Josef Ruef

Verical

Co-founder Josef Ruef is president and CEO at Verical, an online outlet for electronic components that provides buyers traceable, branded goods at discount prices. Learn more about Verical at https://www.verical.com/, blog: http://blog.verical.com, Twitter: @Verical, and email Joe at jruef@verical.com.

High-Tech Manufacturers Walk a Fine Line to Get a Lean Supply Chain

0 comments 1,543 reads

Posted on 2010-04-02

By Chris Cookson

Can the lean supply chain get too lean? That’s a hot topic now that Toyota is suffering safety and quality woes possibly related to its supply chain. While the lean manufacturing pioneer grapples with the fallout and recovery from “unintended acceleration” and other issues, high-tech manufacturers would do well to view the troubles at Toyota as a cautionary tale in lean supply chain practices. Regardless of the final verdict on Toyota, the supply chain can, indeed, get too lean. As a veteran of several lean implementations in the high-tech industry, I’ve got a few suggestions for staying on the right side of the lean line.

Don’t dismiss Toyota. People who say that Toyota has messed up because of lean are not clear about Toyota’s history or the real root cause of their problems. Toyota has a great supply chain as well as the original and best, long-term implementation of lean manufacturing. In fact, the Toyota Production System that the company started...

Read More »
Open Source Delivers Enterprise-Class Website on Shoestring Budget

0 comments 1,709 reads

Posted on 2010-03-17

by Jes Lefcourt and Brian Keyser

Companies looking to develop a high-impact, enterprise-class website on a shoestring budget should consider using open source software. Open source software has provided Verical with the ability, as a small company, to create a high-quality marketplace that competes with and exceeds the offerings from our competitors with much deeper pockets. The money saved from buying commercial products has allowed us to attract, support and retain customers. Here’s our high-level take on the open source advantage.

We have utilized open source software in all aspects of our software development including continuous integration, project builds, source code management, integrated development environments, runtime, testing and monitoring. Most of the tools that we use were built using Java. The Java runtime environment and the corresponding development kit are freely available for use. Because of the availability of Java, a thriving and passionate...

Read More »
Flex Brings Performance Muscle to B2B Sites

0 comments 950 reads

Posted on 2010-03-08

by Jes Lefcourt

The Flex programming language has yet to fully catch on in the B2B world. It should. People shopping on B2B websites increasingly expect the performance and experience they get from the B2C sites they use at home (or when the boss isn’t looking). Websites that incorporate Flex perform like a desktop-resident application. The effect is addictive to users, in the same way that the iPhone is. Exponential improvement in ease of use locks in business users who prize speed and convenience in their online purchasing. As I discuss below from a general business perspective, Flex delivers B2B performance muscle.

Flex enables common, best of industry development practices and methodologies for delivering rich internet applications. A classic problem with the HTML/Ajax applications is they don’t grow very well, due to the lack of an object-oriented, component model designed to support large application development. The projects aren’t very well organized, and it’s...

Read More »
Borrowing B2C Sensibilities to Build a Better B2B Experience

0 comments 1,346 reads

Posted on 2010-02-02

It turns out that purchasing agents and other corporate buyers are no more forgiving than their consumer-oriented counterparts when it comes to slow, bulky ecommerce sites. And that frustration is playing a large role in the trend to make the online shopping experience faster, more efficient, and more convenient for B2B buyers.

In the electronic components market, major players are revamping their B2B sites with B2C perspectives. Avnet has gone public with its adoption of best practices from consumer sites like Amazon.com. In doing so, company officials admitted that on its previous ecommerce site, “many of our customers had to either be really patient or simply stubborn to make a successful purchase.”

Avnet’s investments in website upgrades have favorably influenced its bottom line. Since refreshing its B2B site, Avnet has seen a 75 percent annual increase in ecommerce revenue and a 50 percent annual increase in site visitors. Similarly, distributors like Premier...

Read More »