Is Your Wide-Area Network Keeping Up?
With corporate computer networks significantly strained by the hybrid work environment, this article explores why software-defined networks can improve traffic management and protection.
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How Technology Can Give Your Sale Teams More ‘At-Bats’
Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation release sales teams from day-to-day admin and planning tasks so they can close more deals – faster. Jonathan Bein, Ph.D., Managing Partner of Distribution Strategy Group, recently played host to two expert panelists to discuss how technology can transform distributors’ sales processes. This article looks at the insights these experts provide.
Understanding Housing Affordability in Today’s Market
The ongoing housing affordability crisis across the country is having a significant impact on how a large portion of Americans are living, budgeting and planning for their futures. In this article, NAHB looks at some of the factors impacting housing affordability and outlines NAHB’s 10-point plan to address the housing affordability crisis.
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Time is Money: How Technology Can Drive Greater Profitability
How can distributors better leverage technology not only to boost profits, but improve efficiency, communication and customer satisfaction? And what do you need to know to make sure you’re getting the most out of the available technology for your own business? To help answer these questions, Ian Heller, Founder at Distribution Strategy Group, hosted a panel with two technology experts who have a long track record of working with distributors on these questions.
Predicting the Future is Impossible; So Focus on Mitigating Risk and Building Resiliency
In this article, Jonathan Colehower writes that if the challenges of the last several years have taught us anything, it’s that supply chain risk is ever present. As the world becomes increasingly connected, the number of factors that can plunge supply chains into chaos rises exponentially. We seem to exist in a perpetual state of disruption as the idea of a seamlessly operating supply chain seems ever more unattainable.
Drama Over Table-Saw Safety
Robby Brumberg takes a look at the current debate over whether all table saws should be legally required to include advanced safety mechanisms. Though this debate has been ongoing for decades, it has recently intensified. The core issue is whether companies should be mandated by law to incorporate technology, like SawStop’s rapid blade-stopping feature introduced in 2004, into their machines.
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Dirk Van Dongen: Wholesale Distribution Advocate, Free Enterprise Defender
Dirk Van Dongen was an influential leader and force who spent decades advocating for the wholesale distribution sector. MDM reached out to some of those who worked closely with him to capture his legacy.
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Distributors Lag in Sales Enablement Adoption – And That’s a Good Thing
In this article, Mike Kunkle explains that sales enablement has emerged as a transformative approach to supporting high levels of sales effectiveness, yet its adoption in the Wholesale Distribution sector has been notably slower compared to some other vertical industries. Contrary to initial impressions, this delay may present a unique advantage.
Housing Costs Strain Owners and Renters Alike; Millions Priced Out of Home Ownership
Homeowners and renters across the U.S. are struggling with high housing costs, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies new State of the Nation’s Housing 2024 report released in a livestream on Thursday. Millions of potential homebuyers have been priced out of the market by high home prices and interest rates, while the number of renters with cost burdens has hit an all-time high.
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High Housing Costs Are Consuming Household Incomes
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ latest report, America’s Rental Housing, points to an escalating affordability crisis. In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapid increase in rents combined with widespread financial hardship have pushed the number of cost-burdened renters to a record high of 22.4 million households in 2022.
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