Sales Force & Merchandiser Enablement Through Mobility

Sales Force & Merchandiser

Enablement Through Mobility

Introduction John Bastock

• Former Director of Sales Operations at PepsiAmericas

• 10 years in the Field - Finance / Mfg / Sales (Retail & OP)

• 10 years at corporate working on cost reduction & productivity

improvement initiatives:

– Presell conversion

– Channelized sales structure

– Demand planning / Centralize dispatch / Voice-pick in warehouse

– Merchandising

– KPI development / reporting

Background • Merchandisers are hourly EE’s who manage inventory in store

– Stock shelves

– Build Displays

– Manage backroom

• DSD system

• Sales in 13 states

• Thousands of merchandisers

• Paper-based process

• 3 Person system (salesman / driver / merchandiser)

Agenda

• Current State / Issues

• Strategy

• Future State / Solution

• Benefits

Current State / Issues

• Labor & Ops Cost Increases

• Productivity Decreases

– Increased # of SKU’s and points

of distribution in store

– Shift of volume to supercenters

– Store demands for service

– Lack of permanent displays

– Static / manual scheduling

Hourly manufacturing labor rate trend comparison

(U.S. dollars for manufacturing workers 1975-2006)

Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor, VentureOutsource.com,

February 2008

Challenges Faced

• Static / Manual Scheduling

– Stores assigned by geography

– Stores assigned by account type and volume

– Routes generally don’t vary to keep consistency in stores

– No historical information available for future schedules

– Peaks and Valleys due to Ads

• Workload Balancing

– Overtime

– Under-utilization of labor

Challenges Faced • Clock in / Out

– Honor system for majority of field-based

merchandisers

– Clock-in at depot adds commuting hours

– Lack of management to validate accuracy

– Administrative time to do weekly payroll

– Was the merchandiser actually in the store

and if so, how long?

• Mileage Re-imbursement

– Audit system?

– In most cases pay what’s submitted

Making the Case

• Generate the idea – Sell into senior

management

• Get executive sponsorship for capital &

resources

• Partner with IT, HR , PMO, Field Sales

• Vendor selection

• Configure & integrate solution

Entire process took > 1 year

Process

Technology

People

Focus on People, Process & Technology

Key requirements for automation:

• Schedule people based on in-store service requirements (i.e. ad

schedule changes & day of week)

• Full accountability for paid time & mileage reimbursement

o Remove “Honor System” and feed info to backend systems

• Provide merchandisers with “task list” at each account

• Simplify schedule changes with real-time re-assignments

• Increase historic knowledge of service time & understand cost to serve

• Better KPI reporting capabilities

• Solution that can grow/adapt to changing business needs

Strategy – What is needed?

Solution

Effective route

plans & resource

coverage

Out-of-the-box

surveys & forms

Improved

compliance &

field execution Track visits &

deploy actions in

real-time

Full access to

customers &

planograms

On-line analysis

of patterns &

market insights

Promotions-

based activity

management

Spring Wireless Merchandising Solution to Address Entire Cycle

Spring Wireless mSeries™ Solution Features

Master Data

Management Planning Execution Tracking Intelligence

Centralized

Mobile Data

Source

Resource &

Activity

Planning

Productivity &

Intelligence

Real-time

Tracking

Analyze &

Respond

Master Data Management Central data source for all mobile apps

Org. Structure

Plan-o-grams

Visits & Surveys

Customer & Product

Data

Employee

• Off-line access to key

business info

• History of visits & activities

• Data dynamically

synchronized & updated

• Integration engine allows

constant and consistent

master data updates

Planning Plan Field Execution

• Routes built based on target

service time

• Visit schedules based on

calendar recurrence, marketing

cycles & ad types

• Dynamic assignment of

activities based on visit type

• Flexible route views (list or

agenda-style, visit type, status)

• Real-time assignments & route

adjustments

Execution Productivity & Intelligence in the Field

• Out-of-the-box surveys + forms:

Out-of-stocks

Shelf space

Price survey

Competitor

actions

• Consistent field execution

• Agile response to market

demands & competitive actions

• Improve customer knowledge

and satisfaction

Tracking Track Activities, Location & Results

• Track field execution to

improve planning and assure

visit quality

• Real-time info of field

execution & business results

• Location tracking

• Breadcrumb trails of routes

• Reports & alerts for speeding

violations, total mileage,

number of stops, time per

stops etc.

001

015

006

User: Chris Grimes Worked time: 4:20 hours Shift time: 8 hours Event: Break Reason: Lunch

• Built-in business intelligence:

− Dashboard: field results at a glance

− Reports: out-of-box business info

− Analytics: get tailored info through

ad-hoc analysis

• Prebuilt KPIs: working days, visit

coverage, out of stock issues,

executed surveys, …

Intelligence Measure, Analyze & Improve Field Process

• Productivity gains 4-6% + labor reduction

• Reduce overtime by 10-20%

• Eliminate under-utilized time

• New reporting metrics

• Reduce Out of Stocks

• Consistent processes = Consistent service

Expected Results

Appendix