A leading franchised distributor of PepsiCo products in the Sultanate of Oman, implemented Ivy to digitize their sales processes. They have seven production lines packing beverages into Cans, PET bottles, Non-returnable Glass Bottles, and Tetra Pack juices. They also trade in snacks that include Lays potato chips, Doritos, etc., and the Quaker range of food products.

The renowned distributor previously had an on-premise Route-to-market solution for more than 8 years. However, their business in the country was growing, and the business dynamics were becoming complex. The inefficiencies of their legacy system were becoming roadblocks to their growth.

Business Challenges

One of the most challenging pain points of the distributor was the approval system of sub-distributors. The authorization of new sub-distributors included 70+ levels of approvals in the hierarchy. Setting up a system compatible with 70 levels of approval mechanism was impossible with their existing solution. Also, the system did not support creating schemes and running promotions all year round.

The on-premise solution also poses the challenge of limited scalability, and usually, the implementation and maintenance costs outdo the solution cost. The reps carried heavy devices to work, which were incompatible with other systems, like Android or iOS operating systems.

Not to mention, the non-responsive user interface of the solution leads to a lack of a user-friendly and intuition-driven system.

Our Solution

We identified a unique way to address the challenges faced by the distributor, using a blend of various solutions under our umbrella. Our expertise in platforms like AWS and Salesforce gave us an edge in this case.

Our cloud-based Route Accounting Solution (Distribution Management System), built on the AWS platform, was suggested to the distributor for managing their business operations end-to-end.

Our Direct Store Delivery or Sales Force Automation mobile app provided a simple yet user-friendly interface to sales reps. The solution was fully integrated into the back-office system, providing real-time visibility.

We integrated these solutions to the Salesforce platform for supporting multi-level approvals required by the distributor. The data flow from AWS systems to the Salesforce environment had to be seamless for Supervisors and the distributor’s representatives to validate them. It was our first time integrating an AWS system into a Salesforce solution to support bi-directional data flow.

The entire project took approximately nine months to complete and had 3 different phases. We went live with our out-of-the-box solution in the first 3 months, followed by the customizations required in the next 3 months. The last phase was all about setting up APIs between AWS systems and the Salesforce one. It took us 3 days per distributor for a full-blown rollout with onsite classroom training provided to all the users.

Business Impact

Move to the Cloud
The client moved to our cloud solution, which offered accessibility from anywhere, insane scalability, and customization capabilities. Unlike on-premise solutions, there is no infrastructure required. Also, our Direct Store Delivery app can be installed onto standard mobile devices and is compatible with android and iOS systems. The field team of the client conducts 33,000 visits seamlessly from the solution and processes 30,000 orders in a month.

Approval Process
Our solution addressed one of the client’s biggest challenges of managing approval processes. The client now has 70 levels of approvals flowing through their different departments in almost no time and in a fully automated way.

Promotions
The client now runs different schemes throughout the year, with varying expiry dates and pricing options. Also, the allotment of promotional stock and respect pricing was managed differently for sub-distributors- all from one single solution. The sales reps are now serving 49,000 stores with these schemes.