Deliver building products right on time, every time

In the world of building supplies, Ferguson Enterprises is a behemoth: 1,400 locations, 4,000 delivery assets, 27,000 associates. To its thousands of customers, Ferguson is both the preferred partner for supplies and one their biggest potential hurdles. If Ferguson doesn’t deliver their supplies at the right time — not before and certainly not after — huge construction projects can grind to a halt. The company’s decades old legacy in-house logistics software hadn’t kept up with Ferguson’s growth or with the fast-paced rhythm required by just-in-time construction processes. They knew it was time for a change, and they turned to DispatchTrack to implement a bold new vision.

Ferguson saw they could convert a potential liability — a legacy logistics system that rarely predicted ETAs correctly — into a best-in-class asset that would give them a competitive advantage. Their vision was to be completely transparent with customers by making ferguson.com their logistics hub. They wanted customers to see their orders, schedule and re-schedule deliveries and track delivery status. If that bar weren’t high enough, the new system would have to be able to intelligently route Ferguson’s 4,000 vehicles plus 3PLs Ferguson uses to flex capacity. Their choice of software partners was critical as it would deeply impact every aspect of their business: Warehousing, delivery, labor, profitability. Who did they turn to?

The decision turned on a single meeting between Ferguson and DispatchTrack. "The question we posed to DispatchTrack was, 'Could they provide everything that we needed?'" said David Simons, Regional Vice President of Distribution and Fulfillment at Ferguson. "They were able to articulate a plan in real time, on the fly, in such detail that our I.T. people walked away from the meeting with a great deal of confidence that DispatchTrack’s plan was a great idea and would solve our issues."

With DispatchTrack as their partner, Ferguson deployed a comprehensive routing solution across all of their sales verticals. “Things have been great,” Simons shared. “We now have a consistent experience across all sales verticals for deliveries to our customers. That’s been extremely impactful.” More than 10,000 Ferguson dispatchers are now using DispatchTrack to schedule and route deliveries. But the system doesn’t stop at deliveries. Dispatchers can also schedule and monitor complex installations that often involve third-party contractors. Customers who prefer contactless pick-up can do that as well without ever going inside a distribution center.

A tool only works if you use it. Ferguson knew that the system they created needed to be simple and intuitive — and easy to adopt — to be successful. "Ultimately, the tight collaboration between software vendor, IT department, and training teams resulted in 1,100 sales locations adopting DispatchTrack in three months with 98% compliance," Simons said. "DispatchTrack has the ability to be nimble. And that’s something I haven’t seen with other organizations in the same space. When you work with a partner like DispatchTrack that can truly make our associates’ lives easier at the local level, while also pleasing the customer, that’s a win-win situation."