AND Project: Distribution

At the moment, in the distribution market, many experts note a significant revival. Those market players who survived the crisis began to actively increase turnover. Distribution companies have always used IT tools quite actively to maintain and grow their business. If in 2010, the companies of this segment were focused on retaining their customers, now expansion has been added to this task. And now it is growth that is becoming one of the additional incentives for the introduction of CRM systems in this segment.

The market, in turn, presents interesting CRM solutions that fully meet the needs of distributors in terms of increasing sales efficiency. For example, on the basis of the CRM system of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, AND Project has created a specialized solution for trade and production (TPK) and distribution companies, taking into account industry specifics.

The business of distribution companies is associated with the need to interact with a large number of counterparties. In addition to various customer groups, commercial, production and distribution companies with a proactive market position have to deal with a large number of suppliers, contractors and subcontractors, dealers and sub-distributors of various levels. Complex schemes of interaction with customers and end customers, territorial distribution, a large number of employees involved in sales, a huge number of communications and extensive databases - all this makes the management of trade and production holdings look for ways to accelerate and increase the transparency of business processes in the framework of sales, marketing and customer service.

The AND Project solution for trade, production and distribution companies is intended for organizations operating in the B2B market and selling both products of their own production (trading houses of production enterprises) and products of third-party suppliers. The advantage of the solution is that it covers all stages of interaction with customers, and also allows you to automate the activities of customer departments. The functionality allows you to manage such specific information as accounting for end users of goods and services, managing the product configurator, maintaining tenders, managing construction facilities and much more.

Single Customer Base

Distributors and TPKs, as a rule, maintain an extensive base of counterparties of the company: suppliers, manufacturers, direct counterparties, outlets, customers and end customers. Especially when it comes to branch and geographically distributed structures. At the same time, companies strive to reduce the risks of the human factor and the loss of corporate information. The industry solution provides the ability to store and accumulate a complete history of relationships with counterparties, obtain the necessary data for analytics in different sections and make management decisions related to market development.

The CRM system allows you to maintain the company's customer base, segment according to various criteria (industry, region, size, customer status in the system, etc.), record the mutual subordination of counterparty companies within holdings and multidisciplinary structures, maintain a directory of contacts in connection with the directory of counterparties. By using extended information about counterparties from a single system, you can form a knowledge base and increase the number of product promotion channels. For example, a sales manager can influence the outcome of a particular transaction by knowing who is influencing the decision-making process.

At the same time, the CRM system delimits employees' access to corporate information, which almost completely eliminates the possibility of simultaneously working with a customer of several sales employees. Sales managers have access only to the companies assigned to them.

Competitive Accounting

In addition to customer accounting, competitive analysis is an important task for the distribution company. In the AND Project solution, it is possible to keep records of competitors in terms of regions, customers, outlets, etc. The CRM system allows you to save, accumulate, and gain online access to specialized product catalog information, current inventory status, technology capabilities, marketing campaigns, and changes in competitive offerings. The solution allows you to link competitors to the directory of end customers and determine their share in the assortment of customers. The accumulated base of advanced information about competitors opens up wide opportunities for analytics - SWOT-analysis, analytics on the presence of competitors in the context of a specific transaction, statistics and analysis on won and lost transactions.

Tender Management

A special area of ​ ​ business of trade, production and distribution companies is the implementation of tender deliveries. Participation in tenders is a complex and time-consuming process, consisting of several stages and covering the work of various departments of the company. The solution allows you to facilitate monitoring of the environment, store and receive complete information about the tenders held, quickly prepare tender documentation due to the effective interaction of all departments involved in its preparation in the same system. Tender management with CRM allows companies to keep a history of their participation in tenders, record their results, save competitors' offers and obtain analytics about the effectiveness of their work in the field of competitive supply.

Object Management

Further management of deliveries to large objects is also specific. The company should effectively plan the timing and volume of deliveries, budgets and potential products, record information about organizations participating in construction and their functional role. The AND Project solution allows you to maintain a complete description of the objects and the status of their current status, record object scenarios in CRM and set up reminder systems for managers to perform a project task. In CRM, the object is linked to counterparties and distributors, often this helps the manager determine which organizations and persons really decide to purchase materials and equipment.

Using the CRM system significantly increases the probability of selling to an object even if a particular transaction is lost. The manager will continue to record communications with the counterparty involved in the project in order to further sell the company's products or services to this object - the supply of consumables, the sale of personnel training and facility maintenance services.

Final Consumer Accounting

One of the most important tasks of a large distribution holding is the accounting of end customers, in order to adjust the proposal based on the planned need for a product or cross-products. For these purposes, the solution has the opportunity to maintain a directory of end customers, determine the share of competitors in the assortment of customers, record planned customer actions (launch of new lines or storage areas, expansion of the assortment, etc.). The CRM system binds the distributor to a specific customer. If the order volume of the end customer is below a certain level, the company manager can send the request to the dealer assigned to the customer in the system and track the fact of shipment.

Purchasing Management

In addition to the sale of standard products, trade, production and distribution companies often deliver complex equipment or, for example, few popular items. The CRM system allows you to fix products for purchase, create purchase requisitions directly from a quotation or a specific system object, and manage purchasing statuses. So, for example, if the product of interest is not in stock, the sales manager can generate an equipment order directly from the opportunity object. In turn, the purchasing manager receives complete information from CRM about all the items that need to be purchased and generates a purchase requisition based on it. Once the required details have been filled in, the system starts the business process of preparing the printed order form and sending it to the vendor. The print order form templates are also stored in CRM. Thus, the system ensures the operational interaction of sales and procurement departments, which significantly improves the speed and quality of orders. Another example is the application for non-standard complex equipment. In this case, the CRM system provides efficient communication between sales employees and picking engineers, who select options and select the most profitable delivery conditions. In this case, the AND Project solution allows you to prepare the most interesting offer for the client as soon as possible.

Thus, the use of an industry solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be another step towards creating a highly efficient distribution business - significantly increase the efficiency of communications with both customers and counterparties, as well as between divisions of the company. The AND Project solution is already used by companies such as IEC, Solar Products Holding, Elektroiselia Trading House, White Light 2000, Emtika Electrotechnical Company and many others.