ROUTE MASTER is a mobile-based information system designed to provide sales staff with on-the-go support in the field. With handheld computers, smartphones, or tablets, sales staff can monitor sales, process outlets, take orders, issue invoices, confirm delivery of goods, record POS equipment, fill in customized questionnaires and forms, and fulfill set goals and tasks.

Work and Opportunities

Basic functionality of the system

Sales • Orders • Van Sales • Proof of Delivery • Merchandising • Record of POS Equipment • Field force monitoring • Questionnaires • Tasks

Tracking sales in the field

ROUTE MASTER keeps track of visits to customers, collection of orders from customers, confirmation of delivery of goods, issuance of invoices, and records of equipment in charge. It also monitors agreed promotions, additional shop windows, shares, competition, and other activities. This way, the application enables companies to improve the quality of their reports and filter activities for customers of different categories.

Customers data

Basic data such as address, ID number, contact person, telephone, fax, and advanced traffic data, debt analysis, credit limits, blockades, sales history by items, contracted assortments of goods, and records of indebted equipment are available for each customer. This information helps sales staff to personalize their approach and provide better customer service.

Customer categorization

Customer outlets can be categorized by an unlimited number of criteria, such as sales channel, sales space size, traffic volume, type, and format. This feature enables companies to separate data by categorization criteria to obtain better quality reports, target and filter some activities for customers of different categories.

Proof of delivery

The application provides an electronic delivery note that ensures the supplier issues exactly the goods ordered from the customer and prepared on the note. The system is particularly useful for companies that sell goods that are ordered piece by piece and delivered by weight. It is also indispensable for companies that need to apply traceability of goods to the point of sale. The system allows the confirmed electronic invoice to be printed on a mobile printer, and if necessary, an invoice can be issued with possible fiscalization.

Monitoring Sales Staff Performance

Completion of work at an individual point of sale creates a record of the visit to the customer, which records the date and time of the beginning and end of the tour, the number of documents issued, the number of completed questionnaires, and the reason why there was no sale. The customer on the timeline receives a visual indication that it has been "done," which gives the user a good overview of the work on the timeline at the end of the day. Additionally, a mandatory record of the current geographical (GPS) position of the user/device can be set to monitor the movement and optimize the flow chart.

Orders

In the process of creating an order, the sales representative can access all customer information, including sales history, last order, contracted assortments, items on sale, and various initiatives, with just one click. The application also enables the user to record the status of presence on the shelf (OOS) for each item, photograph the shelf, and enter the retail price.

Outpatient Sales

This way of wholesale is based on direct sales from trucks without prior ordering of goods (Van sales). The application monitors the vehicle with the goods as a separate warehouse, and at all times, there is an insight into the current state of stocks and all previous entrances and exits of goods. The application supports printing invoices to Bluetooth mobile printers with built-in account fiscalization. The use of built-in or Bluetooth barcode scanners is fully supported and automated.

Sales Promotion

The software module within our application is particularly helpful for wholesale systems that rely on contracted distributors for delivery of goods to retail, or where large retail chains take care of shelving the products under contract. By implementing a system of customizable questionnaires and forms, we can collect extensive data on various aspects of the goods, such as their condition on the shelves, the presence of competitors, retail prices, additional exhibitions, and promotions. We can monitor an unlimited number of photography positions within the store, and through the addition of a task management system, it's possible to track all contracted shares, additional exposures, listings, and promotions. This allows the application to provide accurate notifications to the sales representative about whether a particular activity has been performed or not, and if it aligns with the agreement.

Indebted Equipment at the Customer

Our application empowers you to record or review the status of charged equipment at individual customers. This includes refrigerators, taps, coffee machines, umbrellas, and other equipment. By selecting the device model from the list of available equipment, you can enter the device's quantity, serial or inventory number for valuable equipment. Through the application, you can also issue new equipment to customers by preparing orders in the back office, which can be realized at the point of sale. You can also record any lack or withdrawal of equipment from the customer due to servicing or permanently. Our system enables you to keep track of equipment with ease, improving your business's efficiency and accuracy.

Time and resource savings

The ROUTE MASTER system can help reduce costs associated with rewriting customer orders, thereby eliminating the need for staff whose primary role is to rewrite orders made by field staff.

Improved customer satisfaction

By allowing only field staff to make entries in direct contact with the customer, the ROUTE MASTER system can help reduce the number of incorrectly filled orders or invoices and, in turn, incorrect deliveries. This helps improve customer relations while reducing the costs associated with wrong deliveries and returns.

Reduced postage costs

The ROUTE MASTER system eliminates the costs associated with subsequent sending of invoices for goods issued through outpatient sale of goods from the delivery vehicle.

Traceability to the point of sale

Through the use of barcode and RFID technology, the ROUTE MASTER system enables the traceability of goods up to the customer level, recording LOT or SSCC codes of goods at the delivery point, including information about the origin of goods and expiration dates.

Lower equipment costs

By keeping accurate records of equipment type, place of debit/debt, and functionality status, the ROUTE MASTER system can help achieve savings on equipment charges for customers, including refrigerators, display cases, service appliances, promotional materials, and marketing processing. This also leads to a better relationship with customers and ultimately enhances sales.

Managing indirect customers

The ROUTE MASTER system enables the registration and entry of new customers, especially for those not registered in the ERP database and who receive goods through external distributors. Although no commercial conditions are kept for such customers, all records of rented equipment, promotional materials, and marketing processing are kept.

Increased productivity with GPS technology

By collecting geographical locations of points of sale and recording geographical locations on the flow chart of commercialists, the ROUTE MASTER system increases the productivity of field staff. In the future, this system can be extended to visual tracking by integrating this data into maps like Google Maps and Garmin.

More productive field staff

The ROUTE MASTER system provides fresh and up-to-date information on customers, debts, sales, new items, item prices, and stock levels, saving field staff time spent searching for information over the phone, browsing paperwork, or traveling to the office for information. Monitoring the work of field salespeople also increases their productivity in a way that management can warn of idle moves or errors in their work in a timely manner. This is particularly pronounced in sales promoters whose performance cannot be evaluated directly and explicitly without such a system.

Optimized inventory management

Using GPRS/GSM wireless technology, the ROUTE MASTER system allows timely sending of orders from the delivery point, enabling warehouse staff to prepare the delivery of goods in a timely manner and forecast the purchase of new quantities for goods with increased turnover. This helps optimize inventory management, especially for systems with limited storage capacity.

Digital signature for order confirmation

The ROUTE MASTER system allows for signing an order or delivery document directly on the screen of a mobile device. The stored signature is available for verification to all responsible persons in the company's supply chain (POD - Proof Of Delivery).

Better marketing information

The ROUTE MASTER system offers a customizable system of surveys and marketing questionnaires to process customers and the market, providing analytical data on customers, customer needs, products, competition products, and market trends. This information is valuable for management to make quality business decisions.

Supervisory mode

The ROUTE MASTER system has elaborated profiling of software end users that enables hierarchical organization in business. Parent users, such as sales managers, have the ability to retrieve sales data from the system for their subordinate users at any time and have an overview of their performance while in the field.

Technical equipment specifications

ROUTE MASTER system consists of three software components, and for the functioning of the system it is necessary to provide equipment and minimum technical requirements for the operation of the system for each of the three components

Route Master

To use the ROUTE MASTER software in the field, it is necessary to provide the following handheld computers characteristic:

  • OS: Windows Mobile 5.0 (and above) HandHeld devices:
    • Memory: 64 MB RAM / 128 MB ROM
    • Screen size: min. 2.8” diagonally, resolution: min. 320×240
    • (for devices with capacitive display min. 3.7” diagonally)
    • OS: Android OS 2.2(i više) smartphone or tablet:
    • Memory: 512 MB RAM / 512 MB ROM
    • Screen size: min. 3.7” diagonally, resolution: min. 320×240
  • USB connection (for installation)
  • WAN: built-in GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA/3G module
  • WLAN: IEEE 802.11b (optional)
  • Bluetooth (optional)
  • barcode reader (optional)
  • GPS modul (optional)
  • camera (optional)

To use the ROUTE MASTER system for outpatient sales or proof of delivery applications,
portable printers with the following characteristics are required:

  • connection: Bluetooth ili RS232
  • protocol: ESC/P ili PCL
  • paper size: Form, Perforated, Roll; any dimension
  • council temperature: -10°C do +50°C
  • power supply: 12/24V one-way

SBackoffice

To install the SBackoffice client side application of the ROUTE MASTER system, you need a PC computer with the following minimum requirements:

  • processor: Intel Celeron 2GHz
  • memory: 1GB RAM
  • disk: 50 GB HDD
  • screen size: 17“ display
  • LAN: network adapter 10/100/1000 Mb
  • OS: Windows XP/7/8

Data Integrator

For the Data Integrator to work as a background server of the ROUTE MASTER system and to install
Microsoft SQL Server, a server with minimum requirements is required as follows:

  • processor: 1 x Intel Xeon or a similar processor (preferably: “dual core” or “quad core”)
  • memory: min. 3 GB DDR2 RAM
  • disk: min. 80 GB HDD
  • LAN: 1Gb network adapter
  • OS: Windows 2003 server SP1 or above

For smaller systems with a small number of users of the SBackoffice application, it is also possible to install it on a regular higher-performance PC with Windows 7 Professional operating system.