Brazilian animal nutrition provider Tortuga has seen a strong response to its mobile initiatives that have helped the company better manage its daily operations. The company noted that its mobile operation, dubbed PedMobile, now accounts for 80% of its $564 million annual revenue stream, with the remaining 20% coming through its traditional online channel.
“This is a market in expansion, because it’s about food production, and we need to meet the global demand increase,” explained Valdemir Raymundo, IT manager at Tortuga.
Tortuga, which exports to 17 countries in Latin America and Europe, instituted its mobility project in 2009 in order to allow sales representatives to remotely manage its commercial application. Since then, Tortuga claims it has doubled production. “Without the mobility and agility it wouldn’t be possible to follow this growth,” noted Raymundo.
Prior to the initiative sales representatives used pen and paper to fill requests that were then faxed into headquarters so the order could be inserted into the system – a process that often took about a week.
The PedMobile project began by allowing sales representatives to insert sales requests via a customized Internet page. The project then evolved along with the advent of more sophisticated cell phones and increased network coverage to allow Tortuga’s IT department to develop a mobile strategy.
Raymundo’s team developed a system to be embedded in mobile devices through which the sales representatives could insert the requests. However, this prevented the sales representative from providing a copy for customers, which Tortuga fixed by providing an electronic form so the buyer could sign and receive a copy of the form by e-mail or text message. The offering also allows customers to monitor the progress of their order online.
Tortuga claims it has between 6,000 and 7,000 orders sent via its mobile application each month. The company has a commercial agreement with wireless operator Vivo and device maker HTC. Tortuga currently uses the HTC Touch 2, which is powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system that supports the Tortuga application. Tortuga installs the application on the device, customizes the handset and then delivers them to its salesforce.
“We are working to expand our application to others platforms,” said Raymundo. “Even if the representative goes to the field where there is no cell signal, he can still fill the application, because when the signal is restored the request is sent automatically.”
Raymundo added that the company was able to keep implementation costs under control by working with an internal team. The next step in the project is to integrate PedMobile into Tortuga’s customer relationship management system. The objective is to analyze a variety of information that is captured when visiting clients. “We have lots of data, but it is spread out,” Raymundo added. “We aim to centralize them in the CRM.”
Follow RCR Wireless Americas on Twitter @RCRAmericas and subscribe to our free newsletters.
