One

The modern sales representative uses his PDA to consult client information through a mobile application. Everyone wins: the client sees improvement in the quality of the service and the supplier receives more accurate data, faster. One discussed the use of mobile applications with four clients of Belgacom’s specialized subsidiary Euremis.

Mobile applications speed up and improve the collaboration with clients, suppliers and partners. That helps companies respond to the intense economic pressures that are being felt today. Thanks to their mobile devices, employees have access to business-critical applications and data from any location and at any time. This mobility is not only an asset for commercial representatives. The applications also give the technical staff for maintenance teams and repair services a significant competitive edge. Through the mobile applications, they can achieve greater productivity and save time. Plus, the cooperation with clients is faster and more efficient, which increases customer satisfaction. Euremis is the Belgacom subsidiary that develops mobile applications for sales force automation (CRMobile), field force automation (CRMobile FFA) and handset management.

High-quality information

“The need for a mobile application for our sales staff started out in the backoffice,” says Bruno Geerkens, Sales & Marketing Director at DBApparel Belux, the company behind brands such as DIM, Playtex and Wonderbra. “Had the sales rep already visited a certain client? Had he already submitted a report on that visit? In the past, it was not easy to maintain an overview.” That is why DBApparel was looking for a system that would provide better quality information, in combination with an efficient way to plan the workday. “It is clear that the job of a representative has become completely different from what it was, say, 10 years ago,” notes Philippe Letellier, Customer Development Operations Manager at Unilever. “Via the mobile applications, a sales representative has his schedule and all client information with him at all times. That is an advantage for the representative himself, but just as much for the client.”

Doing better business

“Our application is geared towards doing more and better business,” says Ulrik Van Schepdael, CEO of Euremis. “The application generates the greatest returns when all parties involved are satisfied with it. The representative can work more productively; the client is helped more quickly and efficiently and the back-office instantly has access to accurate information from the point-of-sale. There is an important condition for success in these various dimensions however: you need to pay sufficient attention to the process of change that comes with implementation.” It is extremely important to demonstrate that the application offers many advantages for the representative himself. If not, you run the risk that the sales rep is going to regard the application as a means for control. “CRMobile, in fact, makes the representative’s job a lot more interesting,” reflects Yannic Braem, Field Sales Manager at Materne. “It used to be that the sales rep primarily had to note down the prices of products and then fax them back to the backoffice. That was a job with little added value.”

More insight into the importance of the job

These days, the situation has changed completely. Yannic Braem: “There is information flowing in two directions. Since he has access to accurate information, the representative is in a much stronger position towards the client.” The fact that the representative can therefore do his job more effectively is, in part, thanks to the convenience of a PDA or smartphone. “At first we worked with laptops,” recalls Christian Hazard, National Field Sales Manager at Sara Lee. “However, it is not that simple for representatives to use them at the point-of-sale.” Making the switch to a PDA required extra training, particularly for the somewhat older staff. Christian Hazard: “We kept on investing in training. In the meantime, the PDA has become well-established. By using them, the sales reps have gained greater insight into the importance of their job. They now understand why we need information from the point-of-sale and that allows them to play their role more effectively.”

Productivity and time saving

The management sees a mobile application, such as CRMobile, above all as a tool for achieving better results. Productivity and time saving are what it’s all about. The sales rep gathers information on client visits. He immediately enters this information and sends it straight away to the backoffice, where the data (automatically) goes into the ERP system. That is a huge difference from how it used to be. In the past, the representative noted all the data down on paper. At the end of the day he drew up his reports and then faxed them in. In the backoffice an employee had to type the data into the company system. The entire process was very time-consuming, plus there was a significant risk of error. Yannic Braem: “We used to have two employees in the backoffice whose job it was to type over the reports from the sales reps. They did not have the opportunity to concentrate on the other tasks.”

How to introduce it?

The advantages of a mobile application on the backoffice side are clear enough. Still, in practice, it can be a challenge to find the right way to get sales reps started with it and to provide support.  Companies often opt for a pilot project with a mixed team. Often this means a mix of older and younger staff, each with a different level of affinity for using a PDA. What matters, in this type of process, is that everything should revolve around the sales rep. Ultimately, it is the employee who has to represent the company towards the client. When DBApparel launched CRMobile about five years ago, the company added a GPS functionality to the PDA. “Back then, GPS was not yet part of the standard equipment of a car,” recalls Bruno Geerkens. “For our sales reps, it was an incentive to learn how to use their PDA.” Other companies encourage the use of the PDA by allowing it to be used for private communication as well. Philippe Letellier: “That proved particularly successful among older staff members, who had less experience with this type of device. Because they were able to use the device for private purposes as well, the threshold was immediately a lot lower.” In any case, you need to have a formal policy for device use. Christian Hazard: “We did draw up a policy of this type, with clear agreements about the professional and private uses of the PDA.”

Protecting business data

The introduction of mobile applications and PDAs brings an extra concern for the IT manager. After all, the business information that the representatives collect and process is fairly sensitive. That is why it is of crucial importance that the data exchange takes place in a secure manner. The solution that most companies choose is to have the data from the PDAs synchronized with the backoffice several times a day. The PDAs also entail a certain risk: they can be stolen or get lost. And then all that company data is gone. “The data contained on the device is protected, up to a point”,  explains Max Gobbaerts, Vendor Manager Mobile Data Devices at Belgacom. “That means that if a device is lost, the representative will never lose all of his information. Only the data that has not yet been synchronized with the backoffice would be lost in that case.”

Investment pays for itself

In order to prevent even that from happening, Euremis has launched ‘CRMobile X’, an application that reverses the mobile principle. Instead of working offline and periodically synchronizing, the application remains online all the time, enabling permanent synchronization. “In any case, the investment in salesforce automation quickly pays for itself,” points out Philippe Letellier. “A company really cannot afford to do without it these days.” The time-saving is often easy to calculate, both in the backoffice and for the representative himself. After all, if he can make an extra visit each day, that instantly gives the company a significant edge. “A major part of the ROI is also the professionalization of the job,” claims Bruno Geerkens. “The client expects the supplier to serve him in a professional way. We support that by sending our sales reps out on the road with a professional mobile application.”