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DATACOL and the portatour® route planner

increased efficiency through time savings

Success Story

Monthly performance with portatour®

from the perspective of the sales manager

10 h less effort per new field rep
95 kilometers less per month per field rep
40 more customers per month per field rep
Christian Strobl

Our three most important points in field sales force are flexibility, integrity and continuity. portatour® supports us noticeably in all these points.

Christian Strobl,
Group Manager - (Sales Manager/DE) - Marketing

About DATACOL

DATACOL Austria GmbH is a subsidiary of DATACOL Srl, headquartered in San Bonifacio in the Italian province of Verona. The company has a further eight branches throughout Europe and has a portfolio of 55,000 articles, which are primarily geared towards c-parts management. DATACOL's main customers are workshops and trade companies. On average, around 1,800 orders are received daily from over 80,000 long-standing customers, which are generated via the sales department or the company's own web store. Almost 1,000 field reps are on the road for DATACOL throughout Europe.

About Christian Strobl

Christian Strobl holds the position of Group Manager for Tyrol/Vorarlberg at DATACOL. He is also Sales Manager for Germany and supports the marketing team.

Why automated route planning?

The primary reason for DATACOL's decision was to save time when adding new members to the field service team. In painstaking detail work, customer addresses and other data were entered into Excel lists and converted into tours. Since switching to portatour®, sales manager Christian Strobl has saved up to 10 hours for this tasks alone, which can be used productively. Another major point is the active avoidance of long, unprofitable trips, which were always a major problem without portatour®. Thanks to automated route planning, the company saves at least 150 kilometers per month per field rep, which also reduces fuel costs.

Our three most important points in field sales force are flexibility, integrity and continuity. portatour® supports us noticeably in all these points.

Christian Strobl, Group Manager - (Sales Manager/DE) - Marketing

Improvement on many levels

Christian Strobl also sees the intuitive use of portatour® as a major advantage. New field reps do not have to wait long to familiarize themselves with a tour, but can simply get started straight away. Before portatour®, DATACOL spent hours planning the next week's tours on Fridays. This is no longer necessary. In addition to the time component and the optimized tours, portatour® also helps DATACOL in the event of sick leave. If a field rep is absent, there is no need for major rescheduling. No more data needs to be downloaded and the sick colleague does not need to be contacted separately. Thanks to portatour®, a colleague simply takes over the sick colleague's tour and Christian Strobl can quickly and easily compensate for the absence by adjusting the tour.

Our new field reps use portatour®, understand the purpose of this tool and find it an enrichment for them.

Christian Strobl, Group Manager - (Sales Manager/DE) - Marketing

User friendly and intuitive

Before finally deciding on portatour® at DATACOL, Christian Strobl tested several competitor products. Among other things, he was impressed by the high user friendliness. He found the simple access to detailed control very successful, as it is possible but not absolutely necessary. As a trained office administrator with advanced IT skills, the sales manager knew exactly what to look out for and found exactly what he was looking for for his team in portatour®. Christian Strobl and his employees use portatour® regularly and benefit from the self-explanatory interface and the numerous customization options. Initial skepticism on the part of some field reps, who feared monitoring and control, was quickly dispelled thanks to the Q&A session. Even the long-serving and experienced colleagues now use portatour® for what it is - a reliable tool that makes their lives easier.

The implementation was simple and worked like a charm. There are special things, such as the custom fields, that we think are simply brilliant.

Christian Strobl, Group Manager - (Sales Manager/DE) - Marketing

Reliability and accuracy

Together we can achieve more, which is why DATACOL is now using portatour® to successfully manage its daily field service operations. The high reliability of the software provides many advantages, while the numerous customization options help to maintain an overview at all times and to drive the best possible tour. The customer calls have increased and, thanks to the integrated reporting, the accuracy and regularity of call reports has also increased. Rallies are no longer an issue and nobody has to sacrifice their working hours to spend hours planning the next tour. A gain all along the line.

We feel that we are in really good hands with portatour®. The support team in particular has always been very helpful with any questions we have.

Christian Strobl, Group Manager - (Sales Manager/DE) - Marketing

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