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.