TECHNOLOGY Sales automation boosts service efficiency

New technology gives sales reps an instant grasp of inventory while on the road.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- In his 20th year at Chase-Pitkin, a home-improvement chain in western New York, Mike Wright is getting more of what sales reps relish above all else: face time.
"I betcha I have at least two more hours on the road during the day" than a year ago, crowed Wright, 45, as he visited a property management office at an apartment complex. "More face time means more dollars."
It isn't a lenient boss freeing him up from numbing paperwork. It's the hand-held wireless device in his pocket which allows him to tap easily into the Chase-Pitkin's database.
The information he taps there enables him to make a more fully informed sales pitch and lock in deals, helping the 15-store chain hold back The Home Depot and Lowe's -- national juggernauts that have made limited inroads in Chase-Pitkin's commercial backyard.
Automation is transforming mobile sales-or-service operations in every industry, from suppliers of toys, soft drinks and pharmaceuticals to insurance agents who can write on-the-spot checks because they have on-the-road access to homeowner policies.
"It's technology geared toward anyone standing in front of a customer who needs to move information to and from the home office," said Norm Korey, vice president of wireless services at IBM Corp., which furnished Chase-Pitkin with systems-integration expertise.
Efficient service
Armed with personal digital assistants, Chase-Pitkin's dozen commercial sales reps have an instant grasp of every item and price tag in the warehouse. They can quickly size up regular customers -- and possibly draw more business from them -- by perusing all manner of minutiae: negotiated price lists, order histories and preferred speed of delivery.
Instead of laboriously jotting down purchases on notepads and losing half their workday back at base checking on supplies or working the phones, they can devote more time to building a rapport with home builders, hospital administrators and real-estate managers.
"A lot of times, the competitive differentiator is not who has lower prices, or more bells or whistles or gizmos, it really is who has better service," said Dale Hagemeyer, a technology analyst with market research firm Gartner Inc. of Stamford, Conn.
"The efficiency piece also leads to more effectivenesss," he said. "With facts, figures, quotes, everything I need at hand, I can begin to up-sell you, cross-sell you and close more deals."
Consumer-goods companies
Mobile computer technology that extends management of the supply chain out to field sales is transforming consumer-goods companies of all stripes.
Take PepsiCo Inc. Its tech-laden truck drivers can now help convenience stores optimize soft-drink orders based on consumption patterns.
"You want to have enough that you don't run out but not so much that you're tripping over the stuff in the aisle," Hagemeyer said.
IBM itself, by enabling its sales army to order parts while in transit, said it is saving hundreds of millions of dollars on improved productivity and reduced real-estate costs.
Other Web business software distributors include Seibel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., San Francisco-based Salesforce.com and SalesLogix of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Sales force
Multiple billions have been invested in sales force automation, analysts say. Palm Inc., one of five major suppliers, has alone sold more than 30 million hand-held computer devices since 1997. And the technology is becoming especially commonplace in the business-to-business arena.
"It does simplify things," said analyst Paula Rosenblum of AMR Research in Boston. "The biggest challenge a lot of firms have is getting the sales force to actually use it."
With technology too often viewed as "a silver bullet," she said, Chase-Pitkin's success "is really a statement to their culture and, quite frankly, a statement to how it is they've survived the onslaught of giants."
The 146-year-old home-and-garden company, anchored in the Rochester region with three stores in Syracuse and one in Corning, boasts more than $200 million in sales. Parent company Wegmans operates 65 upscale grocery stores, most of them in upstate New York.
Regional vs. national
A regional chain store typically surrenders "anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of their volume almost overnight" when a national rival moves in next door, but Chase-Pitkin has kept its losses "in the teens," said Chris Dorsey, its controller and chief information officer.
Its commercial division, launched soon after Home Depot's arrival in Rochester in 1996, has fared far better. Targeting mainly large-scale buyers who previously relied on a host of independent suppliers, it has recorded double-digit growth each year through 2002.
"One potential customer told us we wouldn't have been welcomed in if we didn't have this technology because clearly it's far ahead of the competition," Dorsey said.