Supplementing Income
Nearly every CG company has found itself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of customer information that passes its way nearly every day. And while Pharmavite does not profess to have found a solution to the problem, the fact that the company is trying so hard to develop one has made it somewhat of a pioneer in its category.
"From the very beginning, we've always wanted to provide an information resource for everybody in our organization," says Pharmavite's director of sales administration Steve Poswillo. "We have tried to use technology to ease the flow of communication. There's so much information out there -- filtering out all the noise is always a problem."
EMPHASIS ON TECH
Pharmavite's emphasis on technology is all the more unusual given that few of its peers in the increasingly crowded vitamin and nutritional supplement category have showed similar interest in upgrading their systems. Founded in 1971 and based in Northridge, California, Pharmavite produces a range of products, including the Nature Made brand of vitamins and minerals. Pharmavite's tech focus, in fact, pervades nearly everything the company does. For instance, a recently launched "wellness advisor" on the company's Web site utilizes sophisticated analytics to provide visitors with personalized health advice.
Poswillo says the company has taken a progressive attitude towards technology from day one. "We've always tried to use technology to benefit our business," he says. "We've been very proactive, I think, in sourcing, collecting and analyzing data to help us understand not only our business, but our customer's business as well."
Of course, there are more than a few practical reasons for the emphasis on technology. Like other producers of vitamins and nutritional supplements, Pharmavite relies heavily on contact with its sales force, whose members are on the road for a good part of the year. If these sales reps cannot quickly get the information they need from the corporate mothership, a number of things could suffer as a result, most notably, sales and relationships with its suppliers.
As a result, Pharmavite has worked with a variety of technology suppliers to ensure that it communicates and administers its business as effectively as possible. Among the systems that Poswillo singles out is Silvon Software's Stratum sales performance management module, an analytical tool that helps Pharmavite streamline its supply chain.
THE HEADACHE MEDICINE
The module allows Pharmavite managers to analyze sales and inventory levels, as well as track profitability on a near real-time basis. It centralizes several processes that had caused many an administrative headache for Pharmavite, including sales/operations planning and management, demand management and accounts receivable analysis.
Poswillo touts the data-warehousing capabilities of the Stratum module, which Pharmavite has been using for more than six years. Until recently, the system had only been capturing several internal data elements. After a six-month expansion, however, the system captures nearly everything that is happening within Pharmavite, as well as point-of-sale data and other external information. Benefits include "traffic lights" that alert users, most importantly salespeople on the road, to essential information.
Poswillo says that he spent much of the last year bolstering these and other systems in order to ensure that its communications are managed as efficiently as possible.
"We try to create initial templates, then refine them based on what we hear from the field," he explains. "The idea is to provide information in a way that's easily digestible, then prioritize it. My role is to support the salespeople in the field, giving them the information they need, but not more than that."
The result, Poswillo concedes, isn't easily quantifiable. But he cites positive feedback from the sales force as an example that the company is succeeding in its efforts. "They want all data in a system that is easy to navigate and look at," he continues. "From a data point of view, you'd like to be a one-stop shop -- one point of contact, one look and feel." His ultimate goal, he says with a laugh, is an elusive system that will tell every member of the Pharmavite sales team exactly what to do every day. Poswillo concedes that such a system is unlikely to present itself anytime soon.
FUTURE ADVANCEMENT
In the immediate future for Pharmavite are a host of technology initiatives that the company hopes will further advance its business. Poswillo is eager to upgrade to new UPC code technology that will end paperwork, limit errors and increase overall efficiency. For similar reasons, he hopes to see increased standardization in both bar-code and EDI formats.
"It's important to have an EDI-compliant data feed coming into Pharmavite," he affirms.
Poswillo anticipates continued good relations, both from a technology-coordination perspective and otherwise, with customers, suppliers and other third parties. While he acknowledges the challenges of "getting everybody on the same page," he adds, "No one system is going to do everything, we know this, and that's why there's rarely any conflict with outside parties. There are so many different perspectives and they're all valid on some level."