Features Provided by DSD Software 


The key features of the DSD software solution

The retail sector includes all shops from small groceries to supermarkets selling goods to an ultimate customer for personal and not business use and therefore, is dependent significantly on the prevailing level of consumer assurance in the economy. In recent decades, the dominant trends in the supply chain have strikingly increased. Retailers have realized a variety of strategies to enhance inventory supplies and decrease operating costs.

One of the essential strategies in the food industry that retailers and food producers have leveraged is DSD (Direct Store Delivery) – a method of delivering goods from suppliers directly to a retail store bypassing a distribution center. DSD (Direct Store Delivery) is a special model of sales and distribution that integrates sales activities with the territory and account planning. DSD provides goods sales and delivery by manufacturers or/and third-party distributors directly to the outlets or retail stores.


Throughout the years, DSD businesses have reached great strides in lowering their operating costs. However, in today’s competitive environment, they need to find additional ways to decrease the costs of their activities. It is not surprising that most delivery companies use IT technologies, namely direct store delivery software.

Main features and functionality provided by DSD software

  • Scheduling – to create efficient job schedules: 
    • Daily, weekly, and monthly job schedules. 
    • Job scheduling optimization: work hours, skills, customer location, worker availability, automatic scheduling. 
  • Dispatching – to effectively guide drivers to specific destinations: 
    • Visual dispatch board.
    • Turn-to-turn driving directions. 
    • Status of work tickets and customer orders.
    • Alerts for preventative truck maintenance are due.
    • Tracking work hours, driving miles, and used fuel. 
  • Route management – to achieve the best efficiencies from the fleet operations: 
    • Route planning and optimization: shortest distance, multiple routes simultaneously, routes with multiple stops, reassigning stops from one route to another, temporary routes for last-minute changes.
    • Route tracking: vehicle location, route replay. 
    • Data visualization on maps: customer location, current weather, traffic, accident alarms, and notifications.
    • Accident alarms and notifications.
    • Delivery adjustments and tracking.
  • Asset management – to create a high level of asset maintenance: 
    • Creating asset categories and types. 
    • Tracking assets by serial number and barcode. 
    • Monitoring maintenance activity.
    • Tracking the asset lifecycle. 
    • Complete placement history. 
  • Inventory management and control – to support the right inventory levels in stocks: 
    • Automating inventory processes: finding, counting, measuring, and tracking. 
    • Product categorization.
    • Barcoding;
    • Managing multiple suppliers. 
    • Inventory tracking by serial number. 
    • Pre-sales, returns, and end-of-day reconciliations.
  • Financial suit – to a better understanding of the company’s budget and expenses:
    • Providing seamless cash processing.
    • Invoicing: creating invoices, automated invoice approvals, monitoring invoice’s status and outstanding balance, tracking overdue invoices, real-time info alerts and invoice reconciliation. 
    • Collecting payments via cash, checks, and credit cards. 
    • Adjusting payment’s due dates.
    • Monitoring expenses. 
  • Mobile – to provide drivers and distributors with a powerful mobile tool: 
    • Standalone database on handheld mobile devices: customer contact information, job instructions, and notifications.
    • Destination maps and directions.
    • GPS tracking with the trail reporting
    • Collecting drivers' start and stop times and tracking real-time drivers' locations.
    • Barcode scanning.
    • Creating, suspending, and declining a job in the field.
    • Collecting customer signatures and payments at their locations.
    • Pre-trip and post-trip vehicle inspections
    • Vehicle verification and loading
    • Printing invoices.
  • Web suite – to improve customer service and customer experience:
    • Web store: placing orders from desktop computers and mobile devices, re-ordering from previous orders, viewing the active shopping cart, indicating special delivery instructions, single log-in for multiple locations; 
    • Web bill payments: viewing, managing, and paying invoices. 
  • Pricing – to improve price control: 
    • Setting a minimum selling price.
    • Delivering pricing guidance to the sales team.
    • Promotions and discounts calculation. 
    • Creating custom prices. 
    • Retail price and sales tax calculation.
  • Reporting – to collect and submit business data which enables the accurate analysis of the company's activity and forecast the future trends: 
    • Collecting data history, including last sales per product
    • Customized reports of the current and historical data.
    • Trending analysis in real-time
    • Data import and export.
DSD program