Summary
• Lavers’ sales representatives can access live bisTrack data over the GPRS network.
• The software also features a reporting function.
• Trends can be monitored and staff managed more effectively.
• The functionality closely resembles that of the office system.
Mobile communications technology has come on in leaps and bounds. With e-mail deliverable direct to your handset and a raft of software developments, armed with a smart phone you can fit almost any modern-day office into your back pocket.
This is exactly what the sales team at Arnold Laver is doing. The company is pioneering the use of hand-held roaming devices integrated with bisTrack software. Using smart phones and new software developed by Progressive Solutions, all the external sales representatives from each of Arnold Laver’s 18 branches are now able to report to their managers and access live bisTrack data over the GPRS network while they are on the road.
“Our old method of reporting meant that the reps were spending up to an hour each day filling out paper forms,” explained Peter Howarth, sales director at Laver’s Timber World Sheffield depot. “Not only was this a waste of their time, but often the information they were reporting back wasn’t used constructively.”
Daily reporting
Also there was no way of effectively tracking customer visits and monitoring the reps’ daily activity. “This resulted in our corporate systems director, Colin Dean, and I talking to a company who were offering a system whereby reps could report in by text message,” said Mr Howarth. “This in turn led us to investigate further communication options and then the idea of developing our own software, based on the requirements of both the management and sales teams.”
By working closely with Progressive Solutions, Arnold Laver became involved in the development of software which combined a reporting function with the ability to access live product and customer data within the bisTrack management system used at all its branches.
Once they have logged on to the software, users of bisTrack Mobile can choose between five options on the smart phone screen: customer search, product search, visit report, follow-up action or add prospect. Using the customer search function, external sales representatives can access live bisTrack information such as a customer’s available credit or their recent purchases. Product search gives them access to all available stock by line, at every branch, as well as pricing information and sales history of each product. By using the visit report and follow-up actions modules, they and their sales managers can have a record in bisTrack of the reason and outcome of every visit, and follow-up actions can be relayed, for example, to the marketing department. Finally, within add prospect, the external sales reps can enter prospective customers’ details and report on visits made.
Productive time
Mr Howarth said his external sales team has more time to spend selling instead of writing reports, making phone calls to credit control for customer account information or to the sales office to check product availability. “Using the smart phones to answer queries on the spot also gives them more confidence in front of their customers and makes them more professional,” he added.
Mr Howarth is also able to carry around his own ‘mini office’ when he’s visiting customers. Back in his real office, he can monitor his team’s activities on a daily basis as their calls and enquiries are all fed into bisTrack via the smart phones. “The information coming back from the reps is now available in a format that will allow me, over a period of time, to monitor trends and manage my staff more effectively,” he said.
“It will be easier, for example, for me to point out areas or customers which perhaps are not getting the attention they require. Eventually I hope we can also use the smart phones to help plan visits by postcode that will lead to fuel savings. Requests sent in to the marketing team will also allow us to track where our literature is going and where corporate hospitality is being used.”
Lavers business analyst Louise Wilkinson managed the entire project. Following a simple brief, she has been instrumental in the smart phone selection, analysis of requirements through extensive discussion with a small project team, and finally the specification of the solution from Progressive Solutions.
“Phase I of the development is complete with almost 70 devices now fully operational in the field,” she told TTJ. “The synergy between bisTrack on the desktop and the newly-introduced hand-helds has aided in the training of operators as the functionality offered closely resembles that of the office system.”
