Descartes’ Route Planning Solution Helps PlaceMakers Improve Operational Efficiency and the Customer Experience

Posted Feb 12, 2020

WATERLOO, Ontario, Feb. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Descartes Systems Group (Nasdaq: DSGX ) (TSX: DSG ), the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that PlaceMakers, New Zealand’s leading supplier of building materials and hardware, is using Descartes’ dynamic route planning solution to centralize distribution planning operations across the country. The Bestrane Group, a Descartes ‘United by Design’ partner in New Zealand, implemented the solution to automate route planning and execution to better serve PlaceMakers’ more than 300,000 retail and trade customers.

“We sought to transform our customer delivery experience by moving each of our 63 branches from dispatching and executing deliveries with multiple logistics services providers to centralized logistics planning and our own fleet,” explained Wayne Armstrong, Business Transformation Manager at PlaceMakers. “With the Descartes deployment almost complete, we’ve seen a 40-50% increase in delivery satisfaction and achieved significant financial savings. We’ve also reduced inbound calls by 16%, increased load utilization by 13% and reduced loading times by 14%. It’s a world-class, end-to-end solution that is helping us provide an industry-leading customer experience.”

Descartes’ route planning solution that helps improve operational efficiency and the customer experience through optimized route planning and execution. It supports companies with dynamic delivery environments including same-day delivery by offering flexible, optimal, and reliable time windows and delivery options. With an integrated GPS-based mobile application, the solution has the capability to coordinate drivers, dispatchers and call centers to help ensure that routes are executed according to plan and exceptions are handled efficiently.

“We’re pleased to support PlaceMakers’ initiative to dramatically improve its customer experience, delivery productivity and agility,” said Lee Karlinsky, Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets at Descartes. “Leading companies, like PlaceMakers, are seeing the customer service differentiation, cost savings and improved operational effectiveness that centralized route planning combined with mobile applications for execution can provide.”

About PlaceMakers

PlaceMakers is New Zealand's leading and largest supplier of building materials and hardware.

We're 100% committed to our customers. We employ over 2,100 people and assist over 300,000 customers. We have 63 stores, from Kaitaia to Invercargill. We sell over 74,000 product lines from concrete to paint and plasterboard. We manufacture frames and trusses from 8 manufacturing plants nationwide. For more information, visit www.placemakers.co.nz.

About The Bestrane Group

The Bestrane Group was founded to address the gap in market between traditional management consultants and technology vendors.

Bestrane combines ‘real-world’ and extensive operationally based industry knowledge with expertise in specific best of breed software applications and related consultancy services to deliver a unique blend of technology enabled solutions. This results in Bestrane’s capability to engineer solutions representing genuine value for money with a solid track record of substantial ROI’s and real bottom-line impact to each customer. Bestrane is the sole authorised distributor of Descartes solutions in Australian and New Zealand. For more information, visit www.bestrane.com.au.

About Descartes Systems Group

Descartes (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG) is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world's largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world.