Tom Sincharge smiled when he saw the first order from his newly opened Phoenix office. As the president of Yesterday Corp., Sincharge usually didn’t keep track of individual invoices.
But the sales rep called from his cell phone, saying the order was a sizable one and would be entered into the system as soon as he returned to the remote office. Since it was the first order placement for the new market, Sincharge wanted to see it for himself.
When he logged into the company intranet, the smile quickly turned to a very distressed frown.
“The rep signed the company to a six-figure deal, but had used the wrong specs,” Sincharge recalls. “The product we now could deliver wasn’t going to fill this customer’s needs. We’d sent out an e-mail memo to all the offices detailing the changes, but I guess he never read it.”
It took some quick thinking, but Sincharge was able to satisfy the customer’s order. That didn’t solve Yesterday’s real problem, though.
Because things were changing so quickly, the sales reps needed instant access to the company’s database. Sending memos by e-mail to several different offices wasn’t a reliable way to ensure information distribution, but more important, there were no guarantees the information was ever read.
“There had never been a problem before,” Sincharge says. “When we were in the same office, everyone was easily notified when there were changes. We needed to find a solution before it happened again. Simply mandating that everyone read his or her e-mail wasn’t going to solve our problem.
“It just wasn’t possible to have each market manager police their sales staff after every company memo.”
So Sincharge took to the phones. He contacted John C. Schraepfer at Technogenics Ltd. and Percy Bhathena at WISP (Wireless Internet Service Providers) and asked if they had a viable solution. Yesterday already had an intranet, which made information available in-house, but the remote sales reps had no way of easily and securely accessing the data.
Schraepfer suggested laptop computers equipped with digital modems. The reps already had cell phones, so the combination would provide wireless access to the information as if they were at the home office.
The reps could then access the company’s Web site through the Internet and tap into the intranet, where all the information was located. All they needed was conventional dial-up Internet access.
Bhathena’s solution was similar — it involved laptops and modems — but he proffered wireless modems installed in the laptops themselves, instead of linking them with cell phones. That combination eliminated the need for traditional dial-up access.
WISP’s modems, explains Bhathena, are outfitted with separate identification devices, which Yesterday’s network would identify as unique users. It effectively ensures tighter security and reduces the chance that a dial-up network won’t connect.
There are also out-of-the-box-solutions for these problems, Schraepfer says, but the question becomes, “How well does that off-the-shelf solution fit your business?”
Schraepfer and Bhathena suggested Sincharge try solutions specifically tailored to fit Yesterday’s needs and provide quick access to information for sales reps in the field.
“People expect you to have all this information at your fingertips,” Schraepfer says.
Customer histories, the last order and service problems are all available with the right tools.
“The world has become highly competitive in (terms of) time. The more time you have, the better off you are.”
Bhathena agrees. “Companies looked at technology a few years ago and were afraid of writing blank checks each month. But speed is now an issue with a mobile work force accessing the company’s internal server.
“The applications are limitless, but you have to make it integrate with existing technology and build a customized bridge between them. And now, the price is a lot more affordable.”
But there are problems with relying on too much technology. Few consultants ever suggest technology for technology’s sake.
“Sometimes the consumer gets caught up in the latest and the greatest,” Schraepfer says. “And that’s not hard to do.”
If you’re doing word processing and spreadsheets, you probably don’t need the fastest computer processor.
“It’s advice that most people ignore when it comes to technology. There’s a difference between having cutting edge technology and having the technology that you need,” he says.
Schraepfer, for example, doesn’t use a laptop, but his sales reps and engineers do. He either works at the office or uses his home computer to remotely control the office terminal. If he’s anywhere else, he probably shouldn’t be working.
For Bhathena, it’s a different story. He’s often on the go and he’s been known to attract crowds of people at the airport who are amazed to see him linking up with the home office without the use of a cell phone.
“Companies have a mobile initiative,” he says. “They see the need to make people mobile. If that’s what your company needs, then it’s worth it to invest in the products.”
Whatever your company needs, the first step to making any investment, says Schraepfer, is “to know what your business goals are. To make sure your business goals get accomplished, make sure they’re experts and make them talk to you in your language.”
After that, it’s a matter of purchasing materials and integrating them into your work force.
To solve Yesterday’s problem, Sincharge took the ideas and began to mull them over.
How to reach: Technogenics Ltd., (216) 426-0150; WISP, (216) 739-1383
Daniel G. Jacobs ([email protected]) is senior editor at SBN. Dustin Klein ([email protected]) also contributed to this story.
