Digital Disruption
As the LBM industry becomes more digitally connected, the amount of information that can be captured, tracked, and analyzed will soar exponentially, enabling companies, partners, and customers to make smart business decisions faster than ever. Already, progressive companies are investing in various enterprise software solutions that will accelerate these efforts.
“The technology side has greatly changed and has been a very big topic of discussion with a lot of lumber dealers,” states Lonnie Kvasnicka, territory manager and outside sales rep at Dealers Choice, a Beacon Roofing Supply company and one of this year’s Four Under 40 winners. For its part, Dealers Choice offers clients its e-commerce platform, Dealer Pro+, which enables customers to access their account online, order material, view order history, and track orders.
This type of automation is only the beginning. The next generation of business automation will do more than automate data collection and management. It will automate next-best actions to achieve desired business outcomes. Using artificial intelligence, organizations can already make product recommendations based on search, order history, and other parameters, or automatically update driving routes based on changing traffic patterns.
Some LBM leaders expect enterprise software to soon have a profound effect on the industry. “This industry is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100,” said LT Gibson, president and CEO of US LBM at this year’s ProSales 100 conference, adding that his company is “constantly investing and looking at what’s next.”
