ComOps contract renewal with mobile sales solution

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 12:23

IT Industry - Deals

Australian provider of business software products and services, ComOps, has secured a renewal of its contract for a second year to supply a hosted mobile sales force automation solution to, the local arm of the US manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and consumer chemicals, SC Johnson & Son.

SC Johnson has renewed its contract for ComOps SAM, which is used by the company’s national sales team for customer call planning, accessing pricing information, downloading and presenting sales support material, managing in-store product range and distribution and for management reporting.

The company’s national field sales manager, Trent Kiner, national field sales manager at S.C. Johnson said, “ComOps SAM gives us the facility to plan calls and to send and receive information quickly.  We use it to alert the reps of any wins or product development news. We can get promotions out faster and in a format that is ready to be used in discussions with the customers.  It's also an easy way to report field intelligence and competitor information.”

Kiner said he company's sales representatives spend up to eight weeks at a time out of the office, travelling to meet with independent retailers throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

“Operating on Motorola handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), ComOps SAM enables the sales team to keep in touch with head office at all times, ensuring that they have the latest product, pricing and promotional information whenever they speak with a customer.  Daily communications via the mobile solution also help to promote a team feeling amongst the sales representatives, regardless of how long they may be absent.”

According to Kiner, ComOps SAM’s automatic reporting has “reduced time demands on staff and has given management visibility into the activities and effectiveness of the sales team, allowing them to view sales schedules, distribution results and to analyse territory trends on a daily basis.”

SC Johnson first contracted ComOps last year when it deployed the solution under an initial 12-month SaaS contract, with the solution replacing a manual and paper-based system.

Kiner said the company had chosen SAM “because it is widely used by other FMCG [fast moving consumer goods] organisations and it was best suited to our needs. ComOps were able to provide everything we needed from hosting the software and providing services, training and support, to attending sales team meetings and assisting with change management.”