TABLE 5: Does your company use an ERP or Order Management System as a single source of truth for business transactions? Yes No Distributors $100M+ 100% 0% Distributors $25M-$100M 97% 3% Distributors $10M-$25M 92% 8% Distributors $3M-$10M 92% 8% Distributors Under $3M 63% 37% Mikas Agarwal, chief digital officer at Akran Marketing, PPAI 100’s No. 74 distributor, is surprised that only half of distributors have multi-factor authentication implemented across all systems. “MFA has been a standard at Akran for the past 10 years, especially given the number of phishing pages and fraud our systems regularly catch,” Agarwal says. “We also mandate a company-wide password manager with SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications.” The State Of Innovation 2026 | Must Read TABLE 3: Do you have multi-factor authentication implemented across your systems? Everywhere Most About half Some None I Don’t Know/Other Distributors $100M+ 76% 24% 0% 0% 0% 0% Distributors $25M-$100M 67% 31% 0% 3% 0% 0% Distributors $10M-$25M 56% 36% 4% 4% 0% 0% Distributors $3M-$10M 40% 48% 4% 8% 0% 0% Distributors Under $3M 27% 27% 3% 13% 20% 10% TABLE 4: Do you have a cybersecurity rating from an external provider such as SecurityScorecard? Yes Other Provider No I Don’t Know/ Other Distributors $100M+ 31% 31% 13% 25% Distributors $25M-$100M 22% 36% 28% 14% Distributors $10M-$25M 4% 8% 76% 12% Distributors $3M-$10M 8% 20% 60% 12% Distributors Under $3M 0% 10% 73% 17% • SEPTEMBER 2026 • 91 Distributors sit at the intersection of customer data, payment activity, order details, vendor portals and brand-sensitive client work – all of which can be attractive targets for cybercriminals. MFA is one of the simplest, most effective ways to keep one stolen password from turning into a much bigger problem. Thomas Rector, CEO of Thumbprint, PPAI 100’s No. 31 distributor, says the data indicate that the industry is still transitioning from digitization to true transformation. Installing technology is one thing, he says, but reimagining how a company serves customers is entirely different. “The most successful distributors begin with a clear vision of what they want their business to become and then build technology around that vision,” Rector says. “Over the next five years, we’ll stop talking about digital transformation as a separate initiative. It’ll simply become the way successful distributors operate. The companies that win will be those that combine technology with exceptional people and operational excellence ... and a well-built AI agent.”
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