About Praveen
Praveen Rai is the founder and Managing Director of Sort String Solutions LLP, the company behind SalesPort. He has led the rollout of distribution technology across 45 dairy, FMCG, and agri companies in India and Nepal — powering ₹8,572 Crore of annual GMV. His work focuses on bringing operational rigour to rural distribution at scale, with a particular focus on milk procurement, beat-plan compliance, and the economics of per-user vs fixed-AMC pricing for Indian B2B distribution.
Articles by Praveen
Why 70% of Dairy Companies Still Use Paper for Dispatch Tracking
India's dairy distribution network moves lakhs of litres every day. Yet most dairy companies still track dispatch through paper registers and phone calls.
From Paper Registers to 83,785 Farmers: How Milk Procurement Went Digital
SalesPort Milk Procurement manages 83,785 farmers across India and Nepal. No other platform in India offers a milk procurement module at this scale — here is how it works, what it captures, and why it matters.
What is a Distribution Management System (DMS)? A Complete Guide for Indian Businesses
A Distribution Management System (DMS) digitises the entire flow from manufacturer to retailer. Here is everything Indian dairy and FMCG companies need to know before choosing one.
5 Biggest Challenges in Indian Dairy Distribution (And How Technology Solves Them)
Indian dairy distribution faces unique challenges from perishable logistics to rural last-mile delivery. Here are the five biggest problems and how technology addresses each one.
FMCG Distribution in India: Why 5,600 SKUs Need More Than Spreadsheets
Managing thousands of SKUs across hundreds of distributors and lakhs of retail outlets requires purpose-built distribution technology — not Excel sheets and WhatsApp groups.
How to Digitise FMCG Distribution in India: A Step-by-Step Guide
Digitising FMCG distribution in India is not a technology project — it is an operational transformation. Here is the step-by-step playbook we use when onboarding FMCG clients at SalesPort.
SFA Software for Dairy — The 2026 Buyer's Guide
Dairy distribution is not generic FMCG. SFA software built for FMCG distributors misses the perishables, cold chain, and procurement realities of dairy operations. Here is what dairy SFA actually needs.
DMS Software Pricing in India 2026 — What 45 Deployments Taught Us
How much does DMS software cost in India? Real pricing ranges, the two pricing models in market, and the cost drivers buyers consistently underestimate. Lessons from 45 SortString deployments.
AI Demand Forecasting for FMCG in India — The Pawanshree Story
Why we built productised AI demand forecasting for FMCG distribution, the conversation with Pawanshree Dairy that started it, and what 5 years of operational data actually enables.
The Indian Dairy Distribution Playbook 2026 — What 25 Dairy Operators Taught Us
Five years, 25 dairy deployments, 83,785 farmers digitised, ₹803 Crore of procurement processed. The patterns that separate a dairy operator who scales from one who stalls.
Milk Procurement Software — Buyer's Guide for Cooperative & Private Dairies (2026)
What to actually evaluate when picking milk procurement software for a 5,000-farmer dairy: VLC architecture, fat/SNF testing integration, payment cycles, and the rural-connectivity reality.
Fat / SNF Testing Software — When to Digitise and the Integrations That Matter
Manual fat/SNF entry is the single biggest source of farmer-payment disputes in Indian dairy. What to evaluate when picking software that talks to your milk analyser device.
Why Per-User SFA Pricing Punishes Growing FMCG Brands (and the Fixed-AMC Alternative)
Per-user SFA pricing looks cheap at 20 reps and becomes one of your largest software bills at 150. Here's the maths on why per-seat pricing taxes growth — and what a fixed-AMC model changes.
Crate Tracking for Dairies: Why You're Losing ₹15–30 Lakh a Year on Untracked Returnables
Crates, trays, and returnables walk off the books at most dairies — quietly costing ₹15–30 Lakh a year. Here's why returnables shrinkage is invisible, and how per-route crate tracking turns it into a managed number.
D2C Milk Subscriptions: How Dairy Brands Cut Churn Below 5%
Churn quietly eats every month's growth in a D2C dairy. Here's why subscribers really leave — it's rarely price — and the delivery, subscription, and billing levers that pull churn below 5%.
NDDB AMCS Compliance: What Cooperatives Actually Need in Their Software (2026)
AMCS and NDDB reporting requirements trip up many dairy cooperatives at audit time. Here's what your software actually needs to maintain — member records, procurement data, and governance reports — to stay compliant.
Cooperative Governance: The 6 Board Reports a Modern Dairy Co-op Can't Live Without
A dairy cooperative's board governs on data — but most still assemble board packs by hand from registers. Here are the six reports a modern co-op needs generated automatically from live data.
Auto-Calculated Milk Payments: How NDDB-Grade Cooperatives Pay Farmers in 24 Hours
Farmers stay loyal to the dairy that pays accurately and fast. Here's how digitised, fat/SNF-based payment calculation lets NDDB-grade cooperatives pay farmers within 24 hours — and why it's the strongest retention lever in dairy.