Women in Engineering at KYKLO June 23rd was Women in Engineering Day. International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) is a special day for women engineers to celebrate their achievements. Possibly more important, it is a day for those who work with these talented folks to recognize the contribution of their female colleagues.
Can you name a 100-year-old company launched as a bicycle and sewing machine repair company? Here is a hint: Today this company is a leading provider of advanced sensors, networking with IO-Link, and today plans on leading the charge in digitalization and IIoT. Give up? The answer is Balluff. Following this history of boldly moving forward, Balluff has teamed with leading distributor digitalization experts at KYKLO to assist Balluff Distributors in expanding their growth.
Like the swallows returning from their 6,000-mile trip to Argentina to the mission at Capistrano, face-to-face association meetings are returning. We are so happy about the situation that we are walking around the office with giddy smiles and goofy grins on our faces.
Progressive manufacturers have long realized the value of developing and driving joint marketing plans with their distributor partners. When manufacturers and their channel work together, both parties prosper regardless of the business climate. In times of brisk economic growth like we are experiencing right now, joint marketing not only yields growth, but it also drives market share for both the manufacturer and the distributor.
Close your eyes and think Panasonic. The word conjures up dozens of images; everything from high-end televisions, microwaves, phone systems, and cameras may swirl through your mind. Panasonic is one of the largest and most diversified high-technology manufacturers in the world. Not just a consumer product company, they are immersed in technologies tied to smart mobility, sustainable energy, supply-chain management, and automation. For the moment, let us talk automation.
Economists have been calling for a period of substantial growth in 2021 as we roll from the Pandemic shutdown to the new normal. The majority of these experts were calling for something over three-and-a-half percent with a few citing numbers approaching the five mark. The latest word from Goldman-Sachs points to goldrush numbers. Here are their words:
Finally, and after much anticipation, the COVID vaccines are becoming available. Depending on your location, the first responders, those with underlying conditions, and other necessary workers have been vaccinated and the elderly have scheduled their shots. According to news reports the government plans to have inoculated over 100 million people by the end of March. Barring no unforeseen issues, the rest of the country will be loosening by Summer. The business restrictions throttling distributor sales will be lifted. There will be no “official end” to the Pandemic, but things will gradually return to life.
Phoenix Contact differs from their competition. First, they practice a limited distribution approach channel: about half that of their traditional competitors. Secondly, the vast majority of their business goes through this exclusive channel. As a global leader in the automation and interconnect industry with over 60,000 products in their portfolio, getting the right product information out to their diverse customer base is important. Distributor Digitalization experts at KYKLO are helping to make this making it possible.
How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? If you are like most people, the turning of the calendar is a time for reflection and setting goals for the future. According to a days old survey, most folks are thinking about how to improve their life and appearance. Here are the five top resolutions for 2021:
The Global Pandemic has accelerated change in the Distribution Industry. The once slow but steady march towards digitalization and webstores is now an outright sprint. During the time millions of people were locked down in one form or another of quarantine, the use of internet shopping exploded. Your world, once insulated from this rapidly growing trend, is experiencing a similar phenomenon.
Hey boys, girls, grown-ups of all ages, and my distributor friends, too. This is your Jolly Old Pal, Santa. I slipped away from chair duty down at the mall and magically hijacked the controls of KYKLO’s Newsletter Machine. Remember. I know when you are sleeping, and I know when you’re awake. I also know what you are thinking, so let me set the record straight. Even the North Pole Elves are computer savvy these days. It is an understatement to say we are overly busy keeping our naughty and nice list up to date. But Santa had a few moments and thought this might be a good time to set the record straight.
Pro-face is a recognized leader in Human Machine Interface and Industrial Personal Computers. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a Schneider Electric company, they maintain a global and local presence to provide world class availability, support, and service. Further, Pro-face uses a network of technology focused knowledge-based distributors to bring their product to customers.
Distributors and their supply partners search for better ways to support their mutual customers, find new prospects, develop prospects into customers, and generally drive growth to both of their businesses. Historically, and before the internet, joint calls were the only form of cooperative selling. Marketing efforts, while serving to develop customer awareness, were mostly conducted by the supplier with distributors pursuing any leads generated and occasionally representing the supplier in a local trade show.
KYKLO and WAGO USA have teamed up to build a more robust customer experience with WAGO distributors in North America. Under the terms of the newly signed agreement, KYKLO will provide proprietary services to further enhance the customer experience at distributors using KYKLO’s ecommerce platform.
Buffalo, NY, Nov 16th 2020 — As COVID-19 continues to accelerate the need for digital operations, the e-commerce and sales management company KYKLO is announcing a $8.5 million seed round to continue to bring electrical and automation businesses online. Led by Felicis and IA Ventures, with support from strategic angels, including the founders of Hybris, Shippo, former Magento SVP Growth and the participation of other institutional investors including Jungle Ventures, Wavemaker partners and Seedplus, the round brings KYKLO’s total funding to $10.2 million.
Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., a leader in the Americas industrial automation market has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with distributor digitalization experts KYKLO to provide close support for their Americas distributor channel.
KYKLO and Festo, a global leader in the pneumatic and electrical automation industry, have jointly developed a plan to drive improved customer service through Festo’s North American distributor channel. The agreement calls for KYKLO to provide enhanced offerings to Festo’s extensive network of knowledge-based technical distributors. This effort will give customers served by these distributors access to tens of thousands of Festo products via KYKLO’s ecommerce platform.
In 2015, when Remi and Fabien had the idea to help distributors digitize their business, they had no idea as to how the plan would take them from Bangkok to Buffalo, New York and all parts in between. Along the way, the company has grown, expanded and attracted the attention of thought leaders in the world of eCommerce. Better yet, KYKLO has built personal and professional friendships with scores of new folks around the globe. And, more importantly, our offering has become increasingly resilient.
August lies smack dab in the middle of prime vacation season. According to experts nearly 70 percent of the workforce takes vacation during the months of July and August. While the coronavirus pandemic impacts where people go on vacation, it doesn’t seem to affect the numbers of people not working. If yesterday was hectic, today will be a heart attack stress test. It’s not even 7:00 AM and your day is already headed in the wrong direction.
We roll into mid-summer, many distributors are in the process of doing mid-year reviews with their teams. Under even the best of circumstances, distribution experts recommend periodic reviews of team performance. In these tumultuous times, the practice is even more important.
KYKLO has selected Buffalo, New York to host their North American headquarters. Why Buffalo? First, the location topped the list on quality of life; things like safety, affordability, education, attractiveness and ease of doing business. In addition, after geo-pinning hundreds of the distributors across the country, we discovered Buffalo offered easy connections to large concentrations of our kind of distributors.
KYKLO has created approximately 1.1 Million new SKUs since the first of the year. A goodly number of them were created since the onset of the pandemic (which hit Thailand a full month ahead of North America). We’ve enriched and improved product content in 14 Brands.
In a murky ocean of talking head doom and gloom, ITR's, Brian Beaulieu shown like a light. AHTD meetings are always a great time for valuable networking sandwiched between world class presentations. Under normal circumstances, we would be sipping a coffee, tea, beer or wine at one of those networking events and talking about the points of Brian’s thought-provoking session. Corona-inspired social distancing prohibits face-to-face exchange, so consider this the opener of a great virtual conversation.
e here at KYKLO hope you and yours are staying safe during this uncertain time. Over the last weeks, your inbox has been flooded with strategies on how to work from home. But, KYKLO would rather pose a different question: What should you be doing? Our answer is pretty simple . . . put on your work boots, throw on those jeans that you don’t mind getting dirty, and dust off that checkoff list you’ve been meaning to get to for the last (fill in the months or years here).
The Coronavirus has impacted our daily lives at home and in the workplace. Government and companies are placing severe limitations on our ability to do our jobs. Restrictions tied to meetings have canceled some of our favorite industry events, and reports have come in that even customers are hesitant to have visitors unless there is an emergency.
In our world, web presence needs a champion; someone to steer your company. While a KYKLO system requires very little work to get started, maximum success requires changes in behavior and new ways of thinking.
January is a time for thoughtful contemplation, planning and perhaps a resolution or two. Most are led to the practice on a personal basis; mindful of exercise, quality time with family, personal development and the dreaded diet plan. Forward-thinking distributors make the time to apply similar contemplation to their business lives. Rather than dwell on minutia, the vanguard of our industry avoids the tactical and instead focus on strategic. Their thoughts zero in on seven big picture questions.
Most of you don’t realize this, but KYKLO and Santa Claus have a special relationship. Yep, the Red Suited Jolly One is our pal. We aren’t at liberty to go into all the details, but Santa probably leads up one of the most unique distribution businesses on the planet. Everyone realizes Santa’s delivery dilemma with packages millions of kids all required within a 24-hour period but think about the kids.
Supplier salespeople can steer business your way. It’s a fact, our suppliers come in contact with customers, potential customers, and prospects every day. In a millisecond these people decide if they are going to push business your way or towards someone down the street. When they bring you an opportunity, it’s like free business.
Product Specialists are an important part of the distributor sales equation. The NAW book, The Distributor Specialist: Customer Champion, Profit Generator, outlines the value a specialist brings to organizations. By focusing sales efforts in a segmented slice of the distributor’s business.
We didn’t get the calendar mixed up. And, no it’s not the launch of a New Year on the Mayan Calendar or even the Thai Calendar. But this month marks a New Year milestone for those of us at KYKLO. It was just twelve months ago that KYKO signed our very first client in North America.
Davis Controls selected KYKLO as Their partner in moving toward distributor digitalization. Here is his thoughts and impressions from working with KYKLO. the next generation, they all shop online, they don't expect to go to a store to get exactly what they need . . . I think that if they can do it in the B2C space then we can do it in the B2B space . . . and I was fortunate to have been introduced to KYKLO."
the distributor-focused webstore and content provider, today announced that it has been named a “Cool Vendor” based on the May 17, 2019 report titled, Cool Vendors in Digital Commerce by Gartner, Inc.
January’s gone and 2019 seems to be racing forward… New Year’s resolutions seem to come and go but there is still plenty of time to evaluate that list of goals. Are your goals important to your business’ long term profitability and growth?
Make no mistake, customers are thinking and behaving differently today than just a couple years ago. When I was a rookie sales guy, the primary source of product information for my customers was their favorite salesperson.