DisTribute

Mobility: A Hot Technology Trend in Distribution

Modern Distribution Management recently finished up a series of articles on Emerging Technologies in Distribution. Many of the technology solutions covered also fall on the lists around the Web of top technologies for business in 2012.

The emerging technologies MDM identified for distributors going into 2012:

• Mobile Technology
• Business Intelligence
• E-Commerce
• Cloud Computing
• Pricing Analytics & Tools

Mobile technology is one of the top trends under discussion in MDM’s LinkedIn group. More distributors realize the importance of mobility for their management and sales force and are looking for tools to give their sales staff real-time access to pricing, quotes, open orders, credits, A/R and other data on their ERP system.

An MDM survey found that about 45% of readers had implemented mobile tools in their organizations; nearly 20% said they had plans to. That number is sure to rise and may not even be reflective of all the possible uses of mobile technology.

As Brian Kazmierczak of Rubber Tree Systems told MDM last year for their Emerging Technologies in Distribution Special Report: “Everyone has a different idea of what mobile is. What we’ve come up with is mobile is anything that keeps your salespeople out of the office and in front of the customer, and reduces manual communication …”

Deloitte’s 3rd annual “Tech Trends 2012” report, which identifies and predicts the top 10 emerging and disruptive technologies expected to play a crucial role in how businesses are anticipated to operate globally in 2012 and beyond, also lists mobility in the top 10.

Deloitte considers mobility one of the top disruptive technology trends, stating “Mobility is helping many organizations rethink their business models. Consumer-facing mobile applications are only the beginning. With the explosion of mobile use cases, organizations should make sure solutions are enterprise class – secure, reliable, maintainable and integrated to critical back-office systems and data.”

Tribute, Inc. anticipated the need for this technology integration and began a partnership with Rubber Tree Systems in 2007 to provide our customers an intelligent mobile service that uses "push" technology to give sales people and management direct access to orders, quotes, and other mission critical data in their TrulinX and Tribute Software Systems. This critical data is available "real-time" via mobile phone, Blackberry, iPads and Android tablets.

If you have an antiquated ERP system that doesn’t provide an integrated mobile technology, it’s time to take a look at Tribute, Inc.

Common HR Problems Employers Can Avoid

Some of the most critical responsibilities for any business owner fall under human resources. Employee relations can be a big challenge for business owners and potentially lead to a host of legal nightmares.

The rules and regulations governing employers are typically complex and can vary from state to state. Still, the legal problems encountered by most business owners tend to fit into one of five categories, according to this article by J.D. Harrison for The Washington Post On Small Business. To minimize headaches and keep your company running smoothly, avoid these common HR mistakes:

• Worker misclassification: Employee or independent contractor? It can be tricky to make the distinction. Employers who improperly classify workers can run into serious penalties with regards to taxes, withholdings and overtime wages.
• Overtime pay problems: Overtime pay rules vary greatly from state-to-state. In California, for instance, employees must receive overtime pay not only when they work more than 40 hours per week, but also when they work more than eight hours per day. However, most states set their limits solely on a weekly basis.
• Break mistakes: Be sure your employees are taking their proper breaks, so they cannot later claim they were forced to work through them. If your workers are tempted to work during their break times, consider creating break rooms where no work is allowed or requiring employees to leave the premises for their entire break.
• Firing foul-ups: You must have a firing process and you must follow that process equally for all employees.
• Discrimination and harassment unpreparedness: Harassment problems can spring up in just about any workplace, and it's vital that business owners prepare for such situations before they happen, not afterward.

You can read the complete article here.

Wouldn't it be great to have a go-to list of resources to provide answers to common HR questions? Try these seven resources, courtesy of this article by Sharlyn Lauby for the OPEN Forum:

1. Blogs like Ask a Manager and Evil HR Lady
2. The Department of Labor website
3. G.Neil - a one-stop HR supply shop for your small business.
4. Monster.com - for job candidates and specialized community forums
5. Newsletters from SmartBrief
6. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
7. Your local Chamber of Commerce

Have you dealt with any HR nightmares in your company? Feel free to post your story in our comments below.

Deadline for 401(k) Fee Disclosure

If you sponsor a 401(k) plan for your employees, April 1st will be an important date to remember. UPDATE: The Department of Labor has extended the deadline to July 1st, 2012. This is the deadline for plan sponsors to obtain from plan advisors newly required disclosures stating specifically what services they’re providing and the cost of each. Small businesses will get critical information on the true cost of their employee retirement plans — and the unnecessary fees that they are paying.

Quoting an article by Frank Armstrong III for the Washington Post On Small Business: "It isn't unusual to find 401(k) plans with total costs paid by the participant exceeding 3 percent of account total annually, with investment choices limited to subpar proprietary funds, and with payments to the various providers not related to services rendered.

"Confusion about who provides what service, how much is their direct and indirect compensation, and whether the various parties are acting in a fiduciary capacity is the rule. The combined impact on participant accounts and retirement funding is devastating. For instance, a 1 percent unwarranted cost might impact final accumulations over an employee's career by 30 to 50 percent.

"However, without critical information, comparisons and informed decision making are impossible. The new regulation — DOL Reg 408(b)(2) — aims to fix that. By April 1, plan sponsors must disclose their costs. By May 31, according to another new regulation, the same information must be shared with plan participants.

"If you are a plan sponsor each service provider must supply you with a revised service agreement that includes:

• A complete description of the services they provide.
• A full disclosure of the costs of each service.
• A disclosure of any direct or indirect compensation they receive from associated providers.
• Information on whether they assume fiduciary responsibility for each function (Hint: if the service agreement does not specifically assume fiduciary responsibility for a function, they are unable or unwilling to assume that liability.)
• Any potential conflicts of interest and how they are managed and mitigated.

"Red flags might include:

• A total cost for all services including investment advice, recordkeeping/administration, fund fees, transaction costs, custody or trustee fees and any mortality and expense charges that exceed 1.5 percent.
• Any single fee disproportionate to services rendered or economic value.
• Direct or indirect compensation between the parties which might cause conflicts of interest.
• Revenue sharing not fully accounted for and credited back to the plan.
• Failure to specifically assume fiduciary status by investment advisers, consultants and other plan providers.

In addition to obtaining the fee disclosures, the new rules also require sponsors to determine whether plan advisors are fiduciaries — a legal/regulatory status meaning that these advisors always put clients' interests ahead of their own.

This article by Anthony Kippins for Smart Business discusses the fiduciary role in more detail. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, employers (plan sponsors) are themselves fiduciaries, with all of the accompanying responsibility, accountability and liability. Many plan sponsors have always believed that their long-time advisors are fiduciaries, but this simply isn't true. Typically, the main advisory role in a 401(k) plan is played by a broker. However, few brokers can be considered fiduciaries, as they often have conflicts of interest, such as business relationships with financial institutions that provide investments for the plan. It's important for plan sponsors to understand how the dynamics of the 401(k) disclosures will put an increased regulatory and legal burden on them as fiduciaries.

Want a straightforward guide to your obligations as an employer and how to keep your employees informed of their true retirement plan costs? Try this guide from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Finally, here is a complete guide to 401(k) plans for small businesses from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Future of Manufacturer/Distributor Relationships: Industrial Performance Group’s Survey Results

In a previous blog post, Robert Nadeau, managing partner of Industrial Performance Group, Inc., talked about several trends he’s seen emerging in the relationship between distributors and manufacturer.

Nadeau found that prolonged economic uncertainty, intense competition, razor-thin margins and the ever-shifting sand of government regulation are just a few of the challenges faced by manufacturers and distributors. He believes that the actions being taken by manufacturers and distributors in response to these challenges are changing the very nature of their working relationships, and asked for input from both sides in a survey about the changes due to the downturn in the economy.

Industrial Performance Group’s research shows that the cornerstones of a solid manufacturer/distributor working relationship are common goals and two-way communication. They find that when both parties work toward a common goal and communicate on a regular basis, the level of conflict is usually low. And any conflict that does exist is usually positive in nature and can move the relationship forward in a constructive manner.

In their recently completed survey of 375 manufacturers and distributors, they found that the level of destructive conflict between many manufacturers and distributors has increased while the level of communication has declined.

The good news is that there is a small group of manufacturers and distributors who are doing a very good job of navigating their way through the turbulent waters caused by the current state of the economy. How are they different from the rest? Nadeau lists three key areas in which these manufacturer/distributor partners excelled, allowing them to adapt to our new economic environment. You can view these and the entire article in IPG's current newsletter by clicking here.

Tribute, Inc. facilitates the distributor/manufacturer relationship by partnering with major manufacturers to streamline the supply chain and save their distributors money. Those that carry Bosch Rexroth, Eaton, Gates, Garlock, Parker Hannifin, and Pall, among others will find that Tribute offers time and money saving advantages to their distributors.

Industrial Performance Group
Highland Park, Illinois
800.867.2778
www.indusperfgrp.com

Taking the Plunge into Social Media

Many distributors are upgrading their websites and considering the plunge into social media. The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%.

The study concludes that nearly 20% of business owners are incorporating social media into their businesses — Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less.

As the graphic below details, the small business owners who are using social media are primarily engaging in social media through company pages (75%) and status updates (69%) on Facebook or LinkedIn. Just 16% are using Twitter as a customer service channel.

To get started, you should have an idea of what you want to accomplish and impart via social media. Tamara Weinberg of Mashable provides a good compilation from industry experts: 13 Essential Social Media Lessons for B2B Marketers from the Masters. Christina Warren of Mashable provides 10 Essential Social Media Tips for B2B Marketers.

LinkedIn is a great way to get started in social media – it surpassed the 100 million user mark last March and continues to be the premier site for Business to Business networking.

To get started, you’ll first want to create your personal profile. Dan Schawbel at Mashable has a good article on how to set up your LinkedIn profile and here's how to Ensure Your LinkedIn Profile is Effective. And don't forget to join the

Once you have your personal profile done, you can create a company profile. Post regular status updates to your company profile and follow the companies you do business with. Here is a previous article we posted on 10 Ways for Small Businesses to Use LinkedIn.

You also have the ability to set up groups within LinkedIn to disseminate information to customers, etc. These can be locked so that the information remains inaccessible to the public domain. Tribute, Inc. has set up groups for our Tribute or TrulinX software users on LinkedIn to network with our staff and their peers.

Tips for Microsoft Word

Many of us are longtime users of Microsoft Word. Each new version of Word introduces new features, especially in Office 2007, where the traditional menus and toolbars were replaced with a new "ribbon" interface. Word 2010 included even more enhancements.

Have you been keeping up-to-date with the new options availabe in each new version of Word, or just sticking to the tasks you know? You may be barely scratching the surface of its potential.

This article by Barry Moltz for The OPEN Forum lists 13 useful features for both beginners and more advanced users of Microsoft Word, including:

• Use the Quick Part Gallery to store content that will be reused repeatedly, such as text snippets, logos and other graphics.
• Save typing. Use this feature for keystroke shortcuts. For example, if your  company name is The Penney Wig Corporation, then you can use a keystroke short cut like "TPWC" and Word will type “The Penney Wig Corporation” every time.
• Convert a document from Word format to PDF to make it more professional and prevent anyone from changing it. No additional software is required.
• If you use an electronic postage program like Stamps.com, Word allows you to print envelopes and shipping labels with USPS-approved postage directly from Word without opening the other program.
• Collaborate on documents using Word's change tracking and commenting features.
• Beef up your spellcheck by using an exclusion dictionary. This causes words like "manger" (instead of "manager") to be flagged as misspelled words.
• Use the built-in Flesch-Kincaid grade level test to keep your correspondence and marketing content simple and readable.
• Use the Forms features to create standardized checklists and store them electronically.
• Use Styles to set up fonts, headings and and colors that stay consistent and give your documents an extra level of professionalism.
• Highlight a word or paragraph and use Ctlr+Shift+ > to make the font larger, or Ctrl+Shift+< to make the font smaller.

Click here to read the entire article.

There are lots of resources for Microsoft Word tips. PC Magazine lists 15 Word 2010 tips for beginners here and 10 tips for advanced users here. Or go straight to Microsoft, who provides many Word 2010 videos here. and free online training courses here.

Parker Veriflo Launches Mobile App

Parker Hannifin’s Veriflo Division, a leading manufacturer of precision diaphragm and bulk gas valves, regulators, and flow control components for the control and application of liquids and gases, has launched their new Mobile App. The new app provides easy access to all Veriflo Product Catalogs and specifications "on-the-go" through your mobile browser.

Highlights of the App:

• Can be viewed on iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Android phones and all devices that have Safari or Google Chrome browsers.
• Automated 'Where to Buy' finder based on current location or zip code. Also includes 'Map It' feature to find directions to selected distributor.
• Clean interface for easy navigation to all our products quickly.
• Email product catalogs.
• Configure product model numbers.
• Quick way to find a distributor for a given product.
• All other convenient features of having a mobile device.

Enter http://m.parker.com/veriflo to access this app on your mobile device's web browser.

Are you a Parker distributor looking for upgraded distribution management software? Tribute, Inc. is specifically designed to handle your industry’s unique needs and partners with Parker Hannifin to streamline your supply chain and cut costs. Take a look at what Tribute, Inc. has to offer Parker distributors.

Ten Tips for Better Internet Searches

Searching within Google (or Bing, Yahoo or your favorite search engine) is simple: type your search term into the box and click Search. Many times, you will find exactly what you're looking for. But you can become more efficient at searching if you learn a few tricks.

This article by Alexandra Samuel lists ten tips for using search more effectively, including:

• Learn advanced syntax. Have you ever used a minus sign or an OR in a Google search? Learn about these powerful features and more on Google's Operators and More page. Or, use the Google Advanced Search form if you don't want to memorize all the options yourself.
• Go Boolean on your Inbox. Once you learn the advanced syntax for Google, you can use it to manage your Gmail inbox too. Click here to learn more.
• Add additional search engines to your browser. If you find yourself regularly searching a single site like Wikipedia or the New York Times, you can add it to your browser as a search plugin and choose it from the dropdown menu in your search bar. Use this site to find search plugins for popular web pages.
• Google your error messages. One of the quickest ways to find answers to any tech problem is to Google the specific error message you are seeing. This will almost always lead to a blog post or discussion thread with possible solutions to your problem.

For the complete article, click here.

Google Search has many useful and interesting features you may not be aware of. Did you know you can use it to quickly find the local time in any big city, convert currency, track the arrival and departure of a flight, and more? Find out about all these and more in this article by Gina Trapani for Lifehacker.

Join Tribute, Inc. at the 2012 NAHAD Annual Meeting & Convention

NAHAD hosts the only worldwide event dedicated to serving hose distributors and manufacturers. The annual spring event brings together nearly 900 attendees for four days of business education, networking, product showcases and social events, all designed to build stronger trading partner relationships and deliver new product introductions and hose solutions.

This year the NAHAD 28th Annual Convention will be held April 18 – 22 at the Venetian/Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Aside from the numerous opportunities to network with trading partners, industry peers and manufacturers, the convention provides educational workshops and business presentations by leaders in their fields. This year’s keynote speakers:

Jaynie Smith, Founder & CEO of Smart Advantage, Inc., will be talking about Relevant Selling and finding your competitive advantage.

Dr. Bill McLeave, President, W.R. McCleave & Associates, will be speaking on how to avoid the traps most managers fall into and how to build better management teams.

Dr. Al Bates, President, Profit Planning Group, will be discussing Distributor Profitability, How to Triple Your Profit, and Reviewing the NAHAD PAR Report.

Steve McClatchy, President Alleer Training & Consulting, will be going over how to lead your team and addressing Trust, Conflict & Business Relationships.

Michael Schatzki, Principal of Negotiation Dynamics®, will address how to better your negotiation tactics and improving your sales profitability tool.

Scott Tibbitts, Founder eSpace, will discuss his adventures as a space entrepreneur.

And, don’t forget to visit Tribute at our booth. We love to see our customers and have the opportunity to talk to folks about our software specifically designed for hose and accessories distributors. Statistics from previous NAHAD conventions indicate that over 70% of attending member companies attribute earning or saving between $10,000 and $12,000 in the twelve months following the convention, based on business relationships, educational insights and networking conducted at the convention. We hope to see you there!