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US Foods Recoups 1.1 Million Staff Hours & $800K Annually with NetMotion Mobility®
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Networks & Connectivity - WiFi
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
US Foods, one of the largest food distributors in the United States, was facing a significant challenge with its field team of 5,000. These employees, who meet with and serve customers in person, were struggling with unreliable connections when trying to submit purchase orders on their laptops at customer sites. This often resulted in lost work and wasted time as they had to log back into the VPN connection and restart the application. The poor connectivity also negatively impacted inventory management, as reps wouldn't know until the end of the day if a product was out of stock. This led to a loss of 1.1 million hours of potential sales time with clients and an annual cost of $800,000 on pre-printed materials.
About The Customer
US Foods is one of the largest food distributors in the United States. The company serves a wide range of food-based businesses, from chain and family-owned restaurants and hotels to corporate cafeterias. US Foods employs a field team of 5,000 to meet with and serve customers in person. These field sales reps play a primary role in submitting orders and providing in-stock and delivery dates for products. However, the company noticed that instead of being placed throughout the day, orders would generally come all at once toward the end of the work day, creating a huge backlog.
The Solution
US Foods implemented Mobile Performance Management software NetMotion Mobility® to ensure reliable connections. This software's superior ability to maintain continuous, reliable connections through challenging network and operational conditions was exactly what US Foods needed. Reps could stop worrying about no-coverage zones, dead spots, weak signal strength or roaming. They could connect once and be able to serve their customers without interruption. Mobility was the perfect complement to the company’s Afaria mobile device management solution from SAP. Sales staff could now check stock levels in real-time in front of customers without having to make apologies for “computer issues” nor did they need to wait until the end of the day to place orders. In addition, NetMotion’s examination of US Foods’ information security and management policies found that employee equipment was often left vulnerable to malware for long periods of time. Pairing Mobility with Afaria’s mobile device management capabilities, sales reps are now able to remotely update their laptops by leaving them on at night, closing a critical cybersecurity gap and protecting both the business and its customers.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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