Give the Buyer What They Want

What do supply chain technology buyers care about? As a product marketing manager, Jennifer is on a mission to find out. What keeps supply chain software buyers awake at night? Which Websites do they visit? Which leg of their pants do they put on first? Okay, maybe not that last one. But learning these finer points makes everything HighJump posts, reports on and plans more useful to our potential customers. Jennifer shares observations, insights and interesting industry news from a product marketing – and a developing student of supply chain industry knowledge – point of view.
 

Outside of work, there’s a good chance you’ll find Jennifer outdoors soaking up that fresh north woods  air, spending time with her husband and son or watching NHL hockey.

I suspect, although it wouldn’t be admitted to in mixed company, that the presumption has oft been made that having any sort of route accounting software in place puts that direct store delivery business ahead of most. Quite a stretch, considering the increasing complexity of food and beverage distribution processes and requirements, and the extreme range of RASs out there (think old pick-up vs. shiny new SUV).

Now, that old pick-up was, in its day, the envy of many. It could even drive through some bumpy terrain. But now, although it [usually] starts, and can [almost] reach highway speeds, it’s not too reliable, and you need to visit salvage yards to find replacement parts. Not exactly the chariot you want your precious cargo riding in, and not exactly cost-effective. Not the most inspired metaphor, but not too far off?

So how do you know if you’ve got a route accounting system akin to that old pick-up? 
 

• Your processing times seem to be getting slower and slower. 
• You spend days trying to extract data for reports you need to run your business.
• It’s tough to get applications to work together and you’re spending a lot of time and money making integrations work.
• There’s only one person there who understands the necessary workarounds of your RAS – and he’s retiring next fall. 

No, we haven’t been shadowing you. The fact is: the symptoms you’re experiencing are quite common to DSD businesses running on dated technology. While your system may still work at a basic functional level (the pick-up still starts and runs, remember?), modern technology can provide new features, better access to company performance and smoother integration with other systems. 

You may even be interested in the “full maintenance plan” (to extend the vehicle metaphor painfully further) for a modern route accounting system – otherwise known as an on-demand, or hosted system. This option removes the maintenance headache completely by having your supply chain management software vendor host your system for you. There is no hardware to purchase or maintain and patches and upgrades are done automatically. 

This year may be the best yet for your direct store delivery business – do you have a swift, reliable and easy-to-maintain “vehicle” to get you there?
 

I’m enjoying my second cup of coffee while learning about HighJump’s product strategy in our second day’s opening session at Innovation 2009. Sitting at my table with me are HighJump customers from the consumer goods, manufacturing and wine and spirits industries. Quite a representation!

HighJump’s Vice President of Product Strategy, Chad Collins, explains that HighJump plans to continue with the expansion of direct store delivery footprint into other geographies (HighJump is already the largest provider of DSD technology in North America), and deepen manufacturing execution and transportation capabilities.

As we get deeper into the presentation, we’re getting live demonstrations of some of HighJump’s most impressive new product offerings, including:
 

• HighJump Performance Advantage – HighJump’s new business intelligence dashboarding solution for supply chain products that provides quick visual representation of key operational data/metrics
   
• HighJump RouteCenter – HighJump’s go-forward route accounting system for the beverage industry has some pretty sophisticated drilldown, search and adaptability capabilities and many customers are already converting from older systems onto this modern platform.
   
• GPS – HighJump’s DSD customers get more than just dots moving around a screen. This new real-time tool is great for any companies operating in a dynamic sales environment and creates staff coaching opptys and helps with fuel consumption – it’s already being used in the rendering and dairy DSD industries
   
• HighJump Supply Chain Advantage 11.0 – our newest release is coming later this year and includes some pretty cool cloud computing and interoperability capabilities. Stay tuned!
   
• Unique upgrade process - HighJump's upgrades stand apart from our competitors in that our customers can choose to include only the workflows they need when they upgrade, and keep existing configurations! See how it works at www.highjump.com/easy_upgrade
   

• Wal-mart is actually growing square-shaped watermelons in order to facilitate packing/shipping (they stack better than oval watermelons!)
• Home Depot is moving toward "self-distribution" - a logistics model favoring direct store delivery from suppliers to a model that moves most products first through Home Depot distribution centers
• Kimberly-Clark is consolidating distribution operations into regional mega-distribution / mixing centers positioned close to key customer markets

It’s good day in Orlando! Today marks the official start of HighJump’s annual user conference, Innovation 2009. Highlights of the morning so far? An excellent breakfast (I think the orange juice is actually fresh-squeezed!) followed by a rousing opening session delivered by HighJump’s President and CEO, Timothy Campbell. A year ago at Innovation 2008 HighJump unveiled a new business vision built on both strategic acquisitions and leveraging current solutions. What a year it’s been! Over the past 12 months HighJump has:

• Added 196 new customers
• Made two strategic acquisitions in the DSD market – in aggregate, HighJump is now the largest provider of direct store delivery (DSD) technology in North America
• Introduced several new supply chain products, including a business intelligence module
• Made available on-demand route accounting system; unveiled plans for more cloud computing

Looks like it’s going to be a great week of networking and learning. Looking forward to some great customer testimonials coming up next from Wisconsin Distributing and Provide Commerce (ProFlowers.com, RedEnvelope, etc.)!