Sales Automation

AS/400 E-mail Provides Sales Automation

In January 1997, Charmant began equipping its entire sales force with laptops loaded with the latest in sales automation programs. The program, Electronic Sample Bag, developed by K&L Labs of Princeton, N.J., utilizes a sophisticated database and high-resolution images of our entire eyeglass frame collection. In initiating this program, Charmant has become the first ophthalmic frame manufacturer to eliminate cumbersome sample bags from the selling process.

Although some of the sales reps continue to carry a small sample bag to complement their presentations, many have reported the complete elimination of physical samples except for a new style release. "Even then," says one sales representative, "I only carry the samples for a short period of time before returning them to our headquarters in Morris Plains, N.J."

Adding some custom function to the sales automation software, Charmant integrated Net400’s e-mail system, combined with in-house code, to automatically send field orders into the AS/400 and out to the distribution center, untouched by data entry.

Putting the pieces together.

Sales reps now take the order in the field, e-mail it to our mail gateway and forget about it. An AS/400 resident program screens the order for errors and then forwards it for processing. It is possible to have an order e-mailed into the office and have it shipped out within a few minutes.

This whole system grew out of a simple request from Charmant president, Mike Otani, who said: "I just want an e-mail system that is accessible by all of my managers, both here and abroad."

Trying to find something that satisfied the needs of everyone, while keeping the cost down, was no easy task. We began investigating the packages out there and found that messaging software from Net400, St. Augustine, Fla., was just what we were looking for. It had the ease of use, as well as the functionality, we required.

Net400 was helpful in setting up the theoretical environment and then physically putting it together. We ended up using an old PC we had and Net400’s package in DOS mode, along with the shared folders function from Client Access/400, and away we went. We added a digi-board to support some more ports and four Cardinal 33.6 modems.

It has been a solid system practically from day one. The only thing I would do differently is go with more phone lines from the beginning. It was suggested that we use only one line to start, but that was not enough to support our e-mailing of orders plus our regular e-mail traffic. We currently have four lines and that seems to be the ticket.

Neat software package.

While investigating the e-mail software, a very persistent graphics printer was after our marketing department to automate our sales force. It seems that the printer’s brother, an optician by trade, had taken to programming and had developed a virtual catalog. Although skeptical in the beginning, I eventually warmed to the idea and seriously began to investigate the program’s merits. I’m glad I did. This is one of the neatest packages I’ve ever seen. It is extremely functional and very easy to use.

A great benefit is that it was written by an optician. The point of view was right on the money. It was a natural for a sales rep to pick up and start using right away because the flow of the program was just how a rep would sell.

That’s when the light bulb lit up: Why not combine the two technologies and have the sales rep not only take the order, but e-mail it directly to our gateway?

We got to work right away on interface code to meld the systems. I had Program Support Group, a Cranford, N.J., consulting company, and one of our in-house people start on integrating the hardware and the e-mail system. One of our best programmers worked with the application programming interfaces ( API ) supplied with Net400’s software to come up with a way to integrate the gateway with the AS/400 and process orders automatically. He did a wonderful job hooking the orders into a pseudo electronic data interchange upload and the AS/400 processes the orders seamlessly.

Lastly, I worked with K&L Labs on integrating the Robo-Rep software (as it became known to us) with the e-mail sending mechanisms included with Net400’s package. What came out satisfied the most scrutinizing people we had on board. It takes orders, it e-mails all over the world, it processes orders automatically and no one ever has to touch it. It’s a success story that I am, quite frankly, very proud of.

E-mail sends more than messages.

Since its inception, we have come to rely on the e-mail system for a lot more than e-mail. It has now tied together our office personnel with our sales force for normal communications and serves as a vehicle to distribute information to the sales force.

When we release a new frame, we e-mail the updated frame information right to the laptops in the field. Using an install package from 20/20 Software, we bundle the new frame information into a Windows install file and e-mail it to the reps.

The reps simply click on the icon attached to the e-mail and the update gets automatically installed to the proper places on their laptops. It’s quite easy and painless for the reps, many of whom never saw a computer before the Robo-Rep program was instituted.

We have more than 150 sales reps in the field with approximately 40 trained for Robo-Rep. We bring them in and train them at a rate of about eight to 10 per month. We equip them with the laptop and the software, and give them two days of intensive training at our New Jersey facility.

The reps like it because they are not lugging around $15,000 worth of frame samples in large sample bags and it also makes sales calls go a lot faster than before. Customers like it for the same reasons.

Even the die-hard customers, who just had to try on the frames, now use the computer because of the time savings involved. They can browse through our entire collection in half the time, and this translates into more sales calls in less time. Reps now see about one-third more customers than without the laptop. It has truly become a win-win situation for all involved.

REPRINTED FROM AS/400 SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT DECEMBER 1997

To learn more about how your organization can profit from NetMail, please visit our Web site dedicated to AS400 messaging by clicking on the button below.