Nestlé
mobileOrder sales automation solution provided for more than 50 sales representatives and managers within 4 regional centers and company headquarters. The solution has been integrated with client's SAP-based ERP environment resulting in impressive 7 day roll-out and almost zero downtime during the first year.
Serbian branch of Nestle Adriatic, a part of Nestlé SA, trades several ranges of Nestlé products in Serbian market, including chocolate&confectionary, baby foods, breakfast cereals and ice cream with brands like Nescafe, KitKat, Maggi and Thomy.
The Challenge
Since its entry into the Serbian market, Nestlé Adriatic has been successfully marketing a number of known brands from the Nestlé foods portfolio, thus gaining front position in the already competition populated domestic market.
Initial successful results prompted Nestlé Adriatic in Serbia to further enhance its market strength, mainly in the areas of sales and distribution, as the once achieved position had to be maintained alongside the competition. Nestlé Adriatic’s managing team quickly realized that expanded sales network would demand more effective sales reps, able to generate higher number of visits to sales objects and more orders per each visit.
In order to maintain the pace, a new solution for mobile sales had to be introduced – fast and reliable in terms of business demands but also easy to use when it comes to sales rep’s performance while placing actual orders. What Nestlé management desired was a solution to be swiftly integrated with the existing SAP-based ERP system, capable of handling serious workload and being secure.
With time, reliability and ease of use defined as the key demands for front-end, main salespeople in Nestlé Adriatic were keen to see the solution’s server-side capable of detailed administration of resources and business analytics.
The Solution
After market evaluation and comparison of present solutions, Nestlé Adriatic’s management opted for mobileOrder and decided to give it a go-ahead. The decision was based upon the overview of functionalities that positioned mobileOrder as the most cost-effective solution meeting clients’ specification for service.
mobileOrder’s advantage over the competition reflected in its solution architecture as a service and not the standalone implemented system that would generate additional expenses in software and hardware procurement. But the advantage was not only financial, it was the amount of time needed to get the service up and running that caught client’s attention – instead of months that would be required to set up more conventional solution, mobileOrder was fully operational in weeks.
Dedicated server running web-based application and a host of handheld devices manned by sales reps on the move proved to be a reliable business solution where speed and security were achieved trough smart use of resources, such as the transmission of packed data from handheld device to mobileOrder server via GPRS or the communication between client’s application and mobileOrder service during update only.
Finally, Nestlé Adriatic was provided with advanced business intelligence, reporting and data management modules easily accessible via dedicated website providing various levels of control over the sales process.
The Results
Reliable technology behind mobileOrder service with impressive 7-days rollout and almost zero downtime helped Nestlé Adriatic widen the market share by giving both the sales reps and the management more freedom to focus on business efficiency.
Transition to the electronic ordering made every visit to sales point more efficient since each sales rep was given handful of insights insight into important sales parameters such as the stock availability, package and discount variations - thus making communication with shop owners or managers easier and richer in revenue.
The instant overview of sales-based details made company’s managing team capable of reaction in little time thus providing more balanced decisions (and less expensive ones, too).
Presently, Nestlé Adriatic in Serbia experiences successful business results, with sales in the first half of 2007 rising for 35% compared to the same period last year, according to company’s official media release.
Nestlé Adriatic branch in Serbia is one the key players on country's FMCG market, operating a wide portfolio of food products such as Nescafe, KitKat, Maggi and ThomyNescafe, KitKat, Maggi and Thomy.
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