{"id":618,"date":"2015-05-07T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T13:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/?p=618"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:47:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:47:21","slug":"is-portatour-the-best-route-planner-for-my-field-reps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/is-portatour-the-best-route-planner-for-my-field-reps\/","title":{"rendered":"Is portatour\u00ae the best route planner for my field reps?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are you managing field reps and looking for software to increase their performance? The following article provides a checklist for you to verify if portatour\u00ae is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/sales-route-planner\">best route planning software<\/a> for you.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>portatour\u00ae is suitable for your company if &#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>your <strong>field reps <\/strong>travel by car;<\/li>\n<li>you know the <strong>addresses <\/strong>of the customers to be visited; and<\/li>\n<li>every field rep visits <strong>3 or more customers<\/strong> per day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Does all of this apply?<br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/try\/en\">Try portatour\u00ae now!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0The more complex your tasks, the better portatour\u00ae will help, if for example:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>your\u00a0<strong>customers must be visited<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>regularly;<\/li>\n<li>customers must be visited at <strong>different intervals<\/strong> according to their importance;<\/li>\n<li>existing <strong>appointments in the calendar<\/strong> must be <strong>taken into account<\/strong> for the schedule;<\/li>\n<li>customers have <strong>limited business hours<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>sales calls have <strong>different durations<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>each field rep has <strong>more than 50 customers <\/strong>in their territory;<\/li>\n<li>field reps spend <strong>2 <\/strong><strong>or more <\/strong><strong>hours\u00a0 in the car<\/strong> every day;<\/li>\n<li><strong>overnight stays on the way <\/strong>need to be included in the schedule;<\/li>\n<li><strong>appointments are<\/strong> often unexpectedly <strong>postponed or cancelled<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>your data is already managed in an <strong>ERP<\/strong> or <strong>CRM<\/strong> system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do one or more of these conditions apply? Then you have\u00a0found\u00a0the best route planner for your company!<br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/try\/en\">Try portatour\u00ae<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and get started now!<\/p>\n<h3>Why is portatour\u00ae recommended as route planning software for field reps?<\/h3>\n<p>Time is money, especially for professional outside field reps. With portatour\u00ae your team can visit more customers per day while travelling fewer miles.<\/p>\n<p>portatour\u00ae calculates daily <strong>routes<\/strong> at the push of a button and thus enables visiting the addresses in the <strong>shortest possible time<\/strong> and travelling the <strong>shortest possible distances<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>portatour\u00ae is excellent when it comes to planning <strong>regular customer calls<\/strong>: you define the intervals of the visits for each customer. portatour\u00ae then schedules each customer <strong>automatically<\/strong> for\u00a0the next\u00a0call on a convenient day and <strong>at the same time optimizes the route<\/strong> by scheduling nearby customers for the same day.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Appointments<\/strong> in the calendar are taken into account, spare time is used in the best possible way to achieve additional calls. On the way to an appointment, customers are automatically suggested\u00a0for a visit\u00a0if they are due.<\/p>\n<p>Equally, <strong>business hours<\/strong> are complied with, <strong>working hours<\/strong> are taken into account, possible <strong>overnight stays on the way\u00a0<\/strong>are suggested. There are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/en#featurelist\">over 100 different funtions<\/a>\u00a0help you to optimize your routes.<\/p>\n<p>Are your customer addresses already available via a <strong>CRM<\/strong> or <strong>ERP<\/strong> system (e.g. Salesforce and Dynamics CRM) or as files? Companies can profit from numerous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/blog\/2014\/08\/29\/using-your-customer-data-in-portatour-route-planner\/\">possibilities for the integration with CRM\/ERP systems<\/a>\u00a0and administrative features.<\/p>\n<p>portatour\u00ae is the tool of choice for professional field staff <strong>in over 100 sectors<\/strong> like such as pharma, consumer goods, industrial and commercial supplies, medical technology, cosmetics, wholesale, paper and stationery products, merchandising, building and construction materials, electronic items, workshop and craftsmen supplies, car components, optics, tobacco products, heating and plumbing, market research, sports and leisure products, clothing and textiles, furniture and fittings, telecommunication, and many more<\/p>\n<p>Read some of our customers&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/success\/en\">success stories<\/a> with portatour\u00ae.<\/p>\n<p>Try portatour\u00ae &#8211; the online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/sales-route-planner\">route planner for professional field reps<\/a>!<\/p>\n<h3>In which cases do you need something other than portatour\u00ae?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You transport goods from A to B<br \/>\n<\/strong>Then you might be looking for <a href=\"https:\/\/staedtler-logistik.de\/en\/logistics-software\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">logistics software for deliveries<\/a>. portatour\u00ae cannot take into account that goods must\u00a0first be picked up from A and then transported to\u00a0B.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The majority of appointments is determined by your customers<\/strong><br \/>\nIf your schedule is mainly based on customer requests\u00a0\u2013\u00a0e.g. in the case of service calls\u00a0\u2013 then portatour\u00ae has no leeway to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/route-optimizer-software\">optimize the route<\/a>. For this purpose, we recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastleansmart.com\/en\/products\/fls-mobile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FLS MOBILE, the field service app<\/a> developed by our sister company.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Each rep visits more than 125 addresses per day<\/strong><br \/>\nEven portatour\u00ae has its limits\u00a0\u2013 (currently) portatour\u00ae cannot optimize more than 125 calls per day and field rep.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A call center contacts many customers but only a few appointments are arranged<\/strong><br \/>\nIf your call center contacts many customers in order to make appointments but\u00a0most customers decline, it is difficult to use portatour\u00ae.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There is no fixed correlation between customers and field reps<\/strong><br \/>\nYou do not mind which rep visits which address? Whoever is nearby and has time is the most appropriate? Then you might be searching for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=Dispatching-Software\">dispatching software<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Your field reps walk, go by bike or use public transport<\/strong><br \/>\nportatour\u00ae optimizes routes for vehicles (e.g. cars, trucks, motorbikes). You need a different route planning solution if your staff are walking (e.g. as distributors of advertising material), going by bike or on public transport.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Not sure yet?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/try\/en\">Try portatour\u00ae for free<\/a>\u00a0in your company.<\/li>\n<li>Describe your individual situation and send an e-mail to <a href=\"mailto:sales%40po%72ta%74%6Fur%2Ecom\">sales@portatour.com<\/a>\u00a0to get our feedback.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you managing field reps and looking for software to increase their performance? The following article provides a checklist for you to verify if portatour\u00ae is the best route planning software for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-best-practices"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6897,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions\/6897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portatour.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}