This Year, Get the Most from Your Company’s Food Distribution ERP
In today’s rapidly shifting economic landscape, small to midsized food distribution companies are looking for new ways to ensure they have efficient practices and cost-saving processes in place. Over the past year, many distributors have already discovered that Enterprise Resource Planning solutions (ERPs) are critical for achieving these goals.
Are you considering an ERP investment for your company? Before signing on the dotted line, you should know that not all ERP solutions are the same. In fact, very few ERPs are built specifically to meet the needs of food distributors like you.
Here are three key capabilities to look for if you are considering a food distribution ERP.
1. Sales Enhancement
In the business world, cash is still king – and the selling process is the best place to improve your cash holdings.
By choosing a food distribution ERP that drives the process of cross-selling and upselling, even during a customer self-service transaction, your company can better ensure that you maximize your profits on each and every order.
Prime FoodService Distribution Software provides:
- Unique Order Guides that include all items a customer has ordered in the past, as well as recommended items based on industry – available for the Sales team or in the customer self-service portal
- Comprehensive Order Entry screen containing all the information needed for your Sales team to complete a sale using just a single screen, or with customer-specific order information and shopping cart in the customer portal view
- Detailed inventory data available to your Sales team or through the customer self-service portal, including custom pricing, quantities available, portion cost, and more
- Sales loyalty tools, including an option showing when an item that used to be ordered regularly becomes “at risk” due to a drop in sales, which may indicate a loss of customer business for a particular item
2. Inventory Cost Reduction
Most food distribution experts already rely on a wide range of inventory cost reduction methods such as careful tracking of expiration dates, relying on a FIFO (first in first out) methodology, and implementing a barcode scanner Warehouse Management System that moves items through the warehouse faster and with more accuracy.
With an integrated, end-to-end food distribution ERP solution like Prime, your company will have the power to determine profitability by warehouse, product line, location, or business unit. This helps you confidently focus your attention where it matters most while eliminating cost drains.
If you are looking to further reduce your inventory costs, it is a good idea to use a food distribution ERP that promotes a seamless Warehouse Management System (WMS) experience and deep analytics insight.
Prime FoodService Distribution Software provides:
- Easy-to-use WMS tools with mobile workflows for barcode scanners, supporting easy training for seasonal workers and reducing overall training costs for all workers
- Task automation that significantly cuts required labor time for manual data entry while also eliminating troublesome manual data-entry errors
- Built-in Microsoft Power BI analytics dashboards, which are interactive and configurable to ensure the highest levels of at-a-glance insight into inventory trends and stock levels
3. Streamlined Delivery Routing and Scheduling
Historically, delivery has been a significant cost center for food distribution companies. Luckily, a modern food distribution ERP can help you transform your delivery services into a profitable endeavor.
By increasing order frequency or setting up scheduled ordering and delivery with automated route planning and scheduling, you can boost your profits and ensure a steady cash flow at your company. These tactics help maintain a consistent ordering schedule from customers and they also make it so easy for your customers to order from you that they will be less likely to switch to another vendor for their needs.
Prime FoodService Distribution Software provides:
- Automatic route planning based on a trip template you control and can easily modify
- Automated delivery scheduling for trips, leveraging your pre-determined cut-off times and route plans to schedule the next available delivery effortlessly
- Order automation, much like an order subscription process, which schedules repeat orders for customers on specific days of the week
Are You Leaving Money on the Table without a Food Distribution ERP?
Some food distribution companies find themselves “making do” with cobbled-together systems for inventory management, warehouse management, sales order management, or customer management.
While combining separate solutions technically “gets the job done” when it comes to day-to-day operations, the siloed data in each system makes it difficult to track profitability and optimize processes. This is because cobbled-together solutions limit your insight into overall business performance and trends.
In a lot of cases, this lack of insight results in “leaving money on the table” – and with today’s tight margins and volatile business environment, most small to midsized food distributors cannot afford to do that.
The smarter choice is to invest intelligently into a food distribution ERP that manages your quoting, acceptance, order entry, and fulfillment processes to help you get more out of every order, every day.
Learn more about how Prime FoodService Distribution Software can help you.
Since 1995, AKA Consulting has established an outstanding reputation in the New York City Metro and Tri-State area for first-class implementation and maintenance of ERP business management systems, innovative and flexible custom software development, cloud transformation enablement, and the utmost dedication to customer service. AKA offers a wide array of services and solutions to manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and professional services firms. Contact AKA Consulting at www.akaconsulting.com or 888-351-8355 or sales@akaconsulting.com.
