Industry · Distribution
Every order shipped right and every service call billed
Many distributors also install and repair the equipment they sell. That second business makes them a Service Operation. Ludia Consulting is a Microsoft solutions integrator focused on Service Operations. Our senior consultants connect sales, the warehouse, shipping, the service team, and finance so orders ship complete, technicians have the part, and your people run it without us.
Sources: US Census Bureau wholesale data via Distribution Strategy Group, Aug 2026; Gartner sales survey, Mar 2026; NAW AI Adoption Index, Sept 2026. Ludia’s own count: two distribution and transportation clients, plus warehousing and shipping work for manufacturers and a supply-chain software company.
Distributors are running leaner, and the service business feels it first
Wholesalers are holding less stock against their sales. With leaner shelves, a mis-pick, a late label, or a part in the wrong branch costs a customer.
Census data put the wholesale inventories-to-sales ratio at 1.19 in June 2026, down from 1.30 a year earlier. Less stock means less room for error in the warehouse and in the service van.
Buyers want answers without a call. In Gartner’s 2026 survey, 67% of B2B buyers preferred a rep-free experience. That only works when price, availability, and order status are right in the system.
The service business often runs on its own tools. Technicians order parts the warehouse didn’t plan for, and service work gets billed from a spreadsheet at month-end. Shipping labels and the sales pipeline often live outside the system too.
A distributor’s margin is won or lost in the handoffs
Each team can hit its own numbers and the customer still waits on a part sitting in the wrong branch. We connect the five links, so the promise sales makes is one the warehouse and the service team keep.
- 1 · Customer service
Customer Service (opens Microsoft’s site)
Contact Center (opens Microsoft’s site)Status, price, and availability answered the first time
Inside sales and the service desk see the order, the stock, and the customer’s equipment, so the caller gets the answer on the first call.
Agents at work: inside sales reps hand case setup and intent to the Case Management and Customer Intent agents (generally available), and keep the account relationship.
- 2 · Equipment service
Field Service (opens Microsoft’s site)The technician arrives with the part and the history
Installations, planned maintenance, and repairs are scheduled against the equipment you sold, by skill, territory, and parts on hand.
Agents at work: dispatchers review schedules drafted by the Scheduling Operations Agent (preview, not for production use yet) and keep the final call.
- 3 · MobilityField Service (opens Microsoft’s site)
Power Apps (opens Microsoft’s site)Service history and manuals in the technician’s hand
Technicians see the customer’s equipment, past visits, and the manual on their phone, and record parts and time before they leave.
Agents at work: technicians ask knowledge agents built in
Copilot Studio about the equipment, and keep the repair and safety calls. - 4 · Warehouse and shipping
Supply Chain Management (opens Microsoft’s site)Picked, labeled, and shipped right the first time
Sales orders, service parts, and small-parcel shipments come from one inventory, with serial numbers and carrier labels handled inside the system.
Agents at work: buyers let the Procurement Agent (preview) chase late supplier orders, then decide what to expedite.
- 5 · Finance
Finance (opens Microsoft’s site)Product sales and service billed from the same ledger
Parts, labor, and freight land on the order or the work order, so margin shows by customer, including the service you provide.
Agents at work: controllers use the Finance Agent for reconciliation and collections follow-up, and still approve what goes out.
Across every link
Agents take the lookups and follow-ups between the counter, the warehouse, the field, and the office; your people make the calls. See the connected Service Operation →
Underneath it all
Azure (opens Microsoft’s site)
Microsoft Foundry (opens Microsoft’s site)
Dataverse (opens Microsoft’s site)
Microsoft Azure is the secure cloud every link runs on: identity, integration with the systems you keep, and the data that ties them together. In Microsoft Foundry we build, test, and govern the custom AI agents and models your operation needs beyond the ones inside Dynamics 365. They work from your own data and are evaluated before they touch the work. How we build AI →
The work, as your branches and service teams do it
Four jobs your people do every day, and what changes when the record goes with them.
Inside sales
Emailed orders without retyping
A PDF purchase order from an email becomes a draft sales order with the customer’s pricing, and the rep checks it instead of keying it.
Their call: price exceptions and what ships.
Warehouse picker
Picks confirmed at the scan
Mobile picking with scanning catches the wrong item at the shelf, before it reaches the customer’s dock.
Their call: how to handle a short pick.
Driver
Proof of delivery at the door
A photo and signature close the delivery, and the customer gets a notice, so fewer people call to ask where their order is.
Their call: where to leave it.
Service technician
The part on the van, and the work billed
Installation and repair jobs draw from the van’s stock, and the parts used are on the work order and the invoice.
Their call: the repair at the customer’s site.
What changes for your CEO, CFO, and COO
For the CEO or owner
Grow the service business and fold in acquisitions on one template
Add a branch, a product line, or an acquired distributor without starting a new project each time. Service becomes a revenue line you can see and grow.
For the CFO
Margin by customer, service included
Freight, parts, and service labor post where they happen, so you see what each customer really earns you. And you know what the work costs and returns before you sign.
For the COO or VP of operations
Complete orders and first-visit fixes with the team you have
Pickers, drivers, and technicians work from the same stock and the same schedule. That means fewer mis-picks and fewer second trips to the same customer.
Where distributors see results first
Four patterns from our work with distributors, warehouses, and shippers, and what we do about each.
A service business tied to the warehouse and the invoice
The service team often runs apart from the distribution system. We connect Field Service to inventory and billing, so a part used is a part billed.
Field Service →Warehouses that handle serial numbers and wave picking
When volume grows, basic warehouse tools fall short. We set up advanced warehousing for serial numbers, wave labels, and containers, with your warehouse leads.
Small-parcel shipping without retyping
Carrier labels and rates often live outside the system. We bring small-parcel shipping inside Dynamics 365, as we have for manufacturers shipping to their own customers.
A sales pipeline off the old tools
Accounts and opportunities scattered across legacy tools and inboxes move into Dynamics 365 Sales, so managers see the pipeline in one place.
Agility and enablement
Your people make the next change without calling us.
Distribution changes fast: a new branch, a new line card, an acquired company. Your admins and operations managers should be able to set those up themselves.
Your admins train alongside our consultants from the first sprint. Every design decision is written down with the reason behind it. Operations managers get a runbook for adding a branch, a warehouse, or a price list.
How we work →
Where we’ve done this work
Our distribution work is newer than our manufacturing work, and we say so. The work below is what a distributor would recognize; client names stay confidential.
Distribution · Service
Equipment service on Field Service, with 
Microsoft FastTrack
An employee-owned healthcare-products distributor runs its equipment service on one system
The distributor’s equipment service team works in Dynamics 365 Field Service, put in place with Ludia and Microsoft FastTrack.
Warehousing · Supply chain
Serial numbers, wave labels, and containers in one warehouse flow
A supply-chain software company handles serial numbers, wave labels, and containers in Dynamics 365
The company’s warehouse handles serial numbers, wave labels, and containers in Dynamics 365. Ludia set it up with automated test data.
Logistics · Sales
Legacy sales tools replaced
A national less-than-truckload freight carrier brings its sales team onto one pipeline
Account managers work from one view of the customer in Dynamics 365 Sales, which replaced the carrier’s legacy systems.
Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365
The Microsoft products behind each part of your Service Operation. Each one links to Microsoft’s own page.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain ManagementParts, inventory, and procurement, planned from the service schedule.on microsoft.com (opens Microsoft’s site)Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field ServiceWork orders, scheduling, and the technician’s mobile app, from dispatch to completion.on microsoft.com (opens Microsoft’s site)Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinanceBilling, job cost, and the close, on the same numbers the field uses.on microsoft.com (opens Microsoft’s site)Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer ServiceCases, knowledge, and service agreements, so every request reaches the right person.on microsoft.com (opens Microsoft’s site)Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact CenterVoice, chat, and messaging in one place, with agents that understand intent.on microsoft.com (opens Microsoft’s site)Delivered the way Microsoft recommends, with FastTrack (opens Microsoft’s site) and Success by Design (opens Microsoft’s site).
For your IT team: what Dynamics 365 does well for distributors, and where it needs help
Dynamics 365 covers most of a multi-branch distributor with a service business. Our architects tell you where it needs an add-on before you plan around it.
Advanced warehousing is ready today
Generally available. Wave and cluster picking with serial and batch capture, containerization, and labels in Supply Chain Management.
Service and the warehouse share one inventory
Generally available. Field Service work orders draw parts from Supply Chain Management warehouses, and billing flows to Finance.
Prices can be served to your web store
Generally available, June 2026. Supply Chain Management can calculate prices for outside systems through an API, for online ordering and quoting tools.
Branch counters need a real test
Counter and will-call sales work in Dynamics 365, but take more steps than counter screens built for distribution. We prototype with your counter staff early.
Pricing optimization comes from a partner product
Dynamics 365 runs trade agreements and rebates. Price guidance and elasticity come from a dedicated pricing product connected to it.
Agents: some ready, some in preview
Finance reconciliation in 
Microsoft 365 Copilot and the Contact Center agents are generally available. The Procurement Agent is in preview. Agents you build in Copilot Studio are available now.
Status as of Sept 28, 2026, from the Supply Chain Management 2026 release plan, Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 announcements (Sept 23, 2026), and the AI at Work roadmap. Microsoft now ships changes continuously, so we re-check status before every plan.
Questions distribution leaders ask us
Can our service team and our warehouse work from one inventory?
Yes. A service van or a service parts room is a warehouse in Supply Chain Management, so Field Service draws from the same stock sales promises from. A part used on a work order is consumed and billed once.
Is Finance and Supply Chain right for us, or is Business Central enough?
It depends on your size and complexity. Single-entity distributors with simple pricing often fit Business Central. Multi-entity distributors with several warehouses, rebates, and a service business usually need Finance and Supply Chain Management. We’ll tell you which, even when the answer is the smaller one.
Can Dynamics 365 keep up at our branch counters?
It can, but it takes more steps than counter screens built for distribution. We test it with your counter staff early, before anyone commits to a design.
Do you have distribution references we can call?
We’ll introduce references when you’re close to a decision. Our deepest proof is with distributors that also service equipment, and with warehousing and shipping work for manufacturers.
Will our own people be able to run it after launch?
Yes. Your admins build alongside our consultants, and each design decision is documented with its reason. By launch, your team can add a branch, a warehouse, or a price list without us, and managed support is there if you want it.