WINTER 2017
Distributor's Link Magazine Winter Issue 2017 / Vol 40 No1
Distributor's Link Magazine Winter Issue 2017 / Vol 40 No1
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42<br />
THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK<br />
Dennis R. Cowhey<br />
Dennis, R. Cowhey, started Computer Insights, Inc. in 1981 and is currently COB. He served<br />
for many years on the Illinois CPA Society Computer Information Systems Committee. He<br />
is a frequent author of articles for Industry Trade Magazines. Before starting Computer<br />
Insights, he served as Central District Manager for a division of Litton Industries (now part<br />
of Northup Grumman). That company offered Inventory Control Systems to Retailers. Prior<br />
to that, he was a Credit and Financial Analyst for National Credit Office division of Dun &<br />
Bradstreet, Inc. He received his education at Chicago City College and DePaul University.<br />
THE FUTURE IS NOW<br />
Things Are Changing Fast<br />
Zoox Inc. is a Menlo Park-based startup that is<br />
planning to build an autonomous unmanned taxi service<br />
to compete with Uber Technologies Inc. They just<br />
raised $50 million. The two-year-old company now has a<br />
valuation of $1.5 billion. The company has never brought<br />
a product to market yet. Their projections call for them<br />
to offer services in some areas next year. Not very long<br />
ago the company raised $200 million in a first round of<br />
financing.<br />
“Regardless of your business, whether it is cars or<br />
donuts or farming, you need to get to scale faster and<br />
fight like never before to stay there. IT is crucial to<br />
the success of that effort, given the ability to harness<br />
customer data in real-time and act upon it. No wonder<br />
technology and the CIO are a playing a bigger role in<br />
corporate leadership.”<br />
Not Just New Companies<br />
Change is happening at a rapid pace for existing<br />
companies as well. Of the companies that were Fortune<br />
20 in 1964, only 2 were left by 2014. Deloitte said,<br />
“The average tenure of a Fortune 500 company has<br />
dropped from 61 years in 1958, to 25 years in 1980, to<br />
18 years as in 2012, researcher Innosight reported.”<br />
Products Get To Scale Faster<br />
The telephone took 75 years to reach 50 million<br />
users, the radio took 38 years, television, 13 years,<br />
World Wide Web 4 years, the Angry Birds Space App took<br />
35 DAYS to get to 50 million users.<br />
Different Futures<br />
We are all on different paths. One company’ present<br />
is another company’s future. We see this all the time in<br />
the use of ERP software.<br />
CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLE<br />
CONTINUED ON PAGE 110
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