Sales Force Enablement & Merchandising through Mobility

A PepsiAmericas Case Study in Improving Efficiencies

Introduction• 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

• 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

– Static / manual scheduling

Costs increasing faster than earnings

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

Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor, VentureOutsource.com, 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 storeand if so, how long?

• Mileage Re-imbursement

– No audit system

– In most cases pay what’s submitted

Making the Case

• Generate the idea – Sell into senior management

• Get executive sponsorship for capital & resources

• Partner with IT, HR , PMO, Field Sales

• Vendor selection

• Configure & integrate solution

Entire process took > 1 year

Focus on People, Process & Technology

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

Strategy – What did we need?

The Solution

Spring WirelessSpring Wireless

Spring Wireless Merchandising Solution to Address Entire Cycle

Spring WirelessSpring Wireless

Effective route plans & resource

coverage

Effective route plans & resource

coverage

Out-of-the-box surveys & formsOut-of-the-box

surveys & forms

Improved compliance & field execution

Improved compliance & field execution

Track visits & deploy actions in

real-time

Track visits & deploy actions in

real-time

Full access to customers & planograms

Full access to customers & planograms

On-line analysis of patterns &

market insights

On-line analysis of patterns &

market insights

Spring Wireless Merchandising Solution to Address Entire Cycle

Promotions-based activity management

Promotions-based activity management

Spring Wireless mSeries™ Solution Features

Master Data Management Planning Execution Tracking Intelligence

Centralized Mobile Data

Source

Resource & Activity

Planning

Productivity & Intelligence

Real-time Tracking

Analyze & Respond

Master Data ManagementCentral data source for all mobile apps

• Off-line access to key business info

• History of visits & activities

• Data dynamically synchronized & updated

• Integration engine allows constant and consistent master data updates

PlanningPlan 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

ExecutionProductivity & Intelligence in the Field

• Out-of-the-box surveys + forms:

• Consistent field execution

• Agile response to market demands & competitive actions

• Improved customer knowledge and satisfaction

TrackingTrack Activities, Location & Results

• Track field execution to improve planning and assure visit quality

• Real-time info of field execution & business results

• Location tracking

• Breadcrumb trails of routes

• Reports & alerts for speeding violations, total mileage, number of stops, time per stops etc.

001

015

006

User: Chris GrimesWorked time: 4:20 hoursShift time: 8 hoursEvent: BreakReason: Lunch

• 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, …

IntelligenceMeasure, Analyze & Improve Field Process

Solution Video

• System fully configured & ready to pilot

• Productivity gains / labor reduction expected 4-6%

• OT reduction @ 10-20%

• Under utilized time identified and eliminated

• New reporting metrics developed and used

• Reduced Out of Stocks

• Consistent processes = Consistent service

Results

Appendix