> ERA Quick Connections – February 2021, V2
February 2021, Volume 2
ERA’s Quick Connections is issued twice a month. ERA invites you to share recent newsworthy items and calendar dates with your fellow members at info@era.org.
Monthly POS Reports
Budde Marketing, which provides monthly POS Index reports to ERA members, issued its latest summary, running from January 2018 through December 2020. Visit era.org to view the new index. According to the new report, December 2020 POS activity bounced back from a very soft November, improving by 5 percent in distributor POS. However, the year saw a decrease of 5.3 percent against 2019. December is always a slow month, and December 2020 actually outperformed December 2018 and December 2019. Overall, it was far from a stellar year; however, the industry didn’t see many of the challenges of other industries that were affected by the pandemic. For details on Budde Marketing’s services, visit BuddeMarketing.com.
Industry News
Global information technology (IT) spending will reach $3.9 trillion in 2021 as the pandemic continues to catalyze digital transformation around the world, according to Gartner. Every sector in the IT market will see growth in the next 12 months, with enterprise software seeing growing by 8.8 percent this year due to the ongoing need for remote work setups. Read more at SiliconAngle.
The White House has ramped up efforts to help the U.S. auto industry fight a growing shortage of semiconductor chips that has forced production cuts worldwide. The administration is launching a comprehensive review of critical supply chains to identify vulnerabilities and take steps like spurring increased U.S. domestic production. Read more at CNBC.
The global microcontroller market is expected to reach 20 Billion by 2027. The growth is driven by the widespread use of components in smart building automation systems such as HVAC control, fire protection, lighting systems, and security and surveillance technologies, that are integrated with microcontroller units. Read more at ElectronicEngineeringJournal.
B2B sales leaders have moved from being “forced” to adopt digital in reaction to the widespread shutdowns in the early stages of COVID-19 to a growing conviction that digital is the way to go. Only about 20 percent of B2B buyers say they hope to return to in-person sales, even in sectors where field-sales models have traditionally dominated. Read more at McKinsey.
ERA News
The week of Feb. 22, all registered attendees will receive an email invite to join the 2021 ERA Virtual Conference. The email sender is conference@era.org. This email includes an authorization link to claim your account that when clicked will log you into the conference platform. Please note that the email invitation will be sent to the email address that was submitted with your online attendee registration. More conference details will be available shortly. For more information about the upcoming conference, visit ERAConference.
Join ERA on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 4:00 p.m. EST, for the upcoming Water Cooler session. The topic, “ERA 2021 Virtual Conference ‘Boot Camp’ — How to Get the Most out of the Conference!” will be facilitated by Walter Tobin, ERA CEO, and co-facilitated by Craig Anderson, President and Owner of Sumer Inc. and Conference Committee Chair; Neda Simeonova, Communications Director for ERA, and Erin Collins, Events Coordinator for ERA. For details, visit WaterCooler.
The Winter 2021 issue of The Representor is now live on the ERA website. Don’t miss the cover story, “Finding new opportunities during unusual times,” by Kingsland Coombs, CPMR, CSP, president of Control Sales, and Greg Miner president and CEO of Thorson Rocky Mountain. Read more at TheRepresentor.
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