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Field Mobility Real Life Result Challenge:
This client provides merchandising services in convenience stores across the U.S. Several hundred of its employees receive large assignment packets every four to five weeks, which they then use to visit thousands of convenience stores for collecting data, verifying products on the shelves and filling out paper forms for later input. At the end of each day, employees used to transfer that data from paper to a web-based form. The process was inefficient, paper-intensive and unable to meet their customer needs for timely data.
Solution:
After interviewing and evaluating more than a half dozen companies, the client selected MOBISOFT Services to provide an end-to-end mobile solution. MOBISOFT customized their MOBI[SALES] Mobile Sales Automation application for them, and called in their hardware partner, AbeTech, to recommend and manage the handheld deployment. Examining the unique parameters of the client, AbeTech incorporated Motorola’s MC75 mobile computers with MOBISOFT’s software solution. That’s because the MC75 boasts has a very powerful bar code scanner, enabling items to be scanned quickly. It also contains a 2.0 megapixel color camera, which the clients reps can use to document items and store displays for compliance with their customer requirements. Additionally, the MC75 offers integrated GPS that the client can rely on to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of its customers’ store calls. Further, the MC75 also includes an integrated cellular phone, so reps can communicate with headquarters using both voice and data from the field. Finally, the MC75 is extremely durable and rugged. Reps count on these handhelds for hours every day, and need them to hold up when dropped and abused.
The client first chose MOBISOFT as their mobility provider for several key reasons. The first is experience; MOBISOFT has been deploying mobile sales solutions to companies across the U.S. for more than a decade. This assured the client that MOBISOFT had a time-tested product that already met many of the application specifications they required. In addition, MOBISOFT maintains active relationships with dozens of convenience store wholesalers. This is a major advantage to the client in that it allows them to create suggested orders and place actual orders with wholesalers almost immediately. Third, MOBISOFT offers an enterprise server application that allowed the client to integrate the MC75 computers with their existing Oracle mainframe database. And fourth, the client needed a software partner that was flexible, easy to work with and could provide an intuitive application quickly and on time.
"MOBISOFT had all of the elements we felt were important to make this project a success" said Jon Sigler, Senior VP. "We spent several months evaluating prospective software partners, and MOBISOFT had the capabilities, industry relationships and established solutions we knew were critical to making this project work. We had extremely tight timelines and required a significant number of custom modifications. MOBISOFT delivered quality applications on time, every time. " Result:
The client has deployed several hundred MC75’s to their merchandising employees. The system went into full production mode nearly six months ago and the results have been even better than imagined. Data now flows almost constantly between the reps and the corporate mainframe. Reporting to their customers is now four times faster than in the past and the quality, veracity and thoroughness of the data sets a new standard for the sales service and merchandising industry. The client has seen employee productivity and satisfaction improve, which helps minimize turnover. Moreover, employees now can spend more time providing sales and other revenue generating services in the stores, rather than focusing so much time on mundane tasks.
The next step for the client is to continue to expand the ordering capabilities of their MOBISOFT solution. The first version enabled reps to create suggested orders for their retailers, so they could order the needed products from their wholesale suppliers. Now, with the newer MOBISOFT version, each rep actually places recommended orders directly with the retailer’s preferred wholesale distributor. Jon Sigler sums it up best: "This is the functionality we are most excited about right now. Our services have taken a huge step forward and having the ability to actually place orders with wholesalers just puts us that much further ahead. This system does everything we had hoped, and we could not be happier with our choice to partner with MOBISOFT and AbeTech." |
