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 Hourly manufacturing labor rate trend comparison
(U.S. dollars for manufacturing workers 1975-2006)

• 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
Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor, VentureOutsource.com,
– Static / manual scheduling 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
Focus on People, Process & Technology

• Generate the idea – Sell into senior

management
• Get executive sponsorship for capital &
resources People Process

• Partner with IT, HR , PMO, Field Sales

• Vendor selection
• Configure & integrate solution Technology

Entire process took > 1 year

Strategy – What is needed?
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
Solution
Spring Wireless Merchandising Solution
to Address Entire Cycle
Effective route Promotions-
plans & resource based activity
coverage management

Full access to Out-of-the-box

customers & surveys & forms
planograms

On-line analysis Improved

of patterns & compliance &
market insights field execution
Track visits &
deploy actions in
real-time
 Spring Wireless mSeries™
Solution Features

Master Data
Planning Execution Tracking Intelligence
Management

Centralized Resource &

Productivity & Real-time Analyze &
Mobile Data Activity
Intelligence Tracking Respond
Source Planning
 Master Data Management
Central data source for all mobile apps

• Off-line access to key

Org.
Employee business info
Structure
• History of visits & activities
Customer • Data dynamically
Plan-o-
& Product grams synchronized & updated
Data
• Integration engine allows
Visits & constant and consistent
Surveys 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
001
visit quality
• Real-time info of field
execution & business results
• Location tracking
015

User: Chris Grimes

• Breadcrumb trails of routes
Worked time: 4:20 hours
Shift time: 8 hours
Event: Break
Reason:006
Lunch
• Reports & alerts for speeding
violations, total mileage,
number of stops, time per
stops etc.
 Intelligence
Measure, Analyze & Improve Field Process

• 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, …
Expected Results
• 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
Appendix