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seen a significant decrease in the time it takes to get new employees up to speed, while adherence to standards has improved. To measure how well their employees are following those standards and completing other tasks, Avanti uses software systems such as Salesforce. It has been great for tracking sales, account management, and forecasting, says Clarke. Taking it a step further, the dealer has customized it so users can see the information that is most relevant to their roles. “I love being able to put measurements in front of people,” Clarke says. “You can call it gamifying what they do, but I think that you can really keep people on task and focused on what matters.” Giving employees access to that data via a dashboard aids their decision processes and helps prevent them from being pulled into something that’s irrelevant to their job and won’t improve those key numbers. At the end of 2018, Avanti further bolstered its use of metrics when it added Ally, a software that manages goals and tracks compa- ny objectives and key results such as revenue targets. “It makes it very easy to measure yourself against your goals,” Clarke explains. The implementation of Ally has been limited to the management team for Q1, but Clarke says it will roll it out to the entire company the following quarter. The software also ties into Salesforce, allowing man- agers to get a clearer picture of how employees are meeting their sales goals from a single source. “These different pieces of software are starting to make real connections with one another, which saves you time,” Clarke says. “You don’t have to go bouncing back and forth.” Having established and docu- mented its processes, Avanti has spent the last few years looking at what other problems technology can solve. Its most recent focus has been on document management and paperless systems. Like most companies that buy and sell prod-


ALICJA SPAULDING (LEFT) AND RACHEL SEE (RIGHT) USE TECHNOLOGY DAILY TO TRACK THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TUNDRA’S PROMOTIONS AND CUSTOMER RELATIONS INITIATIVES.


ucts, there are multiple layers of ap- provals for every price increase and order change. Further, the amount of invoices Avanti processes each year generates mountains of pa- perwork that must be responded to and stored for record keeping. While some may think of email as the answer, Clarke says that, in practice, dealing with the constant influx of inbox items kills productiv- ity. “In my opinion, over the last 15 years, I have seen people’s ability to focus diminish,” he explains. “I believe that centralization of email, calendars, tasks, and notes into one place in Outlook is a mistake because it creates too distracting of an environment. I don’t think that works for all types of people. There are times when you need to focus without a distraction to do a good job.”


One of the goals behind the doc- ument management system, which is still in the testing phase, is to limit those distractions. It will allow Avanti to send invoices and notifica- tions into a review status, and then forward them to the assigned per- son’s queue for approval. Instead of being barraged by a stream of messages throughout the day, the queue allows each individual to review and make all the approvals when they have a free moment, and the updated status is then sent back to the original sender. Another benefit: When all the documents are digitized, Avanti will be able to


index everything to pull up an or- der’s history or review a customer’s account. “It’s just like Googling your own accounting system,” Clarke says, “which is amazing.”


The document management sys- tem will integrate with Avanti’s ERP, helping to streamline data entry and reducing the opportunity for human error.


The continual investment in technology is a key part of Avanti’s growth strategy. “We are aggres- sive and are willing to invest in software and hardware before we need it as we scale so that we are not slowed down,” Clarke says. Still, he says people will continue to play the most important role in the company. The technology is there to support them, not replace them. The idea is to use technology to streamline communications and interactions so that salespeople can spend more time with the customer. “It’s a relationship industry we’re in,” Clarke says. “Even given the opportunity to order something on- line from us, most of our customers prefer to call and talk to us. There’s a level of expertise that they are still looking for.”


Tundra Restaurant Supply


Today, Tundra Restaurant Sup- ply is a single-source provider of restaurant equipment with a strong e-commerce website capable of serving independent, chain, and


Pre-Spring 2019 15


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