to grasp the benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can provide. AI seemed too new and unproven to many of them, and at the time appeared more like technology that required a data scientist rather than a typical IT worker.