Business

We’re back from Disney, where we held this year’s VAI Customer Conference, Prevail 2023. With so much excitement and momentum going into the planning of the conference, expectations were high, and attendees were not disappointed. It’s been several years since the last in-person gathering, and we’ve found that our customers embraced face-to-face interaction, with many of them claiming that an in-person meeting is far more productive than a virtual one and that it feels nice to be free of the distractions of daily office life.

Following the company's adoption of VAI S2K Enterprise for Food software with mobile proof-of-delivery (POD) and order entry capabilities, Morton Wholesale, an independent distributor of food and beverage products, shared testimonials highlighting the results.

Several high-profile food recalls have dominated headlines in recent years. These recalls can pose serious health risks to the population and do immense damage to businesses, negatively impacting their bottom lines. Whether from farm to supermarket, or downstream to hotel restaurants, cafeterias, sports stadiums and other venues, expectations for food quality and the safety of the food supply chain are higher today than those of earlier generations when food-related poisoning and illness were common.

For companies who are looking to boost their security frameworks, many are turning to cloud-based solutions, such as an ERP software suite of applications, which already offers increased layers of protection and risk mitigation that employs a security-first approach with automated checks and layers to the system. In partnership with the service provider, companies who implement security monitoring and access controls can ensure access to applications hosted in the cloud remain secure. The flexibility of the cloud makes it more functional to connect various networks together and layer in security throughout, rather than having separate systems that are difficult to maintain and track on one centralized platform.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is anticipating that retail sales will grow between 10.5% and 13.5% to more than $4.44 trillion this year as the economy accelerates its pace of recovery.

While the retail industry is seeing a resurgence of in-person traffic in recent months, the pandemic has proven that consumer adoption of e-commerce isn’t going away. The pandemic has produced a larger technological shift, leading to a surge in e-commerce sales that are driven by online and mobile device shopping, ordering, and payment. After years of evaluating the demand for online shopping versus traditional brick-and-mortar, hybrid shopping that includes Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store (BOPIS) and same-day delivery has had a significant impact on retail brands’ reliance on these strategies.

For companies who are sustaining working-from-anywhere models, security, cloud, and mobile technology will be the key aspects of the future of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and access to it will remain a critical capability in allowing workers to do their jobs as if they are in the office, from anywhere. The ability to successfully operate and monitor your business in any kind of remote structure relies on the security, accessibility, standardization, and communication provided by your IT infrastructure and ERP software. Shoring up your security defenses, operating in a cloud environment, and utilizing mobile technology will take your ERP software to the next level and optimize its capabilities including for remote workers.