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"We have customers that can be seventy miles apart, so it is impera- tive that we carefully schedule ser- vice calls to ensure that we cover as much ground as effciently as possible," said G.P. "Since we can't physically be in all places at once, we recognized that we needed to bring a route management solution in-house that would give us continuous visibil- ity into the machines we operate, and make sure our drivers and back offce staff are working as effciently as pos- sible. It was a necessary component for maintaining operational control of the business." G.P. set out to identify a suitable telemetry solution, and evaluated a number of available offerings. "One of our primary motivations was fnding a tool that did not require a great deal of time to set up or learn," he said. Rome Refreshments launched ParLevel Systems, a cloud-based telemetry and vending management system, in June of 2014. G.P. appreci- ates the cloud-based infrastructure because it requires no onsite servers or software downloads, eliminating a major barrier for Rome Refresh- ments. It also allows him to show potential clients how he would ensure their machine was never empty — real-time status reports from anywhere. The results of adding telemetry have been outstanding. By leveraging the data provided by the technology, Rome Refreshments has been able to consolidate several of its routes, reduce its transportation costs, inventory, insurance rates and other overhead. Personnel can be reas- signed as required, eliminating the expense of sending drivers to loca- tions where inventory or service was not needed. Instead, Rome Refresh- ments can now focus its attention on locations that need service. "In terms of hours, technology has streamlined our operation, allowing us to focus on other things," said G.P. "I have more time now to see my customers face-to-face to address any concerns they may have, and I do that on a monthly basis. Dominic does it every two weeks." With the addition of the telem- etry solution, Rome is experiencing a 25 percent reduction in operating expenses. "Also, by increasing our effciency in vending, we've been able to grow in other segments of the industry, which are frankly, more proftable," added G.P. Rome Refreshments already has eight micro markets and is steadily adding more. Dominic Macerola provides single-cup coffee with bean-to-cup machines (shown) and pod brewers. 16 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com April 2015 O P E R A T I O N P R O F I L E