MindHARBOR

08/05/2026

We're grateful for the opportunity to contribute our latest guest column, "SaaS Is the Starting Point—Not the Strategy," to the July/August issue of Industrial Distribution.

Every distributor seems to be evaluating SaaS, AI, automation, and modernization initiatives right now.

The opportunities are tremendous. The bigger challenge is making the right strategic decisions before investing significant time, money, and organizational effort.

In our article, we share a few hard-earned lessons on moving with purpose—balancing innovation with practicality, protecting your company's intellectual property and operational knowledge, and building a technology strategy that serves your business for years to come.

A sincere thank you to Industrial Distribution and Anna Wells for the opportunity to help advance the conversation.

We'd love to hear your thoughts. What opportunities—or challenges—are you seeing as distributors navigate SaaS, AI, and modernization?

If you'll be at P21WWUG Connect next week, we'd love to continue the conversation in person.

Technology should enable your strategy—not become your strategy.

📖 Read the article:
https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=867624&p=32&view=issueViewer

GUEST COLUMN SaaS Is the Starting Point — Not the Strategy Why distributors need greater control over their data and integrations. By Mike Blasdell D istributors are moving to SaaS ERP platforms at an accelerating pace. The reasons are compelling: reduced infrastructure costs, faster deployment, s...

05/18/2026

We appreciate ISHN publishing our latest article!!
“The Next Safety Incident May Start Between Your Systems”

Read here > https://www.ishn.com/articles/115333-the-next-safety-incident-may-start-between-your-systems

Modern businesses don’t just run on software anymore. They run on: connections, integrations, APIs, data flow & assumptions between systems And increasingly, operational risk lives in those invisible spaces.

MindHARBOR.com: Fix. Build. Bridge.
hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

Most safety conversations today focus on people, procedures, and training. And they should. But there’s a growing risk in modern operations that doesn’t get enough attention

04/13/2026

Our latest article / Thanks to Laura & The Editorial Team for publishing: Get Your AI Terminology Straight: A Manufacturing Leader's Guide / If you don't know your LLMs from your MLs and agents, you're far from alone.

If you don't know your LLMs from your MLs and agents, you're far from alone.

02/26/2026

PLEASE Join our www.MindHARBOR.com Team next week for an insightful webinar hosted by P21WWUG:

Building a Smarter Supply Chain on Epicor P21: Modular Portals, Automation, and AI-Enabled Planning

In today's fast-paced distribution world, success hinges on visibility, flexibility, and smart decisions. Discover a scalable Supply Chain Portal Suite built specifically for Epicor Prophet 21—no full ERP overhaul required!

Key highlights we'll cover:
• Automated purchase orders and transfers
• Demand review and forecasting workflows
• Centralized planning with exception visibility
• AI-powered planning tools that boost accuracy, cut noise, and let your team focus on high-impact issues—driving better service levels while optimizing inventory

Whether you're modernizing planning or seeking ways to enhance ex*****on, this session will deliver actionable insights for Epicor P21 users.

Date/Time: March 5th at 2:00 PM Eastern
Register here: www.p21ww.org

Not a P21WWUG member? Contact me (or us @ www.mindharbor.com) for session info and details if interested!

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag "

02/25/2026

We had the opportunity to contribute a new article to Automation.com about a concept I've been thinking about a lot lately in manufacturing systems.

We talk constantly about automation, AI, data, and digital transformation.

But there’s another constraint that quietly affects many operations:

Decision latency — the time between when a system detects something and when someone actually acts on it.

The article explores how this challenge shows up across shop floor systems, MES platforms, and ERP environments.

If you're interested in manufacturing, automation, or technology trends, feel free to take a look.

https://www.automation.com/article/hidden-constraint-modern-manufacturing-decision-latency

Thanks to Automation.com for publishing the piece.

Digital Intelligence offers a practical framework for reducing decision latency by connecting industrial data, enterprise systems and human expertise into faster operational feedback loops.

02/16/2026

Grateful to the team at ISHN for publishing the latest article in our Digital Intelligence series: Digital Intelligence as a Safety Layer — Strengthening People, Not Replacing Them

(Found here)> https://www.ishn.com/articles/115171-digital-intelligence-as-a-safety-layer-strengthening-people-not-replacing-them

Across safety, distribution, and manufacturing, decisions are stacking up faster than humans can comfortably process. The goal of Digital Intelligence isn’t to replace people—it’s to reduce cognitive overload, organize complexity, and help professionals stay in control when the stakes are high.

In this piece, we explore how DI becomes another safety layer: not decision-making instead of humans, but tools that amplify judgment, preserve institutional knowledge, and strengthen the systems people rely on every day.

Appreciate the ISHN editorial team for the opportunity, and the many safety and operations professionals whose real-world experiences continue to shape this series.

More articles in the series are on the way, focusing on the practical “where, how, and when” of Digital Intelligence adoption.

Across safety, distribution, and manufacturing, the pressure feels familiar. Systems are moving faster. Information is coming from everywhere. And now, layered on top of all of that, comes Artificial Intelligence — or what many of us are starting to call Digital Intelligence (DI). For many profess...

01/15/2026

Thank you ISHN Team for publishing our second article on AI. More coming soon!

Artificial Intelligence — or what many now call Digital Intelligence (DI) — has crossed a permanent threshold. It’s no longer experimental, niche, or futuristic.

01/12/2026

Happy New Year Out There!

Like many in the Prophet 21 community, we’ve been following Epicor’s recent announcement and the thoughtful discussion it has sparked.

https://www.epicor.com/en-us/company/newsroom/press-releases/innovation-moves-to-the-cloud/

From our seat as a custom development and integration shop, our role remains the same: meet clients where they are and support their unique operating models.

Some organizations are cloud-first.
Some remain on-prem.
Many are working in hybrid environments — or running small, low-risk proofs of concept alongside their core ERP to explore ideas at a comfortable pace.

Those efforts aren’t about direction or deadlines. They’re about learning, validating assumptions, and keeping flexibility while day-to-day operations stay stable.

We’ve put together a short overview of how we’re approaching these conversations today, and we’ll continue to update the page as we learn more. We’d genuinely welcome input from customers, partners, and peers — this is evolving for everyone.

We’ll also share what we’re learning with the community through our newsletter so others can benefit from real-world experience, not speculation.

https://www.mindharbor.com/epicor-prophet-21-kinetic-on-prem-end-of-life

Different paths. Same goal: helping teams run their business well.

Epicor Prophet 21 and Kinetic on-prem environments are evolving. Learn what on-prem end-of-life really means, timelines to watch, and practical planning options.