Palm Treo smartphones used in field audits

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 25 January 2006 03:58

IT Industry - Deals

PDA and smartphone vendor, Palm, has sold its Treo 650 smartphones into Australian marketing and communications agency, Creative Field Marketing (CFM) to conduct wireless mobile auditing and deliver real-time market information to clients.

Using Palm mobile devices, CFM claims to have streamlined the processing of field sales results, increased productivity during in-store audits and enhanced its clients' understanding of the market.

Robert Elliot, general manager of CFM, said, "Palm smartphones and handhelds have become our clients' eyes and ears in the field. CFM has up to 1,000 field staff working on a large number of client-specific programs. A portable, simple and highly reliable method of recording and communicating data among staff and clients is crucial to our business.

"CFM staff needed a small, lightweight device that had the robustness to be reliable on the road and, in some cases where customer's requested it, was photo-capable. We found Palm devices to be the most developed smartphones and handhelds available, so they were the obvious choice."

Using the Palm smartphones and handhelds, information about stock levels and how CFM's clients' products are displayed on shelves vs. competitors is recorded and fed back to clients in real time. Staff equipped with a Treo smartphone can take digital pictures of how clients and competitors are presented. This gives CFM's clients accurate data for decision-making and a greater knowledge of how they are being positioned in the market by retailers.

"The Treo smartphone's digital camera technology lets us produce highly illustrative reports on channel actions that include images of in-store displays. This gives our clients a high degree of insight into retail activity and gives us a strong competitive edge," said Elliot.

Lesley McKnight, marketing manager, Australia and New Zealand for Palm, said, "Retail is an aggressive market. Companies need to know immediately what is happening in the field. Using Palm devices, CFM's mobile solution enables it to maintain a competitive advantage in a growing market."