Digital disruption is changing supply chains in many industries and to avoid becoming a victim of this change, understanding these shifts and how to adapt is crucial, said Andrew J Moodley, Axiz chief digital officer, speaking at the ITWeb Digital Economy 2017 summit yesterday in Johannesburg.
With principle stakeholders changing the nature of their businesses from hardware to software-defined businesses, the traditional way of servicing and marketing distributors is changing, he added.
Everyone in this new digital world is a producer of something, said Moodley. IT distributors need to move from being a pure traditional distributor of products (hardware and software) to a platform for trade facilitating a value-driven ecosystem, he added.
According to Moodley, the key to survival is the re-imaging of business models, processes and workforce to ensure partners are able to leverage one digital platform that can provide them with accurate contract pricing, order history, revenue reporting and other data to facilitate the highest level of real-time information.
He said the platform business present a way to begin unravelling key business concepts in a company's digital transforming.
Distributors who have invested in a modern, integrated enterprise resources planning system with advanced analytics capabilities, as well as multifaceted supply, demand and inventory tools will be best positioned to take advantage of this opportunity, he explained.
"There is a growing realisation that companies that don't do this could become irrelevant in the business landscape. For an IT distributor like Axiz, which uses and sells technology that fuels this revolution, we have adopted the bimodal approach so as to cater for both traditional and digital businesses," he added.
IT distributors should move from being pure traditional distributors of products to being platforms for trade facilitating a value-driven ecosystem, said Moodley.
"This journey not only transcends technology but entails redefining a new business identity in digital presence, redefining and investing in new core business competencies with a value proposition to the market while challenging, and simultaneously leveraging, traditional business thinking."
There is no reward for being first-mover but there is also no other choice, said Moodley. Either one is the disruptor or the disrupted, he added. "At Axiz we have a responsibility to our vendors and the channel to lead the way but we have to ensure that this is a conscious, calculated decision."
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