Mobile Delivery

HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, announced Wisconsin Distributors and Erie Beer are now using HighJump RouteCenter to power their beer distribution operations. Privately held by common ownership and long-time HighJump Software customers, the Anheuser-Busch InBev wholesalers implemented the HighJump route accounting system (RAS) to manage their growing direct store delivery (DSD) operations. Erie Beer distributes three million cases per year and is based in Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin Distributors distributes six million cases each year and is located in Wisconsin. HighJump RouteCenter manages the distributors’ selling, delivery, inventory and settlement processes.  Additionally, the RAS works in conjunction with the Anheuser-Busch Mobility solution to extend the solution to the store shelf.

Read the full press release.

Recently I read a blog post by Adrian Gonzales of ARC Advisory Group which included examples of how social media tools are being put to practical supply chain use in businesses such as Con-way, where Twitter feeds are helping match carriers with available freight. This combined with the fact that mobile internet use / wireless connectivity is growing faster than most people expected clearly demonstrates the practicality of two entirely different types of technology coming together to create an amazing hybrid supply chain solution. This leads me to wonder: is supply chain management ready to cross paths with social media?

On second thought, maybe we need to differentiate between operational supply chain management and supply chain management research and networking. Could it be that some supply chain management professionals are ready to acquiesce when it comes to testing and adopting some “bleeding edge” Twitter and mobile execution solutions if it leads to pragmatic business benefits, but that they aren’t ready to whole-heartedly make the jump into using Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter as trusted sources for evaluating new technology purchases? What about giving feedback and collaborating about the solutions they already have?

Cisco recently won a “Best Use of Facebook” award for their Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/Cisco). The page was originally created to aggregate all of Cisco’s social networks and content into one channel and create a unique experience for their fans, and now it’s grown to almost 80,000 members strong.

Seems my writing has led me to more questions than answers. What do all of you think? How to supply chain technology buyers like to collect peer group feedback on purchases and vendor experience? Are you ready for supply chain software vendors to jump in wholeheartedly with social media efforts beyond the popular blogs?
 

I have to admit I am not an avid World Cup soccer fan...but I have enjoyed the coverage and subsequent drama unfold with a few of the higher profile upsets and controversial rulings on the field.  The ironic story regarding the English team's history with the "Ghost Goal" certainly caught my attention (England clinched its only World Cup victory in 1966 with a similar dispute goal line marker) as the one disallowed versus Germany, en route to a 4 - 1 German victory.

What I found particularly interesting was reading how Sepp Blatter (FIFA President) first maintained the "human aspect" of the game was key and could not be replaced, only to later change positions and seem open to technological advances to assist the officials.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/29/sepp-blatter-goalline-technology

How does this relate to direct store delivery (DSD) companies and their challenges?  It seems that Sepp did some soul searching and came around to the concept of at least considering, if not implementing, technological advances.  So what are some signs for DSD companies to recognize when it is time to move forward with a project that advances their use of technology?  Below I talk about five points that really should trigger at least an investigation into what alternatives exist.

1.  Hinderance or Help?
Your company bought that software (route accounting systems (RAS), mobile sales solutions, or maybe an inventory application) or possibly hardware with the intent of helping your employees get the job done faster and better than ever.  At first things were great and you saw immediate improvement in your daily process, but those days are gone.  Today you are more frequently forced to create work arounds or miss opportunities all together due to limitations in your technology suite rather than it helping you achieve improved results.

2.  Reliability Issues?
How often do you hear your route drivers complaining of having to "re-key" a route due to data loss?  Or perhaps a rushed purchase order has been placed due to an unrealized inventory issue from a batch posting failure?  A better question would be - how many times can you let this happen before you realize there is a problem?  Whether it is hardware or software that is letting you down, when these solutions start to impact your business due to failure it may be time to act.

3.  Falling behind competitors?
When the calibre of your lawn falls behind that of your neighbors there may be some good natured teasing involved, but not much more.  When your ability to deliver goods, invoice accurately or manage your supply chain falls behind your competitor you have a much more serious issue to deal with.  In today's economy DSD providers are having their margins tightened while dealing with increased costs, so this is no time to give your competition a head start!

4.  Increasing Cost of Ownership?
What did your IT staff look like when you first implemented your route accounting system?  How did you roll out sales process changes with your route salesmen?  What budget do you allocate to these activities now?  Upgrades, maintenance, support and enhancements are all costs that hit the bottom line.  If your IT spend continues to grow but your ability to handle new functionality (or possibly even maintain the status quo) hasn't progressed, isn't it time to start asking why?

5.  End of Life?
Perhaps one of the more feared phrases of the IT world, if the above listed points haven't triggered the proverbial "spidey senses" then this one surely will start your temperature to rise.  When Microsoft or IBM delivers the notice that product "X" is getting the End of Life treatment you may be able to stretch your utilization past the date, but if anything goes wrong the costs to support / correct / replace will be substantial.  Better to act quickly and start identifying alternative paths to support your business. 

The list of compelling events for your operations may be considerably different depending on the circumstances in which you exist.  But by reading this, I trust that you are actively monitoring where you stand in your technology's life cycle...and good luck making your decisions!

It’s the point of decision: the consumer is reaching through the convenience store cooler door to grab her chosen brand. What affected her decision? What if you see each DSD technology touch point involved in getting the product to the store, and understand how it affected the consumer’s decision?

HighJump’s new video makes it easy to understand how a modern DSD suite works together, including route accounting system (RAS), mobile presell and delivery, surveys and data collection, load optimization, GPS tracking and more.

 

Related posts: The Real Components of a Direct Store Delivery Software Solution

 

Walmart….I know it is almost universally recognized as a dirty word for the many challenges they create for their DSD suppliers.  However, today I would like to talk about the beneficial changes to operations that have resulted from their ASN initiative.

Let’s first look at how many “traditional” DSD vendors handled their order flow before ASN’s (I am going to state the implied assumption of pre-sold orders rather than peddle sales here, but really ASN is conceptually impossible without pre-sales).

1. Order is received by vendor “X” hours or days in advance of required delivery (the method of entry is for another discussion at a later date) into route accounting software.
2. Order goes through some level of processing to determine how it will be built.  Eg. Products are aggregated with common packages, or order is built specifically for customer (read my previous blog on whether to build by order or not).
3. Pallet(s) are built by the distribution warehouse staff with paper pick tickets / load sheets.  Possibly with, but more likely without checking of pallet content.
4. Driver shows up the following morning and verifies his load content and has to either manually pick additional product to replace short picks / miss-picks, or if they are lucky gets some help from the receiving staff.
5. Driver delivers goods to store where additional invoice/delivery adjustments may be required due to earlier verification issues.

This process obviously has some fairly inefficient steps here, but I think it is safe to say this was generally accepted, and even still is today with many small to medium sized distributors.

The Walmart ASN initiative continues to roll out across North America.  To be compliant DSD suppliers not only have to pick at a rate of near constant perfection, but they also have to submit this information well in advance of the driver showing up at the back door with product.  Meeting these requirements means manual picking processes have to go away and any pick discrepancies must be accounted for AND communicated in advance of delivery.   This means adding a step to update pick quantities and another step to update delivery handhelds have to above process.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (no offence to the rocket scientists), to figure out the changes required to complete these tasks cost $$.  But let’s look at how these operational changes provide benefit beyond being able to continue to supply Walmart with product.

1. Productivity Metrics:  by using either a handheld or mobile computer solution you should be able to track more data than just updated pick quantities.  Why not select a solution to track picking time to generate productivity numbers?  These metrics could be used for incentive picker compensation or alternative motivation plans.
2. Driver Check Out:  with loads already reflecting the changes to pick quantities driver checkout processes should take far less time, getting them out into the trade faster.
3. Delivery Time Reduction:  similar to point above, with accurate load/invoice information route drivers reduce time required to handle the administration side of mobile sales, and should be able to spend more time actually servicing stops.
4. Risk of Fraud:  unfortunately fraud happens…but with accurate order/invoice numbers the need for invoice adjustment will theoretically go to zero.  While I doubt the zero adjustment goal will be present 100% of time, far fewer invoice adjustments means those that happen need better explanation and can be investigated to confirm legitimacy.
5. Route Reconciliation:  here is yet another spot where accurate orders result in time savings.  The lack of invoice adjustments, and accurate inventory numbers save labor for route drivers and reconciliation clerks alike.
6. Inventory Accuracy:  actual pick quantities rather than relieving inventory based on expected numbers give your operation and sales teams real on hand data to know what needs to be ordered, and what is available to sell.

As you can see there are definite benefits to implementing a process solution where actual picked quantities are efficiently tracked.  To truly reap the benefits of this process though, operations should be applying this supply chain improvement not only to their Walmart ASN accounts but to all (or at least the majority) of their accounts!

Traditional perceived challenges to dealing with Walmart aside, I think this is one area where the supplier integration changes they have created in the DSD supply chain best practices are actually forcing operations to become more efficient!  I hope that you consider some of the points above and how they could help your direct store delivery operations as well.
 

No this blog entry is not going to be a behavioral reminder from your pre-school teachers…rather this is about how the supply chain software market continues to change, specifically for DSD users. Long gone are the days where features and functionality were the key factors to any software purchase decision. It is true that without solid functionality and key market features software will quickly drop off the desirable list, but these two points are merely the first gauntlet to pass towards a positive decision regarding software selection.

Today, being able to provide “out of the box” integration options, tool kits and breadth of product solutions are more important than ever in the DSD world. A next generation RAS is great, but what else comes with it? Does it provide a flexible mobile sales solution? What about your inventory and truck loading solutions? Traditional (aka Green Screen style) RAS solutions have been able to provide batch data entry for inventory, and load sheets for your picking team but does this technology really cut it in today’s world? That covers some of the basic points of entry of data into your system…but what are you going to do with it once you have it there? Do you have a robust report generation solution? Even better than that, how about a data mining tool with not only canned reports, but also an easy interface where users can define their own “custom” queries to identify the exact data elements you want and need for executive dashboards?

Beyond what I would consider fairly “standard” offerings listed above, many operations are running back end ERP software solutions as well. Being able to provide reproducible integrations to these solutions is quickly becoming as important as the software solution itself. Software users today have existing structure and systems that are not going away, and any future solutions must integrate easily and seamlessly in order to maximize benefit of your DSD solution. This is one area where most companies want to avoid being on the “bleeding edge” of technology, and would really prefer to see an offering that can reference others.

Another reason to consider integration options is as simply as taking advantage of the strength of other solutions. Leveraging the functionality of other solutions not only provides the users benefit, but can do so in a more cost effective manner (if done properly) than building additional modules outside of your core competencies. This may be a difficult decision for some to make, but I think that this is an area that can definitely be used to your advantage if properly evaluated.

I will end this post with the following question…can you really only consider one component to your DSD solution in isolation, or will you look at the end to end integration of all components?
 

Today marks one year since our very first blog post here on Raising the Bar.  What a year it's been!  We've enjoyed bringing you commentary on all things supply chain, from direct store delivery software to warehouse management to logsitiscs and supply chain management.   

Let's take a look back at our top five most popular posts of the year.

1. Is Wal-Mart Sub-optimizing Its Extended Supply Chain?
2. Why Inventory is Not an Asset
3. Why Cap and Trade is Not the Answer
4. What Makes a Good Metric?
5. Where did my variance come from this time?

We'd like to thank you for your readership and comments. We had some great dialogue and ideas shared here by our readers.  Here's to another great year of blogging!

When I first started implementing warehousing solutions for direct store delivery (DSD) and mobile delivery customers, I had come from a WMS background where picking activities were specific to a customer. The idea of aggregate picking was basically a foreign concept. So when a customer would ask for my insight into which picking method I would suggest, the answer always seemed obvious. My belief that this was the best way seemed to follow the industry “trends” at the time as well.

After gaining more experience, and perhaps more perspective on this issue, I now ask customers to question these points prior to committing to a build by order (or palletized) solution suggestion versus building by package (or aggregate) for their sideload truck deliveries. Given some of the responses I have received I think that the trend of palletizing may be losing some steam too.

Labor Cost

The most basic argument for palletizing versus aggregate is that labor costs more for delivery drivers, so you should try to minimize their effort. At face value this seems straightforward and an obvious reason for palletized order building. However, you should be sure that you are able to reap the benefits of reducing the delivery driver labor. If your driver takes an 8 hour shift to deliver while handling aggregate loads, do they really cut their time down to 7 hours (or less) if you provide them with palletized loads? Compare this with your warehouse staff where you have active management in house and stop the shift at the end of the work (or redeploy to other tasks). This type of control over a delivery workforce is difficult to achieve

Cost of Damage (Damage Prevention)

I have never done any research or statistical analysis on the frequency of damaged product that has been built aggregate versus palletized…but I have listened to a lot of warehouse management voice their concerns! A typical first step to alleviate this damage issue is to wrap customer pallets. This normally addresses the issue, but now you have to account for an additional time & materials component when comparing the costs between aggregate & palletized. 

Vehicle Cube Utilization

This is probably one of the most basic arguments against palletizing. Utilization of vehicle cube is obviously much higher while building aggregate. The utilization argument assumes that there is sales volume to get to that level of capacity, which may or may not be the case…but assuming you do have the available volume, by improving cube utilization you may be able to remove vehicle(s) from the road.

Depending on your customer base you may also have to consider dock access. If your sideload trucks are servicing customers with docks where there is the potential of forklift pallet removal, this is a huge swing factor obviously. 

If after considering these factors you decide building palletized orders by customer is the way to go, then more power to you! However, I hope that you consider some of these points before you make a decision based on the assumption that it is “cheaper.”

HighJump Software announced Shearer’s Foods Inc. is experiencing improvements across its operations after implementing HighJump Route Administrator and HighJump Route Assistant. The company utilizes the HighJump route accounting, mobile sales and mobile delivery solutions to support 100 direct store delivery routes across Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Shearer’s Foods sought to replace its 30-year-old, antiquated system after it became too costly to maintain. The company searched for a next-generation route accounting system to automate its manual processes and provide visibility into its daily operations. Shearer’s Foods selected HighJump Route Administrator and HighJump Route Assistant for the software’s depth of functionality and ability to meet the company’s key requirements.

Learn more about Shearer's Foods' success with its HighJump route accounting system, mobile sales and mobile delivery solutions.

In true fashion, the technology industries have taken all of the meaning out of seemingly descriptive terms such as business intelligence (BI), web-portals and virtually all other terms currently used for non-paper based reporting. Almost every business owner or manager that I know runs their business off of one or two key reports or metrics. If the systems they are buying can provide or simplify the process of getting that information, then the chances of the investment being made are greatly amplified.  However, more and more we are seeing a departure from flat file paper type report formats.

 

We live in an active world.  People want to be alerted when critical things happen; they don’t have the time or the patience to go looking.  Tomorrow’s applications need to take an active approach to all reporting functions ranging from simple invoicing through crucial activities.  I have spoken about some of these in previous posts.

 

·         Don’t print invoices at the point of delivery.  Have them delivered electronically to the proper recipients.  No paper is lost, it provides an audit trail and it improves the speed of payment. The car rental companies are doing this today; I get my receipt before I leave the rental compound.  Imagine doing this in the DSD environment.

·         Send email alerts to managers, clients and suppliers on critical events.  The airlines do this today when your plane is running late.  Dynamic scheduling and dispatch holds the same promise in delivery environments.

·         Dashboards, business intelligence etc … single screen views of what is going on in the work environment that clearly mark problems and allow you to drill down on them.  Here is the next key: people don’t work at their desks anymore.  We need to get that data onto the Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices being carried by mobile users.

·         Send alerts and advisories to text message or messenger sites … make it real time, active and actionable.

 

My generation lives in an e-mail world.  Even that is quickly going away and being replaced with TXT and Messenger environments.  The key to remaining relevant in a real-time word is getting critical point information in front of the right people as it happens. Dealing with the constant barrage of information will be the next problem.  However, today we have to deal with the fact that no one can or will be bothered to run a report or print the paper.  If business decision makers run their businesses based on a single report today, what does the next generation of data factor look like?  We use paper due to lack of a viable alternative.  Today, those alternatives exist and our addictions to paper are being replaced with a more potent and enrapturing electronic alternative. Our kids are already there; that means that business needs to catch up.

 

Related posts

• Blackberry, iPhone and Android in Direct Store Delivery (DSD)
• For a Paperless Society My Shred Bag Seems Awfully Full
• The Scary World of Making Systems Communicate

I recently received a direct mail marketing piece from a HighJump Software competitor. The mailer included a press release announcing that this company had “enhanced direct store delivery integration” and a one page datasheet which described a direct store delivery value chain as manufacturing + regional warehouse + mobile resources + retail shelf.

 

HighJump Software is the North American market leader for direct store delivery software solutions. If our primary competitor in the warehouse management systems market had encroached on our market position I needed to know. Perhaps they had acquired a route accounting solutions provider or acquired a provider of mobility solutions for mobile selling and delivery at the retail location. I consulted a trusted industry analyst who confirmed my suspicions… this was marketing hype and this company’s approach to direct store delivery still had significant “holes.”

 

Anyone familiar with the value chain of direct store delivery companies knows there are some specific complexities that must be addressed in order to have “comprehensive coverage across the extended supply chain.” Here are some things companies should consider when search for direct store delivery software solutions:

 

Certified Route Accounting Systems

Route Account Systems are unique software systems to manage the complexities of route-based sales and delivery. They typically manage the entire order-to-cash cycle and are geared toward the world where sales, inventory, and business metrics are all tied to a “route.” Although traditional ERP systems can be used for route accounting systems, they typically require customization to deal with complex pricing/promotion, cash settlement, truck inventory, and supplier e-commerce integration. To further understand the complexities in the beverage value chain read It is Hard for Anheuser-Busch to be Procter and Gamble.

 

Mobile Sales and Delivery Applications

Success or failure in a direct store delivery business is determined at the store shelf. Direct store delivery companies have large workforces of mobile sales and delivery professionals who need to be equipped with mobility technology for them to effectively accomplish their objectives. HighJump Software provides a comprehensive suite of mobility products which support industry best practices for order capture, goal-based selling, delivery tracking and cash settlement. For more details on these solutions read about our latest mobility suite product release HighJump Software Enhances Mobility Solutions With New Release of Mobile Route Sales and Delivery Software Suite.

 

Load Optimization

Optimized loading of side bay beverage trucks can be complex. While there are numerous packages for creating optimized load plans of traditional van trailers or flatbed trailers, optimizing for side bay beverage trucks is another animal. Additionally, this business problem becomes even more complex when you have a “peddle” environment (driver selling off truck without pre-sold orders) and driver preferences must be taken into account at the load and pallet level.

 

I think the moral of the story is “don’t believe the hype.” Direct store delivery software solutions are specialized for the unique needs of this industry. Direct store delivery software solutions deal with complexities of supplier integration, cash settlement and truck inventory. A WMS, TMS and retail workforce solution will not meet the needs of most food and beverage distributors in their direct store delivery operations.

Being in the handheld based solution business for quite awhile now, there is this voice in my head that keeps saying that there is more to the whole Smartphone thing than simply changing the device we capture our mobile sales, service and delivery transactions on. The fight for the mobile desk top is still raging on and there is no clear winner in sight. Open architectures that can span the operating systems will have a definite advantage. In the ruggedized space, at least for the near term, Microsoft rules the way. However, that cannot be said for what is being carried in the pockets of executives, sales people and even the man on the street.

Route Accounting and DSD systems are fantastic at collecting data. They collect information about sales, location, inventory, trends, specials, lost sales, movements and the list goes on. Then this little light goes on; what about creating a data push model to the outside world? The new killer app may not be in changing the way we collect the data but what we do with it. Some of this requires software, other parts of it are just implementation.

 

•  IMAGINE: The CEO receives up to the minute sales vs. expected data on his iPhone with drill down data against individual line items or categories that are not meeting the plan.

• IMAGINE: Pre-sending the predicted “Suggested” or “Perfect” order calculated by the Route Accounting System to the customer’s BlackBerry and having them pre-approve or edit the orders and add special instructions.

• IMAGINE: After a driver makes a delivery stop, alerting the merchandiser and the customer AP team that the order is on-sight and is ready for the next step.

• IMAGINE: Your customer can push orders and requirements based on current stock levels from his Android phone to update stock levels and recalculate suggested order levels.

The answer here is that we can completely change the customer interaction paradigm from a push only environment to an interactive environment. The “web” based customer portal is the past already. The new battleground is in the pocket of the businessman. Two years ago, I did about 20% of my email on my phone and I would never surf the web. Today I use my phone and my desktop interchangeably. Our market is changing, the users are much more technically able. This is the most exciting time ever to be involved with handheld technology. There is a revolution underway. It will be a game of leading or dying as the way customers interact with suppliers evolves to a new reality in all facets of business.

 

HighJump Software announces the latest release of its market leading mobility solution for mobile sales and mobile delivery. HighJump Mobile Sales Advantage, HighJump Virtual Cooler, and HighJump RouteXpress have been enhanced based on evolving technology and industry needs.

The HighJump mobile suite for direct store delivery (DSD) extends the route accounting system into the field for real-time visibility of sales and customer data. HighJump’s mobile products help integrate selling, marketing and delivery efforts across the organization. The HighJump mobile delivery system combines order processing, delivery, peddle sales, invoice management and comprehensive settlement capabilities to streamline daily delivery activities.

Read the full press release.

HighJump Software announced Sanimax is providing improved service to its customers after implementing the HighJump mobile sales and delivery applications. The company utilizes HighJump Route Administrator, HighJump Route Assistant and Usable GPS to execute its collection routes to reclaim materials such as animal by-products and used cooking oils. Sanimax renews or transforms the collected material at its North American facilities into high-demand goods such as tallow, glycerin, proteins, leather and biofuels.

Click here for the full press release to learn more about how Sanimax is improving its business with mobile delivery and route accounting systems from HighJump Software. 

In the technology world we hear a lot about “best practices.”  This is usually a carefully couched catch phrase that means “we did it our way and you should do it that way.”  This is one of those over abused phrases that needs to be added to everyone’s Board Room Bingo game and never used again.  With that said, there are truly best of breed methods that lead the industry.  However, the application of these methods needs to be highly personalized.  There is more than one way to do things and the term “best” depends on many factors that influence that particular situation.

In software, if there was a best then we wouldn’t need multiple vendors and we certainly wouldn’t need consultants to understand the business and implement solutions that maximize the business benefits to the company.  Solutions need to be highly configurable to adapt to the “best fit” for each and every customer. There are many ways to do that. You can take the workflow modeling process or you can take a flag driven process.  Direct Store Delivery environments are highly dynamic and business processes may need to change on a dime.  Unfortunately, many DSD organizations don’t really have the luxury of IT departments to run their route accounting systems and mobile delivery software. The tools built into the system need to be deployed so that normal business people can change, test and deploy them without the luxury of techie folks.

We hear people talk about “best practices” as a way to combat “highly configurable” as an implementation approach. It sounds so good and it looks great on a PowerPoint slide. After all, it’s the “best.”  Believe me that anyone who is in the business can configure the industry standard methods.  They simply wouldn’t survive in the business if they couldn’t.  Let’s start with that as a given.  The real trick is finding partners and software providers who can reflect your business in the software and help you grow.  Making it a practice is best, not a best practice.

There is an interesting term I have heard over the years about people who do the actual direct store delivery job. It goes something like, “If you are smart enough to do the job you may be too smart to take it.” The implication is that to do a really good job you need to have a kind of personal discipline and commitment to success as well as skill with people and sales that are not often found in industries where there is such a physical component. I have had the pleasure of working with and meeting many superstars in this industry; they are truly one of a kind individuals and are very talented. There is a true disconnect between the incentives put in place for many of these talents and a kind of regimented distrust that is prevalent in the DSD industry.

 

This brings us to the topic du jour. Much of the incentive in the industry is sometimes based around a relative distrust of the workforce. This can be demotivating in many cases. One of the most interesting strategies I have seen is by taking the normal performance metrics and including the route people in a kind of daily planning. The route supervisor meets each route man at the end of every day with a pile of reports: sales, returns, missed stops, time reports etc. and having a daily meeting. You change this meeting from being a performance meeting to being a planning meeting to go over what went right and what went wrong. Out of that, you develop strategies to improve tomorrow. Then you pay the route people on performance improvements.

 

Posting any great ideas or trends on a weekly board creates a kind of buzz around improving the sales. The people on the road are often quite bright and often underutilized. This experience can be used for the good of the company as long as you just ask. Of course there are exceptions. By and large, the biggest improvements in your very particular world are sitting at your fingertips for the asking. Often the man on the street simply feels no one would listen if they suggested something. What great opportunities lie out there. Our mobile delivery customers that have done this are getting spectacular results. Just a thought: turn the punitive controls into positive affirmation and change the culture.

Almost every company spends time and energy on customer focused marketing campaigns and strategies. We go to trade shows, buy advertising and put up great websites. Strangely, we spend almost no time or effort on marketing to our own people so that they carry that message forward to the customer as an enthusiastic advocate for the company. The people who deal with the customers are the best carriers of the corporate banner; a few bad apples spoil the entire basket.

 

As we deploy mobile sales, service and delivery systems for our direct store delivery and route accounting systems customers, it occurred to me that we are putting a device in the hand of everyone who directly serves our customers. We actively tell people about the great multi-media features that are available in these mobile delivery devices. You can show slides or commercials and look at spreadsheets. Why isn’t this device being used to market the value of the company to carrier rather than just the end customer? We track quotas and targets, maybe we could use it to improve and mold the impression our people have of the companies they work for.

 

Nothing sells better than enthusiasm and a belief in what they do. My thinking here is that with so much of our lives being interacted with through web-based and hand-held based technology, we could take a page out the internet book and ensure our own people are surrounded by the messaging they should be bringing to the customers. Everyone is on Twitter and Facebook; we are all used to seeing banner ads and messages all day long. What if we used that type of idea to reinforce the ideas we want carried forward about our own company or products. Many of these adds are contextual; think about how that might work when you sales person is dealing with a specific customer face to face.

 

This might be one of those cases where we are so used to working on one end of a problem that we didn’t know the other end existed. Just a random thought ...

Some of you might ask: what is InterBev 2010? InterBev is the largest North American conference for non-alcoholic beverages put on by the American Beverage Association (ABA). Due to HighJump Software’s leadership position in the direct store delivery software market, I recently took part in the InterBev Advisory Committee. This committee is comprised of the industry leaders throughout all facets of the beverage industry.

 

After attending I came away very energized by the prospects for an excellent conference. It is clear that the ABA is committed to creating an innovative event with a lot of thoughtful consideration to making the event valuable for attendees. We have all probably been to more conferences and tradeshows than we would care to remember but they are looking to change the traditional recipe. While I don’t want to give away the secret sauce, I think you will see a lot more interactive sessions and targeted ways for you to network with specific companies in your sphere of the beverage ecosystem. Just like many companies supply chains that decide to leverage technology to take their operations to the next level, the ABA has some exciting projects underway to deploy technology that will allow the attendees to maximize the value of an onsite event.

 

Save the date. The conference is September 22-24, 2010 in Orlando Florida. See you there!

Good things come from speaking with users. Last week we had our annual user convention in Florida. This is fantastic gathering of HighJump customers from around the world and across our many solution sets. I am always humbled by the ways customers use the system in innovative ways. Very often we get to see these little nuggets of brilliance that are being used in the field.

 

Normally I shy away from talking about our products. However, in order to tell the story, I need to give you a couple of tidbits.  In one of our flagship direct store delivery software (DSD), route accounting systems (RAS), called HighJump Route Administrator™, we have a feature called suggested order.  It allows you to create a calculation script that suggests which products to put on the shelf and the proper quantities. One of the possible data points that can be captured and used is the current customer quantity on hand.  If you capture that on every visit you can calculate your sell through rates and inventory turnover. We had always spoken about this as a way to ensure you avoided two situations: Product expiring on the shelf (waste) and running out of product (lost sales).

 

One of our customers explained to us the fortunate unexpected consequence of doing this.  When you set up a new store with your products you make a lot of guesses about the profile of that store and the products that they will sell. You tend to use a lot anecdotal experience and demographic data. However, in the end it is a bit of a best guess. Outside factors that are very hard to account for tend to affect the sales at any individual selling point. The unexpected consequence of measuring the Customer Quantity on Hand at each visit and adjusting the Suggested Build-to levels is that the product mix ends up self adjusting to account for the actual sales profile of that store.  In fact, it does this very quickly. Even if you get it completely wrong at the beginning, it will adjust itself within a few weeks. Using a little bit of smarts, you can also then make some assumptions about new products to put in that location and just as easily test the viability of those new products in that location. If you are really clever, you can also measure the impact on the rest of the product mix by adding or subtracting different lines. Carefully adding and subtracting lines on 6 week interval to drive product excitement has a drastic impact on bottom line profitability.

 

Your DSD data tells you everything you need to know about shelf level execution and the product mix effect of different product availability.  This leads you into food cost planning and profitability. Who knew …

HighJump customers packed into the Introduction to HighJump RouteCenter session Tuesday morning to hear more about HighJump's newest next generation route accounting system. The session turned quickly to an interactive discussion between the group and the presenters, Chris Senden, Senior Account Manager, and Bill Antoszewski, Technical Product Manager. Customers fired off question after question about features and functionality they'd like to implement into their own organizations.

HighJump RouteCenter is HighJump’s newest route accounting system with complete functionality for beer distributors, soft drink bottlers, and wine and spirits distributors. Key functionality in the system includes order management, inventory management, route settlement, pricing, promotions and integration to HighJump Software’s mobile software suite. HighJump Software recently announced the release of HighJump RouteCenter On-Demand, a Software as a Service (SaaS) version of the system.

Senden said that customers love the feature-rich HighJump RouteCenter because of its ease of integration and robust flexibility.

One customer summed it up on his way out of the session with, "Wow."