Eastridge is proud to announce a new Microsoft developed video on an outstanding CRM/xRM success story with their client, Comag Marketing Group. Thanks to Customer Effective for priming this project and bringing in the Eastridge team for customized mobility software and integration.
Comag Marketing Group (CMG), jointly owned by Conde Nast Publications and The Hearst Corp., provides leading magazine publishers with comprehensive sales, marketing and promotional services. CMG employs a 400-member merchandising staff who are required to collect data and perform a series of in-store condition checks. CMG provides merchandising services to thousands of US retail locations as well as US airport newsstands.
At airports, data was previously collected via legacy handheld devices with an application designed and deployed in 2003 that was limited in its flexibility to integrate into other CMG corporate systems. The retail merchandising staff used either a manual "bubble form" or entered the data into Excel spreadsheets. The bubble forms were mailed weekly, and CMG's IS team had to process them into an electronic data warehouse. The Excel spreadsheets were submitted via email.
The new mobile solution allows merchandisers to scan barcode information using a .NET custom application. The data are fed in real time into CMG's Dynamics CRM environment, which allows for immediate reporting throughout the company.
CMG worked with a number of vendors, including Panasonic Toughbook and its VAR Trac2Mobile; Eastridge Technology, which developed the .NET Application; and Customer Effective, which developed and implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The retail team uses Panasonic Toughbook T8s, while the airport team uses Toughbook U1s. Both have embedded Gobi mobile broadband cards.
In the past, data collected in the field took three to four weeks to be reviewed and processed. This data turnaround time only allowed for trending; since most magazines have a shelf life of a week or a month, titles were often off the shelf by the time information was available. That process has been reduced to one to two days.
The total cost of the project (including hardware) was less than $2 million. The company anticipates ROI within three years. "We can now substantially measure where people go, how much time they spend in store, and we can do an efficiency model or build in route optimization," says Sean Poccia, Senior Director of Information Services with CMG.