Mobile Solution to increase Work Efficiency
Manager's FTE
Medicinal Representatives' FTE
Sales Support demands
Sample Team Calculation
team
size
6
number
of work days
20
number
of coaching days
12
number
of meetings per day
10
Situation of the Client
The pharmaceutical company uses electronic system accessible only via computers to register, plan and report client activities. The representatives have to plan their business trips in advance for the whole week. The representatives do not carry computers in the field and are not able to access the client database there. At most, they have their business meeting plan printed out.
After the visit, they need to register the promoted products, reaction of the client, profiling questions, date and target for the next visit on paper/into their personal organizers and register the data to the ETMS system of the company after coming back to office or home. They register general field notes weekly using the same method. After a coaching meeting with their superior, they fill in a paper coaching form and the superior types it into the system later.
Problem at Hand
In case the planned client visit has to be postponed, because the physician is not in the office, the representatives have no way to access the client database in order to plan a new meeting. At the same time, they cannot access the recorded information which would be helpful at the meeting. In case the representatives record the information after some time, there is the risk of the information not being accurate or of losing vital information.
Request of the Client
The company needs to centralise and simplify the access of the representatives to their tools and databases. They expect optimisation of the performed activities, reduction of the time necessary to register information and overall increase in performance of their sales representatives.
Solution
The best solution for elimination of the problem and increase of work efficiency of the medicinal representatives is the deployment of a suitable mobile app with online access to various features, like forms, client database, calendar with planned activities, meeting records etc.
Visit Form
During the visit (or shortly after), the representatives record the information from the meeting in the default forms. The default forms make the following of the steps of the visit easier (based on the company strategy).
Accessible Client Database
In case the meeting with the client cannot take place due to any reason, the representatives can access the client database and identify the next client and visit another client easily.
One Device Policy
If the company uses the One Device Policy work model, the representatives do not have to choose whether to use a computer or tablet to record information. Within the computer & phone solution, the phone is not considered a separate device, the user is not limited by device and can use the appropriate one for the current situation.
Navigation
The mobile app includes a navigation system helping the representatives to get around in the field easier. This reduces preparation time and travel costs. The system allows to save the coordinates or several addresses of the clients. There is also a database of information on the parking options in the area and many more important transportation data to reach the clients or get around in the area.
Shared Information
The field information are shares with other colleagues and superiors immediately after being typed into the app. Thanks to the app, the representative is able to prepare for the arguments of the client or to receive support from superiors online while dealing with the problem at the client.
Images
The app allows to register and archive images online, like pictures of placement of promotion materials at the office of the client etc. This feature makes information sharing faster and control mechanisms of the corporate processes easier.
Information for Manager
The superiors of medicinal representatives can access clear reports and graphical evaluations of their team members online. They see the history of visits made together, work quality assessments and outputs of the individual representatives, as well as the information of the whole sales team for the time period required.
Result
Deployment of the mobile app and online connection of the sales representatives to the system made many work-related processes easier and eliminated duplicate work or inefficient data registration. Important information is being registered in the field and the accuracy grew to nearly 100%. The medicinal representatives do not have to turn on their computers when coming to office and type in the data recorded on paper into the system.
The employees can access all the information they need on their phone. In case of One Device Policy, they do not have to decide whether to use the computer or a mobile solution. The administrative burden of the employees dropped significantly. The FTE (Full Time Equivalent) of the manager dropped by 20%. FTE of the medicinal representatives dropped by 30% and the Sales Support demands dropped by 20%. The time savings at all levels (manager, representative, sales support official) allowed the company to pursue new marketing activities and increase their product sales by achieving high efficiency at business meetings.