Wine & Spirits Distribution Industry Leader Martignetti Ditches Laptops for Sturdy, Flexible Mobile Sales Solution on iPad
CHICAGO, IL (PRWEB) November 01, 2014 -- Ai2 announced today that Martignetti Companies, the leading distributor of wine and spirits in the northeastern United States, has fully deployed Ai2’s ProSel®, a mobile ordering solution for iPad. This installation makes Martignetti the first major wine and spirits distributor in the United States to fully roll out a native iPad solution for mobile sales order entry.
“ProSel has had a profound effect on our sales organization,” said Peter Colettis, Executive VP of Sales, Operations, and Marketing. “ProSel allows our reps to be more functional, creating error-free orders faster than any other mobile ordering system I’m aware of. Our reps can now do more in much less time, which allows them to call on more customers per day and generate larger commissions. The reps are just thrilled,” said Colettis.
Martignetti decided in 2013 that it wanted to transition its 400-person sales team from a laptop order entry system to one running on a tablet device. Martignetti searched for the software application first, not the device. They needed a flexible and robust remote ordering solution capable of handling their 50,000-item catalog, complex pricing, 30,000-plus deals, customer accounting information and extensive customer and product information. They found the right software application with ProSel.
“Since ProSel runs native on the iPad, the app made the tablet hardware decision for us,” said Al Mendes, Senior VP of Information Technology for Martignetti. Native applications are those designed for a specific device. “ProSel’s ability to sync a baffling amount of real-time data on the iPad has solved the communication, informational and pricing problems that plagued our sales reps in the past,” added Colettis.
The larger the distributor, the more pricing and sales data it generates daily. If an enterprise application can’t handle the workload, the distributor will not realize any gains in productivity. Martignetti knew that syncing the data real-time and making that data actionable in the filed were critical parts of the process.
“We needed a local database and we needed to internally control all the information that’s presented to our sales reps. We now have the ability to provide our reps with additional data such as pricing and demographics on our SKUs, customers and orders,” said Mendes.
Martignetti chose Ai2’s ProSel solution after vetting several other apps because not only can ProSel handle the workload, but “we were impressed with Ai2’s knowledge of our industry, the app and most importantly, Ai2’s commitment to work with us and ensure our success,” said Mendes.
“The amount of data [the sales reps] have at their fingertips is unbelievable – it’s much more than what they had on their laptop system in the past,” said Jay Howard, Associate Vice President of Information Technology for Martignetti. “The sales reps are excited to have ProSel.”
Howard noted that the company had been a Windows-based operation for many years, but moved to the iPad for portability, ease of use, and the speed at which new workers can be trained to use the solution. “ProSel is capturing over 3,500 remote orders a day for us now and it just works. If the product is this good now, I can hardly wait to see how great it will be in the years to come. We bet on the right mobile ordering app with ProSel and on the right company in Ai2 to deliver it,” said Colettis.
Howard also mentioned that today’s newly hired sales rep needs to be familiar with mobile technology and that most of them are. “The days of the non-technical sales rep are coming to an end,” Howard acknowledged.
Ai2 has served the wholesale distribution industry, including wine and spirits, since 1986. The company has been present for the industry’s move to laptops, the emergence of tablets, and the eventual crowning of the iPad as the most dominant tablet in the enterprise. Ai2 is partnered with Apple Business and has collaborated with SAP to give its clients “the most flexible, robust and functional mobile ordering solutions available in the world,” said Ai2 CEO Douglas Katich.
ProSel is a scalable and flexible sales solution for mobile professionals in several different wholesale distribution verticals including convenience store, foodservice, jewelry, industrial paper, janitorial supply, beer, and wine and spirits. Core functions include rapid order entry, historical ordering, order guides, quick progressive browsing and filtered searches, order by image, bar code scanning, credits and returns with reason codes, Zebra® certified bar code and receipt printing, customer-item-specific pricing integration, digital signature capture and enterprise content management. The benefits that ProSel’s users report include steeply reduced printing costs, increased productivity, improved customer service, larger, faster and better remote orders and a sharp reduction in order entry errors.
Established in 1908, Martignetti Companies has grown to become the leading distributor of wine and spirits in New England and the 7th largest in the country. Martignetti Companies currently has sales operations in five New England markets: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Based in Norwood, Massachusetts, the company operates in Massachusetts as United Liquors, Carolina Wine & Spirits, Classic Wine Imports and Commonwealth Wine & Spirits and in other New England states as Martignetti Companies of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, and Rhode Island Distributing Company through a joint venture. For more information, visit Martignetti.com.
Ai2 was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in downtown Chicago. Their mobile order entry applications capture tens of billions of dollars in sales orders annually. Ai2 works with Apple Business to give its clients special training, discounts, mobile device management and other opportunities. Ai2 improves the sales process for some of the world’s largest distributors in foodservice, convenience store, grocery, beverage, hardware, medical, beauty products, jewelry and more. For more information about Ai2, visit Ai2.com.
Max Stewart, Ai2, http://www.ai2.com, +1 (312) 920-9366 Ext: 216, [email protected]
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