THE COMPANY

A large publically traded manufacturer and distributor of consumer products had exclusive geographical distribution rights to an area comprising most of the mid-western United States. Its primary market channel was route-based, direct-store-delivery (DSD) to grocery and convenience retailers.

THE CHALLENGE

The company acquired a geographically complementary operation about one third of its current size, in an apparently identical business selling the same products. The acquired company’s parent had recently adopted a process called Pre–Sell. Traditionally, route based DSD involved estimating the required combination and number of products to be loaded on a truck and delivered in a given day. As the number and types of products grew, it became progressively more difficult to accurately anticipate the proper load for a given day’s business. Pre–Sell process involved sending a salesman to the various stores the day before scheduled deliveries to determine the next day’s load. The dilemma was either adopt the process and develop technology to support this process or force a return to the older process. Since problems such as out of stocks and gaps in profitable product mix were increasing throughout the industry, developing the supporting technology with people already engaged in Pre–Sell seemed to be the best alternative.

THE SOLUTION

Ordinal provided guidance and support in three main areas:

• We managed a joint Ordinal/client team to lead the operational process requirements in the context of the existing practices and systems of the acquiring company. This was essentially adding a “front end” to what already existed. The “back end” technologies and processes of the acquired company were sufficiently different to preclude using or integrating any of their practices.
• We used our integration experience to ensure that the “Day One” operations went smoothly and business was conducted as usual. This was complicated by the target’s multiple operations parallel integration efforts.
• We used Windows CE based Hand Held, wireless cellular technology and a set of integrated web services to provide a best of breed solution that resulted in faster and more convenient Order transmission time, resulting in higher per call productivity and reduced warehouse overtime by getting orders in earlier to facilitate loading.