Winemaker looks for sales boost

By RICHARD WOOD

Villa Maria Estate hopes for a 20 per cent increase in the productivity of its 31-strong sales team as a result of implementing a wireless handheld computer solution.

Listed firm Rocom is providing the wireless hardware, Vodafone the cellular service, and the software has been written using Microsoft. Net by firms e-Formation and Coeus.

National sales manager Leanne Carroll said the winery expected payback on its investment of $160,000 in 10 months.

While there had been massive advances in the wine-making process, wineries were generally behind in sales technology, she said.

Analysis of cellphone bills to customer services regarding stock management and stock queries showed immediate call cost savings, Carroll said.

Measuring the time it took for the reps to ring through an order and for its customer services division to punch and process that order also showed time, processing costs and credit issuing savings.

Carroll expects the sales team will be more productive.

"Instead of making eight calls a day we're expecting to be able to increase that to nine or 10 calls a day simply because they can do all their administration on the road instead of having to drive home."

She also expects a "big brother" effect to kick in, because of increased ability to measure sales performance.

"We know how much time we will potentially be spending in front of a customer, through the whole CRM [customer relationship management system]."

Customers can also expect service improvements, including faster turnaround and easier access to information.

Competitor research is scarce in the industry, but Carroll said the system would let Villa Maria capture information when visiting outlets.

"There are over 400 wineries, so it is difficult at the moment to see where we sit."

The wireless solution uses Vodafone's GPRS data-enabled mobile network with Ericsson T39m phones combined with Compaq Ipaq 3870 handheld computers.

The wireless "Bluetooth" protocol is used to link the phone and handheld computers. Bluetooth printers are also being tested.

Carroll said the developers had kept speed up and mobile costs down by keeping the amount of data sent to a minimum.