From Notecards to Real-Time CRM Routing: How Otto By Products Automated for the Next Generation
Executive Summary
Otto By Products is more than a successful rendering business—it’s a Cleveland institution. Founded by a family of entrepreneurs with deep roots in Northeast Ohio, Otto’s bright red trucks have become a familiar sight on streets and highways throughout the region. Since 2008, the company has played a vital role in sustainability and food service waste management, serving more than 2,000 restaurant sites across the state.
But behind the scenes, daily operations were powered by paper logs, handwritten notecards, and the institutional knowledge of co-founder Mike Otto. As the company looked to scale and transition leadership to the next generation, it faced a critical challenge: how to preserve the values and reliability that built the business—while modernizing the systems that could no longer keep pace.
“We needed someone who could move fast and understand our business. (AXI is) hands-on and always responsive—I feel heard and supported.”
— Amanda Otto, operations manager, Otto By Products
To meet this moment, Otto partnered with ApertureXI Technologies (AXI) to automate one of its most essential workflows: route planning and customer scheduling. Together, they developed a custom cloud-based automation solution that replaced paper-based processes with real-time visibility, digital flexibility, and operational control—creating a more scalable and resilient foundation for future growth.
Challenge: A paper-bound process
Otto By Products is a family-owned business built by Mike and John Otto and powered by their 60 years of experience in the rendering industry. Like many family-owned businesses, daily processes hadn’t evolved to meet operational demands, and the company faced several critical inefficiencies that threatened business continuity and growth.
Planning seventeen distinct routes, an essential daily task to ensure timely restaurant customer service and operations, consisted of referencing handwritten notecards that were updated and compiled solely by Otto co-founder Mike Otto. With all scheduling and service frequency information stored in his memory and in his notes, the existing routing system depended completely on him.
At each pickup location, Otto’s drivers recorded the oil collection weights on paper, a highly risky practice exposing the data to damage, loss, or misinterpretation. Meanwhile, rebate calculations, required quarterly for weight-based customer credits, took up to three weeks during each rebate cycle and involved the input of multiple employees. These inefficient manual systems left the company vulnerable to human error and workflow bottlenecks.
Turning Point: Discovering a first-class automation partner
The company had made a previous attempt at automating routing, but when the developer left the project, the team continued to seek a new solution to support more clients and drivers as the operation grew. The right partner wasn’t an easy find, however.
“We needed someone who could move fast and understand our business,” explains Amanda Otto, operations manager.
Solution: Building a visible, scalable system
AXI worked together with Otto By Products leadership to design and implement a routing automation solution. Driver schedules are now fully automated and digitized on a weekly basis, with flexible options to adjust frequencies in real time. Centralized visibility in customers and individual routes means that the team can develop schedules more efficiently, respond quickly to customer calls, and even reprint routes as needed, transforming daily operations.
The collaboration with AXI’s team, especially Founder and Chief Automation Officer George Mehok and Sree Vedula, VP of Solution Engineering and Delivery, has been a highlight. “They’re hands-on and always responsive,” Amanda Otto says. “I feel heard and supported.”
Developing and implementing a solution in an established manual operation can often prove challenging. Throughout the engagement with AXI, Amanda Otto has successfully taken on routing duties while assuming a leadership role in the company and maintaining customer satisfaction.
The team can now plan schedules with confidence, and what was an arduous and time-consuming daily task is now streamlined, uncovering key benefits such as:
- Improved customer experience and service
- Faster response times and consistent pickups
- A scalable, reliable routing system
- Minimal employee training required
The solution developed by AXI was not off-the-shelf—it was a custom-built, cloud-native application designed specifically around Otto By Products’ daily workflows. Hosted in Microsoft Azure, the platform automates weekly route planning based on customer service frequencies, generates driver schedules with just a few clicks, and centralizes all route data in a secure, accessible interface. By tailoring the technology to fit Otto’s business—not the other way around—AXI delivered a solution that’s both operationally powerful and simple to use in the field.
What’s Next for Otto By Products
Building on the momentum of the routing automation solution, Otto By Products and AXI look forward to the next phase of advancements, including automating rebate calculations and integrating them with ERP to streamline check processing.
Efficiencies and improvements in accuracy and scalability help Otto By Products lay the groundwork for scalable, sustainable growth, while continuing to support its loyal clients across Northeast Ohio.
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