Keep Distribution Moving. Outgrow the Spreadsheet.
One of the largest in-home sales operations in the US moved its distribution center off a single spreadsheet and saved roughly $30,000 a year in labor.
- Industry
- Construction
- Employees
- 3,000+
- Data points a year
- 400,000+
- ~$30,000Saved a year in labor costs
- 400,000+Data points a year, up from 200,000+ in 2020
Most distribution and logistics operations start the same way. A single spreadsheet holds the numbers, one person owns it, and it works well enough while the operation is small. As the business grows, that same spreadsheet starts to hold it back.
More shipments, more data points, and more departments that need the same information all add pressure to a tool that was never built to handle any of it. Multiple people need to see and update the numbers at once, but every additional user increases the risk of an error that’s hard to trace. The hours spent maintaining the spreadsheet start competing with the hours spent running the operation.
A single spreadsheet holding up a growing distribution operation
One of the largest in-home sales companies in the United States sells home safety and improvement products direct to homeowners: gutter protection, stair lifts, walk-in tubs and showers, water purification. Its Director of Logistics and Distribution runs the distribution centers behind all of it, and that side of the business was growing fast.
The company originally ran its logistics on Excel spreadsheets. The method worked at first, but it became increasingly problematic as the company grew. Manual data entry caused frequent errors. Managing the spreadsheet with a single user became unsustainable. By 2020, the operation was managing more than 200,000 data points a year, and that number had grown past 400,000 by the time of this case study.
The core problems were familiar to any growing distribution operation. Too many labor hours went into data management and reporting. Giving multiple people access to the spreadsheet felt risky because of the errors that came with it. Moving information between departments efficiently was difficult.
Build the team’s own tools, starting where it hurt most
The director needed a solution that was user friendly and customizable, that could support multiple people working at the same time, and that could handle automation and workload management.
The company chose TrackVia’s platform because it let the logistics team build its own applications without advanced coding skills.
Start with the workflow causing the most pain
The team started with the workflow causing the most pain: consolidating and managing the data that had outgrown the spreadsheet.
Build dashboards for each team
With a few clicks, the director’s team built dynamic dashboards that bring information into one place, with views built for each team’s needs. Work that used to mean manually updating and maintaining a spreadsheet now updates on its own.
Anytime we have a crazy idea that we think can’t be done, they say, ‘Hey, we can handle it,’
Hours back, trucks turned faster, and other teams asking for the same
- ~$30,000Saved a year in labor costs through reduced manual work and automated reporting
- 400,000+Data points a year, up from more than 200,000 in 2020
Dynamic dashboards
Every number lives in one place, and the team builds its own views so each group sees what it actually needs.
Reporting without the rebuild
Reports for meetings, managers and reviews come straight out of the same records, rather than being assembled by hand each time.
Less manual work
The hours that went into updating and reconciling the spreadsheets go back into running the operation. That cut out redundant work and freed up hours that used to go into keeping the numbers straight instead of using them.
Faster truck loading and unloading
The platform made data sharing and workflow management faster across the distribution center, which sped up truck loading and unloading, a place where minutes matter every day.
Interest beyond logistics
Since building that first workflow, interest in TrackVia has spread well beyond logistics, into installation, sales, and marketing.
For any operation that has outgrown its spreadsheets
Fix the biggest pain first
For any growing operation that has outgrown its spreadsheets, that’s the pattern. Fix the workflow causing the most pain first, and the rest of the organization starts asking for the same kind of solution once they see what it can do.
Don’t let the starting tool cap growth
More data, more departments, and more ideas will keep showing up as a company grows. The tool that got a distribution operation started shouldn’t be the reason it can’t keep growing. TrackVia combines a proven starting point for logistics and distribution operations with the adaptability to build the next idea as soon as it comes up.
After vetting out several other solutions, TrackVia quickly seemed like a perfect solution for us… Our needs change almost weekly as regulations and the industry evolve, and we needed the flexibility to constantly tweak our platform in real time.
Projects that used to sit delayed for weeks now finish in days or even hours.
With Excel, we couldn’t see what employees were doing. With TrackVia it’s easy to track work and view what exactly has been completed. This resulted in an 80% time savings.
I wound up being able to do the same amount of work with only eight people versus 13 and that became the driving factor for them to accept TrackVia.
We are very pleased with the ease of use of the mobile application. We are thrilled to have instant visibility of the sterilization process and to be able to see immediately where issues are occurring. This enables us to focus on our number one priority, which is our patients and their loved ones.
TrackVia has truly changed the game on software development and deployment. We created and rolled out a mobile workflow app with limited resources in a very short period of time.
Their solution provided the flexibility we needed to meet unique project requirements while affording visibility and control.
TrackVia has improved the accuracy of our data. In the past it was a chore for our coordinators to document issues in real time. Now, they can just open the mobile app or website, check a few boxes and they are done.
The first application I built—it was simple—I think it took 10 minutes.
Become a success story
Increased productivity
Do more work with the same people.
Reduced cost
Less manual work, rework, duplicate entry, and administrative overhead.
Reduced risk
Better compliance, evidence, accountability, and auditability.
Improved performance
Faster cycle times, fewer delays, earlier intervention, and higher service levels.
Ready to get started?
See how we fit your operation
A working session on the workflows your crews actually run.