B2B distribution portal for a US food and beverage distributor with route-based ordering, account-specific catalogs, delivery scheduling, and SAP real-time inventory integration — serving 3,500+ dealer accounts with 99.7% fulfillment rate.
Pinnacle Food & Beverage's 3,500 restaurant and retail dealer accounts ordered through phone, fax, and paper route books. Sales reps averaged 14 inbound order calls per day — leaving no time for proactive account management or new business development. SAP inventory data was 24 hours stale, so out-of-stock items were only discovered at delivery — damaging relationships with restaurant operators who'd planned menus around expected stock.
We built DistributeHub in 18 weeks: a self-service dealer portal with account-specific catalog access, live SAP inventory via OData API, 8-tier pricing engine, driver mobile app with optimised route and digital proof of delivery, automated shortage alerts with substitution suggestions, and standing order management — achieving 99.7% fulfillment and reducing sales call volume 32%.
Sales reps took an average of 14 order calls per day each. Every order was manually transcribed into SAP. Error rate on transcription was 3.2%. The most common rep complaint was that they had no time to leave the desk and visit accounts.
Batch SAP inventory updates ran overnight. Dealers ordering in the morning saw yesterday's stock levels — not current ATP. Out-of-stock items discovered at delivery generated immediate complaints, credit requests, and, in the case of restaurant accounts, menu failures.
Pricing varied across 8 dealer tiers — independent restaurant, chain restaurant, independent retail, chain retail, institutional, hospitality, wholesale club, and direct — each with different base pricing, volume discounts, and promotional eligibility. No off-the-shelf platform supported this complexity.
Drivers received handwritten load sheets each morning, often updated during the day by phone as orders changed. Delivery sequence was determined by driver habit rather than route optimisation — fuel costs and driver time were both higher than necessary.
When a product became out of stock, Pinnacle had no mechanism to notify dealers proactively before delivery. Dealers discovered shortages when the delivery arrived short — often too late to source from a competitor for a lunch service.
Restaurant accounts ordered the same core products every week with minor variations. Without standing order templates, they had to call and recite their full order list to a rep every week — inefficient for both parties.
Account-specific catalog showing each dealer's eligible products, pricing tier, and personalised promotional offers. Live SAP OData integration pulls inventory ATP every 15 minutes — dealers see accurate available-to-promise quantities before ordering.
SAP OData REST API integration providing real-time ATP (available-to-promise) quantities per SKU per distribution centre, refreshed every 15 minutes. Eliminated the 24-hour batch lag — out-of-stock surprises at delivery dropped to near-zero within 60 days.
A pricing engine evaluating dealer account type, volume history, location zone, and active promotional periods to return tier-correct pricing for every product and quantity. Tested against 200 dealer accounts across all 8 tiers with 100% accuracy before go-live.
React Native driver app with AI-optimised daily route, digital load manifest, and proof-of-delivery capture (signature + photo). Drivers follow the optimised sequence, capture delivery confirmation, and log exceptions — all without paper or phone calls to dispatch.
When stock drops below the safety threshold for any SKU, automated alerts are pushed to all dealers who typically order that product, along with suggested in-stock substitutions. Dealers can switch to a substitute before their order cut-off, reducing fulfillment failures.
Dealers create standing order templates for their regular weekly order — products, quantities, and delivery day preferences. One-click reorder from the template, with the ability to adjust quantities before submitting. Reduced weekly order calls by 58% on the accounts that adopted standing orders.
1,200 dealers onboarded. Sales rep inbound call volume down 38% on enrolled accounts. First SAP live inventory integration in production — out-of-stock discoveries at delivery down 71% on portal orders vs phone orders within 30 days.
All 3,500 dealer accounts active. 99.7% order fulfillment rate (vs 94.2% baseline). Out-of-stock delivery surprises effectively eliminated on portal orders. Driver app live across full fleet — fuel costs down 9%, delivery confirmation disputes eliminated.
32% reduction in sales call volume. $1.1M annual savings in order processing labour. Dealer NPS up 34 points. Pinnacle expanded DistributeHub to 2 additional distribution regions. Sales reps, freed from order transcription, grew new account revenue by 18% in the first year.
"DistributeHub gave our 3,500 dealers a proper digital ordering experience for the first time. The SAP integration means they see live inventory before they order — no more out-of-stock surprises on delivery day. Our reps have shifted from order-takers to genuine account managers. The NPS improvement tells the whole story."
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