P4 Technologies
On the Cutting Edge of Inventory Management

When it comes to being on the cutting edge of inventory management, P4 Technologies, a forecasting, replenishment, and inventory optimization SaaS provider, stands out. Reduced inventory, improved customer service levels, operational efficiencies, and industry-unique tools are just a few of the tantalizing benefits.

Smith Drug Company is a pharmaceutical wholesaler and one of the largest privately held companies in South Carolina. Being in an extremely competitive and low margin business with volatile changes in generic drug supplies and demand, Smith was looking for a solution. Coming to their rescue was P4 Technologies. Implementing P4’s solution, Smith reduced their inventory by 30 percent while improving customer service levels to unprecedented heights. With newly freed up cash, Smith increased their footprint by purchasing another regional wholesaler and doubling the number of distribution centers.

P4 Technologies is also known for their ability to create solutions unique to specific industry needs. For example, P4 created a LIFO inventory forecasting and reporting tool that allowed Smith to reduce its tax liabilities and simultaneously help them set and meet shareholder expectations.

Smith Drug Company’s collaborative partnership with P4 not only played a vital role in their business strategies, but was also the reason for achieving the prestigious Healthcare Distribution Alliance’s DMA Award for 2018. This award was received specifically for substantial results they realized due to their implementation of P4.

While this highlights just one of several success stories with P4, the company is committed to providing sophisticated inventory replenishment and forecasting tools to multiple supply chain industries. Ken Palmer, founder and president of P4 Technologies, informs, “With cloud computing, we are able to provide more robust and more affordable solutions to a wider array of supply chain players than ever before.” In addition to being the founder of P4, Palmer also founded Supply Chain Solutions in 1994 and developed the SCORE F&R Solution. This solution is still in use by some of the world’s largest wholesalers and retailers. However, P4’s cloud solution allows Palmer to channel his passion for creating unique and powerful solutions for a very diverse customer base.

Positively impacting the lives of others while continually striving to be the world’s best supply chain optimization solution provider

Although P4 caters primarily to wholesalers and retailers of packaged and fresh goods, it has a unique and powerful multi-echelon forecasting and replenishment solution that meets the integrated supply chain needs of very large and complex organizations.

P4 takes a distinctive forecasting approach by analyzing all customer demand detail transactions in its algorithms. “For starters, for each new client we analyze every historical demand detail transaction for the past four years and create a model, which includes day of week and day of month patterns, seasonality, trend and several other statistics. We combine that with a host of other unique but vital calculations to predict their needs accurately,” says Greg Bradshaw, Executive VP of Sales and Operations, P4 Technologies.

At the core, P4 trains its users using a simple but straightforward approach based on the seven steps of buying. This framework allows their users to understand and leverage some very sophisticated and powerful tools in a straightforward and intuitive framework. Buyers become investors for their employers and learn how to improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and take full advantage of inventory investment opportunities. Buyers become extremely satisfied contributors to the overall success of their organization.

Although P4 is a fairly recent solution provider to enter this market, with Ken’s history and success in inventory optimization solutions and the recognition P4 is achieving, it is no wonder they are winning awards. P4 is not only more robust, but it prides itself in creating unique solutions for all of its customers and is already helping over 60 facilities across 26 states become more profitable and service their customers more efficiently.