optimised call planning

Introduction

At our customer, the various business units underwent a call planning process every six months to plan their sales activities. The visits were planned using various Excel lists and then centrally managed and merged. This process required many resources internally, as the individual plans had to be processed, checked for errors, corrected and imported.

Task

The aim of the project was to initially optimize and simplify the call planning process for two business units. A solution was to be found that optimizes the input process and significantly expands the analysis functionalities and makes them user-friendly. The tool should be designed technically and in terms of content in such a way that it can be rolled out to other business units with corresponding AD lines at any time.

In addition to the extension possibilities, the concept had to take into account that the tool allows simultaneous use in the form of editing and analysis by different users in order to guarantee efficient work for the employees.

As an essential part towards an improved usability, overview representations differentiated according to hierarchy level in the company were seen, which clearly visually shows the status of the planning.

Solution

The implementation took place as a platform-independent hosted web application with a central database and individual user authentication.

The field service employees receive a view tailored to their area in which the call planning takes place in tabular form. The superiors have corresponding access to the lists of their employees. The tabular form enables the employees to quickly get used to the system, as they were used to it from the previous Excel lists.

Preset planning analyses support the individual employees in achieving their targets. Supervisors receive additional support for coordination with employees through comparative analyses.

Results

The business solution developed for our customer is individual, tailor-made and optimised for internal company processes. At the same time, it is a¬future-oriented solution that promotes expansion and integrates it into a desired system.

During development, SALETELLIGENCE placed the highest value on quality, performance, safety and stability.

In the meantime, the first half of the year has been successfully completed with the Call Planning Tool. The first enhancements with regard to segmentation and a current target/actual comparison of visit activities have already been implemented. The latter in particular gives employees the support they need to identify trends within the planning period.

With the web application we utilised, we can go through the call planning process much more efficiently. A milestone for our planning!

Customer statement