Reference no: EM132732616

Case study:

As a provider of outsourced sales and marketing programs, MarketSource knows sales. The majority of the company's employees work remotely from retailer sites or from home offices, so connectivity and communications are critical to using their time efficiently. MarketSource representatives need to capture sales information, competitive data, and point-of-sale activity in the field through the firm's own Web-based applications and transmit that information back to the corporate office to produce vital sales reports. "We're primarily deploying tablet PCs to people who go to a lot of meetings and travel a lot," says Kevin, MarketSource Manager of Training. "This group takes advantage of the handwriting recognition and the digital ink capabilities built into Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to take notes in meetings and store them electronically so that they can be quickly searched or sent in an e-mail." Using tablet PCs, MarketSource sales representatives do in-store surveys in real-time and easily send and receive e-mail throughout the workday. This gives them more "face time" with the customer and helps them get reporting done faster, which reduces the amount of time spent working at home. The wireless network support in Windows XP Professional also helps make meetings more productive. "People bring their notebook computers or tablet PCs to meetings because they can access things on the network from the conference room rather than run back to their office for something," Julia says. "When a question comes out in a meeting, they just connect where they are and immediately get answers. They can send files back and forth to other users in the meeting, which also saves time." The deployment "has made a significant impact on the organization in terms of productivity and lowered TOC (Total Cost of Ownership)," says Kristin, MarketSource Director of Business Development. "But the real value comes from our ability to deliver better results for our partners."

Source: Microsoft (2004)

(a) Identify and discuss the purposes of using tablet PCs for MarketSource employees.

(b) Salesforce mobilization is a way of providing sales employees with wireless Internet-enabled computing devices for them to do their work anywhere anytime. Based on the case study above, explain your understanding of salesforce mobilization.