Promotion Optimization Institute Report Acknowledges VisitBasis as an “Affordable, Rapidly Deployed” Solution to Retail Execution

Miami, FL – VisitBasis, the startup mobile retail execution solution provider from Hallandale Beach, FL, has been included among the 20 representative providers of retail execution technology evaluated by the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI).

The POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama 2016 report is a detailed analysis by the POI of the retail execution technology market and its vendors, including Accenture, SAP, and StayInFront, among others.

VisitBasis is evaluated in the report as being “a low cost and largely do-it-yourself solution with a global footprint” and “a starting point for affordable, rapidly deployed, and integrated on your own… merchandising solutions”.

“We feel that the POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama 2016 captured the essence of what VisitBasis aims to bring to mobile retail execution: Simplicity and affordability, with global reach”, says Sergey Gorbunov, VisitBasis CEO. “As we continually improve our application, we will use this document as a roadmap to further providing exceptional mobile retail execution solutions. It is an honor to be included in a report by such an industry-leading organization.”

The complete POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama 2016 report can be downloaded at http://poinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/POI-Retail-Execution-Vendor-Panorama-2016-FINAL-1.pdf.

For more information on the Promotion Optimization Institute, visit www.poinstitute.com.

About VisitBasis Tech, Llc.
VisitBasis is a B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) company specialized in the development of cost-effective, cutting-edge and comprehensive mobile solutions that aim to increase sales and reduce costs, improving the bottom-line of businesses that rely on field professionals. The key benefit of VisitBasis app is to optimize retail execution, merchandising, field marketing, mobile data collection, retail audits, territory management, sales rep planning, tracking sales, mobile staff management, electronic product catalog, sales enablement, among others, especially in the consumer product goods (CPG) and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries.

Cloud for Merchandising: Make Away with Data Storage Costs With Cloud Merchandising Software

Looking for the ways to reduce costs of retail merchandising activities and increase productivity of your mobile workforce?

This can be easily achieved by leveraging mobile technology into merchandising operations. Merchandising software solutions provide paperless retail data collection in order to streamline data workflow and significantly reduce or even bring to zero data storage costs.

Retail data collected by merchandisers, who use mobile forms, requires much less space than paper sheets and therefore costs less money. In order to store 2 million paper documents, an organization can expect to spend between $40,000 and $60,000 on filing cabinets alone. Those same files could fit on fewer than ten CD-ROMs (Business Guide to Paper Reduction).

To store retail data completely free and have 24/7 access to all the information from anywhere, the most tech-savvy companies in retail opt for Cloud-based merchandising solutions. The up-to-date data collection SaaS providers usually offer Cloud storage as part of their service.

Here are the main reasons to move your merchandising operations to the Cloud:

  • When choosing a Cloud-based merchandising software solution you can improve the efficiency of operations and increase productivity with minimum upfront spending.
  • Cloud merchandising software allows companies to eliminate time and resources spent on operational issues, like IT-support and server hardware, so the management can concentrate on the things that matter.
  • Adopting Cloud merchandising software you get the best service availability even if your company is multinational and runs in different countries and time zones.
  • If you move your merchandising operations to the Cloud, all the data can be accessed both by field reps and office managers anytime, anywhere and on any device.
  • Being on the Cloud also makes it possible for merchandisers to work offline, and to synchronize once an Internet connection is established.
  • Cloud merchandising software allows retail organizations to quickly transfer big amounts of data, including photos from retail locations, which provides real-time data workflow.
  • Merchandisers can easily perform retail audits using just their tablets and smartphones and office managers are able to analyze all the retail data as soon as it is collected with activity dashboards and reports.

VisitBasis is a complete merchandising software solution that runs in the Cloud. It operates common Android and iOS tablets and smartphones, is extremely easy to deploy, and you can try it completely free. Just register at www.visitbasis.com, download free VisitBasis App on Google Play or App Store and start use the advantages of being in the Cloud today.

Keeping Your Sales Reps Engaged: Best Practices

The cornerstone of employee engagement is communication. Developing and nurturing engagement requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.

If your team operates in the field, driving engagement is usually harder, taking more effort and investment. Keeping field reps inspired and motivated is more difficult, because they are constantly on the go. That is why sales reps’ turnover is a common thing in retail, but still it impacts customer relationships and a company’s bottom line.

The good news is that with the introduction of field sales management software platforms developing an engaged field sales team is easier than ever. Field sales management software allows implementing some effective techniques to keep your field staff connected to your sales. Below you’ll some recommendations for keeping your sales reps engaged and happy with their jobs by using field team management software communication features.

Give access to information. Filed sales management software is essential when it comes to keep your sales reps informed. Empowering your outside employees with a field sales app for tablets and smartphones allows having all the data they need to perform their jobs literally at their fingertips and automatically drives engagement.

Emphasize sales reps’ progress. Field team management software allows easily evaluating how your reps are performing to link your engagement efforts to performance. Real-time dashboards and powerful analytic capabilities provide real-time access to KPIs for the managers, so they can get valuable insights to tell sales reps how they’re doing and where they’re fit in.

Encourage more of good performance. Field team management software provides real-time monitoring of all field-based activities, including sales reps routes and the tasks performed. Having instant access to information about field reps performance, a manager can quickly send a message to thank a rep for the job done, instantly reinforcing the right behaviors, or make timely remarks to give a rep the chance to quickly correct the situation.

Maintain the two-way communication. With a field sales app sales reps also have an opportunity to send messages that are instantly available to the management. When managers are always aware of the needs of field reps they can resolve point of sale situations, requiring attention, immediately. In these ways instant-messaging functions can help to foster field reps engagement and to keep high level of motivation.

With these simple but powerful techniques keeping your sales reps engaged does not have to be time consuming. Simply implement the right type of field team management software with proper communication features, so your managers can easily build positive two-way relationships with sales reps, who are out of the office.

To get more information about field team management, or to get you free access to VisitBasis Field Team Management Software, visit www.visitbasis.com.

How Photo Reports Can Improve Your Retail Execution

The opportunity to view complex information in a visual format cannot be underestimated. Integrating visual content into your retail execution process improves efficiency and drives engagement, working the same way as in social media and on TV screens. If your field reps are obliged to make photo reports, the chance they’ll manage shelves as good as they can is bigger.

The most effective way to integrate visual content into your retail execution process is to adopt a comprehensive mobile data collection software solution for retail audits, merchandising activities and field sales. Of course, you can empower your field reps with digital photo cameras, so they can make photo reports at points of sale, but in today’s mobile world it’s not reasonable to buy separate devices for work that can be done using employees’ smartphones. Still, when your reps use cameras, built in their mobile devices, for reporting, it’s necessary to transfer the data into corporate database and streamline all the photos manually, which is time-consuming and ineffective.

Retail execution software makes attaching photos to task performance reports a breeze, allowing streamlined visual data workflow and instant reporting without spending anyone’s time at all. As soon as a photo is made, it is automatically transferred to a corporate database, so managers and supervisors can always have real-time picture of retail conditions. All photos, taken by field reps, are geotagged and time stamped, which eliminates fraudulent reporting.

The other benefit of retail execution software is that it makes visual data exchange reversible. The up-to-data software solutions for retail execution allow supplementing task templates with images, PDFs, presentations and even video files. You can also manage electronic product catalog with photos of items attached, or add photos of assets and planograms to customer’s information. All this data is instantly available on your field reps’ tablets and smartphones from anywhere.

Ready to move your retail execution into the next level? Enhance your merchandising and retail auditing with visual content using VisitBasis Retail Execution Software. VisitBasis provides companies an opportunity to integrate visual content into retail execution process, streamlining visual data workflow and allowing managers always have clear picture of what is going on at each retail location.

VisitBasis Retail Execution Software allows you to manage your visual information in the following ways:

  • Add photos to product information
  • Add images of customer assets to customer catalog
  • Attach as many visual content (images, PDFs, presentations, video) to customer as you like
  • Use photo as the required type of answer for store visit task templates
  • See the task execution results, all task answers including photos and signatures as the data becomes available during the day
  • Review task log for last minute comments/photos related to performing the task
  • Analyze store performance using time stamped and GPS-confirmed photos

The most important thing about VisitBasis Retail Execution Software is that it’s a Cloud implementation, which allows transferring big amounts of data, like images and videos, very quickly. Unlimited photos can be collected and uploaded to the office, and field reps have access to visual data offline and can execute tasks without an Internet connection. Our clients collect 70-100 photos per user per day using VisitBasis Retail Execution mobile app.

Sign up to get your free trial today at www.visitbasis.com or book a free online demo to see for yourself how it works.

Paperless Data Collection: Retail Execution in the Cloud

Why Go Paperless?

In order to store 2 million paper documents, an organization can expect to spend between $40,000 and $60,000 on filing cabinets alone. Those same files could fit on fewer than ten CD-ROMs (Business Guide to Paper Reduction). If we assume that a filing cabinet uses from 6 to 20 square feet of space and the office space costs $23 per square foot, the space for a one filing cabinet will cost a company $1656– 5520 per year.

How to Go Paperless?

When you choose paperless data collection your data storage costs can be significantly reduced or even brought to zero. Digital data collected using mobile forms require much less space than paper sheets and therefore cost less money. With the development of mobile technology you don’t need CDs or any other data carriers to store and access your data. More and more companies opt for Cloud storage. The price of Cloud storage starts at $0.01 GB per month and the average number of MS Word pages per GB is 64782.

The Advantages of Cloud Retail Data Collection Solutions

Cloud software can specifically benefit retail businesses with features such as order and returns management, field marketing, merchandising, and retail audits, providing ultimate customer visibility and excellent IT support. Implementing Cloud software for retail execution you increase business effectiveness and reduce time spent on operational issues, concentrating on the things that matter. Today you can even store your retail data completely free if you opt for Cloud-based retail execution software. State-of-the-art retail execution SaaS providers usually offer Cloud storage as part of their service.

Here are the main advantages of Cloud-based retail execution software to improve the efficiency of operations and increase productivity:

  • Minimum upfront spending – Cloud solutions for store audit performance allow companies to maintain easy access to corporate information with minimum upfront spending. Adopting a SaaS retail execution software solution a company saves on IT-support and server hardware.
  • 24/7 database access – The other advantage of storing data in the Cloud is that all the data can be accessed anytime, anywhere and on any device. Your field reps can easily perform retail audits using their own tablets and smartphones and your field team managers are able to analyze all the retail data as soon as it is collected with activity dashboards and reports. Being on the Cloud also makes it possible for field sales reps to work offline, and the system will automatically synchronize once an Internet connection is established.
  • The best service availability – If you adopt a Cloud solution for retail execution you can count on the best service availability even if your company is multinational and runs in different countries and time zones.

VisitBasis retail execution software is a complete retail management system that runs in the Cloud. It works on common Android and iOS tablets and smartphones allowing BYOD implementation to reduce hardware costs to your company. VisitBasis retail audit software is extremely easy to deploy – and you can start it completely free. Just register at www.visitbasis.com, download free VisitBasis retail Execution App on Google Play or App Store and enjoy yourself the benefits of being in the Cloud.

How To Improve Field Reps’ Productivity And Eliminate Time Wasting

Wasting time is a recipe for losing efficiency within your field service management. Productivity of field reps, namely sales performance, is a key driver for improving your company’s bottom line and a larger market share. Therefore the main goal of field team management is to maximize the time field reps spend selling and to minimize time spent on traveling between locations, filling out paper forms, making useless phone calls and visits to the office.

The good news is that today there are plenty of sales tools designed to increase your field reps’ productivity and eliminate major time wasters in the field. Using field service management software for standard mobile devices, we all are already used to, allow field team managers to effectively organize and control field teams, and provides essential tools for field reps to complete deals as quickly as it’s possible. The major time wasters in the field, like poor planning, incomplete deals and traveling between locations, can be easily eliminated by field service management software implementation. Below you’ll find three essential strategies to help you eliminate time wasting in the field.

  • Automate scheduling and planning of retail visits. Poor planning results in unconfirmed appointments, overlapping routes, and suddenly arising challenges (e.g. a rep can’t find customer’s location, got sick and must be substituted). Field service management software offers field team managers a great variety of opportunities to reduce time spent for scheduling, including planning visits in bulk or individually, rescheduling appointments on the go, adding visits and tasks during a day.
  • Give your sales reps the right tools to complete deals. Incomplete sales orders is one of the major time wasters that occur when a sales rep have not prepared for a retail visit. Lack of product knowledge, wrong specifications and order forms result in failed deal that requires a comeback to be completed. When your field reps are empowered with a mobile solution for retail execution, they always have all the essential information at their fingertips. Customer information, product catalogs with photos, printable mobile order forms are always available in field reps’ tablets and smartphones.
  • Minimize travel time. Traveling to the office in the morning to get the schedule and coming back at the end of the workday to provide the report takes a lot of time that can be spent negotiating with customers. If you use a field team management software solution, your field reps don’t have to go to the office to get the schedule of visits. All the information about the appointments, scheduled in the office, including tasks, time, route and location, is instantly displayed in their tablets and smartphones. Field reps are constantly monitored on the map and all the data collected by field reps is automatically being sent to the corporate database, so they don’t have to go to the office, make calls or send emails to provide a report.

To learn more about field team management, visit www.visitbasis.com or register account to get your free access to field team management software.

Three Ways to Optimize Field Team Management

Managing field teams is a very challenging activity when all the workers are constantly on the go. The main challenge is dealing with many people, at many different locations, bringing in a lot of information on many products. Field team managers have to look through big amounts of data to make sure that all the checks were performed properly or even manually transfer data from paper reports to corporate database by themselves. As they become overwhelmed with more and more data workflow they simple don’t have time and enthusiasm to analyze trends to make strategic decisions.

Fortunately up-to-date mobile technologies allow field team managers to integrate tablets and smartphones into the business process to improve the efficiency of field teams performance. Field team management software is designed to simplify data management and streamline operations in the field. Let’s consider in what ways field team management software can improve the productivity of the whole process.

  1. Planning and scheduling made effortless. Field team management software provides great opportunities allowing managers to customize client info, product catalog, task templates, order forms and analytic reports within a single application. With field team management software managers are able to effortlessly schedule recurring visits, weeks or even months in advance and calculate the shortest customer route for each field rep.
  2. Streamlined data workflow. Field team management software enables companies to replace expensive and inefficient paper forms with a simple but powerful mobile app on their mobile devices. Field team management software enables field reps to collect information using common smartphones and tablets, transfer the data collected at stores automatically, easily integrating with a company’s backend system.
  3. Improved customer service. Having mobile access to all customers’ information, product catalog and history of previous visits field reps can better prepare to every store visit. Orders are collected as they happen and are instantly available for field team managers’ supervision. Real-time data workflow allows field team managers to identify situations that require their immediate attention and take measures to resolve them.

VisitBasis is a company specialized in the development of cost-effective, cutting-edge and comprehensive mobile solutions for field team management that aim to increase sales and reduce costs, improving the bottom-line of businesses that rely on field professionals. VisitBasis already offers a long list of benefits to managers and field reps in merchandising, retail audit and outside sales. Using VisitBasis your field team managers are able to:

  • Easily manage user, customer, and product databases and assign territories accordingly
  • Create advanced task templates with actions that include photos and signatures, among others
  • Effortlessly schedule recurring visits, weeks or even months in advance and calculate the shortest customer route for each field rep
  • Automatically capture new customer information while prospecting
  • Know where each mobile user is at any point in time and get up-to-the minute information on the activities being executed at each customer location
  • Generate reports with detailed timing and location information

The key benefit of our field team management software is that you can get it absolutely free. Sign up today at www.visitbasis.com to start your field team management in a new innovative way.

Mobile Data Collection App for Android and iOS

Many companies utilize surveys and data collection services to take advantage of real-time information and VisitBasis Data Collection App provides easy access to all tools required for paperless data collection. The use of efficient and accurate data collection methods ensure statistically reliable results to understand the present and plan the future.

VisitBasis Retail Execution is a cloud data collection solution that consists of a browser-based office interface and an app for mobile users. The office interface allows managers, executives and supervisors to build detailed data collection forms and checklists, as well as schedule appointments and monitor execution of field activities. VisitBasis Data Collection App works on most smartphones and tablets and allows field reps to quickly and easily execute the activities assigned to them.

VisitBasis Data Collection App gives field reps easy access to all merchandising and sales data and tools required to perform in-store activities and allows them to collect critical information for store performance analysis. Office supervisors can monitor all the field activities in real time using VisitBasis web-based dashboards and reports.

Power to the company: VisitBasis Office Interface

  • Build detailed data capture forms for field teams that include photos and signatures
  • Manage customers, territories, reps, and products
  • Schedule visits for your field reps and assign visit-specific tasks
  • Monitor in real-time on the map your team’s field data collection activities
  • Analyse the incoming data, generating detailed reports

Power to field reps: VisitBasis Mobile data collection App

  • Easy to use data collection tools for field reps
  • All the information your team needs at their fingertips: forms, checklists, customer contacts, product details
  • Route optimization – everybody saves time and money
  • No signal, no problem: app works both online/offline and synchronizes automatically
  • Works on iOs and Android devices, available for free download on Google Play or App Store

To try our data collection software for free register at www.visitbasis.com and download the VisitBasis Retail Audit App free on Google Play or App Store.

To learn more about how it works request a demo or check the links below to watch the demo videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWKiA-_rmbo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2zmcXJA23E

VisitBasis Introduces Version 2.0 of Retail Execution Mobile Software.

VisitBasis Retail Execution has started the New Year with the launch of version 2.0 of its comprehensive retail execution mobile app. It is readily available for download on Google Play and App Store and comes with faster performance and fantastic new features.

New release of the popular VisitBasis Retail Execution and Merchandising app comes with faster toolset and advanced features to support operations of field reps. New features of the browser-based VisitBasis Retail Execution Office management module include:

  • BigQuery and Google Doc Integration. BigQuery uses super-fast queries powered by Google’s infrastructure. Ideal for all your custom reporting needs.
  • Field Reps Team Supported. VisitBasis has added a new layer of security by allowing managers to set up teams. Now users with mobile security roles are able to see only users in the same team as they are, allowing for larger companies to have only one account and restrict visibility where appropriate.
  • Product Properties. The “properties” field already allowed for easy, custom filtering of customers on several VisitBasis Retail Execution Office screens. In the new version, this field has been also added to products as an answer to customer requests and provides similar functionality.
  • New Look-and-feel. Usability improvements make it easier to use the App even more effectively.

New features of the VisitBasis Retail Execution Mobile App include:

  • Barcode scanner for fast product search
  • Fast numeric input keypad
  • Search products and actions for faster input
  • Ability to add a new customer from mobile app
  • Visual GPS proximity Indicator
  • New Look and Feel

VisitBasis Retail Execution is a complete mobile data collection solution designed to build, schedule and monitor field team activities in real time. It provides tools for all types of field activities, including field sales, merchandising, field marketing, auditing, inspections, mystery shopping, surveying, POS asset management, training, sampling, and product demonstrations, among others.

For more information or to create a free account and start using VisitBasis right away, go to www.visitbasis.com

 Author – Carolina Mancini, VisitBasis Tech.

The original text of press release can be found at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/01/prweb12448687.htm

Mobile Forms – One of the many perks of Enterprise Mobile Data Collection Apps for Outside Field Agents

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Enterprise mobile data collection apps for outside field agents brings many advantages for merchandising professionals that are running successful and fruitful merchandising enterprises. A successful merchandising operation requires a significant amount of dedication and organization from all involved staff – including, outside field agents.

Utilizing an Enterprise Mobile Data Collection App will empower you, as well as your staff of outside field agents and company representatives.

When you’re in charge of an enterprise that’s on high demand, it is essential that you find solutions that will make your day to day enterprise operations become more efficient and effective and the most cost effective and current way of making this a reality is by using an Enterprise Mobile Data Collection App, which provides users with mobile forms.

Mobile forms is just one of the many perks of utilizing an enterprise mobile data collection app, but they make an immense difference! Outside sales reps and/or supervisors will no longer have a stack of different types of paper forms that must be issued to customers for signatures and other business related contracts that need to be distributed.

All these paper forms are a recipe for disaster! Having so many paper forms can easily cause a lot disorganization and confusion, which leads to wasted time that could’ve been used doing something productive/constructive.

However, you can rid yourself of the paper form battles once and for all – once you implement an enterprise mobile data collection app, which has a mobile form feature, as well as E-signature features that allows you to collect signatures from store managers and owners during retail visits.

Best of all, mobile forms are just the beginning of becoming a more efficient and effective merchandising enterprise…

A high-end; technologically advanced enterprise mobile app, such as VisitBasis Enterprise Mobile Data Collection App offers an array of features that will assist you in managing your time and that of your outside field agents with features and tools that will allow you to maximize on time as time management becomes tangible with this comprehensive tool/mobile software and solution.

mobile-apps

Other features that you can look forward to once you implement an enterprise mobile data collection app into your successful, merchandising enterprise:

  • Build custom mobile forms. (No programming required.)
  • Place orders and/or returns.
  • Project management.
  • Work offline and online.
  • Field service management
  • Audits.
  • Surveys.
  • Product price lists.
  • Optimize routes.
  • GPS technologies.
  • Latest Cloud technologies
  • and more!

You can have all this and more right in the palm of your hand when you sign up with VisitBasis Enterprise Mobile Data Collection App. Sign up today and take your merchandising enterprise into its next phase!