In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series, I’m joined by Tim Yates, the CEO of DataXstream for a conversation around how wholesalers are benefitting from DataXstream’s OMS+.

We’ve been talking a lot about supply chain here at Futurum, and with good reason. A global pandemic has shown us in no uncertain terms how important supply chain is and, in some instances, how precarious ours is. That’s especially true as it relates to some 415,000 wholesale distributors out there, with a combined annual sales of some $7.8 trillion.

We kicked off the show with Tim sharing some background on how a career start as a mechanical engineer morphed into technology and ultimately founding and leading DataXstream.

Before diving into technology solutions, we discussed some common challenges wholesale distributors face, including:

• The wholesale distribution ordering process, which can be a nightmare. Think multiple supply chain locations, different prices for different customers, based on agreements that vary across the board, large orders that often span over a hundred lines — complex is an understatement when it comes to describing that challenge.
• Inventory management difficulties.
• The (sometimes massive) learning curve related to ERP solutions within the organization, and the fact that front line and field salespeople often have to spend a lot of time trying to learn the nuances of those platforms.

We explored how we’re seeing customers impacted by COVID-19 and how things like inventory visibility have played a role in the transformational shift that many wholesale distributors are undergoing.

We talked about the importance of rapid digital transformation, in the wholesale distributor industry and beyond, some of the roadblocks customers face, and what we see ahead.

We then shifted to discuss DataXstream’s OMS+, which is an order management solution that helps wholesale distributors offer customers fast, reliable service, and Tim shared some key benefits of OMS+, along with some customer/industry use case examples.

We closed the conversation with a preview of some new features coming to OMS+  that Tim is especially excited about, especially those related to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into the platform and the exciting benefits that will afford users.

For SAP wholesale distributor customers, using DataXstream is truly a game-changer. You can find DataXstream on the SAP Store, along with an Infosheet that our team produced, How Wholesalers are Benefitting from DataXstream OMS+