Solution and case study
Know what sells at every customer, not just what you shipped them.
Distributor-managed inventory means the distributor, not the customer, keeps track of what is on the customer's shelves and how fast it moves. I build scanning apps that let your field team count a customer's stock in minutes, match it against Prophet 21 sales history, and turn repeated counts into sell-through data for every location you serve.
What your ERP cannot tell you
Prophet 21 knows what you sold to a customer. It does not know what the customer sold. For a distributor whose customers resell the product, that second number is the one that matters. It tells you which items earn their shelf space, which sit for a season, and what to recommend next.
Large retailers have point-of-sale systems that answer this. Many independent businesses do not. They reorder on instinct, overstock slow items, and run out of fast ones. A distributor that can answer the question for them stops being a supplier and becomes the reason the customer’s business runs better.
Case study: a wholesale distributor serving seven states
The situation. The distributor wanted to help its customers carry inventory that actually moves. Its area managers hold those relationships and visit customers regularly. They tried counting stock by hand. It was tedious and slow, and the results could not be combined into anything the business could act on.
What I built. A scanning app that runs on Zebra handheld scanners. The area manager scans a serial number. If that serial number appears in sales history, the item is identified and the scan is done. One scan per item made the count fast enough to do on a normal visit, and accurate enough to trust.
The design decision that mattered. Area managers work inside customers’ buildings, away from the office network. I built a custom process that syncs the sales history they need, so no one requires a VPN or any direct access to P21. It is also more secure, because the P21 database is never exposed to the internet.
What the distributor sees. A web portal for reporting and management. Comparing what was delivered against what is on hand shows what sold. Repeating the count over time shows when it sold and how long it sat. The distributor sees this per customer and across its whole network, with reports and workflows built around how it sells.
The result. Area managers make specific, evidence-based recommendations. Customers stock what moves. The distributor holds information about its market that no competitor has. The system was deployable in about two months and is still being extended.
The principle behind it
Hand counting did not fail because people were unwilling. It failed because each count was expensive and produced a number nobody could use. Make the count cheap and the data cumulative, and the same visits produce an asset.
Questions
Does this only work for serialized products?
Serial numbers make it fastest, because one scan identifies the exact unit. The same approach works with barcodes and item-level counts.
Does it need a connection in the field?
No. The app carries the data it needs and syncs when it can.
What hardware does it require?
Rugged handheld scanners work best in the field. The app is a progressive web app, so it is not tied to one device.
Request a call back
Does your field team come back with nothing you can add up?
If your people visit customers and the information stays in their heads, let's talk.
- One conversation, no obligation. There is no charge and no pitch.
- A plain answer. If it is not feasible, or I am not the right fit, I will say so.
- The first 30 days are guaranteed. If you are not satisfied and I cannot make it right, in your opinion, you get your money back.