It was said sometime ago, that the Internet would never change the fact that people are at the heart of every profitable business and they are the one's that make the difference. Very true indeed, but the chastened dot com world of today clearly shows us that a business that leverages an online presence can benefit from speedy, crisp and reliable execution.

Sometimes, we are all so engrossed in executing our traditional businesses that we lose sight of what's happening elsewhere. Like on the Net. Moving business to the web can give a business that all-important shot in the arm as far as balancing supply and demand. This article talks about a sales force automation (SFA) product that one of our partners developed. Read more to understand about sales force automation.

What technology do you need to become an effective salesman?
With almost any kind of information available on the web, customers today are well equipped with knowledge about any business and therefore ask for visibility in all transactions. Five years ago, a customer who called in about a sales inquiry would expect a reply in about 24 hours, but today, a customer would expect the same reply in about 2-3 hours. This means immediate online access to each customer's account information and also a means to transmit documents to customers right away. Without the Internet, none of this will be possible.

Sales persons are looking for heterogeneous information from multiple sources made available in a compact, easily navigable way to make quick decisions on the field. At the same time, ensuring information consistency, security at user and transactional level is mandatory for confidential corporate information exchange.

One of our development partners has developed an application called Mobile Application Framework (MAF), which ensures rapid application development and easy customization. Well designed navigational and information architecture ensures maximum availability of information to users, easy navigation and low foot print applications. Compliance to open standards and use of platform neutral development language facilitates easy configuration, upgradation and integration with existent deployment environment.

Read about a development scenario that uses a sales force automation software.

Sales force automation application features

• Offline Processing
  
• Access to multiple information access
  
• Remote synchronization
  
• Seamless Integration with legacy systems
  
• Cost effective solutions

Sales Force Automation (SFA)
Most Sales Force Automation software (referred to as SFA, hereafter) installations were designed for the desktop or laptop and were not easily accessible by PDA's. Information intensive sales applications have to render to rich feature and display on handheld device, keeping in mind the sales representatives / sales representatives. Moreover, sales professionals on the move need access to numerous sources of information beyond the SFA application, including information from accounting systems, inventory systems, Intranet applications and Internet content. SFA applications attempt to serve two different user bases: Sales managers and sales representatives, who have varying requirements.

Our partners have developed a PDA-based Sales Force Automation application to cater to different verticals. The sales representatives use Pocket PC to record orders. The order details are sent to the back end System in real time over a GPRS Network.

Benefits of using Sales force automation software

• Increased sales force productivity
  
• Helps improve customer satisfaction
  
• Increased return on SFA investment
  
• Streamlined business processes
  
• Integrated corporate mobile strategy
  
• Understanding of demographics of a customer's location, tailored service offerings based on demographic profiles, services the customer is most likely to purchase
  
• Instant answers to questions about service availability
  
• Provide automation of customer assignments and field accessed decision support.

Read more about the sales force automation solution on the next page.

If what you've read matches with your requirements, please contact us and share your ideas. Or if you'd like to read more about our services and see if what we offer interests you, please click here.

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