Vorwerk
Carl and Adolf Vorwerk founded Barmer Teppichfabrik Vorwerk & Co in 1883. Today, Vorwerk Carpets and its 324 employees serve the high-end carpet segment. Its products are sold through both wholesalers and retailers.
Wanted: Streamlined Sales App
All field employees should be able to get the latest documents from one central source. Another item on the wish list included uniform document storage on mobile devices, as the previous system failed to deliver the desired results using standard apps. As a result, it was not possible for all employees to use the same version of documents. The sales solution should also have an email function to supply employees with important documents such as price lists, product descriptions, technical information, and product brochures. Additionally, information about sales campaigns and visit reports needed to be transferred quickly and reliably.
Many of the sales apps that the company looked at didn’t come into consideration because they were too complex and too expensive. ‘A number of sales solutions come at a high price, which we believe entails a substantial risk of the investment turning out badly,’ said the sales manager. Following an in-depth comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of various sales apps, they decided to go with docspread, the solution from fme AG.
Intuitive Operation
Unlike familiar web storage solutions such as Dropbox, documents in docspread are not managed within a linear folder structure. Navigating content is geared instead toward individual information needs. Filters are used to select an industry, a product, or a country, for example, and find the information that is needed. All the relevant documents are then displayed in a preview for selection. Navigation within the documents is based on the eight standardized categories defined by the senior sales team (such as type of sales information, price lists, references, etc.). Each document requires multiple attributes, which are assigned to the documents when the files are imported. The sales employee can also assemble a selection of documents for a specific occasion and save this as a bookmark. These are also available afterwards offline. Using the new solution has turned out to be easy and intuitive. Documents no longer have to be accessed from a central drive and stored in complicated folder hierarchies. If there is a trade fair coming up, all the relevant language rules, core messages, or special campaigns can be found using the ‘trade fair documents’ filter. The application thus ensures that employees all work with the same up-to-date documents.
Uniform Information System
Vorwerk Carpets’ documents are continuously updated from a central location, stored »in the cloud,« and then automatically made available on the iPads. »A document can be tagged and stored in the cloud using drag and drop in 30 seconds. It’s then available in the proper category on the iPad. This gives us a uniform information system that delivers what it is designed to,« says the sales manager about the quick and easy process of delivering documents. The company wanted data sheets maintained by the technical department to also be included in this update process. In the future, new or modified data sheets will be synchronized automatically with the mobile clients via a central folder. The data is secured with a 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) key when it leaves the company and only temporarily decrypted on the employee’s iPad. In this way, documents are reliably protected from third-party access, even if the device goes missing. The employee is notified about the update on his iPad after every change. A list provides a clear overview of how many and which documents have been changed or deleted.
Less Time and Lower Costs
Based on the experience of in-house sales staff, managing sales documents is much easier and significantly faster with docspread than before. »We only have to create a document, make this available, and distribute it one time. This guarantees that a single, standard version of a document is available within our company, helping us save a lot of time previously spent communicating back and forth or on the redistribution of documents,« reports Jens Irmer, discussing his positive experiences with the software. Employees, however, have different levels of skills when it comes to working with technological tools. The combination of an iPad and the fme sales app ensures high user acceptance and helps make the sales structures simpler and more consistent. »The system is very reliable and the application is extremely stable. The app is clearly structured and not loaded down with features like so many others. fme is always open to requests for changes and does what is logical and feasible from a technical perspective.« Some of the upgrades that have been made include additional user permissions and sorting functions available when saving files. After its very positive experience with docspread, Vorwerk Carpets wants to use and increase the use of the app in many areas, including in customer presentations.
