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Sales Force Automation

Jerónimo Martins uses mBPM^TM to increase sales and reduce operational costs by proving each salesman with instant mobile access to customer information and order management.

Grupo Jeronimo Martins

The Jerónimo Martins Group is an international group that operates in the food sector, focusing on Industry and Distribution. In Portugal, the Group is a leader in Food Distribution, operating with the Pingo Doce (Supermarkets), Feira Nova (Large Surfaces) and Recheio (Cash & Carry) brands. The Group's business portfolio also includes Distribution in Poland (Biedronka), Industry (FimaVG, LeverElida, IgloOlá), and several Marketing, Representation and Distribution Operations.

Jerónimo Martins has around 30.000 employees, and achieved sales of about 3.800 Million Euro in 2005.

The Challenge

In the distribution business, Jerónimo Martins manages a huge portfolio of products from several suppliers, and sells them to small, medium and large retail outlets. With an increasing portfolio, rising sales and pressure to have shorter and more efficient cycles, Jerónimo Martins decided to implement a mobile Sales Force Automation solution.

In order to be successful, the solution had to be extremely user friendly, fully integrated with the ERP and CRM systems, and use wireless data communications to retrieve field data while beeing able to work even on locations without wireless coverage. Additionally, and because business is always evolving, it has to be highly scalable and easy to evolve to cover new areas and new functions.

The Solution

The project team included resources from the Group's Business and IT Organizations, and senior consultants from TEKEVER, being led by Mr. Gilberto Martins, the Financial and IS Manager of Jerónimo Martins Distribuição.

The solution uses the mBPM^TM Platform to provide full support for field workers, back-office personnel and systems integration, and was built as a customization of the standard mBPM^TM SFA solution. The solution provides the salesforce with the following set of functionalities:

• Customer, Product and Sales Information Management
• Customer account management, including special discounts, accounts payable and receivable, and visiting plan
• Submission of Orders, Special Deals and Devolutions
• Creation of marketing investment proposals
• Shopping for competitors products
• Access to corporate email

All the functions are tightly integrated with the ERP and CRM systems, providing the sales force with real time and accurate information.

For supporting field personnel, the solution provides Pocket PC devices using the mBPM^TM Windows Mobile Channel. Being one of mBPM^TM Smart Channels, the Windows Mobile Channel allows the user to access all functions in an offline environment, assuring seamless data synchronization when a network is available.

Return on Investment

The solution was successfully implemented and a drive towards improving the entire sales process. Jerónimo Martins points out the following key RoI points:

• Reduction of Order Lifecycle from an average of 20 hours to 5 minutes
• Creation of a paperless environment
• Back-Office personnel reduction (e.g. manual order entries)
• Increased salesforce availability to be with the customer, instead of being in the office managing administrative chores

The solution is currently beeing adapted and expanded to several areas within the organization, in order to make these advantages more widely available.

Customer Info, Pocket PC Channel

Product Info, Pocket PC Channel