When the internet starting gaining importance, business theorists foresaw the decline of traditional distribution networks. 

In the future, they speculated, manufacturers would interact directly with end customers, eliminating the need for distributors and wholesalers.  Clearly, to paraphrase Samuel Clemens, reports of the demise of traditional distributors and wholesalers were greatly exaggerated.  Instead, successful players in this critical industry have embraced the very technologies that had, supposedly, doomed them.

Whether supporting the distributors or the logistics arms of our manufacturing clients, Dataspace consultants have developed a good deal of experience supporting the information needs of the distribution industry. 

Samples of our successes include:

Product and Sales Force Performance Analysis
A prominent foodservice client approached Dataspace with a problem.  With the majority of its data stored on an old mainframe, this company had no effective, repeatable access critical sales data.  Then, Dataspace proposed the idea of building a sales analysis data mart.

This successful effort gave managers the ability to analyze performance metrics, such as sales and margin, along key dimensions, such as sales rep, product, customer and distribution center.  In one memorable example of the system’s power, managers ran a query demonstrating that one branch’s highest-volume producer was among its lowest when ranked by margin.  Within seconds, further use of the system showed that this particular producer was selling large volumes of low-margin and even negative margin product.  It was also determined that these sales were primarily to a chain of fast food customers.  Armed with this information, management was able to take the necessary corrective action.

Margin Waterfall Analysis
Profitably managing a distribution operation, in many ways, relies on basic concepts of cost accounting and its ability to calculate margin in various ways.  It is important to understand margin along dimensions such as product line, sales rep, distribution center and customer.  But, margin is an elusive figure.  For example, should the margin calculation account for spiffs provided by manufacturers?  If so, are these allocated to specific customers?  To specific sales?  By what formula?