Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and SalesLogix has teamed up to demonstrate SalesLogix 2000, a sales force automation application that focuses on empowering employees with crucial information while on the move.
The application addresses a common sales workforce complaint: having full access to company information no matter where they are.
One of the biggest challenges facing a sales force is having access to updated internal information while out of the office, to understand and address customers` needs as they arise. The SalesLogix application, which is built on the HP/Microsoft Pocket PC platform, gives users complete real-time access normally available while sitting at their desk.
For example, when a salesperson visits a customer, they need to be able to give them up-to-date information about current stock levels, new pricing specials and more importantly, know what the customer last ordered and what their current invoice status is. In many cases, this information changes regularly and by the time the salesperson arrives at a customer, it may have changed.
According to Stuart Russell, regional manager at SalesLogix, the application frees up a sales force from traditional paperwork and phone ordering, as the required information is always on-hand, therefore improving customer lead times.
"Our application demonstrates how information saved on the company network can be used remotely through the newly-launched Microsoft Pocket PC operating system. Salespeople therefore no longer have an excuse not to be constantly updated," says Russell.
"The combination of faster, smaller `appliance-like` computers and new high-speed networking technologies has dramatically changed the computing landscape," says Thiery Boulanger, business development manager at HP. "The emergence of applications like the SalesLogix offering, allows users access to information at a lower cost and increased efficiency rate. Most devices on the market allow some form of remote access, but do not have all the necessary applications in one package. These devices can cost a company up to eight times more than those based on Pocket PC."
"Until now, handheld devices have been glorified personal organisers, providing little more than an address book and appointment calendar," says Hennie Loubser, line of business sales manager at Microsoft South Africa. "Pocket PC sets businesspeople free of the traditional physical boundaries associated with access to information and work productivity. This sales force automation offering places traditional desktop productivity in the hand and delivers the promise of the Internet to users anytime, anywhere."
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