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Do you lack visibility into your customers buying patterns?  Are you leaving money on the table? Are you generating revenue while margins erode and profitability is reduced?  Learn how to solve these problems by attending this program by Dr. Barry Lawrence. Dr. Lawrence leads the Supply Chain Lab at Texas A&M, a leader in supply chain research in the U.S.   This program will help you get more out of your sales force, improve profitability on a customer by customer basis and use pricing as a competitive weapon. Dr. Lawrence will present the latest research on best practices.   Use this information to accelerate your business improvement initiatives in 2010 as the economy starts to recover.  Don’t miss out on this leading edge knowledge.

Dr. Barry Lawrence is the Program Director of the Industrial Distribution Program, the Thomas and Joan Read Center, and the Supply Chain Systems Laboratory at Texas A&M University. Dr. Lawrence also co-directs the Global Manufacturing & Research Initiative in Monterrey and Guadalajara, Mexico. As a faculty member of the Industrial Distribution Program he is involved in graduate, undergraduate, and professional continuing education teaching activities, funded research projects, publications and industry presentations. His teaching activities surround classes in manufacturer/distributor relationships, Supply Chain Management, distribution information systems, and distribution strategy. He is a frequent speaker for distribution associations and companies on topics ranging from distributor profitability, pricing optimization, inventory asset management, sales and marketing, and transportation to information systems for distribution channels. Dr. Lawrence’s research interests include Inventory Asset Optimization, Network Optimization, Best Practices in Distribution Operations, Logistics, Transportation and Distribution Profitability. He has worked on many large industry projects, generating millions in funding for the University and its students. Dr. Lawrence holds a Ph.D. in Information and Operations Management from Texas A&M University, a M.B.A. in Finance from Texas State University and a B.B.A .in Finance from University of Texas at Austin. He has more than 10 years of industry experience in sales and retail business before joining Texas A&M.

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This session will cover the most significant technology trends impacting business and society in general.

Learner Objectives:

• Understand the important technology trends including the impact of web-based software, social media for marketing, mobile and wireless technology, radio frequency identification, standards, cyber security and more.

• Gain insight on how they will change our industry dramatically in the next two to three years.

• Learn steps to prepare for these changes to be able to work more efficiently and effectively. 

Corbin Ball, CSP, CMP, MS is an international speaker, consultant and writer helping clients worldwide use technology to save time and improve productivity. With 20 years of experience running international technology meetings, he now is a highly acclaimed speaker with the ability to make complex subjects understandable and fun.  His articles have appeared in hundreds of national and international publications and he has been quoted in the US and News Report, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fast Company, PC Magazine and others. Corbin serves or has served on numerous hotel, corporate, convention bureau and association boards. He is the only person to have received both the MPI International Supplier of the Year and the MPI International Chapter Leader of the Year awards. Corbin has been named for four consecutive years as one of "The 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry" by MeetingNews Magazine.

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Managing sufficient material levels is one of the most critical and time consuming aspects of manufacturing. S2K's Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module can help you eliminate purchasing and scheduling problems and speed up work processes. Attend this session for a look at this powerful, yet easy-to-use application, and see how it can help purchasing and production managers analyze current and future material and distribution requirements and enable them to plan more effectively.

Dan Kaminstein, product manager for Activant Solutions Inc., has more than 20 years experience directing and managing the design and development of business applications for wholesale distributors. As a software engineering professional, Dan has focused on the design and specification of numerous baseline and custom enhancements to Activant Prophet 21, the leading distribution business software solution. Dan currently serves as the Product Manager for the Strategic Pricing software functionality within Activant Prophet 21. He holds a BSE degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in Information Systems from Drexel University.

The traditional way of conducting selection projects takes too long, is too expensive and doesn't always produce the best results. Learn how BSW Consulting has streamlined the process for our clients and for the software vendors.

Attend this education program to learn more about each of the steps involved with our software selection projects, including:
1. Discovery (with users)
2. Key process requirements
3. RFI: qualify domain expertise
4. Scripted web demos
5. Select shortlist
6. Vendor discovery & live demo
7. Finalist Evaluation

The world around us is changing rapidly. Technology is a key driver of this change but keeping pace has become even tougher for managers and supervisors. Today’s economy has focused our limited information technology resources on immediate results, not research or long term strategy.

Please join us for a discussion on Information Technology in today’s Distribution Environment – Making sense of it all. During this presentation we will decode the acronym laden world of technology, pro­viding insights into: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, .NET, Web 2.0, and Business Intelligence (BI). Why they should and do matter to a distribution company.  

These technologies are the foundation for becom­ing more valuable to an organization by being able to generate a real Return-On-Investment when applying the latest capabilities. In this envi­ronment, an understanding of how to apply new technology for up-and-coming management is very worthwhile.

Rodney Winger joined Epicor Software Corporation in 2003, bringing 20 plus years of marketing, consulting, sales and application development experience in the wholesale distribution industry to the company. In his current position he is senior director of product marketing for Epicor Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions. Preceding his current role, Winger was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing of Epicor’s distribution and warehouse management enterprise solutions.

Prior to joining Epicor, Winger was the founder and CEO of TDC Solutions Inc., a long-time, successful partner of Epicor focused on the wholesale distribution industry, and T7 Group, LCC, the company’s consulting and reseller division.

Before founding TDC Solutions, Winger held various executive sales and IT management positions with Intermec Technologies Corp., a leader in global supply chain solutions, Alcatel – Metallurgy Division, and Canada Wire & Cable. He co-founded Winger’s Cabinet Manufacturing in Ontario, Canada, during the mid-1980s, serving as operations manager until 1988. Winger began his career with Canadian-based steel producer, Dofasco, Inc.

Winger is a graduate of McMaster University with his certification in business management. He also retains his Canadian Trades Certification as an Industrial Journeyman.

IFS Enterprise Explorer (IEE) - An Overview
IFS's new user experience, IFS Enterprise Explorer, is a radical departure from traditional ERP user interfaces. It empowers users by organizing business data efficiently, makes searching and navigating as simple as browsing the web, allows highly relevant but unstructured data to be captured and shared, and packages it all up in a beautiful and extremely easy-to-use interface.

Distributors looking to gain control of their distribution business, reduce their costs and enhance their customer service will find great value in this presentation. Dedicated to the distribution business, Infor offers industry-leasing distribution ERP solutions that are supported by a dedicated group of individuals with deep expertise in an array of vertical markets. During this presentation, attendees will hear how they can benefit from Infor’s market-leading strength of 9000 distribution customers, best-in-class solutions, flexible deployment, low TCO and a clear path to the future with products that are built for their specific business. This session will be of great value to those individuals who look to enhance their businesses bottom line.

Gary Rippen is the Director of Wholesale Distribution Solutions Marketing for Infor. Gary has more than 15 years in the distribution industry and is responsible for building on Infor’s considerable strengths to help drive measurable business growth among existing customer communities and distributors facing strategic change.

As climate change issues impact the global market, come see how Microsoft Dynamics can help your company gain critical ground. Do you know how much energy your company consumes? Do you know how that translates to carbon emissions? This information will help you assess your risks and opportunities in a carbon constrained world. And these critical issues are becoming increasingly important to businesses as climate change becomes a market issue. Come see how the recently launched Environmental Sustainability Dashboard can help you calculate your carbon footprint, so that you can find ways to mitigate your company’s environmental impact while translating savings directly to your bottom line.

Larry Negrich has over 15 years of experience in the industry solution arena including roles in product development, sales, and marketing with industry leaders such as JDA Software, Oracle/Retek, and EDS Automotive Retail Group. Currently Larry is sr. industry manager for the Distribution and Retail industries for Microsoft Dynamics at Microsoft Corp.

Jennifer Pollard is a senior product manager for Microsoft Dynamics at Microsoft Corp. As a member of the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing team, Jennifer has spent the past two years developing the strategy for Microsoft Dynamics products that will enable customers to become more environmentally sustainable. She has also worked with the User Experience team to tell the story about Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored Design—Microsoft’s approach to understanding the people who use its applications every day, resulting in products that customers feel were made for them. Prior to coming to Microsoft, Jennifer spent six years at Oracle working in Product Strategy and Industry Solutions. She graduated from the University of Chicago with an AB in biological sciences and has completed master’s degree work in clinical psychology.

Strategic pricing has become a noticeable market trend that can increase your profit percentages. This session will explore the theory of strategic pricing as well as provide insight into pricing strategy in the current economic environment and thoughts on handling pricing pressure from both your customers and your sales force. Learn about how strategic pricing can bring an additional 2 to 4 margin points (or more!) to your bottom line.

Pete Zimmerman joined VAI in March 2000 to serve as Manufacturing Segment Manager and has spearheaded efforts to expand VAI's S2K for Manufacturing software product line. His responsibilities include planning new products and features, organizing sales and marketing activities, develop sales tools, direct and indirect sales and worldwide field support. Prior to joining VAI, Zimmerman was Director of Sales and Marketing for a small IBM Business Partner that specialized in providing solutions to small to medium-sized manufacturers. Zimmerman has extensive experience with a number of manufacturing solutions including MAPICS, and MESA . In addition to his wide-ranging knowledge of manufacturing, he has significant expertise selling solutions and services across broad IT portfolios and with virtually all types of enterprise software. As an IBM Certified Specialist and manufacturing industry expert, Zimmerman has spoken at numerous conferences and trade conferences shows including COMMON . Zimmerman holds a B.A. in International Affairs with a concentration in International Economics from George Washington University.