TEMPLE, Texas – McLane Company, Inc., a leading supply chain services company providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions, today announced the release of its new Direct Store Delivery (DSD) app for Android mobile devices. Working in conjunction with the company’s popular Premium Order Management Suite (POMS) applications and Grocery Mobile platform, DSD enables customers to manage their entire supply chain in real time from a mobile device. The app also includes a DSD “Credits” feature, which enables customers to scan and validate purchased products against the retailer’s approved price book at time of delivery, saving time, money and aggravation.
McLane VP of Customer Technology Deon Johnson said, “DSD Credits is a game changer for retailers that formerly had no way to validate product deliveries in real time and seek credit. When retailers take delivery of unapproved items, they must hold and track the items, place calls to the DSD supplier, verify the return and finally recoup credit — a time-consuming process that takes attention away from serving customers in the store.” Johnson estimates DSD can save retailers two hours a week on average, or about $1,560 per year.
“What DSD Credits does is provide retailers an instant audit trail, both electronic as well as a paper copy that can even provide data integration to the retailer’s back of house system. The result is the check-in process is greatly improved and efficient,” said Johnson.
Other features in the app include:
- DSD Label Printing: enables stores to instantly print shelf labels for non-McLane items in response to price changes without having to go through a back office system or wait on vendors to supply labels.
- DSD Images: a library of more than 10,000 DSD product images allows users to scan and view a picture of what’s in the box upon delivery without opening it. Users can see exactly where a pictured item belongs on the shelf by referencing the store’s planogram directly from the app.
Since launching in August, five McLane customers representing 360 store locations have implemented DSD, with 150 more stores coming on board in the next few weeks. All five customers are also current users of McLane’s Grocery Mobile platform, which has seen double-digit adoption rates since launching in May. Today, more than 50 McLane customers are using Grocery Mobile in 3,200 locations. Johnson estimates the platform will be on 3,000 customer devices by the end of 2016.
Like Grocery Mobile, DSD can be used on a retailer’s existing Android devices and requires only one mobile device to manage the entire store, which represents a savings of $2,500-$3,000 versus purchasing multiple devices for each location. Customers can download DSD directly from Google Play and be up and running in minutes, or opt in to AirWatch® mobility management software that controls which apps are downloaded to each customer device. With AirWatch, customers get automatic updates directly from McLane with the latest software features and version without having to take the device offline or pay any yearly upgrade fee.
McLane’s suite of technology applications interfaces with numerous back office solutions offering customers a seamless experience with significant savings. McLane’s investment in mobile and back office integration is directly in line with the company’s commitment to offering the most value in the industry and building longstanding customer relationships.
“Our technology solutions have been developed at the request of our retail customers,” explained Johnson. “We're looking for every opportunity we can to help those retailers who have trusted us with their business by reducing their expenses, eliminating complexity and providing industry-leading solutions that can be counted on.”
About McLane
McLane Company, Inc. is one of the largest supply chain services leaders, providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants throughout the United States. McLane, through McLane Grocery and McLane Foodservice operates 80 distribution centers across the U.S. and one of the nation’s largest private fleets. The company buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 different consumer products to nearly 90,000 locations across the U.S. In addition, McLane provides alcoholic beverage distribution through its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire Distributors, Inc. McLane is a wholly owned unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK) and employs more than 20,000 teammates.
Source: McLane Company, Inc.
