Nov/Dec 2005

Field sales staff working for Frontline, the magazine sales, marketing and distribution company, are using an imaginative new mobile data application that helps them manage in-store displays more effectively, and even allows them to send photographs of magazine display racks back to base for evaluation.

The system has been developed for the company by O4 Corporation, and is expected to yield cost savings of over £100,000 within three years.

Roving sales staff have been equipped with Qtek 2020i PDAs, which they use to gather data collected from each store, capturing relevant information including photographs of shelves. The information is then transferred to head office through GPRS wireless synchronisation, where it can be assessed by staff there.

The company says this helps to ensure that in-store management disciplines are met and compliance with head-office agreements is maintained. It also offers benefits in terms of range (the right mix of magazines on the shelves), planograms (the correct flow and layout of magazine categories) and trade marketing activity.

 

Frontline is owned jointly by EMAP, BBC Worldwide, Haymarket Publishing and H Bauer Publishing, and is responsible for the sales and distribution of over 150 magazines, including over 70 of the top 200 best-selling titles in the UK.