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CONCEPTO F PROVIDES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND MARKETING SERVICES TO PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES IN MEXICO. TO ASSIST ONE CLIENT IN BOOSTING ITS SALES, CONCEPTO F TEAMED UP WITH MICROSOFT MOBILITY PARTNER SYNCHROLOGIC AND THEIR PARTNER, SYNCFIELD TO DEPLOY A POCKET PC SOLUTION THAT IS DRAMATICALLY STREAMLINING THE SALES REPORTING AND BUSINESS DECISION PROCESS.
Overview
Concepto F is a Mexico-based integrated communications company that specializes in providing information technology, advertising, and other communications for pharmaceutical companies. The company, headquartered in Cuernavaca City, has extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and has been able to build a 10-year-old business based on relationships with manufacturers such as Pharmacia, Novartis, Abbot, and Aventis, providing these companies with services that help sell drugs to physicians, clinics, and hospitals throughout Mexico.
Situation
One of Concepto F's major clients is Lundbeck México, the Mexican subsidiary of a Danish pharmaceutical company. Lundbeck wanted to improve its sales of psychiatric and neurological medications, such as anti-depressants. A big part of this effort was finding a means to more closely monitor sales activities through faster and more efficient delivery of sales data to management offices. A traditional paper-based system typically took between one and two months before sales managers had the information they needed to make informed business decisions--a time delay that, in their view, could be improved with the use of effective sales automation technology.
Solution
Concepto F developed a sales force automation application solution using Microsoft® Windows® Powered Pocket PC devices, with synchronization software provided by Microsoft Mobility Partner Advisory Council member Synchrologic and system integration provided by SyncField Corporation. The solution has created a dramatic improvement in the ability of Lundbeck representatives to gather and distribute information after their sales calls, enabling company managers to make faster and more informed decisions about the distribution of pharmaceuticals.
Pocket PCs Speed Critical Business Information to Managers
"The sales reps typically have several contact appointments each day, with a goal of visiting 10 physicians and four pharmacies to fulfill promotional activities for products and note the sales activities of drugs at specific locations," says Dr. Carlos Frias, president and CEO of Concepto F. "At the end of the day, a representative would fill out a paper report form, and after a certain period of time--maybe a week or more--would send these paper reports to a management office through the mail. It was very inefficient.
"Now, using the Pocket PC-based solution, the sales reps can upload the same day's information, providing management with fast and accurate reporting of sales activities via a secure intranet site," Frias continues.
Platform Provides Rapid Deployment of Solution
A key component of the solution is Synchrologic Data Sync, which provides users of handheld devices with direct access to back office servers via wireless or wire line connectivity. "Using our tools and those available through the Pocket PC platform, Synchrologic and SyncField could enable a solution that is powerful yet simple and direct enough for the sales people to use," says John Dancu, president and COO of Synchrologic.
Peter Wilson, president and CEO of SyncField, says that the tools available to the development team allowed the solution, which includes a PC-based component as well as the mobile application, to be deployed in less than six months. System integration of the Pocket PCs to the backend SQL Server database was accomplished in just two weeks. Synchrologic's solution supports both Pocket PCs and desktop PCs as well as quick integration to the backend server.
"We also felt strongly from the beginning that the Pocket PC platform would provide the greatest benefits to Concepto F and their customers, including the capacity to store a rich database and the ease of establishing a way to quickly transmit data directly to a backend server," Wilson says, adding that the data on the Pocket PCs is entered and stored on Pocket Access, and then sent to a Microsoft SQL Server database on the backend. "Other mobile platforms are more limited in terms of performance and applications that can be added on later for more functionality."
Frias says after being in the field for just a few months, the solution delivered valuable benefits to Lundbeck. "Direct cost savings include mail delivery cost reductions by 75 percent and the elimination of paper-based reporting," he says, "and indirect costs, such as time savings for both reps and sales managers and providing management with more reliable and accurate information, gives the company the ability to make better strategic decisions faster."
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