MRL Posnet to develop mobile-based field force tools

Mobile-based FFA applications would improve profitability by up to 30% for firms with significant level of sales teams transacting on field

Hyderabad-based point of sale transaction (POS) management solution provider for banks, MRL Posnet, is working on developing smart data management tools to help firms maximise the efficiency of field-based sales force in real time.

Being developed by leveraging its credit and debit card POS data management platform, MRL claims the mobile- based field force automation (FFA) applications would improve profitability by up to 30 per cent for firms having significant level of sales teams transacting on the field.

All a firm needs to do is download the MRL-licensed mobile application into the salesmen's device to access data from the user company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) embedded back-end data live on the field.

According to Kishore Kothapalli, CEO and managing director of MRL Posnet, “The mobile FFA platform enables the network of salesman to update the real time field data directly into the user company's server, therefore avoiding the time lag involved in data entry operations at the back-end.”

In the process, the entire data gathered from the field and encrypted to user company’s ERP would aid management to gauge customer buying behaviour, product demand, price movements, all in real time.

The market potential for automation  services is huge, considering firms require a limited investment for securing enabling hardware devices like mobiles and tablets. However, for the entire chain of automation services, MRL has priced it at Rs 400 per month for each licence, Kothapalli said.

MRL’s active clientele include India Cements, Heritage Foods, Shriram City and a Bengaluru-based ATM cash-loading firm, SSMS. “Considering the range of services we offer, we prefer to work with firms having a sales force of 200 and above, but even 100 is considerable for us,” said Prathap Pingali, director and co-founder of MRL Posnet.

Pingali said the company's e-cash register for bakery chains was currently undergoing beta- phase testing and would be out soon.

“The underlying idea here is to make transaction paper-free by sending cash bills from mobiles to the customers via digital format,” he added.