Automatic Merchandiser

MAY 2014

Automatic Merchandiser serves the business management, marketing, technology and product information needs of its readers including vending operators, coffee service operators, product brokers, and product and equipment distributors in print.

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"I sought out Cantaloupe because I wanted a one-stop-shop," Duncan said. "Much like how I want our cus- tomers to think of us as their one-stop- shop, we needed something similar for our telemetry, inventory and routing." With the Seed Mobile system, the drivers now use an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch for handhelds and physi- cal DEXing at the machine is no lon- ger part of the vending process. As all inventory changes are automati- cally updated in the Seed Offce cloud, the staff can see real time, instant inventory adjustments, which makes scheduling of machines and routes sig- nifcantly easier. "All of our drivers see the benefts of having real-time data," said Duncan. "They can make inventory changes today and get cor- rect product tomorrow, where in the past we wouldn't know of inventory adjustments until the following day. It's easier for the offce staff as well for merchandising and scheduling. We all see the importance of real-time inven- tory adjustments." Adding telemetry and prekitting has allowed the company to save money in the form of cutting back routes. "If we were operating under the same system we were when I came in, we would have twenty- seven routes," said Duncan. "Now, we are only going to machines that need to be serviced." Returns have been high from all of the investments the company has made in technology. "The company has seen sales increases from better merchandising, sales increases from less out of stock products, reduced costs from not having as many routes, less overhead from hav- ing fewer vehicles on the road and reduction in costs from not wasting drivers' time," said Duncan. "As a company we have seen increased productivity and quality of work from our drivers because they are more effcient and are being paid better." When All Star Services switched systems, it was able to eliminate 30 percent of its routes. "Our drivers are doing 50 percent more dol- lar volume and going to an equal amount of machines, if not less per day," said Duncan. Brady Owens uses an iPad with LightSpeed Mobile. S U C C E S S S T O R Y autm_18-23_0514OpProfile.indd 22 5/5/14 4:36 PM

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