OPTIMUM Sales Force Automation

Sales Force Automation System OPTIMUM is a software facility that enables you to efficiently automate operations of sales representatives using PDAs and Smartphones. It is intended for automation and management of such trading activities as pre selling, van selling, and merchandizing.

For more information, please fill out the brief questionnaire or call us +7 (495) 956 1325.

Advantages Ensured by OPTIMUM SFA

• The company’s revenues are maintained (even under downturn conditions) and increased.
• Efficiency of operations of sales representatives is enhanced (by 30-90% depending on automated business processes).
• Decisions can be rapidly made on the basis of updated information obtained from mobile personnel.
• The costs for maintaining the mobile personnel and adjacent divisions are reduced; business processes in the entire infrastructure related to mobile agents are optimized.
• Supervision of mobile personnel activities may be significantly enhanced using automatic record of time when all documents were generated and main operations performed on site, making photos and using RFID tags and bar codes referenced to the location and time, monitoring passage of the route and consumption of gasoline, and managing mobile agents in real time mode.
• Vehicle motion routes are optimized and transportation costs may be significantly reduced.
• Efficient management of territorially distributed projects and rapid collection of updated information from any interaction level are supported.

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• The time a sales representative needs to make a decision at an outlet is reduced owing to rapid access to the information required on the route (history of sales in each outlet, a purchaser’s balance, limits on orders, updated data on warehouse stock, customized prices and discounts, etc);
• Main calculations are performed automatically (the cost of an order is calculated taking into account all the details of pricing for a specific outlet and the associated taxes, automatic generation of orders on the basis of actual and recommended stock in the outlet, etc.);
• The number of errors in documents is reduced owing to the absence of manual input and automatic control in the PDA of restrictions set for each specific outlet (discount, limits, debts, expiry of license, etc.);
• Routes of sales representatives are optimized and their activities are more thoroughly supervised (monitoring of the technology of handling an outlet, account of the visit time and duration of activities in the outlet, account of mileage, cash amount, etc.);
• Information about the documents filed by a sales representative and his/her activities is inputted to the enterprise’s accounting system more rapidly (all the information gathered by an agent during a day may be transmitted during 10 seconds in an office or a minute via mobile phone / Smartphone);
• To synchronize information, it is no longer necessary to visit the office and mobile phone may be used instead;
• Accuracy of the order execution is improved and the time needed for execution reduced (some companies boast that thanks to automation the accuracy of order execution amount to 95-97%);
• The amount of information from sales representatives to be inputted and, hence the required number of operators is reduced (after automation only operator is needed) as well as the required expenses (office space, office equipment and computers, communications, electricity, taxes, etc.);
• Warehouse stocks are optimized owing to timely shipment of orders and rapid release of products;
• Quality of customer services improved (client database, electronic catalog of products, support of customized price lists, list of sales operations performed during previous days, credit history, support of bonus programs, and merchandizing activities).

Technical Overview

OPTIMUM consists of a server part (hosted on a desktop computer) and a mobile part (hosted on a sales representative’s PDA/Smartphone).

OPTIMUM: Server Part

The server part incorporates the communication module MAS (Mobile Application Server), the OPTIMUM SQL database, and one (or more) automated workstations Manager for office personnel:

Mobile Application Server (MAS)

MAS is intended for synchronizing a PDA and the OPTIMUM SQL database. This module is designed using the Point-to-Point technology enabling synchronization of the PDA and the mobile base through any data-transmission environment. Any Internet/intranet connection suits for synchronization: mobile communications (GSM/GPRS), LAN, WiFi, cradle, etc.

Basic concepts of MAS-assisted synchronization:

1. Synchronization is always full, since during each session information is updated both in a PDA and in the SQL base.
2. Data are transmitted in a compressed and encoded form enabling one to support very high synchronization rates: around 20 minutes for connection through a cradle and 1 minute for connection through a GSM 9600 channel (including 35 seconds for establishing a connection).
3. MAS is a multithread application: an independent thread is created for each connection with a PDA. Owing to this, virtually any number of PDAs may be concurrently synchronized (this number is limited by the server performance alone).
4. The set of synchronized data may be changed and/or extended without additional labor input or replacement of the module. The new set of synchronized data is automatically recorded to the support tables of the system when software is upgraded on the SQL Server and a PDA.
5. MAS enables automatic recovery or update of the program for PDAs thus significantly reducing expenses on maintenance and upgrade of the system.
6. MAS enables data exchange from PDAs directly to the SQL base not involving intermediate files. Owing to this, it possible to reduce the time needed for data exchange and resume the exchange operation from the place where it was interrupted (this feature is especially important for the remote exchange).

OPTIMUM SQL Data Base

The database contains information required for operations of sales representatives and for exchange with the corporate accounting system. OPTIMUM SQL supports all the required reference tables (products, warehouses, prices, discounts, customers, and sales representatives), data on routes and management of sales representatives, goals and objectives, scenarios of operations of mobile agents, accounting entities, and much more.

The Manager Work Station

The Manager workstation is an efficient system for managing teams of sales representatives. It enables a company’s top managers and managers of sales-representative departments to rapidly obtain updated information about activities of sales representatives, create routes, remotely manage activities of mobile agents and efficiently supervise their operations. The Manager workstation is designed based on the hierarchical concept: each user may access all information that is located lower than his/her level and does not have access to information belonging to a higher level.

The Manager workstation supports the following business entities:

• development and optimization of planned visits to outlets
• development of plans for sales representatives
• management (including remote mode) of the activities of sales representatives
• management of the rights of sales representatives
• scenarios of operations in outlets
• supervision of the activities of sales representatives
• reference table of accounting items
• work schedule of a sales representative including record of actually worked days
• support of territorially distributed systems
• built-in system for checking validity of data.

If your company has more than one warehouse, the Manager workstation will enable you to organize operations of sales representatives with both a specific warehouse and concurrently all of the warehouses.

OPTIMUM: Mobile Part

The mobile part of the system operated on the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform (and Google Android since 2011). It’s directly ensures automation of a sales representative’s operations at outlets. The system supports all the main business processes used in operations of sales representatives: pre selling, van selling, and collection of marketing information (including merchandizing). The mobile part is designed based on the concept that all of the operations that may be performed without involvement of a human are performed automatically by a PDA. Owing to this, a sales representative does not need to make complex, tedious, and labor consuming calculations of the order cost taking into account various discounts set for each outlet, check limits and restrictions when forming orders and shipments paid on the credit basis, control the minimal price applying different discounts, etc.

A significant advantage of the mobile part is that it automatically selects the available communications channel. Owing to this, requirements for the professional skills of sales representatives may be reduced and the number of errors during remote exchange diminished.

The PDA database contains all information required for operations of a sales representative: status of settlements with each customer (advance payments and debts), extended information on products, updated stocks as of the most recent synchronization, contact information for purchasers, a history of sales for each outlet, information about conducted promo activities, a list of products recommended for mandatory sales, information about shop equipment at each outlet, routes, sales targets, and much more.

Using the system for rapid selection of products, context search, and an optimized user interface, the sales representative may rapidly access any data needed for efficient sales of goods thus speeding up his/her operations. The system of remote exchange via mobile phone not only provides updated information on merchandise stock at a warehouse, the state of balances, and changes to pricing but also saves significant resources during pre-selling, since sales representatives do not need to visit the office on a daily basis (earlier no less than one to two hours were lost daily because of such visits).

If, as part of van selling, products from different manufacturers that look similar but have different prices are sold, it is very important to use bar code scanners. OPTIMUM supports operating a bar code scanner through a PDA thus allowing a sales representative to speed up his/her work and avoid confusion with products.

The PDA software enables a sales representative not only to rapidly file accounting documents but also to print them out (provided the sales representative has a portable printer). To ensure the printout option outside the office, CDC offers OPTOCASE, a unique facility for mobile print that consists of a small printer, powerful battery, a module for charging the battery from the onboard vehicle electric system, and an elegant attache case in which all this devices are installed.

The suite of the OPTIMUM products contains efficient solutions for businesses of different size: from local trading companies serving a single town to major nation-wide vendors.

For more information, please fill out the brief questionnaire or call us +7 (495) 956 1325.