Case Study: Premier DSD
Overview:
Premier DSD, a New York City-based wholesale food distributor was founded 25 years ago by Marc Ceruto, the company’s President & CEO. As experts in the national grocery distribution business, they have over 1,000 Direct Store Delivery (DSD) routes across the country. Premier uses inSitu’s mobile field sales app to maximize efficiency along those daily delivery routes.
Challenges:
- Paper product catalogs cannot be revised on the go, resulting in inaccurate data being presented to customers
- Expensive to use and customize 3rd party software that syncs with QuickBooks
- Difficult and costly to sync Quickbooks to hardware/hand held devices drivers use
- Inaccurate invoices and pricing leads to time consuming, costly error correction
Solutions:
Mobilize Order Processing
Marc found the inSitu Sales app through QuickBooks, which he was already using for accounting purposes. He found the onboarding process “seamless” because it synced with his existing QuickBooks program. He comments, “I was looking for an app to mobilize order processing. QuickBooks online…was too limiting, for the level of detail, pricing structure, and different things that I needed so my only option was to use the enterprise version, which I had always used and connect an outside app to it”. With the app downloaded to the salesmen’s smartphones, licensees use the app to process orders, create invoices, and forward them to one of the drivers who can [print them with a mobile printer].” Some delivery routes are not pre-ordered and the app has enabled drivers the flexibility of processing orders in real time. “Bread, chips, soda, and beer are typically sold off the truck, [so they load the truck] in the morning and go to their stores and sell. They need a mobile device to sell off the truck and create invoices on the spot.”
Before tablets and smartphones, Premier’s salesmen relied on other hand held mini computer devices that loaded sales data. They were not wireless and data could not be updated and processed in real time. At one point Marc reports that he had 50-60 of these devices in the field with different routes. At $1,000-$2,000 each and another $500 for a printer, purchasing, maintaining and repairing/replacing these devices became costly. Now, his sales reps use their own tablets and smartphones and simply download the app provided by the company. With regard to the ease of transition, Ceruto says “with our distributors and sales reps [adoption] has been seamless. They went from a form of technology that was cumbersome and antiquated (DOS-based), so moving onto an app on a smartphone streamlined that. They’re already familiar with the functionality of how to move from screen to screen.”
Improve Customer Engagement
Access to a digital product catalog has enabled Premier DSD’s sales reps to provide the most accurate pricing and inventory information to customers in the field. The flexibility of this product feature on the app is a key improvement to their operations. “The old way of updating on a desktop computer and then going through a sync process to get it out to the sales reps wasn’t always so easy depending on what type of data plan they had. Often there were mistakes on pricing that we needed to correct. We’re [now] able to fix it on the spot, do a quick sync and the sales reps have the correct information.”
Some of his larger customers still require hard copies of invoices for proof of delivery. With inSitu Sales’s mobile app, he can accommodate those customers while using the benefit of the technology. Sales reps can pair the tablet or smartphone with a mobile wireless printer, such as models manufactured by Bixolon or Zebra Technologies, that many of his drivers carry on the trucks so that invoices can be printed and given to customers on the spot.
Increase Agility and Efficiency
Having the ability to create and update those invoices and other convenient features of the app has saved Premier DSD time and resources.
“With inaccurate pricing or inaccurate invoices at the end of the week or several weeks later when you get paid, you have to go through a reconciliation process of matching everything up. It’s very time consuming and costly. If pricing is accurate and you know exactly what you’re going to get paid when they send the bill and it matches with your receivables, it makes it a very easy and smooth process.” – Marc Ceruto, President & CEO, Premier DSD
Increase Revenue
Another key benefit to using the app is the ability to have pictures of the products in their custom order screen through the digital catalog. Without having the visual representation along with other product data, Premier would have to rely on paper presentations that require frequent revisions and updates or a computer/hand-held device or app to show pictures. Marc notes, “inSitu makes it easy with having jpeg images of the product which helps the buyer make decisions. [When a salesperson is describing a new product] they need the visual to see exactly what that product is and by having it right in the same screen as where you can put the order in, has helped increase revenue.”
Shopping Cart Take Away
- The inSitu Sales app is a modern, flexible, efficient, cost effective mobile tool that provides field sales reps with the ability to conduct sales functions such as order and invoice creation, verification, and updates in real time
- Digital catalog with product details and images help buyers make faster decisions and increase revenue
- Increased pricing accuracy saves time and resources, provides better customer engagement experience
- Seamless sync with QuickBooks and mobile printers
- Scalable usage of app provides many parties with accurate data in real time
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