By Jaco Ras | 14 June 2022 | Published on ITWeb
As part of the ongoing evolution of its offering in line with customer demand, MACmobile has delivered significant enhancements to the FIELDForce web and mobile applications with its latest update. These include security improvements as well as the inclusion of an invoice value discount engine and a buy one, get one free (BOGOF) engine. FIELDForce is MACmobile’s flagship end-to-end route to market automation solutions for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.
“Cyber security is a growing concern, so we have spent a considerable amount of time making security enhancements that give users more control in terms of security policies. Users are now able to generate random strong passwords when creating or updating passwords, and can configure passwords to meet corporate policies around password strength and character numbers. We have also implemented password expiry and prevented the use of cyclical passwords. These elements are critical in securing a software as a service (SaaS) solution such as ours,” says Jaco Ras, Chief Technology Officer at MACmobile.
On the product side, several updates and enhancements have been made. One of the key updates is the inclusion of a new invoice value discount engine. This functionality enables users to automatically apply a flexible percentage discount based on the value of an order, whereas previously, discounts were fixed. This is an incentive to increase the basket size.
The BOGOF engine gives distributors the ability to offer ‘buy one get one free’ options based on the value of the basket order, and reps can advise retailers of this at the point of sale. These enhancements give the ability to dynamically apply the offer or discount, which may incentivize the retailer to increase sales volumes based on enhanced value. A clean invoice applying these offers and discounts can be immediately generated in trade to accommodate van sales.
“The route to market in the informal sector is very price sensitive and there is a finite share of wallet, which means that often the rep that arrives first gets the sale. It is a very competitive market. The ability to dynamically offer incentives, rewards and discounts helps distributors leverage innovative mechanisms to create greater brand loyalty through these special deals, which in turn drives a competitive edge into the operating model. Being flexible on the ground is key to differentiation, creating value and opportunity and closing deals,” says Andrew Dawson, MD of MACmobile.
The latest enhancements to FIELDForce help to deliver a seamless process that is simple and intuitive and allows users to offer deals in the moment of sale for greater conversion rates. The functionality is built into the system so there are no concerns around capturing bad data, and invoices are automatically adjusted to remove the need for credit notes, which complicate the payment process.
FIELDForce will continue to be updated with enhancements that further improve security and fine-tune the product for greater functionality.
