G&J Pepsi discovers untapped potential with Dynamics 365, boosts profit by $30 million

Centennial success built on tech-forward strategy

As the largest independent Pepsi bottler in the United States, still led today by the third generation of its founding family, G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers is on the verge of celebrating a century of excellence in the beverage industry. With its 13 locations and more than 650 products, the distinct edge that G&J Pepsi has over its competitors is the unwavering passion, loyalty, and tenure of its 2,000 employees, some of whom have been with the company for over 40 years. In its core mission to lead in its franchise system, G&J Pepsi handles the manufacturing, distribution, and sales, including producing its own preforms and plastic bottles. Additionally, the company operates its own print company, generating branding materials and engaging in substantial logistics operations with a large fleet of vehicles.

A pivotal aspect of G&J Pepsi’s strategy is helping other franchise bottlers harness technology to enhance their operational efficiencies. Its successful digital journey is inspiring others to follow suit by actively demonstrating how digital transformation catalyzes business evolution through demos, discussions, and visits. The company’s focus is on shifting the perception of IT and technology from merely a cost center to a crucial driver of future business growth and market adaptability. G&J Pepsi emphasizes the importance of aligning with consumer demands and equipping employees with the right tools and technologies.

For G&J Pepsi, the journey into its next century hinges on embracing new technologies and strategies. This approach is not just about survival; it’s about digitally transforming and capturing market opportunities to guarantee continued growth and the creation of robust solutions. To boost customer and employee satisfaction, streamline operations, foster innovation, and reduce costs, the company realized it needed to initiate its own tech overhaul. “If we were going to enable growth and profitable, long-lasting solutions, we needed to change our strategies and adopt new technologies that we hadn’t before,” says Brian Balzer, Executive Vice President of Digital Technology & Business Transformation at G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers.

Tech-empowered employees drive customer satisfaction

With a century of competitive history, G&J Pepsi has prioritized both operational excellence and the employee experience by integrating technology into its core functions of manufacturing and distribution. Historically, the company operated through a fragmented array of systems tailored to distinct operational requirements, requiring a lot of manual data work and paper trails. To address this, the company wanted to move toward a unified data model for real-time insights and efficiencies in business functions. This shift to centralized workflow and scheduling solutions aimed to boost operational efficiency and appeal to a younger workforce, reinforcing G&J Pepsi’s innovative industry leadership. “If we want to keep up with the changing consumer and customer demands, it requires us to put the right technologies in the hands of our employees,” says Balzer.

At G&J Pepsi, the technology department—essential yet minimally staffed—was facing issues with inconsistent data management. The company undertook a comprehensive analysis of its existing business processes, and uncovered more than 200 issues in 150 processes. It also provided a clear understanding of inefficiencies and rework loops, or undesirable non-value-adding activities. Wanting to achieve a common data model, with real-time insights and capabilities, G&J Pepsi imagined ideal processes without technological restraints, all which led to its adoption of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service and Microsoft Power Automate. “We needed our associates to be able to serve our customers by getting the right information at the right time,” explains Eric McKinney, Director of Enterprise Infrastructure at G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers. “We were then able to wrap everything around Dynamics 365 on one single platform, and that has enabled us to serve our customers with excellence.”

G&J Pepsi recognized the intrinsic connection between sales and field service, so it developed a unified platform on Dynamics 365 that accelerates customer service response times. The consolidated system has dramatically transformed the operational workflow, cutting down the processing of paperwork from weeks to mere seconds and significantly boosting efficiency. This interoperability has also eradicated the need for redundant follow-ups, enabling salespeople to dedicate more time and resources to nurturing customer relationships and pursuing business expansion. The unified systems also grant immediate access to critical information, which minimizes the time spent on retrieving data and allows for a greater focus on delivering exceptional customer service. “Dynamics 365 has been crucial for our sales managers,” says Brenda Tackett, On-Premises Sales Manager at G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers. “When they open up a customer account, they can see everything about that customer—sales equipment, service issues, delivery, and pricing—in one stop.” Tackett also notes that the technology is user-friendly and has been embraced by her sales team, which ranges in age from twenties to near retirement. She emphasizes that the tool has improved customer service by providing immediate access to information and reducing the need for back-and-forth communication.

Field Service improves efficiency for onsite workers through smart scheduling and automation, enhancing productivity. Interoperating with Pepsi’s technology, it offers real-time updates, better stock management, and effective customer service, streamlining operations. Dynamics 365 interoperability centralizes critical information, reducing emails and simplifying communication. “Everything is more visible and automated now. There are no worries about when it was done, how it was done—this task is completed,” says James Curenton, Equipment Sales Manager at G&J Pepsi-Bottlers.

Better first-time fix rates and cost savings with the Field Service mobile app

The move to Field Service has significantly transformed mobile operations, moving away from a nearly 20-year-old system that required outdated methods, such as dial-up or physical office visits, to sync data. This change has profoundly improved the responsiveness of field service technicians, resulting in better customer service. With Field Service, dispatchers can now adjust service schedules in real time, allowing technicians to quickly address urgent issues, such as water leaks at major accounts. The Field Service mobile app enhances operational efficiency by improving communication and managing tasks, like work order management and inventory control. It uses cellular technology to auto-update inventory as technicians use parts, avoiding manual entries and speeding up restocking processes. “The Dynamics 365 mobile app is great because it’s real-time,” explains Curenton. “It helps us to provide KPIs—we can pull in reports, see how many calls this account has, how many times we’ve been back, and if their equipment needs to be replaced,” This transformation has led to better first-time fix rates, reducing the need for return visits, which in turn saves costs related to time, mileage, and fuel. It also helps G&J Pepsi achieve greater operational efficiencies and improve overall customer satisfaction by ensuring technicians have the necessary parts and information to complete jobs effectively on the very first visit.

G&J Pepsi aims to meet its sustainability targets by integrating data into its manufacturing operations. In managing product life cycles, including stock shortages and item expirations, the company uses extensive data from Microsoft to analyze return and damage patterns. “Being a Microsoft customer, we have a ridiculous amount of data—we are incredibly data-rich,” says Balzer. “We have all this wonderful data, and now it’s about prioritizing and finding out how to take that data and turn them into insights that really drive improvements in keeping up with in out-of-dates, out-of-stocks, damages, so on and so forth.”

G&J experiences a $30 million ROI over three years

With G&J Pepsi reps instantly accessing sales history, equipment details, schedules, parts, and pricing in the field, the company is streamlining operations and enhancing customer service without the need for constant calls or searches. "With Dynamics 365, we reversed a $9 million yearly loss, and also achieved a $30 million ROI over three years, amounting to a nearly $57 million swing in a three-year period,” says Balzer. He explains this was achieved by simplifying processes and using technology for better data access and automation, and led to a 10 point increase in market share in the on-premises sector, significantly outperforming the norm of 0.5 point annual growth. Technology’s role in providing real-time insights was key to the company’s success and opportunity discovery. “For example, we’ve been able to streamline 180,000 manual steps, which once took 7 to 10 days each, down to 35 seconds, using Power Automate and Dynamics 365,” says Balzer.

G&J Pepsi has also noticed an uptick in employee morale. They now have more time to dedicate to value-added tasks like ensuring top-notch customer service and maintaining properly stocked equipment and products. “Dynamics 365 has provided me the flexibility to work anywhere, at any time, and have the same functions that I have in the office environment,” says Curenton. “And it creates that partnership, not only with my customers, but with my employees. It has really changed the way we work as managers and as employees.” He explains, “Because all employees now have access to anything, everywhere, and it gives us the opportunity to be out in the market with the customers, with our employees, and with our service teams.”

Real-time data-driven decisions with Microsoft Copilot

G&J Pepsi is exploring innovative ways to use data, like using Microsoft Azure for generating business insights, market share reporting, and identifying market opportunities. A notable initiative is using predictive analytics to assist sales personnel by pre-determining weekly orders for stores, thus reducing manual work and increasing efficiency. G&J Pepsi is also exploring how best to use Microsoft Copilot, which initially wasn’t a primary focus. “But when we stepped back and we thought about even just the strategy, in terms of making use of the suite of Microsoft tools available to us, it opened our eyes up to what was possible,” explains Balzer. He also advocates for a bottom-up approach, and will be encouraging the use of AI and Copilot among frontline employees to address real-world challenges, like optimizing sales priorities based on data analysis. G&J Pepsi knows it’s crucial to employ technologists and AI experts to embed Copilot effectively within the business, especially among the frontline staff. Once incorporated, Copilot can be harnessed to sift through real-time data and set priorities, thereby streamlining decision making. “We’re going to be able to unlock so much information in real time, surfaced by Copilot,” McKinney says. “Our employees are going to be able to completely transform our customers’ experiences.”