In another age in another time – nearly 90 years ago, criminal mastermind and FBI Top-10 Most Wanted Criminal, Willie Sutton, captured the imagination of the masses. During a clandestine interview with a newspaper reporter, Sutton was asked why he robbed banks. His answer was, “Because that’s where the money is.” With online retail sales alone pushing past the $4.28 Trillion mark in 2020 and estimated to be over $5 Trillion in 2021, we might surmise criminals are focusing their attention on eCommerce – “Because that’s where the money is.” Unless you build security into your eCommerce site, the bad guys will find you. As a leader in the B2B eCommerce space and provider of digitized solutions throughout the world, KYKLO has built safeguards into our systems. While we aren’t planning to explain exactly how this works, for obvious reasons, we thought it would be helpful to hear from KYKLO’s Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Fabien Legouic, and get his take on the situation. For the sake of brevity, we are breaking this conversation into a series of questions and answers. While we had close to 50 questions in mind, let’s look at the three most important points. Question One: What are the three biggest security risks of an e-shop? Here are the top three issues, each tied to their own set of nasty consequences:  Theft of a store’s confidential information: This presents the greatest risk as the attackers access privileged information, things like customer listings and ERP server IP addresses. Most of the time, the hackers first gain access to the store’s technical infrastructure and then obtain the information needed to roll out ransomware or, at the very least, bombard customers with spam. The effects are usually catastrophic. Theft of personal information from other buyers : Although quite new in the US, personal data and privacy are top-of-the-agenda topics. Attackers would also gain access to normally non-accessible parts of the store, and download buyer lists (emails, phones, names). This could jeopardize the shop’s reputation and cause litigation. Overall disabling or hijacking of a store’s functionality : This happens more commonly than most expect and is a silent under-the-radar attack. Here, hijackers throw swarms of queries to the store attempting to disable it or at least slow it down significantly. Question Two: KYKLO makes use of “the cloud” for storing information and running our systems, do you think this presents a security risk? Being on the cloud makes KYKLO safer. Think about it, which is more secure: the billions of dollars worth of art in the Louvre Museum or the art collection of some wealthy collector?  The Louvre is a big target with many doors and windows, not to mention 50 million visitors per year. The museum, however, is protected by an extremely high-end security system and monitored by over 1,200 security professionals. Conversely, the villa or mansion of the wealthy collector has a much less advanced security system and, in the most extreme cases, maybe a handful of security guards. Big museums, even public ones, pose a much greater challenge to thieves than small, isolated private collections. The cloud, when engineered properly in a multi-tenant form (like KYKLO does), similarly poses a much higher challenge to attackers, versus on-premises/custom-tailor-designed eCommerce as used by most solutions out there. KYKLO is based on a multi-layer, multi-tenant, 100% cloud-based architecture, where all elements of the architecture are the most secure (and costly) components available in today’s market. This is akin to having the Louvre Museum refurbished to contain hundreds of individuals in completely isolated rooms (1 room per store) with no doors between rooms, with extreme security measures to access every room. KYKLO infrastructure assigns every “room” (i.e. every store) with identical protections to generic penetration attacks. We also constantly automatically detect more “innovative” attacks and assign additional protection to every room, so that our clients do not need to worry about security. We prevent massive attacks by randomizing additional protection parameters between rooms so that no overall attack can be performed on every store at once. Question Three: There are hundreds of eCommerce disaster stories circulating on the internet. In your mind, what are a couple of the most significant security fails? How can they be avoided? There are hundreds of recipes for disaster! While it would be impossible to visit them all, for now, let’s focus on a larger issue: An eCommerce site built by an IT person, family member, or fledgling programmer who knows how to code. While they may be able to get an “off-the-shelf” eCommerce up and running, most do not have the technical experience to ward off the attackers lurking in the background. Further, security is something that must be planned for early and incorporated in the design at all stages of coding. New designs cannot be easily fixed after the fact and a continued layer of patches only complicates the longer-range security of the system.  Security and design issues are Important. Security is an important part of KYKLO’s philosophy and design process. During our conversation with Mr. Legouic and the design team, we gathered over four pages of other very important comments concerning security. In the near future, we plan to publish some additional pointers for those contemplating e-commerce security in the near future.

KYKLO provides the tools and expertise for companies to improve market position quickly and easily in the digital world. We are unique in that our enriched product data is created and enhanced by a team of professionals with experience in the industries our clients serve. Check-out below KYKLO Solutions designed to meet Distributors and Manufacturers' needs: Distributors Commerce We provide a plug and play , content driven, commerce Solution for distributors. This includes a fully customizable web shop, enriched product content, and the services of Customer Success Managers who can provide input on best practices for growing the distributor’s customer experience. Best yet, all of this can be up and running in as few as 60 days from launch. Content+ : Enriched Product Data for Distributors Larger distributors sometimes have the inhouse capabilities required to build and maintain their own web shop but soon discover quality product data is not generally available from their suppliers. In this model, KYKLO makes their extensive library of over 2.5 million SKUs of enhanced data available for the distributor to load into their own system. KYKLO manages the content integration + deployment and updates which means no maintenance needed from your team. Manufacturers Commerce KYKLO not only maintains your product content but also enrich it thanks to our extensive product library based on your suggestions and our expertise. KYKLO provide the tools (right filters, categories, and a powerful search function) that allow a customer to find your products in about three clicks.   Further the Manufacturer Commerce solution can provide the tools necessary for a manufacturer to offer products online to customers who may not be served by normal distribution channels. Syndication+ for Manufacturers This program allows manufacturers to get product content quickly and easily into the hands of their sales channel. Pushing further, KYKLO monitors the products under syndication against the manufacturer’s full catalog. This allows manufacturing clients to offer many of their higher grossing “long tail” products to their distributors, and the customer experience is enhanced. You may have noticed a few services you didn’t know we provided. The truth is when we first launched in North America, we wanted to focus our efforts and channel our energies into a single point – Sales Operations Management for Distributors. In those early days, our efforts were devoted to creating the largest library of enriched product data on the planet. We currently have over 2.5 million SKUs of enriched product data and the number continues to grow. If you have yet to live the KYKLO experience, give us a call. We would love to share our story with you.

Receiving recognition is a wonderful thing, but as we’ve been told over the years, it is better to give than to receive. KYKLO Co-Founder and CEO, Remi Ducrocq, exemplifies this credo. The recognition he has received as one of the leading experts in the field of B2B digitalization has been elevated by his willingness to share his journey with others. Whether by one-on-one phone conversations with those just now considering their digital future or in forums designed to expand the industry, Remi can often be found giving back to the industry. This giving attitude has begun to attract others. B2B Online is the World’s Largest B2B eCommerce and Digital Marketing Conference. After a two-year hiatus from gathering in person, the conference is scheduled in Chicago, IL from April 11-12. Remi has been asked to join an all-star cavalcade of speakers to reach over 500 B2B industry leaders. Pulling from his expertise in manufacturing and distribution, his presentation is titled,  Great Products, Crappy Content: Why Manufacturers Are Losing at Online Product Discovery.  We thought it might be appropriate to give you a few snippets from his presentation. Sharing from KYKLO’s research, The Manufacturer Omnichannel Index , Ducrocq will discuss the importance of having Google-friendly product data. Using real-world examples, he will show how and why good yet hard-to-find data is nearly worthless in matching customers to products. A collection of product data doesn’t work unless it’s the right data. Ironically, most manufacturers struggle with knowing precisely what is important to customers. Perhaps because those generating the data are too close to the situation, or maybe because they are only exposed to their own products, manufacturers often leave out important points such as industry jargon and commonly used nicknames applied to their products. Extending from the premise " customers have to find you before they can buy ", Remi will drill into exactly what kinds of enhanced data are important to the process. Citing and demonstrating real-world examples of both good and bad, the audience will be steered to the types of complete information required to enhance the buyer’s experience. Pointing again to real-world examples, this presentation points to the need for data creation experts who have experience in your industry. In the B2B world, members of the IT staff or data entry people do not have the background required to expertly craft the data needed. Further, despite all the hoopla tied to artificial intelligence, AI-based algorithms have shown poorly in the process. The presentation will provide attendees with some time estimates on building enhanced data in-house. These clearly point out that most distributors are neither equipped nor staffed to build the proper product content for the manufacturer. Pointing to the hundreds of installations researched by KYKLO, Remi will again outline the pitfalls of leaving product content to the manufacturer’s sales channel. The best part of the presentation will come by way of questions and answers. Here’s where the KYKLO model of giving shines through. We hope to help hundreds of organizations avoid the potholes on the road to digitalization. If you happen to be attending this event, bring your questions or at least stop by to say hi. When surrounded by hundreds of strangers, a familiar face is always welcome.

Distributor associations play an important role in the world of wholesale distribution. They provide a great mechanism for distributors and their partners to exchange ideas, network, and gauge market conditions. Early in KYKLO’s exploration of the North American market, a distributor and trusted advisor invited KYKLO Founders Remi Ducrocq and Fabien Legouic to be their guests at one such meeting. They left the meeting convinced of two things: The industry needed their help Distributor associations provided unique opportunities to better understand the day-to-day issues facing those working in the business. The exposure to that first meeting also convinced KYKLO that simply attending a meeting was not enough. They committed to becoming a valuable member – the kind of member that takes an active role and fully participates not only by attending the meetings but by contributing time and expertise above and beyond the general buying and selling of products. Further, KYKLO shares this philosophy with clients and has been instrumental in encouraging existing clients to join an association. The results have proven this strategy to be solid. By building on what they learned at these meetings KYKLO has been able to tweak their offerings to be even more relevant to the industry.  For example, nearly 25 percent of the members of their first association now use KYKLO’s products.  At the suggestion of many existing clients, KYKLO is expanding their network. The FPDA Motion & Control Network (formerly the Fluid Power Distributors Association) has invited KYKLO to join their association as a Service/Vendor Associate. Quoting KYKLO President, Remi Ducrocq “A few of our existing clients are members of several associations and they actively encouraged us to bring join FPDA. We are looking forward to this opportunity to meet and learn more about the members of this organization. By all accounts, this is going to be the beginning of many great friendships. We hope to learn much about their business and perhaps share some of what we have learned in adjacent industries.” KYKLO intends to continue the practice of building relationships, participating in discussions, and actively contributing to this fine group. About KYKLO: KYKLO was founded in 2015 by Remi Ducrocq (Schneider Electric 2011-2015) and Fabien Legouic (Schneider Electric 2001-2012, 2014-2015) with one sole purpose: To help industrial distributors, retailers, and wholesalers modernize for the growing trend of online shopping. KYKLO is the fastest growing content and e-commerce solution in the automation, fluid power, pneumatics, and electrical. We have over 50 leading distributors and manufacturers using our services. Our solution stands out from our competitors as the fastest and easiest in the market, with product content enrichment services performed by in-house industry engineers/experts (most with backgrounds in the markets we serve), product content syndication leveraging the largest product content data pool with millions of enriched SKUs across more than 150 brands. KYKLO is the only company on the planet to provide product content enrichment services as well as powerful search, filtering, and configuration tools -- fully built by engineers from the industry-both solution and content. Among KYKLO’s largest clients are Festo and Fabco. KYKLO joined FPDA to expand their networking circle to reach more like-minded fluid power industry leaders who are interested in expanding their digital footprint and generating new revenue streams online. A few of KYKLO’s existing clients are members of several associations and they actively encouraged KYKLO to join FPDA – knowing KYKLO could help FPDA members digitize their business and offer the best product experience to their customers. KYKLO’s looking forward to this opportunity to meet and learn more about the members of this organization. GET A DEMO   About FPDA: The Fluid Power Distributors Association was founded in 1974 by hydraulic and pneumatic distributors who wanted to further their common interests and protect their position in the fluid power supply chain by sharing resources, ideas, and time. Since then, our organization has changed with the times, always bringing our members the best in networking opportunities, knowledge, information, and training. A few years ago, FPDA made its biggest change ever as we widened our horizons and embraced the new dynamic technologies with which we share the fluid power marketplace of the 21st century. So, we became known as The FPDA Motion & Control Network. With over 140 distributor and manufacturer members (and growing), FPDA is a trade association on the move, representing motion solution providers who offer fluid power, automation, and electro-mechanical technologies (the so-called "tri-technologies") and distribution services to enhance customer performance and profitability.

Except for a handful of snarky corner bars scattered along the backroad by-ways of America, Warm Beer, Bad Food, and Lousy Service doesn’t seem to be the motto of many businesses. Truth is, everyone boasts of world-class service and rambles incessantly about helping their customers. Further examination reveals otherwise.  Whatever generous help they provided early in the buying decision seemingly disappears once the customer “signs on the dotted lines.” Instead, the customer finds themselves sitting on hold for long periods of time, being assigned a case number, and explaining their situation to a new person on each request for help. Even worse... after a long wait, and being asked a new set of mindless questions, the customer is asked for a new purchase order – this time for support services. KYKLO is different.  We believe the success of the customer is directly tied to our success. Ironically, it’s a simple, and different approach. Our Customer Success Managers (CSM) are given a general directive – do everything possible to make our client’s experience great. Not just great from a KYKLO system perspective but successful in any tangible way. The CSM’s goal is to help KYKLO clients push the limits of their digitalization investment through continuous improvement. Sometimes the improvement comes with a subtle tweak of page layout, other times the change is a small announcement reminding the customer the inventory levels displayed are updated in real time. Each of these leads to the goal of continued customer success. Rather than tell you about our Customer Service Managers, we asked Alan Watson, President of Lakewood Automation , to share a few of his thoughts on the role. The best job description comes from this comment:  “Our CSM, Siobhan Baggott, is like a part of our team. We have a standing meeting once a week, to review issues and lay plans for improving our system. She knows our people and they know her even to the point of knowing about her cute little dog. We know how she works, and she understands us equally well. When we need to talk to KYKLO about anything, we call Siobhan. It’s a single point of contact.” In a world where customers are known by their ID-code and problems are identified by case numbers, the whole concept of a single point of contact is important.  Again, quoting Mr. Watson:   “We recently changed our ERP system. We must have something like 22 people to deal with. It turns out we must spend lots of time just keeping track of who said what. Each call involves finding the case number, rehashing the history of our issue, and then following up later. And lord help us if we didn’t write down the case number and the person’s name. This whole process wastes time and sometimes creates aggravation. KYKLO’s CSM alleviates this issue completely.” This single point of contact concept allows the CSM to understand not only the client’s business but to understand the inner dynamics of the business.  Things like customers served, important suppliers, and target markets are explored. The relationship assists in driving the whole process forward. The CSM becomes an active participant in setting the distributor’s digital strategy. During our conversation, we asked Alan if his CSM had brought any particularly great ideas to the Lakewood Automation.  His response was:   “We brainstorm as a group. Our CSM is an active participant. In that type of setting, it’s hard to say precisely who had the original idea, but I will say, the outcome of our sessions is much better because of Siobhan’s participation.” Mr. Watson is an active member of the Association for High Technology Distribution (AHTD) and currently serves on the AHTD Executive Board of Directors. He has a keen understanding of the industry. We felt it only appropriate to ask his opinion on the importance of a strong internet presence and webstore for AHTD-type distributors.  Without hesitation he said:   “Even if you are a small to midsized distributor, customers expect a world class effort. As for AHTD members, we are high tech companies. Everybody needs to continually find ways to upgrade their website, so they look technical and modern. A webstore is an integral part of today’s business environment. Customers expect them.” We told Alan we were happy that KYKLO is part of the Lakewood Team. He reminded us we were official members of his team because he equipped our new coffee room in KYKLO’s Buffalo office with official Lakewood coffee mugs. Allow us to lift our cups in appreciation to our teammates at Lakewood Automation. The KYKLO Team is here! Give us a call, we look forward to chatting about your business. Check Out The Manufacturer Omni-Channel Index

Let us be one of the last to wish you a Happy New Year in 2022. In case you are wondering about the Thai celebration for the New Year, Thailand used to celebrate the New Year in conjunction with Songkran on April 13th, until 1940, when it was switched to January 1st. Finally, if you missed the “normal” New Year, get your party hat ready, the Chinese New Year is February 1, 2022. As we at KYKLO move into 2022, we have the force of MOMENTUM at our fingertips. Let’s take a look at this momentum: In 2021, KYKLO created and connected more than two e-shops per month.  Think about this; these distributors now have a mechanism for customers to find them online and explore their product offering. These numbers illustrate just how powerful this is for KYKLO distributors. KYKLO now has more than 14 Million product pages published and visible.  This number consists of all the viewable pages from KYKLO clients around the world. Data shows customers are watching. Over Two Million product searches have been performed.  Real customers have searched for distinctive products and landed on one of our client’s sites. They were looking for something specific in their search, a KYKLO built site showed up, and these customers were able to see everything our clients had to offer. Three Million plus pages have been viewed by industrial customers.  This illustrates the power of a strong web shop. Think of it as a customer arriving at a brick-and-mortar store looking for something specific, seeing lots of cool stuff, and then deciding to shop for other things. KYKLO’s unique ability to suggest other products, captures sales, that your customer service team may otherwise miss. 14 individual product selectors/configurator tools have been developed.  These selectors can be customized according to your market needs and work on the products you sell. And we are expanding the number of products like never before imagined. 921,000 additional SKUs were created in 2021.  We aren’t resting on our laurels. Not only are we leading the Industrial/Automation space, but we're also pulling away from the pack. In 2022, KYKLO will continue to optimize the Industrial Buyer's experience  by creating even more enriched product content, designing more and better product selectors/configurators, developing further improvements in the important task of product discovery, and most importantly building plans to drive more conversions. Putting this conversion thing into perspective – more customers will be pushing the “buy” button than ever before! The Momentum continues.  We believe 2022 will indeed be a Happy New Year! In fact, we have the team in place to make it happen for KYKLO clients. Next month, we will tell you more about the work of KYKLO’s Customer Success Team. Happy New Year! The KYKLO Team is here. Give us a call, we look forward to chatting about your business. Check Out The Manufacturer Omni-Channel Index

The end of 2021 is upon us. December is special for three good reasons. First, most of us are struggling to maintain our work-life balance with family, shopping, and general holiday activities. Second, the final deadline for next year’s business plan looms like a dark cloud over the top of all the fun plans on our calendar. And third, this is the season many of us use to contemplate our progress over the last year. To keep this message brief, we thought it might be a good time to communicate a short list of the many things we have done in 2021 to improve our service to our clients: Online content drives your business.  When customers find the right product on your website, business grows. KYKLO is the reigning champion in the content category. During the past year, KYKLO has continued to invest heavily in product content. We have published  683,438 new SKUs across 21 suppliers. Additionally, we have refactored  299,591 existing SKUs . This means we have improved the wording and descriptions, upgraded specifications to match new revisions, or further enhanced the structure of the SKU to improve SEO performance. Product configurators add intelligence to customer part selection. Product configurators allow customers to select just the right product for their application. They also serve as a tool for salespeople to expertly walk a customer through the selection. KYKLO has added and launched 13 new product configurators in 2021. This is a KYKLO exclusive. To the best of our knowledge, nobody offers this ability to customers across a wide range of products. Integrated with Ariba eProcurement. SAP Ariba is a cloud-based innovative solution that allows suppliers and buyers to connect and do business on a single platform. Ariba acts as supply chain and procurement service to do business globally. Many larger Fortune 500 companies have integrated SAP Ariba to digitally transform their supply chain, procurement, and contract management processes. KYKLO can now enhance your efforts to work with these customers. KYKLO continues to invest in infrastructure. KYKLO moved to a cool new facility in Buffalo, New York. While we wouldn’t necessarily recommend that our warm weather clients pay us a visit in January, this location has allowed us to virtually double our US-based headcount. We have hired across every functional team in the organization including new key roles, like Sr. Marketing Manager, VP of Sales, and a Head of Technical Consultants. We saved the best till last – The Manufacturer Omni-Channel Index. KYKLO recently teamed up with the experts at The Distribution Strategy Group to complete a State of the Manufacturing Sales Channel report. This report outlines the many flaws in manufacturers’ efforts to better push the digital side of their sales efforts. Citing from their analysis: O nly about 50% of manufacturers have a Good or Great rating for SEO on the selected SKUs. For the roughly 50% of manufacturers that aren’t good or great, Many manufacturers only show products at a series level, or in a configurator. Users usually need to find the individual SKU on an individual product page. The foundation for a good customer experience (CX) requires there be content on what is needed. This valuable report is yours for the asking and can be downloaded from our website: The Manufacturer Omni-Channel Index Happy Holidays from the KYKLO team. We look forward to serving you in 2022.

Once again AHTD lived up to their moniker/hashtag #AHTDRocks and we kind of believe KYKLO helped in the whole “Rocking” department. Seven people from KYKLO attended the event. The Lucky-7 number goes hand-in-glove with the AHTD’s Final Party Event – An Evening in Monte. Our group was more than busy during the conference. KYKLO held over 80 unique meetings with existing and potential clients. This allowed our Customer Success Managers time to better understand the current situation with clients and better engage in their role of accelerating the online success of the people who employ KYKLO to drive their digital presence. Our many meetings with manufacturers allowed us to share some of the details of KYKLO’s Omnichannel Index, which is the first expert assessment of manufacturers within the Automation Industry. For those of you unfamiliar with the study, KYKLO evaluated the web presence of a handpicked list of manufacturers of all sizes who participate in the automation industry. Using a detailed methodology, which analyzes and scores share of voice, home page, discovery, discovery of products, product content, and conversion, the index allows a manufacturer to better understand their digital footprint in a crowded market. Capping off the Fall Meeting, KYKLO hosted a Party Bus tour of a few of Colorado Springs’ vibrant hipster-bar nightspots. Loaded to capacity with nearly 50 of KYKLO’s friends, and staff, the tour created the perfect atmosphere for conversation and camaraderie. While a few of the conversations were straight business, most of the group engaged in the kinds of things that bring people closer together on a human level. Somehow, we thought the Party Bus would be the single most exciting event tied to this fall’s AHTD meeting, but we were wrong. It seems several AHTD attendees had something even more dramatic on their homeward journey. If you were on the American Flight from Colorado Springs to Dallas on Saturday afternoon, you know what we mean. KYKLO team member Alyssa Peterson and over a dozen AHTD folks found themselves participating in an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas. According to reports, about midway through the flight, the pilot made an announcement the plane would be making a short unscheduled landing in Amarillo. The plane came in very low and slow. Several folks with window seats couldn’t help but observe the runway was loaded with emergency vehicles – fire trucks, and ambulances. Never something to take lightly. The plane slammed on the brakes a couple of times then came to a hard stop. It was only then; the announcement came out that the hydraulic system which enables stopping and steering the aircraft, had failed. Not a good thing. Thankfully, no accidents or mishaps were reported. By the time the “rescue flight” arrived, everyone missed their connecting flights. Our teammate, Alyssa, made it home around 18 hours later than planned. If you were one of the people who experienced this little bit of excitement, we would like to hear your story. Finally, if we did not get a chance to chat at AHTD, give us a call. We are here and would love to chat with you. SCHEDULE A DEMO

Fabco-Air is pleased to announce the launch of its brand-new webstore ( https://shop.fabco-air.com/ ). The Fabco-Air's online store is designed to bring all product content together in one place, simplifying product selection, quoting, and ordering processes for customers and channel partners. “We heard the feedback of our customers and distribution partners and what they asked for was simple. They want clear and accurate product information that is easy to locate and order. KYKLO has met this requirement by developing, in addition to enriched product content, features such as an enhanced dynamic search function, complete technical product specifications, visible prices and stock quantities, downloadable collateral such as catalogs and data sheets, a product comparison function and much more.” -Troy Sanders (National Sales Manager) Upon entering the online store, customers can securely log in by creating a unique account, request a quote and even include their shipping instructions to expedite the ordering process with no additional steps required for Fabco-Air to begin processing the order. Account holders can then save their selections, review their order history and reorder later. This enhanced online store follows recent updates to Fabco-Air.com and is further evidence of Fabco-Air's commitment to providing a robust online experience for buyers and engineers who specify machine components. In addition to creating a powerful sourcing platform, the new online store fulfills Fabco-Air's equally important goals of enhancing its online presence and brand awareness while making it easier to do business with the company. In the coming weeks, the webstore will link directly to Fabco-Air.com and will work in parallel with the current online configurator to support all online requests for information. Check out the easy and convenient webstore . ABOUT KYKLO KYKLO is the fastest growing content and e-commerce solution for the electrical, automation, fluid and energy industries. With over 50 leading distributors and manufacturers using its services, KYKLO's solution stands out as the fastest and easiest in the market, with product content enrichment services performed by in-house industry engineers/experts, leveraging the largest product content data pool with millions of enriched SKUs across 150+ brands. Setting up an online store and integrating with your ERP and CRM is guaranteed in weeks rather than months. In addition to the store, each KYKLO customer is assigned a Customer Success Manager who provides training, coaching and consulting services to better engage customers on their e-commerce platform and assist internal teams with product selection and quoting. SCHEDULE A DEMO

As the calendar rolls into the fourth quarter, KYKLO continues to march towards better and more efficient service to our clients and the industry in general. This effort includes the type of system enhancements and refinements you have come to expect. The bigger effort lies with on-boarding folks with the right stuff; the skills and experience needed to build on our service and accelerate efforts to provide the world class system our friends deserve. Guessing many of you have made similar additions in your staff, the market is tight and great people with the right experience are scarce. The same applies in the software/system development industry. Thankfully, KYKLO’s unique culture serves as an attractor, and we have been able to bring in some cool folks with the right skills and attitude to continue our forward momentum. Allow us to introduce some of the new additions to our team. Sushil Shrestha comes onboard as KYKLO’s Senior Application Technology Engineer and will be based in Thailand. Bringing the wealth of knowledge of 13 years in the software development world, and a background which includes work in Product Management, Head of Development, and Chief Technology Officer, Sushil will further KYKLO’s capabilities by further developing new features and improved infrastructure for the KYKLO platform. Christopher Kicior becomes the Buffalo-based Senior Customer Success Manager. Chris has more than a decade of experience in relationship management with previous experience in B2B Enterprise software solutions. Chris has held previous positions including Director of Client Services, Solutions Architect, and Director of Customer Experience. Chris' role will be to work with customers to ensure they are receiving the right tools and proper support to achieve their digital transformation goals. Alyssa Peterson is now part of the Buffalo Office serving as Sales Development Representative. Alyssa adds eight years of experience with six of those being in the distribution and ERP software arena. Alyssa is a former Sales Manager and has a strong Distribution Channel background. Alyssa's role will be to continue building relationships with SME and Enterprise accounts. We are hitting the ground running. Alyssa has already attended her first PackExpo in Las Vegas during the final week of September. This show is well attended by distributors and manufacturers and offers a great opportunity for KYKLO to meet new people, make new friends, and identify organizations who might benefit from the services we provide to companies in their path to digitalization. Chris will be joining others on the KYKLO team at the 2021 AHTD Fall Meeting in Colorado Springs October 20-22. AHTD (The Association for High Technology Distribution) was the very first North American association meeting attended by KYKLO and the home of many of our friends and clients in the distribution industry. Speaking of AHTD KYKLO will be bringing a large group to AHTD. We want to continue our efforts to expand our understanding of the issues distributors and manufacturers face in their journey to digitalization. Even more importantly, we hope to find ways we can help existing clients better harness the full power of the KYKLO organization. Equally important, we continue to recruit new partners in our work. If you are one of the nearly 400 people making the trek to Colorado Springs, let’s not leave our meeting to chance. Give us a call, we would love to arrange a get together with you in the beautiful Rocky Mountains! Schedule a Demo

This might be a great time to insert some worn out cliché. “Time passes quickly when you’re having a good time…” or “The whole thing seems like yesterday…” might be appropriate. But the journey from concept to business model, to successful tech start-up, and onto continued international growth and expansion has been filled with a colorfully swirling kaleidoscope of activities. Looking back to 2015, KYKLO Founders Remi Ducrocq and Fabien Legouic recognized a major issue in the migration from traditional brick and mortar distribution to an omni-channeled digitalized approach to customer service. These two gentlemen employed their deep industry knowledge to create a set of tools for distributors. Many of these distributors might have otherwise found themselves locked out of one of the biggest business shifts in the past half century. Fast forward to April 2018, Remi and Fabien came to their first distributor association meeting in North America; AHTD Spring 2018 in Coronado, California. After meetings with a dozen or so distributors, Mr. Legouic commented, “After a few hours at this meeting, I felt like I was connecting with likeminded people, perhaps even friends. These are people who value the same ideas and pursue the same types of goals.” Today, KYKLO has hundreds of friends and followers in the industry. We have been blessed. KYKLO’s team continues to grow. Most have no idea as to the extent of our growth; today we have people literally spanning the globe, and have more than doubled in size since the onset of Covid19. Our company photo is getting harder to produce. The coolest part is each new person brings a unique and fascinatingly new contribution to the company. One goal of our Founders was to create a family oriented and friendly work environment. Most would heartily agree the mission was accomplished. One more point worth mentioning is KYKLO’s recent move into our Buffalo, New York Office. After occupying a temporary facility, we finished the buildout and moved into our new 5,400-square-foot North American Headquarters office. The new space features everything a person would expect in a modern technology-based facility. It has original hardwood floors, brick walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, 20+ ft ceilings, exposed ductwork found in other successful software businesses, open floor plan with call rooms, conference rooms, and a relaxation room. KYKLO has 11 employees in Buffalo and is actively expanding with other new positions. No Birthday Toast Ends Gracefully You may have noticed that even the most well-meaning of birthday toasts generally get bogged down near the end. When you are talking about your own birthday, the author walks a thin line – on one hand leaving out important points on the other hand, coming across as braggadocio. Rather than try to come up with the words to bring this article to a graceful end, allow us to toss out some statistics: Number of individualized SKUs developed: 3,302,958. Number of visitors to KYKLO powered web shops LAST WEEK ALONE: 300,000+. Number of Languages Spoken by KYKLO staff members: 16 Number of Nationalities on Staff: 10 Number of ERP Companies that Integrate with KYKLO: 10 Continents with KYKLO Customers: 3 There is so much more on the short-term horizon. We will do our best to keep you abreast of everything happening in future months. We will be at AHTD in Colorado Nothing is quite as wonderful as meeting with old friends and making new ones! We will be at AHTD next month and would love to talk about how we might make your digital future bigger and brighter. Shoot us a message, give us a call, or send out a carrier pigeon, let’s get together! SCHEDULE A DEMO

Expanding business and growing market share involves requires a steady flow of new sales prospects,  aka leads .  In the past, most of these came by way of tradeshows, magazine responses, and old fashion cold calling.  The process was exhausting and expensive.  Going back to the 1990s, one manufacturer in the automation segment built a distributor program which rewarded the salespeople of their distributors for identifying new prospects the old-fashioned way – via cold calls.  Stating each qualified lead cost 75 dollars, they posted a cash bonus payout to distributor salespeople who found new potential customers for their products and brought in their factory sales rep. Distributors, who generally do not participate in national tradeshows, magazine advertising, or other similar forms of advertising, struggled to comprehend the magnitude of the $75 reward (which at the time seemed exorbitant).  But they responded well to the reward and the program was deemed a success by all involved. Today the struggle for new potential customers continues.  Trade shows, once viewed as the top spot to gather new customer contacts, were waning in popularity long before COVID came on the scene.  During the past year and a half, most of these have been either postponed or altogether canceled.  Yet the need for new potential places to sell products continues, perhaps even escalates. Manufacturers must harvest leads online According to a study published by “ ThinkwithGoogle.com ” experts,  89 percent of buyers  in the B2B world  begin their product selection with a web search .   Think about this statistic.  Your existing customers research future product needs online, and your competitor’s customers are looking as well.  The point is failure to provide necessary information that is also easy to find negates an amazing opportunity. Armed with the right kind of product data backed up by a strongly developed keyword search strategy, the manufacture can turn their website into a lead generation machine.  Customers visiting the site can be tracked and when special data is requested, the customer might be convinced to share not only their name but other important information for future localized follow-up. Extending this further, search trends will point out how the customer arrived at their decision.  Things like all products considered may show up in the customer’s electronic trail.  This is especially true when the manufacturer’s site features product comparison or selection tools. Data turns the search into a qualified lead The real differentiator in the value of leads comes via a qualification process.  For example, a spreadsheet of engineer’s names at every manufacturing plant with a robot is a list.  This type of list can be purchased inexpensively and easily, but they are not sales leads.  An amalgamation of engineers from plants expecting to “someday” purchase a product tied to the robot is still mostly a list.  However, if we determine the engineer is researching, studying, and investing time in reviewing a product to connect to the robot.  The engineer’s name is a qualified lead. Web based activity can be tracked by the number of pages viewed and time spent on each page.  The information on a web visitor spending 20 seconds on a single page is of much less value than a similar visitor who reviews the product and then spends the next 20 minutes drilling into additional information on a product or technology which interests them.  A process for determining the level of interest allows a company to measure leads.  The best leads are passed along for either person-to-person contact or migrated to some automated system for providing the lead with additional pertinent information. Many manufacturers lack the ability to attract customers Unwittingly, a significant number of manufacturer’s websites lack some of the critical information required to drive business forward.  Some lack a keyword strategy.  Others invest much energy in brand awareness without providing the potential customer with important product data.  Because of the structure of the company, many are disjointed and difficult to maneuver.  This is too important to leave to chance. Let us lend you a new set of eyes.  Allow a company dedicated to the sale of high-tech automation, electrical, and fluid power products to share their expertise.  KYKLO has evaluated over 100 manufacturers in the market KYKLO has run expert analysis on over 100 manufactures in the Electrical, Automation, and Pneumatics market.  Our findings indicate only a few manufacturers are properly positioned for the future.  We would love to provide you with some thoughts and critiques of your place in this list.  The evaluation is free and comes without an obligation.    Give us a call or send an email.