On the same topic from before Mr. James S.

Adidas Turns to Cellular Network for Inventory Data

The Adidas Group is a global leader in the sporting goods industry, offering a large portfolio of products in virtually every country in the world. Adidas Group brands include Adidas, Reebok, and TaylorMade – Adidas Golf. The Adidas Group headquarters is in Herzogenaurach, Germany, with 170 subsidiaries located around the world.

Adidas America is the U. S. division of the Adidas Group, employing around 2,000 people at its offices and distribution centers across the country. Recently, Adidas America discovered an inexpensive way to use telecommunications technologies to help their sales force become more productive.

Adidas sales representatives spend a lot of time traveling, paying visits to customers that range from small private sporting shops to large franchises. One major inconvenience for the sales force and the customers it calls on lies in checking current inventory levels for order placement. For years, a salesperson was required to phone Adidas customer service representatives (CSRs) to find out which products were in stock and which were sold out. Because Adidas inventory fluctuates frequently, this important information is needed to keep customers from being frustrated by back-ordered products. Having to phone for the information was frustrating for sales representatives as well as customers who would have to wait while the salesperson talked on the phone. It also over- burdened the CSRs, whose main job wasn’t inventory reporting but assisting customers.

The Adidas America information systems group thought they had a solution. They set up a VPN to enable customer representatives to securely connect to the corporate data from their laptops and access the inventory data directly. However, what looks good on paper doesn’t always work well when implemented. Customer service employees were not comfortable visiting customers with their laptop computers, because they had to make the customer wait while they booted up and looked up information. Instead, they would typically take the customer’s order, then check inventory later, getting back to the customer if there were product shortages. This certainly wasn’t the intended workflow, and the solution ended up being as bad as the original problem.

Adidas Sales Force Automation Manager, Tim Oligmueller, was struck by a solution while attending a telecommunications trade show. He realized that the BlackBerry smart phones the sales force used could do much more than deliver e- mail and make phone calls. He saw demonstrations of BlackBerry phones that ran sophisticated business information systems. Tim realized that the solution was in the salespeople’s pockets all along. All that was required was for Adidas to invest in BlackBerry’s Mobile Data System and Enterprise Server and for the information system group to develop their own Sales Force and CRM applications.

Within two weeks and with an investment of less than $ 10,000, Tim and his team had deployed a mobile information system that now allows salespeople to quickly and effortlessly access inventory data without inconveniencing customers or CSRs. Now salespeople can provide customers with the information they need to make quicker purchasing decisions on the spot. Salespeople and CSRs spend less time on the phone with each other, freeing both sides to be more productive. Customers are impressed with the improved service and technological innovativeness of the company. Salespeople can e- mail catalogues and order information to the customer as they converse. The new system has increased customers’ confidence in doing business with Adidas.

Adidas is looking to many other wireless applications that can assist the sales force and others in the organization. As with all of the examples provided in this chapter, telecommunications technologies provide Adidas with rapid access to information when and where it is needed, empowering the company to maximize its productivity and potential and gain a competitive advantage.

Because internet enabled handheld devices have several advantages over laptops. For example, laptops are portable, but sometimes it can’t go everywhere with us. The typical laptop weighs almost 10 pounds with their protective carrying case. Handheld devices fit in your pocket and are convenient because they can provide quick and discreet Internet access. Handheld devices have always-on Internet access, which saves you the time and trouble of establishing a connection. Being able to unobtrusively check your email will also let you take urgent messages without disrupting meetings with phone calls.

Another advantage of handheld devices over laptops is that a typical laptop computer battery lasts only two to three hours. Some PDAs can run for several days on a single charge. In addition, most devices have Windows Mobile software. Pocket versions of Microsoft Office allow people to create, edit and read word documents. The wide variety of software will allow people to make the best use of their time.

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