Determining the Return on Investment for OnTrak's POS Tracking Tools

We’ve been asked, from time-to-time, to help our customers to determine the financial impact of using OnTrak’s SignTrak® and MenuTrakâ„¢ products — Point-of-Sale (POS) Tracking Software for custom, temporary signs and custom beverage menus.

SignTrak manages the custom, temporary POS signage process. The system automates communication between sales and sign shop; eliminates POS errors and reduces time-to-market; and tracks both POS costs and supplier recovery.

MenuTrak manages the custom menu creation process. The system automates menu configuration, approval and production of custom beverage menus; and tracks costs and improves supplier recovery.

Initially our customers begin using one of these products to improve POS/Menu ordering and to track the costs associated with the design and production of custom point-of-sale materials by the distributor’s in-house graphics and printing department.

Generally, after a few weeks of usage, customers come to rely on OnTrak products to get their POS materials to market faster than ever. That is, OnTrak’s products shorten the length of time from POS ordering to placement in retailers’ aisles and in front of restaurants’ patrons.

Often, at about the same time, it becomes apparent that the number of POS/menu ordering and production errors drops to almost zero as do the number of reworks:  “POS materials” (e.g., custom signs, displays, menus, etc.) that have to be remade due to an error can cost days, sometimes more — leading to lost sales.

Also, reworks are expensive when you realize that POS design and production includes not only paper, ink and menu covers, but also that a reworked sign or menu takes the sales rep’s time and the graphic designer’s and print operator’s time away from doing other things that can help your sales force be more productive.

Additionally, even though it is not directly measurable, the distributor’s customer’s time is also impacted when at-retail signage or menus are incorrectly produced and have to be reworked.

OnTrak’s Return-On-Investment (ROI) Calculator

The following figures, hopefully, are self-explanatory. In each step the cells in the spreadsheet, highlighted in light yellow, will contain information specific to your organization. In our example, below, we have entered averages based on our nearly 10 years of experience with beverage alcohol distributors.

We use a three step process:

Step 1 - Calculate the Cost and the Savings of an OnTrak Solution

The price of our software is based on the number of users of the system (e.g., SignTrak or MenuTrak) — what we’ve done is enter information into the cells of a spreadsheet to determine the number of reps, managers, administrators, etc. who are involved in ordering, producing and placing POS materials and some other pertinent data in order to determine the costs (in time and money) of POS tracking: Ordering and production activities, reworks, etc.

Additional gross margin per representative will likely be generated as a result of the time saved entering orders and communications between sales and the sign shop. If a rep is spending more time selling rather than entering and tracking orders, that can result in additional sales as well as increased gross margin for your business.

 

Step 2 - Calculate the Print Shop Production Costs, and the Savings from the Elimination of Errors and Reworks

Our ROI calculator takes a look at the cost of your print shop personnel and the time (and money) that is saved using our automated workflow system.

The savings come in two major areas:

1. Time - There is a dramatic reduction in the time for your print production team since we offer a fully automated system that helps them in the areas of batching jobs, manual data entries, elimination of error and reworks, and the time spent on the phone with sales personnel who want to know the status of their orders.

2. Cost of Errors and Reworks — OnTrak solutions virtually eliminate all errors and reworks. With an electronic, paperless workflow system all orders coming into the print department are accurate and complete. There is no need for phone conversation since the system automatically generates message to the sales teams when their order is accepted and completed.
   
   

Step 3 — Calculate Your Return on Investment (ROI) in OnTrak Software Solutions

There is one more savings area to discuss and then we’ll get on to calculating the Total ROI from investing in an OnTrak Software Solution.

Should your suppliers require reports to confirm the amount of money (brand support) you spent on custom POS signage or beverage menus then our solutions will save you significant time in this area. All recovery reports are available at the click of a mouse, and therefore will save your staff considerable time and money.

Finally,

Our ROI calculator:

• Subtracts the cost of an OnTrak subscription ($15 per user, per month, in our example),

• From the savings determined by a typical medium-sized beverage alcohol distributor,

• To calculate the payback per dollar (ROI) spent on either SignTrak or MenuTrak.

In this case the ROI is 4.71 to 1.

That means that for every dollar you spend on an OnTrak Software product will return a savings of $4.71.

This ROI is based on the numbers we used in this spreadsheet. The next step is to contact us and schedule your own ROI calculation using your numbers to see how much OnTrak can save you. We’re sure you will be impressed.

In our nearly 10 year history we have never seen less than a two to one return on investment.

A live demonstation is the best way to see the value of our OnTrak Solutions. If our software meets your needs we can then schedule personalized ROI calculation for your business.

Here's how:

1. Please click the following link to request a demonstration of our POS Tracking Software - Request A Demo

2. Then select SignTrak or MenuTrak and as part of the demo. We will then schedule your own ROI Calculation, or

3. Call Todd Grote at 773-255-4713 to schedule the demo and the ROI calculation.