Total DSD Management
Comprises the ability for retailers to take total control of an area in the store that has often been turned over to vendors to manage, either partially or completely. We give you the capability to send an order to the vendor an accurate order based upon consumer demand and perpetual inventory, receive the items on that order at the back door with state-of-the-art receiving functionality, and measure how well the vendor performed in meeting the requirements of the order. It creates a closed-loop process from order creation through receiving, allowing retailers to measure vendor service levels easily.
DSD Receiving
Itasca’s founders pioneered better automation in DSD receiving in the 1990’s. Today, this technology has more installations for both spot-sell and pre-sell Direct Store Delivery vendors than any other software provider. While under multiple different names today, the same core technology is also an optional part of the Itasca Inventory Optimization solution.
“Combined with a CGO solution that’s second-to-none, Itasca DSD Receiving allows retailers to utilize the same database that they’ve taken time to ensure is accurate for the automated ordering process.”
Handle Discrepanies Quickly
Vendors make delivery mistakes and systems aren't always in-synch. Don't waste time figuring it out at the back-door.
Unauthorized
Product
Items that aren't authorized cause problems at the front-end impacting customer satisfaction and possibly inviting lawsuits.
Container Receiving
EDI docs can house multiple container levels in the invoice. Container, tote, pallet, product. We support receiving at those levels saving loads of time.
Perpetual Inventory
Transactions recognized immediately once "finalized" and PI is updated immediately.
Service-level Reporting
Hold your trading partners accountable to deliver the items and quantities your consumers have said through their purchases that they want you to have.
The synergy that emerges reduces workload on IT departments who support store applications, and reduces confusion at store level as the combination of solutions often eliminates handhelds in the stores.
Itasca DSD Receiving improves the efficiency and accuracy of processing DSD vendor invoices and credits, while stopping unauthorized merchandise from entering the store. Multiple receiving methods allow retailers to tailor the receiving process based on the type of vendor, their EDI capabilities and their historical accuracy and performance.
We are sometimes asked...
How did the DSD vendor community accept the orders from the stores? Did any pushback exist?
As it is with any change in the current process or status quo, there can always be some that resist the changes, often because it takes away a level of control of the process that was once had. In this case, in talking to our customers who have implemented DSD ordering, there was an element of this, but once the vendors saw that the orders were truly accurate and that the demand signals were driving the orders, they truly understood the benefits.
- We had several DSD vendors at our biennial User Conference in 2018 and they told our attendees that after the first few speedbumps and push-backs, their driver community had embraced it completely.
- Customers who have implemented ordering in DSD categories utilize a common best practice when vendors disagree with the order quantity. Since arbitrary order adjustment often causes other problems, they want vendors to trust the orders as they are. So, unless there's a blatant error in the Perpetual Inventory (one of the main reasons order quantities are "off"), the order stands. In order to verify, and to possibly prove to the store that it needs additional supply, they are given a handheld device to go and check the counts. If there is a discrepancy, they do a count update and re-run the order.