No surprise here, according to Reed, who points to how busy suppliers are and how important it is to improve efficiency. “If I can have a client be able to find or get their purchase order without the need to call my customer service line, then I’m all for it,” he says. “I wonder if the smaller suppliers feel they add a personal touch by talking directly to the customers or if they don’t have the budget for a customer line.” Effertz adds: “This builds on the frictionless data exchange that PromoStandards and PDX are implementing. Double-keying only creates the opportunity for mistakes.” TABLE 9. How much of your infrastructure is cloud-based rather than on-premises? (percentage reporting half of more cloud-based) PPAI 100 Suppliers 76% Suppliers $250M+ 76% Suppliers $50M-$250M 64% Suppliers $5M-$50M 64% Suppliers Under $5M 75% “Being cloud-based allows for reduced capital costs and for your partners to continually upgrade the product in terms of security and product features,” Effertz says. “We live in a connected world, and this allows for additional flexibility for work-from-home opportunities.” Ortega adds that the presence of an onpremises active directory or print server would technically categorize an organization’s infrastructure as hybrid, which might not fully capture the essence of its cloud adoption strategy. “A more revealing question might focus on the percentage of business-critical systems that are cloud-based as opposed to on-premises,” Ortega says. “If that were the basis of the inquiry, I would expect to see a significant uptick in the number of organizations that are 100% cloud-based for their mission-critical applications and services.” The State of Innovation 2023 | Must Read TABLE 10. Which communication tool does your company use primarily? Microsoft Teams Slack Other PPAI 100 Suppliers 74% 17% 23% Suppliers $250M+ 86% 14% 14% Suppliers $50M-$250M 88% 12% 18% Suppliers $5M-$50M 47% 18% 53% Suppliers Under $5M 71% 14% 14% “Microsoft was smart to include Teams as part of its 365 package, which is more attractive to companies as a whole,” Reed says. “Similarly, one for the other category – Google Chat – comes with the G-Suite of tools. In my travels, Slack was used primarily by internal IT teams at an additional cost to the company.” Effertz adds: “Microsoft has done a great job giving smaller companies the ability to streamline and collaborate across multiple locations. This is superimportant for our industry and will continue to allow us to grow.” New Suppliers Earning High Marks These firms didn’t make our original rankings, but matched the average innovation score of PPAI 100 suppliers. Black Forest Headquartered in Owatonna, Minnesota, Black Forest offers live chat for distributors. CPS / Keystone Line Erie, Pennsylvania-based CPS / Keystone Line shows real-time inventory on its website for distributors. Links Unlimited Cincinnati, Ohio-based Links Unlimited scored higher than most suppliers in terms of cybersecurity practices. MediaTree MediaTree in Parsippany, New Jersey, reports that 100% of its infrastructure is cloud-based rather than on-premises. Picnic Time Family of Brands Cybersecurity remains a top priority for Moorpark, Californiabased Picnic Time Family of Brands, which consistently reviews vulnerability reports. TradeNet Publishing Gardner, Kansas-based TradeNet Publishing has made some recent upgrades to its ERP system. PPAI • OCTOBER 2023 • 53
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