Sales Force Automation
Customer demand for instant information and faster service whilst demanding competitive prices and narrower margins, continues to pressure your sales force for higher productivity at lower costs. Yours company’s ability to equip its field sales team to more efficiently handle scheduling, order entry, order status, promotions, and pricing requests is determining competitive advantage between it and its competition. Your deployment of mobile computing solutions to your field sales force may be the difference between winning or losing business in today's fast-paced marketplace.
The move toward extending Supply Chain Management out to the Field Sales Force is a function of the emphasis your customers are putting on reliable and timely service. With a greater selection and choice of providers and a greater availability of products from which to choose, customers are expecting more for their dollar. That puts you in the position of having to meet ever-higher expectations while still containing costs.
Technology enhancements
A sales force requires constant communication with the home office for sales leads, invoicing, inventory tracking, order fulfilment, and other supporting information. Until recent advances in wireless technology field staff had to make do with laptops that required a physical connection and voice-based mobile phones neither providing the added value of mobility.
A new breed of user friendly Internet capable applications on smart phones and mobile devices are freeing the traditional sales force from their desks and allowing them to be incredibly effective.
Sales personnel now have access to the same information and tools as their peers back at the office. Wireless devices have the ability to synchronise with real time and localised data in a more efficient manner than other devices.
Benefits to an organisation include:
- Improving supply chain efficiency by integrating various levels of corporate activity
- Improving productivity and lowering costs by increasing efficiency in everyday work processes
- Improving cash flow by accelerating payments from customers – increasing the efficiency of gathering the data needed to create and deliver invoices to the customer.
- Reducing paperwork and double handling by using wireless interfaces to capture data and immediately store it in back office systems
- Improving response time and co-ordination between mobile workers and those at fixed locations to maximise efficiency.
- Improving productivity and lowering costs by increasing efficiency in everyday work processes
Key Elements of SFA Applications
The key features of a mobile sales force automation application include:
- Ease of Use and convenience
- Seamless integration with enterprise systems
- Secure exchange of information.
- Seamless integration with enterprise systems
So what applications are available?
There is a growing breadth of specialist applications on or coming to the market which enable fast efficient interface with your customers.
These include specialist Sales Force Automation, Field Service Automation, Job Despatch and Tracking, Mobile Sales Force Management, Easy Order Software and Transport and Logistics Management. These applications all ensure delivery of a higher customer service level or increase the efficiency of the remote team your company has on the ground.
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