Case Studies - McCormick
Headquarters: Sparks, MD
Sector: Consumer Packaged Goods
Function: Retail Performance Management, Field Sales
Solution: Flowfinity Actions for Retail Audits
Benefits: Improved broker management, more visibility into operations, merchandising excellence
"The ease of use really shows how Flowfinity designed the software with the end user in mind. Finding the proper stores at the beginning of the audit is simple and fast, and maneuvering around within the software while performing the audit is equally efficient. With a solid communication process after audits are performed, it allows us to close the loop on current issues, store by store."
- Rob Santin, Director of Sales, McCormick & Co., Inc.
Challenges
Replacing a slow and cumbersome paper-based audit system
McCormick is a global leader in flavor with the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of spices, seasonings, specialty foods and flavors to the entire food industry. McCormick uses retail audits to monitor the quality of in-store product displays managed by their merchandisers. Until recently, retail audits were paper-based, requiring retail operations managers to handwrite their observations and manually enter the data into spreadsheets at the end of the day or week. This system caused significant delays in delivering audit results to sales managers, making it difficult to influence performance at the store level.
The paper-based process also made it difficult to manage the performance of third-party brokers responsible for product merchandising. Due to communication delays and the fact that retail conditions change so rapidly, many opportunities for correcting observed issues were lost.
The U.S. Consumer Products Division, responsible for retail performance in over 28,000 retail stores, also lacked a standardized audit process across the country, and so was unable to obtain or leverage valuable data on a national level.
To address these issues, McCormick first selected a wireless solution from another ERP vendor, but severe usability issues prompted them to revert back to paper-based auditing while continuing to seek out an easy-to-use, robust, and automated wireless system for performing retail audits.
Solution
McCormick selected Flowfinity Actions to conduct retail audits of in-store merchandising compliance using smartphones. This award-winning wireless solution allows field representatives to exchange timely, critical data more efficiently with head office, sales executives, brokers, and merchandisers.
Benefits
- Improved functionality and usability leaves more time for selling
- Improved broker management
- More visibility into operations
- Audit form adaptability enables streamlining of operations
- Nationwide audit procedures enable merchandising excellence
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