Mobility and business productivity case study

Industry: Advertising, marketing and promotions

Customer profile:

The Creative Counsel is a business specialising in promotions and marketing. The company has evolved and grown remarkably to become one of the most pre-eminent organisations in its kind in southern Africa.

With offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, The Creative Counsel strives for nothing but excellence.

“This is a complex, far-reaching solution, which we had to have in an almost ludicrously short space of time. nVisionIT has by far exceeded our expectations by delivering a solution that is better than what we initially imagined.”

Technologies:

Silverlight
ASP.Net
Dynamics CRM
Windows Mobile 6.5
Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Google Maps for navigation, mapping and geotagging

Landing a tender to provide market intelligence services for a major cellular communications company meant two things for The Creative Counsel: satisfaction on a pitch well done, and the need for the rapid development of an appropriate technology solution, which would make use of mobile telephones and a centralised database.

However, it faced one major challenge: its client required the solution to be in place within just six weeks. When it polled software development houses, says Clinton Else, Business Operations Manager at The Creative Counsel (TCC), the answer to its very specific requirements and timeframe was quite uniform: “They said it couldn't be done.”

That was until it engaged with nVisionIT. Not only did the Microsoft technology specialist agree that it could be done on time, it also committed to working with TCC to develop additional features and functionality that would deliver further value.

Explaining the requirements of the solution, which Else says is simply called 'CRM' within the company, he says it is a field services application through which field management executives gather information. “Our FMEs call on retail outlets across the country where cellular phones and related services are sold. We have around 100 of these individuals, servicing roughly 10 000 stores in every part of South Africa. As they call on each outlet, the FME records various information directly on to an application that resides on their smartphone.”

The type of information that is gathered, continues Else, is structured into four categories. These are:

* Relationships with the store manager and staff (ensuring appropriate knowledge of cellular products and solutions, providing training if necessary).
* Stock management (stock counts, checking for out of box failures, checking for old stock).
* Branding and merchandising in-store (ensuring leaflets, point of sale material etc is available and up to date).
* RICA compliance (ensuring staff know how to 'RICA' customers, in line with the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act).

This field force has been in operation for the cellular services provider for over a decade. Else's colleague and CRM Manager Mark Blackburn provides further insight: “Prior to TCC winning the tender to provide this service, another organisation had handled it.

“This organisation had an electronic system in place: one of the determining factors for TCC was to provide an improved system which would ensure the rapid collection of field data at the point of contact, and the equally rapid collation of that data on a back-end server.”

Flexibility was an essential specification. “Within this industry,” Blackburn explains, “the type of information that must be gathered can change very quickly. New campaigns may be rolled out, for example, requiring that the FMEs evaluate and report on the deployment and availability of collateral. That means we had to have a system which could be adapted easily and quickly to take these changes into account.”

Additionally, different 'rules of engagement' and types of data are collected depending on the store being visited; there was also the requirement to include an element of workflow and the ability to ensure that FMEs are actually visiting the locations in accordance with their schedules, and not merely claiming to have done so.

With that window of just six weeks providing little time to develop a platform compatible with almost any smartphone, Else says nVisionIT's response was more than refreshing. “We found a technology partner that was prepared to commit to that timeframe, but also which was almost instantly capable of fully grasping the specification of the solution we sought,” he notes.

Nick McKenzie, technical director at nVisionIT, says a major advantage lay in the fact that the company has extensive experience in solving just these sorts of challenges. “Microsoft CRM provided the core server side platform functions, in addition to enabling an extremely rapid design experience enabled nVisionIT to deliver a flexible solution in the shortest timeframe. The real challenge was to develop a mobile application to reside on the smartphones of the field agents. However, given our knowledge of the various platforms, achieving that was quite possible. The result is an application which is downloaded to the handset which provides number of mobile forms through which data would be captured, which then upload back to the server over a mobile connection.”

The mobile component also recommends scheduling to support the FMEs as they must meet a demanding schedule: “On any given day, the scheduling indicates those stores that have to be visited and those which should be visited in order to meet targets. It's a built-in tool to drive productivity,” McKenzie says.

Interestingly, a detailed functional specification was absent at the outset, something he says was in this case, advantageous. “We had a clear idea of what was needed, but flexibility in the execution of the project meant we were able to identify new opportunities and features as we worked, the result is a solution which is better on completion than what was envisaged at the design phase.”

As an example, he points to the use of GPS, available in many newer devices, to record the location of the agent. “Because GPS relies on line of sight, which you can't get inside a shopping centre, a geotag is obtained outside the centre, which expires after a given time. In this way, it is possible to verify that the FME was in fact on site.”

GPS integration also provides for route planning for optimal travelling.

The solution also provides for integration into the systems of the cellular company; for example, if an FME indicates that stock or collateral is unavailable, it initiates a process to rectify the situation.

In addition to designing and delivering the solution, nVisionIT was closely involved in the rollout to and training of the FMEs, confirms Else. “This was done regionally; the solution had to be sufficiently simple that it was easy to understand by the FMEs, yep powerful enough to meet the information needs of our client.”

Working with nVisionIT has not met TCC's expectations, something about which Else is quite firm. “This is a complex, far-reaching solution which we had to have in an almost ludicrously short space of time. nVisionIT has by far exceeded our expectations by delivering a solution which is better than what we initially imagined.

“The result is that our FMEs are more efficient and can be managed more carefully, and the client is substantially impressed with the performance of TCC.”

The information that is gathered through the nVisionIT-provided CRM solution, says Blackburn, is essential for the cellular operator to achieve optimum performance 'on the ground'. “Using this information provides the company with a detailed and practically instant view of what is happening in its retail channel. That kind of visibility is highly valuable but also very difficult to achieve. With this solution, the company can take meaningful action to correct any field issues with minimal delay.”

For further information: http://www.nvisionit.co.za.