Digital Transformation of Sales Team Management

Conception and Rollout of an automated field service management system in 22 countries

0 %
Reduction in distances traveled
1.200.00 0 +
paper-free meetings per year

Contents

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1. Company Bio: beeline
A passion for jewellery and accessories. For everyone.

Offering trendy fashion accessories at affordable prices - that’s beeline's vision. The company has been successfully realising this since 1990. With strong brands such as SIX, I AM and its own creations, beeline can be found on 30,000 sales floors across 22 countries. An essential pillar of the business model is the concessions business, which is particularly advantageous for retailers, whereby goods remain the property of beeline until they are sold. beeline cooperates with strong and international partners, including well-known fashion retailers, department stores and drugstores, making it one of the largest international suppliers of fashion jewellery and accessories. beeline is supported in its continuous expansion of sales territory and fashion ranges by 1,200 employees.

Services:

  • Offering jewellery, textiles accessories for retailers in all sectors
  • Marketing of the brands SIX, TOSH, IAM and white label accessories
  • Risk-free concessions model for retailers
  • Uncomplicated in-store service through mobile merchandisers
  • Data-driven merchandise management restocking
  • “The secret of the smallest space": modular displays for individual scenarios

18-month

Project Duration

  • Customer since: April 2017
  • Business model: Whitelabel Fashion Accessories
  • Industry: Consumer Goods, Manufacturing Retail
  • Company size: Large company with > 2,000 employees
  • Headquarters: Cologne
  • Software suite: Salesforce Service Cloud Field Service Lightning

More information:

Globe Linkedin

beeline in numbers:

> 30,000

Points of Sale (PoS) worldwide

in 22

countries

> 400

Employees at the headquarters in Cologne

> 3,000

Employees worldwide

Salesforce Licences in use:

~200x Field Service - Dispatcher Licences

Efficient coordination of field operation teams real-time management of incoming tasks

>3.000x Field Service - Field Technician Licences

Mobile access to relevant information and assignments for Field Service teams

2. Strategic consulting on beeline's business model

Before commencing this project, we had been working with beeline for around a year and had already developed a trusting partnership. At that time, we used the Salesforce platform to manage communication and the distribution of tasks in beeline’s previously existing 250 retail stores. This business unit was, however, sold during the pandemic and henceforth the focus shifted to the concessions model.

For this model, in which goods remain the property of beeline until they are sold, to work best, our client needed to be able to react quickly to position goods well and sell them fast.

In the summer of 2017, we discussed the potential optimisation of the field sales management. This paved the way for a sales project that was, at the time, the largest in Europe, remains still one of the largest today and is a project of which we are very proud.

beeline was already well set-up. They couldn’t have gotten more out of Excel. But we saw how much potential beeline still had. Interestingly, initially we didn’t focus on digitalisation at all, but rather on a deep dive into the business models.

Reza Ghalamkarizadeh

Managing Director, aquilliance GmbH

3. Project Background
A robust foundation with lots of potential

beeline was extremely good at managing more than 3,000 sales representatives (a.k.a. mobile merchandisers) across 22 countries using static Excel schedules, which detailed which PoS was to be visited and for what purpose.

To organise these schedules, the district managers – the supervisors of the mobile merchandisers – took various aspects into account. These included, for example, turnover, the set-up or size of the PoS, the locations of the employees, and their tasks. Missing from this overview, however, was an overarching transparency, e.g. with regard to the degree to which tasks were completed.

Part of the mobile merchandisers’ daily routine was to carry 10 kg folders containing all the necessary documents printed out, to cover every possible point of sale (POS) and every set-up size in printed form. This meant that every merchandiser had all possible documents with them just in case.

In reality, this meant that the right folder had to be picked out for each customer in order to look up the specific rules for the display to be maintained. This only had the advantage of meaning that merchandisers were well-connected with one another and could easily share information in the face of spontaneous issues. However, beeline eventually reached its limited with these manual and Excel-based processes.

Our employees were well-organised and connected. However, due to the complex static planning of visits, routes and tasks, they were barely able to react to changes. We simply lacked the required transparency and flexibility, which are exactly the qualities necessary for scalability and growth."

Julia Oesterle

Business Relationship Manager, beeline GmbH

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4. Goals Objectives
Digitalisation and Automation of Field Service Management

The main objective of our project was to digitalise and harmonise processes in such a way that the field sales team of around 3,000 employees in 22 countries could be managed uniformly. This included optimizing workflows to increase efficiency and flexibility.

Main Objectives:

  • Digitalisation und Harmonisation:
    Creation of a standardised digital platform for all countries.
  • Process Optimisation:
    Improved workflows to maximise efficiency and reduce complexity.
  • Efficient Travel Costs:
    Significant savings in travel costs through optimised route planning.

  • Targeted Task Management:
    Precise assignment and monitoring of tasks to increase the effectiveness of the field service.

The following requirements were defined in order to achieve these goals:

  • Replacement of complex and static Excel files with smart and highly automated systems
  • Significant and sustainable simplification of the mobile merchandisers’ working life via state-of-the-art tools
  • Mapping of the end-to-end process with connection to SAP, HR, billing and payroll systems

Achievement of these goals would make it possible to drive marketing and sale campaigns with more transparency and flexibly adapt them on a daily basis. Not an easy feat when you consider that a district manager is responsible for up to 300 PoS.

5. Realising a large project: Our vision and approach

After a four month conception phase, we implemented a customised digital solution on the Salesforce platform in close cooperation with beeline. beeline opted for the then innovative field service management product from ClickSoftware.

The implementation process was particularly exciting, as working across 22 countries meant a wide discrepancy in requirements and labour law conditions. In order to find the largest common denominator, we took the only sensible approach of probing further and asking more questions. Through this, we were able to establish that the differences weren’t actually that extreme and that much greater standardisation than expected would be possible

The Swiss Army Knife Approach:

The solution needed to be particularly versatile and intuitive. At the beginning of the conception phase, we introduced the idea of the Swiss Army Knife. The vision was that a “random person from the street” should be able to operate the solution as intuitively as possible and carry out the job of a mobile merchandiser without too much further instruction. Thus, an app that provides all the various “tools” such as instructions, image material or customer information, was a good solution.

Roll Out in accordance with the Pareto Principle

The Pareto principle states that roughly 80% of outcomes can be realised with about 20% of the effort. This approach enables the targeted use of resources by focussing on the most important levers. With this in mind, we started with a basic functional framework that we rolled out into the first countries. From this, we learnt, implemented more changes, and then increased functionality after rollout in all countries, whilst also providing training (total duration approx. 18 months).

6. The Solution: An automated and Multi-Tool Field Service Management System

The roll out of a Salesforce-based iOS app for beeline’s sales representatives brought the vision of the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ for the organisation of their daily work to life. This solution combines intuitive user guidance with robust backend systems to ensure efficient and effective working methods.

Data from various different sources, such as SAP and the Google Distance Matrix API, run and come together in the background. This significantly reduces planning and coordination effort.

The app was successfully introduced in 22 countries, which, accompanied by training measures and continuous feedback, promoted rapid adoption and high user satisfaction.

This digitalised solution has not only made the daily work of district managers and mobile merchandisers easier, but has also led to an increase in customer satisfaction and sales through improved presentation and availability of products at the PoS.

Structure and Data Sources at beeline: Salesforce for Field Service Management

Time Efficiency and Cost Reduction

The complete automation shortens process times and brings down travel costs to a minimum.

Successful Digitalisation

An intuitive iPhone app with automated task allocation and step-by-step guidance.

Increased Quality of Service

Flexibility through real time reactions increases planning reliability and the quality of service for PoS on client sites.

Optimised Route Planning

The usage of high quality data and the link with Google Maps reduces travel time by 20%.

7. Added Value: Cost Reduction and Profit Growth with Digitalisation

This digitalisation project and particularly the strategic consideration before the project start were praised by the company CEO as being an important step towards developing process-orientated company culture. With the successive expansion of the solution and the training of all those involved, we have also created a flexible solution that combines data, reduces costs, minimises effort and enables great potential for scalability and further growth of beeline.

20% Reduction in Travel Distance

Efficient Travel Costs and Flexibility day-to-day

Simplification of "Leading on Distance" through improved reaction times

Targeted and up-to-date Task Management, e.g. for SALE Campaigns

Automated Data Management Transparent Invoicing

Replacement of stacks of paper weighing 10kg for an iPhone per employee

Our client's response

beeline Logo white

Julia Oesterle

Business Relationship Manager

Rating:

I think the strategic approach, the expert advice and the careful implementation of the aquilliance team ultimately led us to success. With such a large project, it is important to hone in on the requirements and proceed step by step. Reza and his team also brought this experience to the table. We could not have done better. Thank you!’

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Reza Ghalamkarizadeh

Founder Managing Director


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