The term FMCG or Fast Moving Consumer Goods is used to describe inexpensive and perishable products that sell quickly. FMCG products have short shelf lives and are always in demand. Such products include packaged foods, meat, dairy products, cosmetics, confectionery, etc. consumed regularly.
The global market for FMCGs is expected to touch $15,361.8 billion by 2025, with the Asia-Pacific region leading the way with a combined average growth rate(CAGR) of 8%. With such high growth, FMCG is a fascinating industry to work in as it presents a unique set of challenges and rewards. FMCG companies have to take care of product development, packaging, promotion, and distribution. On the other hand, they also have to deal with fierce competition and ever-changing consumer tastes.
All of the above factors make the industry a very dynamic one, but they also make it challenging for organizations to track and manage many departments. FMCG companies also have to focus on sales due to cut-throat competition and ensure that they can continuously sustain and improve market shares of their products. This is why most leading FMCG companies invest in a ‘Sales Force Automation Software.’
A Sales Force Automation (SFA) software helps industries manage and monitor their salesforce’s activities and productivity and promotional efforts. Today, SFA software is being used by FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, and the medical industry extensively to monitor sales, manage sales personnel, keep track of market share and drive overall growth.
Though there is no dearth of SFA software in the market today, only a very few of them are specialized enough to handle the diverse needs of the FMCG industry. An ideal FMCG SFA software not only needs to take care of the sales and distribution process, but it also has to take into account a variety of products and prices, organizational hierarchy, data related to employees’ activities, and performance, as well as all inventory data. Additionally, it must also be able to provide insights into the work done and targets achieved.
This review will be discussing ‘SanFMCG,’ a leading SFA software that has been crafted keeping in mind the needs of the FMCG industry. It has a proven track record of improving sales force effectiveness, distribution, and sales oversight.
By the end of this review, you will know about:
We will also be discussing how this SFA software can simplify and automate multiple tasks in the FMCG industry.
Introduction to SanFMCG
SanFMCG by SANeFORCE is a Sales Force Automation software that has been used in the FMCG industry for the past 15 years with great results. With over 100,000 users worldwide, this software is made to simplify FMCG salesforce’s work through easy task reporting on the go, which paves the way for better monitoring and control.
Using the SanFMCG Mobile app aligned with the SanFMCG web application, salesforce can report their daily tasks, targets achieved, and sales made to their respective corporate offices instantly from anywhere.
The mobile SFA app is compatible with both iOS and Android platforms and features Geo-Fencing, Geo-Tagging, and offline reporting functionalities. The mobile app also provides electronic detailing (E-Detailing) feature, which offers data for all products and their features through a single online repository. This gives sales personnel the option to present company products aesthetically before retailers and distributors, paving the way for better sales. You can also use the ‘van sales’ module to keep track of product logistics as they are purchased on the go from sales vehicles.
SanFMCG helps sales managers in keeping track of the activities done by sales agents and provides necessary approvals when needed. Their sales force’s performance with respect to a product, location, retailer, or distributor can easily be mapped through the dashboard. This is hugely beneficial for sales managers as it ensures no duplication of tasks or diversion of efforts from the sales teams.
Besides the above functionalities, SanFMCG houses dedicated modules for inventory management to ensure streamlining of stock. It also has a product database linked to the mobile application that houses all details regarding products and prices. Moreover, it can be integrated with SAP to boost organizational efficiency and productivity.
Additionally, you can manage:
- Supplier and Purchase Orders
- Point-of-sale invoicing
- Multiple Currencies
You would be glad to know that the entire application is cloud-based, allowing for easy access and instant all-around visibility. This makes it easier to access and relay information from anywhere in a matter of seconds.
Let us now find out the key features of SanFMCG in more detail to understand the reason behind its continued success.
Key Features of SAN FMCG
1. All Information in one place
Another major benefit of SanFMCG is that it allows you to get detailed information on products, territories, listed retailers, and distributors using its Information module. You can also:
- find distributors and retailers in an area
- view details of unlisted distributors and retailers
- create a distributor/retailer addition/removal request in your list
- check the status of the approval
- view the status of campaigns within the organization in a year
- find out the effective business generated
Besides being able to view the details of both listed and unlisted distributors and retailers within an area, you can also find the list of holidays in a given year. Thus, the Information module provides all the data required by a sales agent to plan their visits. It helps sales agents know about all the products, campaigns, distributors, and retailers within a territory through a single exhaustive data repository, saving their time and efforts.
2. Activity Records
The Activities module has several features that help sales agents and their managers keep track of their daily activities. Here are a few key features of this module:
- Territory View: This feature helps view the territory mapped to a sales agent. All territories and their respective sales agents can be viewed from this section.
- Monthly Journey Plan: Since sales agents need to plan their tours for a particular month at the beginning of every month, this section allows them to enter their monthly tour plans and get them approved by their managers. This ensures that sales agents do not deviate from a plan and no duplication of tours occurs.
- Daily Sales Report (DSR): This feature allows sales agents to enter the details of their daily tasks in the system. Sales agents from FMCG companies often have to visit distributors and retailers for promoting products and getting more orders. This function is made to track and streamline routine operations so that resources can be put to their optimum usage. Using this feature, sales agent agents can choose their work type and schedule their retailer/stockist visits, territories, sessions, and products. Sales agents can also enter their Purchase Order Bookings (POBs) acquired through distributors through this feature. Agents can also preview the entries made by them and have the option to submit them later.
- Expense Management: This feature makes it easy for sales agents to view and manage their expenses and allowances for a month. You can enter the distance traveled and expenditures and get them approved.
- Order Booking: This feature allows you to book orders for retailers and stockists in an area. Sales agents can choose the product ordered from a drop-down list, add sale quantity, pricing details, etc., and get them approved by their managers. Sales agents can also view the orders placed by a stockist in a given month and get it printed. Additionally, they can also record the sales figures for primary distributors within an area.
- Task Management: This feature allows sales agents to view all tasks allotted to them within a month and view their status in a separate dashboard. The dashboard also provides the viewer with details of their tasks, an overview of their team’s tasks, overdue days, and task priority. This ensures that no crucial tasks are ever left out.
3. MIS Reports
Management Information System (MIS) reports are crucial for any business to analyze how well their processes are managed. SanFMCG allows users to view several reports from a drop-down list. Sales Representatives can view details of retailers and their sales figures within a given time.
These reports also help sales agents analyze and improve their performance through Daily Inventory Imbalance reports, Performance reports, DSR (Daily Sales Report) Monitoring report, Campaigns reports, and Order Detail report. MIS reports also make it easier for managers to evaluate employee performance and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
4. Manager Module & Admin Panel
To assist organizations in managing and approving various requests, SanFMCG has a dedicated module for managers’ approval. As managers need to supervise and lead several sales agents, the manager module allows them to approve or reject the following requests:
- Daily Sales Reports
- Monthly Journey for sales agents
- Expenses of sales agents to be reimbursed
- Adding and removal of retailers from their list
- Changes to distributor information made
- Secondary sales figures
- Employee leave approval
Besides managers, SanFMCG also has a provision to help administrators (like District Sales Managers or Business Development Managers) in work allotment, employee performance evaluation, and management. Here are some of the tasks you can perform from the Admin Panel:
- Check the average and daily calls & productivity by sales agents
- Add messages for employees in the Notice Board
- Provide access and rights to selected employees
- Manage salesforce expenses
- Allot designation, department, and division for employees
- Analyze secondary sales performance
- Set Employee targets and territories for different products
- Check Product-wise business generated
- Check employee and manager status
- Manage tour plans for sales agents and their managers
- Check the sales agents assigned to a given territory
- View the location of employees to ensure no false reporting
- Reject/approve DSRs
- View Sales Force Effectiveness Reports
5. Employee Options
SanFMCG also has a dedicated module for helping employees manage their daily tasks. Employees can access their emails and messages, change passwords, download important files related to products, and manage leaves. They can also check the campaigns visited in their area, and business received through them.
6. Mobile apps
SanFMCG also has a dedicated mobile application to help employees stay connected and upload their work details on the go. There are several options that the official app provides to employees:
- Submitting daily sales reports, Monthly Journey plans, Competitor business and activity details for approval
- Adding retailers and distributors to the database
- GPS and GEO tagging & Fencing of Customers
- Van Sales Module
- Offline Reporting & Auto Sync
- Internal messaging between managers and employees
- View listed distributors and retailers in an area
- Sharing order details to the supplier through Whatsapp & Email
- Set call reminders
Another app known as ‘eDetailing app’ helps Sales agents explain products and their features to retailers and distributors. Sales agents can download useful product information and promotional materials from the eDetailing app, reducing the paperwork needed for product explanations. Additionally, the latest promotional resources can be downloaded from the app directly.
SanFMCG – Final Thoughts
After going through this comprehensive product’s features, it is time for us to reveal our final verdict on SanFMGG. So here are the things we really loved:
Firstly, the application is designed to be user-friendly, intuitive, and cater to the needs of the FMCG industry. Secondly, it takes care of a lot of additional requirements that benefit managers, salespersons, and retailers. Finally, the mobile application really simplifies factors like attendance, sales reporting, and monitoring.
All of these factors make SanFMCG pass our review with flying colors! It surpasses our expectations on several fronts, provides a plethora of features within a simplistic and user-friendly interface, and has all the necessary FMCG firms’ essential features to grow and prosper.
Can you think of any feature that is lacking in SanFMCG, which could be useful in your business? Well, you can get in touch with SANeFORCE directly and get it added. Yes, that is another thing we love about SanFMCG and why we give it five stars!
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