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- case studies:
 The Medical Center
- Medical University
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- Fiat Credit France
- United States Postal Service
- Sales Force Automation
 The Atlanta Journal
- Famous Footwear
- Van Sales
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- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution boosts sales force productivity by 30% while improving service for customers and advertisers.
- The Challenge
- Newspapers today face numerous online competitors. And while many people continue to enjoy the personalized experience of having a printed-paper delivered at home, their expectations for timeliness and service are influenced by experiences on the Internet. Customers assume sales representatives-whether communicating by email or having a conversation on the door step-will be informed about the status of their account.
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- Yet until recently, door-to-door sales crews at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution didn't know whether they were knocking on the doors of nonsubscribers or subscribers taking the paper two, three, five or seven days a week. Lacking detailed household information they were unable to concentrate their efforts on the best prospects and risked annoying current subscribers. The company needed a way to put information from mainframe-based circulation and customer service systems into the hands of its mobile workforce.
- "Simplicity is the most critical issue. A lot of the people doing these jobs don't have strong technical skills, and they're under a lot of time pressure. It has to be one button, click and go." - Edward F. Baer, CIO
- About The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a leading metropolitan newspaper, sells more than half a million papers daily to households and retail outlets. The company delivers up to three editions per day and also handles Atlanta area home distribution for The New York Times and Investor's Business Daily.
- The Handheld Solution
- The Journal-Constitution sales force says handhelds have improved productivity by 30%. Before beginning a door-to-door sales campaign, supervisors now download customer and prospect information onto handhelds. Sales people carry the handhelds as they work the neighborhood, adapting the offer appropriately at each door. By simply tapping an address from the list displayed on the handheld, sales people instantly know if the household is a current or lapsed subscriber and how many days it receives a paper. Handhelds also tell sales people which current promotions they can offer the customer and automatically calculate applicable sales tax for each of 16 counties.
- At the end of the night, supervisors upload data from the handhelds to the company's computing systems. Managers have precise data on who was visited and at what time, enabling them to measure sales force performance.
- Solution Highlights
- 30% productivity gain in door-to-door selling
- Integrated with mainframe-based circulation and customer service systems
- 40% ROI expected from cost reductions in delivery of free newspaper/ad packages to selected households
- Ability to tell advertisers exactly when inserts were delivered to specific households
- Future Plans
- Now that the Journal-Constitution has invested in handhelds for its mobile workforce, the company is finding numerous ways to exploit the advantage. Adding real-time order entry to the sales force automation application is expected to yield even greater productivity benefits. The newspaper is also launching handheld applications for home and retail delivery, which will improve service accuracy and reliability while eliminating the time-consuming chores of manually maintaining route books, printing labels and sorting papers for select market coverage, and tracking retail returns. Advertisers will benefit from the new capabilities too, as the Journal-Constitution will soon be able to provide them with data on exactly where and when ads and inserts are delivered.
- Competitive Advantage
- By implementing sales force automation and customer relationship management applications on handhelds, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is delivering on its promise of superior service. The company is also demonstrating that in the age of global information networks, personalized door-to-door service can be valued not only for its neighborliness but for its efficiency.
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