Case Study: Crescent Crown Distributing

Crescent Crown Distributing is a privately owned beer and beverage distributor. They have two regional offices with one located in the metro Phoenix area within Arizona and the other servicing the Louisiana market. The business cycle is built on a "pre-sell" process. The Phoenix branch has approximately 90 sales reps that sell into various markets including; liquor stores, bars/pubs, and convenience stores. The field representatives will enter the establishment and utilize computers with designated inventory management software to take inventory and place orders for needed replenishments or new items. The orders are transmitted back to the distribution center at different times during the day so that the operations team can begin pulling and packaging the orders for delivery the following day. Ideally, orders are placed and received within a 24 hour fulfillment cycle.

The constant mobility and durability requirement for the computers used by the distributor's sales team was extremely demanding. The full-screen computers previously used were not exceptionally rugged and seemed unable to survive the day-to-day wear and tear of the order process. Their life cycle was averaging 9-12 months before malfunctioning. The computers also had no integrated wireless connectivity, which required the use of a PCMCIA AirCard as an external piece. These too were constantly getting broken and damaged during the mobility process of moving in and out of vehicles. The need to constantly have computers in the repair shop hindered the productivity of the sales team and incurred additional expenses.