Prior to ESP, PCBC was doing all of their paperwork manually (the old fashioned way), and with about five-hundred merchandisers in forty-nine states, it became very cumbersome -- not to mention inefficient and not cost effective. Visit fraud was a huge issue, and while PCBC management knew it was happening, they did not have the tools necessary to see exactly when, where, and by whom it was happening. The payroll process was manual, and it was taking the efforts of two data entry clerks to key payroll each period -- which was expensive, and prone to some error. Additionally, the company faced another challenge: HBC companies selling their products in various states face strict legal compliance issues. Without a rock-solid process to avoid selling the wrong item in the wrong state, PCBC faced stiff potential fines and legal issues.  

ESP began by deploying its systems to the field team, and training HQ personnel on the use of the system. Soon after installation of the system, PCBC was able to eliminate virtually all fraudulent visits, as well as increase efficiency of visits. These changes resulted in hard savings of:

• Approximately $60,000 per year in reduced payroll clerk expense as those two data entry positions were no longer necessary.

• 12.5% annual reduction of payroll across the entire field team of 500 reps 

Additionally, ESP built specific logic into the mobile platform that prevented the wrong products from being sold in the wrong markets. Savings in fines and potential fees and court costs were significant -- and in addition to the savings quoted above. Also noteworthy, ESP built a custom ordering module for PCBC that transmitted orders directly via EDI -- speeding up the ordering process which results in recurring sales lift as Out-of-Stocks eliminated, or are replenished faster -- keeping product velocity as high as possible.