The LBM industry is on the precipice of sweeping change and, if current trends are any indication of what’s to come, technology will drive much of it. Everything from the way customers engage with companies to the way lumber and building materials are distributed stands to evolve drastically in the coming years.
“This industry is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100,” said L.T. Gibson, president and CEO of US LBM, at this year’s ProSales 100 Conference.
It’s a bold statement, but after reviewing the IT investment plans of leading LBM dealers, you might agree.
Dispatch and Delivery
Most large LBM dealers have bought into the promise of dispatch and delivery systems. In fact, 64% of the 2019 ProSales 100 dealers have already purchased a dispatch and delivery system and an additional 11% plan to implement one, making these solutions the most widely used, industry-specific software systems deployed by the group of large dealers.
The popularity of these systems is driven by the benefits they provide over paper-based processes, such as an integrated GPS application to help drivers optimize truck routes and provide dispatchers with real-time updates on each driver’s whereabouts. So, when a customer calls asking for an ETA on a delivery, the dispatcher doesn’t have to call the driver and interrupt his route for an update. Additionally, some dispatch and delivery systems offer signature and photo capture capabilities to verify deliveries.
Curtis Lumber has experienced these benefits firsthand. The company, which ranked No. 39 on the 2019 ProSales 100 leaderboard, had been struggling with a no-tech approach to managing its nearly 100 vehicles. Curtis was “running blind,” says Liz Irish, vice president of information systems at the dealer. “Our dispatchers didn’t know where our vehicles were at any given time unless they … reached out and contacted the drivers [on their cellphones].”
So, Curtis worked with ECI Software Solutions and DQ Technologies in the spring to put GPS-enabled tablets in the delivery trucks at roughly half of the dealer’s 21 locations. Today, dispatchers can get real-time updates on drivers’ locations and drivers can optimize their routes using the tablets. Thanks to geofencing capabilities, the system can automatically send order information to customers when deliveries are completed. Plus, the system enables Curtis to capture signatures and take photos at jobsites, giving the company “information that we never had before,” Irish says.
In addition to these benefits, dispatch and delivery systems can offer a load scheduler, enabling dispatchers to optimize loading times for trucks; reporting and analytics tools; integration to a point-of-sale or an enterprise resource planning system; and a hosted option so dealers don’t have to hire IT professionals to update and maintain the system.
If you’re in the market for a dispatch and delivery system, a few industry-specific solutions to consider include DQ Technologies’ Order Delivery Tracking solution, ECI Software Solutions’ Spruce application, Epicor’s BisTrack software, and Kerridge Commercial Systems’ Supply Chain Logistics solution. However, be warned, not all of them offer the same features, so evaluate each solution carefully to determine which one is right for your company.
[Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a three-part feature on digital dexterity in the LBM industry. For Part 2 on e-commerce, click here. For part 3 on artificial intelligence, click here.]
