The COVID-19 pandemic has made sure that the year 2020 will go into the history books for a number of reasons. For one, the way people work has changed. But while some of us are fortunate enough to have the option to work from home, this has not been the case for everyone, especially for those who have been designated as essential workers. These individuals continue to show up for work during periods of local community restrictions or shelter-in-place orders.

Whether working remotely or on-site, safety is a big concern for all of us right now. According to Price Waterhouse Cooper’s November 2020 Workforce Pulse Survey of 1,000 American workers (both remote and essential), 48 percent say they feel strongly or somewhat agree that they are forced to sacrifice personal safety to remain employed. Many employees are concerned about their safety — as they should be. I’m thankful that my employer, CDW, has taken coworkers’ concerns about safety very seriously.

Any manufacturer with a complex production line understands the importance of having a connected factory. By deploying machines that can communicate and share data with a central system, a manufacturer can adapt to operational needs in real time to drive efficiencies and improve the bottom line. But connected factories also face challenges that can hamper success if left unaddressed.

New technologies get a lot of attention. In fact, you probably hear a nearly constant stream of discussion about technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, machine learning and the Internet of Things. Sometimes, it even seems impossible to avoid the acronyms for these technologies — AI, VR, ML and IoT.

By comparison, radio frequency identification is largely ignored outside of certain trade journals. Retailers, however, should pay attention to RFID, which has provided the retail industry with a way to identify and track inventory for the past 15 years.

As data analytics have taken off in retail, I’ve seen companies racing to make investments in the space — implementing robust analytics platforms and onboarding teams of data scientists in a rush to stay ahead of their competition. According to a Gartner study of retail technology, 45 percent of retailers either have up-to-date AI technology…

No retailer wants to read complaints about their store on social media platforms such as Yelp or Facebook. And in segments with thin margins, such as grocery stores, a lousy customer experience can be particularly damaging. To improve the customer experience, retailers are increasingly implementing autonomous systems that can continuously monitor stock levels, cleanliness and…

Manufacturers favor “just in time” over “just in case” across the entire supply chain because it minimizes overhead expenses and fattens margins. But manufacturers, their suppliers and their customers are still leaving a lot of money on the table because they don’t have deep, real-time visibility into all of the factors that affect supply, demand…