In late 2002, most sales people working in the wine trade still carried paper call cards, folders containing the trade guidelines, latest stock allocations and availability. A pen and paper was used to take notes. Some had laptops, but the information they contained was generally outdated and customer service requirements such as credits or special promotions, caused accounting staff headaches when the sales people returned to the office.

Today, Villa Maria's sales team do not have these issues. Armed with PDAs loaded with a new software application built on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework and using XML Web services, the team retrieves data from the company's winery accounting stock system through a SQL Server 2000 database and uploads new data in the same manner. Known internally as VIPA (Villa Maria's Intelligent Personal Assistant), this application allows sales staff to view orders and credits, add details, fill in electronic call cards, review promotional activity, and synchronise for real time information on stock availability.

Further down the track, they'll be able to present short videos and winemaking sessions through their PDAs. Early skeptics have changed their tune about VIPA and are already singing its praises.

Villa Maria founder and managing director George Fistonich, says that wine making is both an art and a science - and that the science side of the business requires the latest in technology. "It's not enough today to rely on the weather to produce the best grapes," he says, "we now use technology to help us determine the best time for picking, to ensure the grapes are mixed in the best blends and that they are stored at the right temperature to deliver the very best qualities. Equally, we want to ensure our customers experience the very best in service and for us, Microsoft's technology plays a key role."

Keeping the Data Light

Leanne Carroll, national sales manager for Villa Maria, says under the old system sales people had raised their concerns about spending so much time away from customers due to the demands of manually sending orders, completing call cards and sending information through to distribution and accounts. "We knew there had to be a more efficient way for them to collate and send information to us," she says. "We also knew there was probably other information that the sales force would find valuable while out on the road." Carroll adds that it was critical for the resulting solution to be lightweight and not require that large quantities of data be transmitted over phone lines.

"Ideally we were keen to find an off-the-shelf solution," she says. "But this was not to be." Villa Maria approached ROCOM about providing PDAs for the sales force, and they suggested talking to Auckland-based e-Formation Ltd, a company that with assistance from COEUS Ltd, specialises in designing and developing software solutions for the telephony and mobile device market.

Demonstrating the Development

Within three months, teams at e-Formation and COEUS had developed the necessary databases using SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server CE to allow the sales force to draw on and update the relevant data. The team had also developed XML Web services to allow the databases to talk to each other. Marcel Blake, technical director of e-Formation says that the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework has enabled the potential of iPaq intelligence to be realised. "We've worked the intelligence into the server environment," he says, "so that only new information is transmitted. This helps lower the costs and keep the transmissions light and quick." At a Villa Maria sales team conference in late 2002, VIPA was showcased and the enthusiasm since has been strong.

Harvesting the Rewards

Carroll says that while it's still early days for VIPA, she predicts by the end of 2003 there will be a 10 percent increase in call productivity. She says that this productivity pay back will come from time savings and increased efficiencies in the field and at head office, through call cost savings, increased accuracy and timeliness of information to the sales force, customers and head office and cost savings around the processing of accounts and credits.

Expanding the VIPA Concept

Fistonich says that the first version of VIPA has caused such excitement that already the development team are working on extending its features. "During 2003 we hope to introduce short videos and wine making sessions presented through the PDAs," he says. "We're also looking at an XML Web service that will enable our major customers to order electronically. Longer term, we believe there's potential to use devices like these to help in the vineyards - from weather monitoring to vine performance tracking."

April 2003