Nestle, the world’s largest manufacturer of food products, keeps automating distribution processes in Russia and Belarus using IT solutions offered by CDC Group.

Nestle’s distribution management project is based on the Optimum SFA system. As early as in 2004, CDC developed a multitier program for supervising sales in a number of business areas (Grocery, Confectionary, Ice Cream, and Pet Food) that covers entire Russia and Belarus.

In no more than 18 months, the head office, 11 regional offices, and over a hundred of distributors operating different accounting systems were incorporated into a unified information network. Nestle obtained a powerful tool for remote management of mobile agents from a unified center. Van selling, pre-selling, merchandising, monitoring of vehicles and field staff, management of distribution standards and assortment policy, and trade marketing have been automated. The Nestle head office receives all data (warehouse stocks, sales, etc.) on all distributors and their partners with itemization down to almost each of 200,000 sales outlets which they serve.

In July 2016, teams of merchandisers and sales representatives handling baby food were connected to the Optimum SFA system. In parallel, equipment was changed to the sales representatives who earlier performed pre-selling using Windows Mobile computers.

Currently, the Nestle project involves more than 6,000 mobile agents and over 900 managers working in offices in more than one hundred distributor sites. Automation is in progress.