Who Benefits More From Supplies Automation: The Dealer or the Distributor?

Automating the delivery of supplies in the office printing business

One new trend in the office printing business is to automate the process of delivering supplies from a dealer to a distributor. Once this is set up, a dealer should spend less time “cutting P.O.’s,” which is a clear benefit. There is a chance that costs will go up over time, even though this is good. Here are some things to think about:

Understanding how you currently order manual supplies

The first thing that comes to mind is to really understand the way you order supplies now, which is by hand. According to general rules, most buyers can choose from more than one vendor for each SKU. There might be two or three places that sell a reconditioned fuser for an HP LaserJet 4250 or supplies for an HP Color LaserJet 4700, as an example. If your company has given permission to more than one vendor to sell these SKUs, the buyer will probably choose one over the others. Prices, delivery times, credit limits, yields, and volume rebates are just a few of the things that could be used to decide.

Also Read: Top 5 Reasons Why Investing in Field Service Software is a Game-Changer for Your Business

Why it’s important to keep track of inventory levels and costs

Being able to control inventory levels and cut costs is essential for any dealership that wants to make money. A dealership’s biggest cost, after labor, is the cost of parts and supplies.

The Bad Things About Automating Too Many Purchase Orders

If you automate your purchase orders too much, you might start to see them as “easy buttons” instead of important strategic decisions.

Automatic Ordering Systems: Why Distributors Push Them

One thing to think about is why distributors are so eager to join systems that take care of orders automatically. Sometimes, they’ll pay your dealership’s fees to do it. Why would they do that? To be fair, it does make them more efficient because the time it takes for orders to be sent from your buyer to the distributor sales rep is cut down. More than that, though, they do it because they know that once a dealer is locked into a system, the distributor has more power to raise prices over time.

Automatic Purchase Order Systems Have More Than One Hidden Cost

When PO systems are automated, there may also be rebate programs between dealers and software companies. Who pays? In this case, the dealer does by charging more for their goods.

Also Read: What to Look for in a Field Service Mobile App

How to Make Ordering Systems More Efficient and Help People Make Smart Decisions

It’s important to make ordering systems work better. You need a system that can handle multiple vendors, let you choose the best vendor for each order, and let you send a purchase order with just one click.

How Miracle Service Makes Purchase Order Systems Work Better

This is the way Miracle Service designed our system for taking orders. It lets you compare prices from different vendors and is easy to connect to accounting software like QuickBooks. So, it’s easy and straightforward to make purchase orders and keep track of them.

Is it right for your dealership to have an automated P.O. system?

Should you get an automated P.O. system? That’s possible, but make sure you know the pros and cons of automating before you give up your profit margin.