It's in the palm of your hand

By ADAM GIFFORD

In a Tauranga pharmacy, Glamuzina Corporation sales rep Glenys Soster is taking an order.

On her Palm Tungsten C she clicks on the customer list, pulls up the database of 13,000 stock items, checks availability and starts adding in quantities for rings, studs and sleepers.

When the order is complete, she connects the Palm to a mobile phone to send the order to Glamuzina's Parnell headquarters.

If she can't get a connection, the order goes into a queue to be dispatched next time she dials in.

"It has made life a lot easier, and it means customers can get a delivery by the next morning, rather than having to wait for me to send the paperwork back to the office," says Soster.

In Glenfield, Cookietime distributor Des Spicer walks into a service station.

After the normal pleasantries, Spicer punches the restock order into his Kyocera smartphone.

When he goes out to the van to collect the cookies, he sends off the record to Christchurch, at the same time printing out an invoice for the store on an HP printer using an infra-red link.

"In the year I've had it I've been able to pick up lots of extra outlets because instead of spending an hour or more in the office at the end of the day doing paperwork, I am on the road selling," he says.

Welcome to the world of the modern sales rep, where hand-held and wireless devices are fast replacing carbon paper, ordering books and fax machines.

Luigi Cappel from IT Link, which makes the Saleslink application used by Soster and Spicer, says more than 3000 sales reps are already working that way.

"Sales automation will become ubiquitous in the distribution industry," says Cappel.

Saleslink is an out-of-the box application which is also resold by Telecom as Sales+. Users range from Glamuzina, which has two people on the road servicing the country, to larger companies such as Cookietime, which has 43 distributors.

Other organisations have bought custom systems from the likes of iTouch, which usually involve extensive business analysis and consulting fees out of the reach of smaller firms.

Cappel says the key to a successful application is simplicity and quality training.

"We use the Palm platform because it is user-friendly. It is designed to be easy to use by people who may not be computer literate," says Cappel. "Often sales staff can be technophobic, so you have to be careful about what you are asking them to do."

IT Link often suggests new Saleslink users continue to take their orders on paper for a few days, copying them to the device once they are back in their cars.

"The first few times people use it in front of customers they can feel quite intimidated.

"We want them to get comfortable first," Cappel says.

Using the Palm platform rather than a Microsoft operating system also allows users to switch between devices, whether it is a Palm brand or older Handspring, a Sony Clio, or a Kyocera or Treo smartphone.

"While the Pocket PC standard included rules for inter-operability, they did not adhere to them, so the application needs to be tailored for each manufacturer's device," Cappel says.

And don't expect anything to go completely smoothly in the field.

"The number one rule is assume you can't get a connection. Even in an area with good phone connection, you may have to visit a customer in a mall with layers of steel and concrete blocking the signal. That's why we use synchronisation processes, so reps can work offline."

Glamuzina manager Suanne Garelja says those are lessons her firm learned the hard way.

"We spent $15,000 getting a system built around Symbol machines with built-in bar code scanners, and we couldn't get it to transfer the data. Our reps ended up having to courier back the devices and going back to paper," she says.

"We ended up throwing all that work away and going with Saleslink, which has worked brilliantly.

"They seem to have found solutions to all the problems we identified when we did it ourselves."

She says Glamuzina has been able to eliminate one staff position, as there is no longer any need to re-key paperwork into the ordering and accounting system.

Cookietime IT manager Chris White says his firm has recouped its investment by shedding data entry staff, faster processing of accounts and greater accuracy.

"Our distributors work on a franchise basis, so they hold stock and issue their own their invoices.

"Part of our service is to manage their accounts receivable, so we collect the debt on their account," White says.

"What it does is allow us to run promotions more effectively. We now know what each customer is buying, what the market penetration is in each area and how well distributors are doing against the rest.

"It means we can set very focused sales goals."


IT Link