Wishing to replace the mobile software application used by its delivery and sales teams on the road, Polar Beverages, the largest independent soft-drink bottler in the United States, concludes the selection process by announcing its choice of the Companion® solution, by CIS Group.

Out of a mobile force of some three hundred users, the half who operate in delivery mode will mainly rely on their mobile devices for fast, clean, on-site invoicing. Making up the other half of the group, the representatives who are in charge of order taking can look forward to functionalities that will make that process simple and efficient. The two teams, each with its own software configuration, will be working with Honeywell CN75 hand-held computers and PB51 portable printers.

The Companion® Route application can, and will, easily accommodate these two types of users. Indeed, during the configuration phase that is an essential part of any implementation, the software provides literally thousands of parameters that can be adjusted, to ultimately establish a work cycle – or several – that will be unique, just as happens to be the case with any particular company’s requirements, specifications, and constraints.

Just as well, this extensive set of parameters ensures flexibility to easily adapt in the future to eventual changes in rules and methods. And it also allows defining a sequence of in-store tasks that can be different for each type of store or each specific banner that is being visited.

Yet a third group of users are involved in the implementation project: some twenty-five supervisors, as for them, will use the Companion® Rep2 application – installed on tablets, in their case – to conduct their business reviews, supervise the delivery and sales teams, introduce new products, and monitor in-store product distribution.

Through remote communications from the mobile units to the office, all the transactions processed on the road will be transmitted to the Companion® Office middleware and ultimately, via an interface, to the Polar ERP system, Infor LX.

About Polar Beverages

Polar Beverages is a fourth-generation soft drink company based in Worcester, Massachusetts, that traces its roots to 1882. It is run by Ralph Crowley Jr., the great-grandson of founder Dennis M. Crowley. It distributes proprietary, private-label, and national soft drink brands as well as home and office spring water in the northeastern United States, and is the country’s largest independent soft-drink bottler.