Discovery & Action Plan
Brightline Supply Co.
Foodservice packaging distributor · $38M revenue · 85 people
Chapter 00
We spent two weeks with your inside sales, customer service and order desk teams, following quotes and orders from the first email to confirmation. This plan recommends three changes to start now, two to validate first, and three to leave alone, with the evidence for each.
The short version
Brightline’s quote and order teams spend 56% of their week keying, looking up and relaying information. Three changes give back about 355 hours a month.
3 changes, ready to start
Read incoming POs, match items and prices, and create draft orders in Prophet 21 for the order desk to confirm.
Assemble each quote from one request, with the customer’s price, stock and current spec sheets, ready for a rep to check and send.
Tell customers about shipments and backorders before they call.
Time returned, at $42/h loaded cost Other benefits
Don’t put an AI voice agent on the customer service line. Defer the supplier EDI feed until your largest suppliers can send it, and the portal adoption push until the portal shows order status. In each case the cost or risk outweighs the gain today.
See the reasoningChapter 01
Two weeks on one workflow: how a quote becomes an order at Brightline. We sat with the people who answer the emails and phones, traced quotes and POs through every system and checked each idea against the tools you already pay for.
In scope
Out of scope
2 weeks · 10 sessions
Dana Whitfield, Vice President of Sales & Service · Rob Castellano, Inside Sales Manager · Erin Walsh, Customer Service Supervisor · Linda Park, Order Desk Lead
Keisha Morgan, Inside Sales Rep · Luis Ortega, Inside Sales Rep, Regional Chains
Linda Park, Order Desk Lead · Brian Kowalski, Order Entry Specialist
Erin Walsh, Customer Service Supervisor · Tasha Bell, Customer Service Rep · Hector Ramos, Customer Service Rep
Megan Doyle, Credit Manager · Carla Jennings, Purchasing Manager
Sanjay Iyer, IT & ERP Administrator
Rob Castellano, Inside Sales Manager · Linda Park, Order Desk Lead · Carla Jennings, Purchasing Manager
Dana Whitfield, Vice President of Sales & Service · Rob Castellano, Inside Sales Manager · Erin Walsh, Customer Service Supervisor · Megan Doyle, Credit Manager
2 need action first
Excel price booksCustomer pricing
Pricing for 310 accounts across 11 workbooks; three versions in circulation.
SharePoint spec librarySpec sheets
4,100 spec sheets filed by supplier; 18% superseded or duplicated.
HubSpotCRM
Used by outside sales. 41% of quotes never reach it, so open quotes go unfollowed.
Outlook shared inboxEmail
One inbox for POs, quotes and status questions, with no tags or ownership.
Brightline OnlineB2B ordering portal
Used by 22% of accounts. Shows stock, but not lead times or order status.
LTL carrier portalsFreight tracking
Three carrier portals checked by hand; two have no tracking API.
Prophet 21ERP
Accurate stock, orders and credit. Contract pricing set up for the top 40 accounts only.
RingCentralPhone system
Queues and call logs in place. Call reasons aren’t captured.
ConnectedManual handoffsAction needed
Chapter 02
How a quote becomes an order at Brightline, as it really runs, organized so leadership can absorb it in a few minutes.
56% of in-scope time goes to keying orders, looking up prices and specs and answering status calls. Systems can absorb most of it. 26% is judgment that should stay with people, made faster. 18% is the work you hired them to do.
ManualHandoffJudgment
As documented
As it actually runs 6 manual steps
As documented
As it actually runs 4 manual steps
As documented
As it actually runs 3 manual steps
| Exception | Per month | Resolution | Pattern | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item short, substitute needed | 260 | 0.8 days | Repeatable | Order desk |
| PO price doesn’t match price book | 170 | 1.5 days | Repeatable | Order desk |
| Unknown customer item code | 140 | 0.5 days | Repeatable | Order desk |
| Backorder not communicated | 120 | 2.0 days | Repeatable | Customer service |
| Supplier lead time needed | 110 | 2.6 days | Repeatable | Inside sales |
| Credit hold found during entry | 95 | 1.1 days | Repeatable | Order desk |
| Spec sheet missing or outdated | 75 | 1.2 days | Repeatable | Inside sales |
| Damaged or short delivery | 55 | 3.5 days | Judgment | Customer service |
| Missed or refused LTL delivery | 40 | 3.0 days | Judgment | Customer service |
| Rush or custom-print request | 30 | 2.0 days | Judgment | Inside sales |
89% of exception volume follows a repeatable pattern that a system can resolve or prepare. Damage claims, missed deliveries and rush jobs stay with people.
Contract pricing for 40 accounts is in Prophet 21; the other 310 are priced from Excel workbooks, three versions of which are in use. About 170 orders a month are keyed at a price that doesn’t match the customer’s PO.
The only cross-reference of customer item codes to Brightline SKUs is a personal spreadsheet on one desktop. When its owner is out, order entry slows by about a third.
18% of spec sheets in the library are superseded or duplicated, including food-contact and compostability certificates. Customers rely on them for health inspections and local packaging rules.
No backorder notice goes out today. About 120 backorders a month reach the customer only when they ask, often on the expected delivery day.
Prophet 21 stock and order records are accurate; cycle counts match within 1%.
Median tenure on the order desk and in customer service is over six years. They know the customers and the exceptions, which is what good review needs.
The top 40 accounts are already priced in Prophet 21. The pattern exists; it needs extending, not inventing.
Chapter 03
Eight opportunities, each sized from the evidence and checked against the tools you already have. Values are net of the review and exception work each change introduces.
Clear value, proven approach, ready to start.
Promising. One question to answer before building.
Not now. Revisit when the conditions change.
Little gain, or the risk belongs with people.
Today
About 1,500 POs a month arrive in the shared inbox as PDFs, spreadsheets and scanned faxes. Each takes about 12 minutes to match item codes, check price and key into Prophet 21; 11% are keyed at a price that doesn’t match.
Proposed
An intake workflow that reads each PO, maps customer item codes to your SKUs, checks price against the quote or contract, flags short stock and credit holds, and creates a draft sales order in Prophet 21. Clean orders are confirmed in one review; anything unusual is routed with the reason attached.
Where people stay in control
The order desk confirms every order before release. Substitutions, price overrides and credit releases stay with people.
Approach
Live in week 7Confidence: High
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Today
1,150 quote requests a month by email and phone. Reps spend about 24 minutes per quote across price books, Prophet 21, the spec library and supplier emails. Quotes take 1.6 days on average; 41% never reach HubSpot.
Proposed
First, move the Excel price books into Prophet 21 contract pricing so there is one price. Then a quote assistant reads the request, finds the items, applies the customer’s price, checks stock and known lead times, attaches current spec sheets and drafts the quote and the HubSpot record. Non-stock items are flagged with a supplier email ready to send.
Where people stay in control
Reps review and send every quote. Prices below the margin floor still go to the inside sales manager. Compliance claims come only from current spec sheets.
Approach
Live in week 9Confidence: Medium
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Today
About 1,900 status and lead-time questions a month, 62% by phone, at about 7 minutes each. Backorders are communicated only when the customer asks; 24% of callers call again within a week.
Proposed
Send ship confirmations with LTL tracking and backorder notices with a revised date, generated daily from Prophet 21 and carrier data. Show the same status in Brightline Online, and give reps one screen with the order, shipment and supplier PO for the calls that remain.
Where people stay in control
Reps call key accounts about backorders on critical items themselves. Revised dates go out only when purchasing has confirmed them.
Approach
Live in week 5Confidence: High
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Why validate first. Approved substitutes aren’t written down anywhere. Suggestions are only as good as the rules behind them.
To validate: Purchasing and the order desk define substitutes for the top 200 short-stock items and test them against last quarter’s 780 substitutions.
Today
About 260 lines a month need a substitute. The order desk picks one from memory or asks purchasing, then calls the customer; each takes about 20 minutes and 2–24 hours to settle.
Proposed
An approved-substitute table by item family, used during PO intake (O1) to suggest a substitute and draft the approval request to the customer.
Where people stay in control
The customer approves every substitute. Purchasing signs off size, food-contact and compostability equivalence.
Approach
4 weeks after rulesConfidence: Medium
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Why validate first. AR and the order desk apply the hold rules differently. Automating the check before the rules are agreed would automate the inconsistency.
To validate: The credit manager and inside sales manager agree hold, release and override rules, including who can approve a release.
Today
About 95 orders a month go on credit hold during entry. The order desk emails AR, waits 4–24 hours, then calls the customer; most deliveries slip a day.
Proposed
Use Prophet 21 credit status at intake to flag holds before entry, route them to AR with the account summary, and send the customer a payment-status note from an approved template.
Where people stay in control
AR decides every release. Account managers call strategic accounts themselves.
Approach
2 weeks after rulesConfidence: Medium
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Why defer. Adoption is an account-management effort, and the portal isn’t worth pushing until it shows status. Revisit after O3, with outside sales leading.
Today
22% of accounts order through the portal. It shows stock but not lead times or order status, so portal customers still call.
Proposed
Add order status and lead times to the portal, then run an account-by-account adoption push with outside sales.
Where people stay in control
Account managers choose which accounts to move and keep phone ordering for those who want it.
Approach
—Confidence: Low
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Why defer. Only 3 of your top 12 suppliers can send EDI today, and Prophet 21 EDI setup needs a partner. Revisit when your two largest suppliers finish their EDI rollout next year.
Today
Inside sales emails suppliers for lead times on about 110 non-stock requests a month. Answers take 1–3 days.
Proposed
EDI acknowledgment and ship-notice feeds from major suppliers into Prophet 21 purchase orders.
Where people stay in control
Purchasing manages supplier relationships and exceptions.
Approach
—Confidence: Low
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Why not recommended. Calls are where reorders and add-on sales happen, and a missed delivery is urgent for a restaurant. O3 removes the calls worth removing; the rest belong with people.
Today
About 1,180 status calls a month. Most callers are kitchen managers and buyers who know the reps by name.
Proposed
A voice agent connected to Prophet 21 that answers status calls and takes simple reorders.
Where people stay in control
—
Approach
—Confidence: High
The value, worked through
Assumptions
Data it needs
Risks to manage
How we’ll measure it
Chapter 04
A 10-week plan to deliver the three recommended changes and settle the two open questions. Each phase ends with a measured result and a decision about what comes next.
Customers hear about shipments and backorders before they call.
Emailed POs arrive as draft orders; one price book in Prophet 21.
Quotes drafted from one request; open questions answered.
Hours a month
2.02.53.0 full-time roles of net capacity. We recommend using it for same-day quoting and proactive calls to key accounts rather than reducing headcount.
Net annual value
$157K$219K$271K
Conservative $157K · Upside $271K
Before build fees, which are fixed and quoted separately. Values are estimates from discovery; the plan measures each against a baseline.
Built for you
We build and launch it. Your team approves and adopts it.
Integration work with a clear outcome. We build and launch it; your order desk lead and customer service supervisor approve the rules and review results.
Built with you
Your team builds it with us, then owns it.
Pricing and quoting change every month, so they should be owned in-house. Your inside sales manager and ERP administrator move the price books and co-build the quote assistant with us.
Your team
Low-risk changes your team can make with our checklist.
Two sets of business rules to agree before anything is automated. We provide a short checklist and review the outcome.
Complete
This document.
Proposed
Fixed scope and fee, quoted on approval. Discovery fee credited in full.
Optional
Monthly support after 60 days of close support, or a handover to your team.