In2cable (India) Limited, Mumbai, India

Company profile

In2cable (India) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hinduja TMT Limited (HTMT), is a "Category A" (all India) ISP licence holder. It offers its broadband services under an exclusive arrangement with its group company IndusInd Media and Communications (IMC), using their existing cable network across India. IMC commenced operations in 1995 and has built up India's largest cable television (CATV) network. It currently provides multi-channel transmission services to approximately 4 million subscribers under the brand name INCableNet, thus ranking amongst the 12 largest cable TV operators in the world in terms of subscribers. In addition to Mumbai, IMC's network covers 11 major cities in northern, southern and western India viz: Delhi,Agra, Hyderabad, Banglaore, Ahmedabad, Nasik, Belgaum, Indore and Nagpur. IMC is well advanced in its plan for development of Pay TV platform with Interactive TV/internet capability.

The Mumbai operations of In2cable are handled by a central network control center and sales & marketing offices spread across the city. ESalesEdge has been deployed to monitor and coordinate the activities of these offices and enable effective CRM.

Scenario prior to eSalesEdge

The field sales executives were sending a Daily Call Report (DCR) in printed format to the HO. The report provided details of prospects met, call outcome, orders received and performance YTD. The ASM at the HO had a brief look at a sample of the reports which were then archived for future reference, if any. Actual MIS and control was achieved through periodical meetings with the sales agents. During such meeting, the volume of sales was used as a barometer of performance while the intricacies and critical elements responsible for the sales were largely ignored. In the absence of an efficient software, no attempt was made to process the paper reports. Omissions and delay in customer response went largely unnoticed.

Problems

The main area of concern was the inadequate usage of the data submitted by the sales agents both for the purpose of monitoring and control and also for analytical MIS. This was resulting in the following problems:

• Lack of effective control on daily movement of sales agents.
• Omissions and Delays in Customer Response.
• Loss of Sale owing to above.
• Skewed marketing effort.
• Inadequate market feedback.

After eSalesEdge

We implemented eSalesEdge- Silver, the basic version of our fully web based Sales Force Automation and CRM application. The sales executives now access the web application from anywhere and submit their DCRs. Leads are generated against positive calls. After submitting the DCR for new calls, the sales executive reports on the work done against existing leads and sales closed. Targets are specified for each sales executive and achievements against them are shown on a real time basis. Email campaigns can be carried out for select prospect groups/profiles. Mass emails can be also be sent to existing customers/ other groups from external databases for the purpose of payment reminders etc. Entire MIS is now centralized and consolidated. Upto the minute information can be obtained for pending leads, calls made, productivity of calls, sales funnel and actual sales. The fully automated workflow mechanism enables immediate response to customer queries. 360 degree view of customer/prospect is available and all possible gaps in CRM have been plugged.    

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Aircon India incorporated, Kolkata, India

Company profile

Aircon is the largest dealer of Carrier and Xerox range of products in Calcutta India. It caters to both the retail segment as well the corporate segments including large implementation jobs. It has a sales team of around 15 executives entrusted with the task of generating, attending and closing leads.

Scenario prior to SalesEdge

Client enquiries were entered into a register and verbally passed on to the sales executives. The sales executives noted their assignments in personal diaries. Leads generated by them through personal efforts were similarly recorded in the diaries for necessary follow up. The notes maintained by the sales executives were merely schedules of next meetings or markings for successful closure/termination. The details of the interactions with the client were left to the vagaries of the human memory. The sales executives filled a daily call report in paper form that was relegated to the files. No meaningful MIS could be extracted from them.
MIS reports were created on spreadsheets at the end of every week resulting in double work for the sales executives. There paid time was being diverted from making sales calls to generating reports. Quotations, documents and emails sent to the clients were available in different files, folders and cabinets across the organization and each one had to be separately located to understand the status of the lead. Similarly ready information on expenses incurred and payment expected against sales leads was not available. All data had to be compiled on demand.

Problems

• In addition to non-availability of information and consequent waste of time in compiling MIS reports the biggest problem that the company was facing pertained to omissions in proper client management. Diary recordings without any cross-checking mechanism resulted in obvious human errors resulting in loss of clients. Moreover, if a client called the company’s office in the absence of the sales executive attending to him, the company was not in a position to attend to him meaningfully. The usual comment was  “Sorry sir, the concerned person is not available. We shall inform him and he shall get in touch with you shortly”. Such transfer of information and timely action against the same often succumbed to the pressures of routine work and, in the absence of proper control system, client management was compromised resulting in dissatisfied clients and lower revenues.
• Another major area of concern was the manner in which sales lead related data was scattered across the office. There was no way to ascertain the status and prospects of the lead without having to sit with the concerned sales executive. Same was the case with all other lead related information like quote given, emails exchanged, payment expected, documents sent and expenses incurred. The organization was clueless without the sales executive and this was resulting in a dangerous scenario of over dependence on the sales executives, who have a rather high churn ratio. The client relationships were getting developed at the individual sales executive level and, more often than not, the client left the company along with the sales executive. An extremely unhealthy scenario
•     The third area of concern was the lack of proper analysis of product performance. Leads lost were simply closed without meaningfully recording the reason for the loss and measures required to prevent future loses. There was no mechanism of collecting regular and preemptive market intelligence.

After SalesEdge

The company started using SalesEdge in October 2002 and results are already visible. All client interactions and exchanges are systematically recorded in a central database. This coupled with the checks built into the solution has ensured that human errors in client management are eliminated. Now the client is never told ‘sorry sir…….’. Whoever receives the call has immediate access to all required information to satisfy the client. Assignment, cross assignment, reporting and scheduling against leads happen through the system to facilitate discarding of registers and diaries. All MIS and prospect reports are generated at the press of an icon saving considerable time for both sales executive and management. Product analysis is now an on-going process. Considerable time is also saved in routine tasks like making quotes, sending mailers and searching for files. Not to mention savings in stationery costs owing to non-requirements of paper filings. All this has been made possible owing to the extremely user friendly user interface of SalesEdge that has resulted in  quick adaptation by the sales team.    

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Delight Dairy Limited, Calcutta

Business Profile

Delight Dairy is the third largest manufacturer and  supplier of  packaged processed milk, of different varieties, in and around Calcutta. The company processes over 20000 liters of milk annually. It procures from over a 100 milkmen who supply raw milk either at the company’s collection centers. Milk is transported to the plant under chilled conditions, after testing for content. A number of processing agents are mixed with the raw milk to produce different varieties of milk. The original content formed the basis of addition of agents. Processing agents were stocked at offsite warehouses as well as at the plant. Processed milk is packaged in different denominations and supplied to over 300 retailers as per order received during the day. Invoices for each retailer are sent along with the supplies

Scenario prior to solution

Prior to the implementation of our solution, the company was handling the entire process manually, except for the generation of the invoices for which a rudimentary software was being used.

Areas of Concern

The company was facing multiple problems related to lack of proper control on all aspects of procurement, production, inventory and sales. The negative impact of improper control was all the more pronounced owing to extremely perishable nature of the product being handled. The main areas of concern can be highlighted as below:

• Ascertaining the content specifications of procured milk owing to in-transport dilution
• Ascertaining the content specifications after mixing with existing stocks
• Calculation of Production Waste
• Daily Order Receipt
• In-transit wastage and compensation
• Testing and reprocessing of unsold output and sales return
• Usage of processing agents vis-à-vis standards
• Movement of agents’ stocks across locations and inventory positions
• Meaningful MIS for improved planning and production

Solution Implemented

We designed and implemented a tailor made solution for managing the entire Procurement, Production, Sales and Inventory process cycle. Each process was closely studied and critical elements noted. The interdependencies were established and incorporated into the system. Owing to unique nature of the requirements, the four modules were deliberately linked in a somewhat assembly line flow to restrict user level mistakes. The data entry system had to made very simple owing the large number of daily data and printing. Similarly, the database structures had to be created to handle the large volume of data and enable MIS report generation in quick time.

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Keventer Agro Limited

Business Profile

Keventer Agro is the franchisee for the Parle Group of mineral water, beverages and candies. The main brands handled are Bailey, Frooti and Minto among others. The company sells the products across the state of West Bengal through over 500 distributors and 50000 retailers. The Distributors are directly handled by the company’s field force of around 45. Retailers are the responsibility of the former. The field agents are also responsible for enlisting new retailers. They have to submit a daily report covering detailing the work done each date. The Head Office uses the data for MIS and control.

Scenario prior to Field Force Online

The field agents were sending a paper report in printed format to the HO. The managers at the HO had a brief look at a sample of the reports which were then archived for future reference, if any. Actual MIS and control was achieved through periodical meetings with the field agents. During such meeting, the volume of sales was used as a barometer of performance while the intricacies and critical elements responsible for the sales were largely ignored. In the absence of an efficient software, no attempt was made to process the paper reports.

Areas of Concern

The main area of concern was the inadequate usage of the data submitted by the field agents both for the purpose of monitoring and control and also for analytical MIS. This was resulting in the following problems:

• Lack of effective control on daily movement of field agents
• Skewed marketing effort
• Inadequate market feedback
• No information on stock positions of distributors and product movement
• Delayed payment collection
• Difficulty in fixing responsibilities owing to absence of systematic communication mechanism between HO and field agents.

Solution Implemented

Our web based field force management system, Fieldforce Online was deployed at Keventer. Each field agent fills the daily report in a specific format by logging on to the website with a unique user name and password. All information relating to visits, order bookings, payment collection, new retailer enlistment and market feedback on products are systematically captured. The Target setting module enables specification of and progress against targets on multiple parameters. Stock data of distributors is captured for gauging stock-in-trade and product movements. Retailer enlistment and feedback forms the basis of marketing strategy for different areas. Inbuilt web based emailing system enables efficient and economical communication. The net result has been more effective channel management, higher revenues and cost savings.

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Conlif Limited,Kolkata

Business Profile

Conlif is a leading company using the Network Marketing or MLM route to sell its products. The company manufactures wristwatches and also sells a number of consumer durables and jewellery products. Currently, the company has over 25000 members who market the products and also enlist new members. Each member is paid a commission on the items purchased and also on new members enlisted on the basis of specified dynamic business rules. Members are also paid Bonuses and Incentives for achieving additional targets set by the company from time to time.

Scenario prior to our solution

Prior to implementation of our integrated solution, the company was using an internally developed software for managing member data and calculating commissions, bonuses and incentives earned. The system was not linked to the inventory and accounting systems.

Areas of Concern

The company was facing a number of problems related to network management, inventory, production, accounting and controls. These were the direct result of an ill-conceived and non-integrated software solution that was in use. The system had not been planned for such a high number of members and consequent transactions. Moreover, it was not geared for dynamic business rules and fats processing. Being a partial system, it led to unnecessary multiple data entry and absence of timely MIS. Some of the primary areas of concern are highlighted below:

• Improper calculation of member payouts
• Difficulty in ascertaining net member balances from product sales and commission earnings
• Statutory Deductions like TDS not automatically done
• Difficulty is ascertaining product supplies to members
• Problems in maintaining inventory and generating invoices owing to multiple packs comprising SKUs in different permutation and combinations
• Inadequate system for monitoring and controlling vendor supplies, raw materials and production

• Non-integration with financial accounting causing multiple entries of same data
• Statutory obligations like Sales Tax and Excise not automated

 

Solution Implemented

We designed and implemented an integrated solution to solve all the above concerns. It has the following modules:

• Member Database with Sponsor Reference and downline tree
• Comprehensive master for multiple schemes for various payouts like commissions, bonuses and incentives
• Generation of Earnings, Payouts and relevant documents like money receipt, earning statements and invoices
• Multi-tier product master
• Purchase and Vendor Management
• Production

• Inventory and Supplies
• Financial Accounting                                                                

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Panbross Pharmaceuticals(P) Limited

Business Profile

Panbross Pharmaceuticals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of formulation drugs in eastern India. The company has its plant at Balasore, Orissa and marketing head office at Calcutta. The company also markets products of some international companies. The products are marketed to doctors through a team of Medical Representatives (MRs) managed by some Area Sales Managers (ASMs). The MRs and ASMs visit a minimum specified number of doctors each day, discuss products with them, distribute samples and gifts, meet distributors and retailers and collect orders and payments. Details of daily work done are sent to the Head Office in the form of Daily Call Report (DCR). The company has around 100 MRs.

Scenario prior to MROnline

The MRs and ASMs were sending DCRs in paper form to the HO. The DCRs were archived in separate files and kept for reference in case of any dispute with any MR. Not much marketing utility was being derived from the reports as the data was not being processed properly.

Areas of Concern

The company was facing a number of problems in monitoring and controlling MR activity as well as managing relationships with doctors. The main cause of the problems was that the important data submitted daily was not being adequately processed. The resultant areas of concern are highlighted below:

Solution Implemented

Our web based field force management system, Fieldforce Online was deployed at Keventer. Each field agent fills the daily report in a specific format by logging on to the website with a unique user name and password. All information relating to visits, order bookings, payment collection, new retailer enlistment and market feedback on products are systematically captured. The Target setting module enables specification of and progress against targets on multiple parameters. Stock data of distributors is captured for gauging stock-in-trade and product movements. Retailer enlistment and feedback forms the basis of marketing strategy for different areas. Inbuilt web based emailing system enables efficient and economical communication. The net result has been more effective channel management, higher revenues and cost savings.   

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VP International

Business Profile

The company offers a variety of jute wine bags and terracotta products for wholesale. We are based in Boise, Idaho, USA.

Scenario prior to implementation

The webpage was static.

Areas of Concern

The company was facing a number of problems in monitoring and controlling the website. Because in the absence of the developer it was very cumbersome to change the content of the website.

Solution Implemented

Our development team has made their website fully dynamic which has helped the company to update their website according their choice in the absence of the development team.

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