B2B software briefing aworkbook

Go-To-Market (GTM) software
Wholesale Systems & Software Innovation
www.aworkbook.com
A snapshot of the systems, solutions & services to support the
wholesale product journey.
A personal view and digest of some research out there,
fully referenced and linked if you want a deeper dive.
Delivered in August 2013 at Eurobike, Friedricshafen, Germany
By John Shirley, Director, aWorkbook sales.

Common questions and issues
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1. What benefits can a company get from technology?
2. What challenges are faced?
3. How to manage data discipline and the one source of truth?
4. Workflow, established practices and new routines?
5. Why change? What to change? How to manage change?
6. System selection, solution providers and service options.
7. PLM, ERP, DAM, CRM, GTM, SOP - what do they mean & do?
8. What about integration?

Read this, if nothing else.
www.aworkbook.com
http://www.slideshare.net/OgilvyWW/hidden-in-plain-sight-mobile-b2-b

Why read it?
www.aworkbook.com
“Our research results help answer the crucial questions:
• Why is mobile more important now than ever for B2B?
• What are B2B brands doing to deliver the greatest value using
smart mobile devices?
• When it comes to my B2B brand, how do I develop a mobile
strategy and prioritize where to start?”
Source: Hidden in Plain Sight by Ogilvy One, October 2012

If you don’t?
www.aworkbook.com
“The pace of change is rapid and some B2B
brands are moving faster than others.
Brands who fall behind will begin to find
themselves at a competitive disadvantage compared
to those quicker to implement. Don’t be one of those
brands.
The future is here and its time to get started
finding the value in mobility for your B2B brand.”

An oversimplified view
i.e. It’s not just about reducing print
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The benefits of mobile digital are greater
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• Increased field selling time: 28%
• Eliminated redundant activities: 27%
• Increased win rates: 26%
• Reduced cost of sales calls: 25%
• Increased forecast accuracy: 25%
• Decreased administrative time: 24%
• Decreased sales cycle time: 23%
Source: Page 21 of Hidden in Plain Sight by Ogilvy One, October 2012
quoting a Yankee Group survey of 2,400 workers in the US

Digitisation / Smart Mobile / Tablet
Benefits
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“B2B brands are seeing transformational mobile
opportunities that will drive business results.
Mobile makes B2B marketing more effective, sales
interactions more productive, distribution partners
more successful and customers more engaged. The
impact is enormous and grows all the time.…”
.

Digitisation / Smart Mobile / Tablet
Benefits
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“They found that sales reps spend less
time on administrative tasks and more face
time with existing and prospective
customers, while companies spend less
money on printed sales materials, mailing
and delivery costs, and antiquated, paper-
based record-keeping processes.”
Source: Hidden in Plain Sight by Ogilvy One, October 2012 quoting a
Yankee Group survey of 2,400 workers in the US

Trends
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“ .. technology has made the transition from being
considered primarily a means to increased efficiency
and is now regarded as a strategic enabler for
balancing efficiency, innovation, and the demands of
ever-broadening channel and geographic reaches.”
“... as enterprise growth and financial health
increasingly rely on international expansion and the
strategic growth of new channels to market,
technologies that deliver scalable, integrated ways to
support the decision-making .... are likely to
substantially absorb increases to IT budgets in the
coming years.”
Download: http://apparel.edgl.com/reports

www.aworkbook.com
www.aworkbook.com

Trends on initiatives
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Mobile initiatives from nowhere in 2010 to 5% in 2012
Lead time reduction - the number of respondents indicating that
this will be their top business initiative nearly tripled from
5% in 2011 to 14% in 2012
Improvements to new product commercialization and launch
processes 16 % in 2012 indicated that will be the most important
business initiative. Nowhere 0% in 2011.
Source: Apparel, Top Technology Trends

Challenges 2
Its not easy
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Its not easy

Wholesale systems options
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ERP & Supply Chain Management
Sourcing/Production & Logistics
Warehouse Management & Product Identification
PDM/PLM ...3D product design
Go-To-Market (GTM) digital catalogues & mobile
E-commerce B2B
Retail

A useful buying guide
www.aworkbook.com
Dozens of vendors and many varieties of solution type.
Get the latest 2013 version here:
http://apparel.edgl.com/home and I note that Amazon
now have a B2B offering.

Go-To-Market like never before
www.aworkbook.com
aWorkbook delivers productivity gains and cost savings in the functional areas of:
Range Merchandising
Assortment Planning
Product Presentation
Sales Order Capture
aWorkbook is proven to deliver:
Bigger and better sales
Reduce sample costs
Reduced print costs
Better prepared reps
Smarter directed selling
More efficient processes
Speed up workflow
Faster time to market

aWorkbook Go-To-Market software
5 things to know
www.aworkbook.com
1. Multi-platform - It’s a native (installed) application connected live to the internet for updates and
submissions. It works on iPad and Android tablets, as well as laptops and desktop computers running
Windows and MacOS. This makes it unique as most solutions are online only or iPad only.
2. Outstanding ROI - It costs less than £10 per month per person where you have at least nine people
using it. That’s £84 per catalogue per month flat fee. Our unique offer of unlimited users means
product teams, category/country managers, reps, key account managers and retail buyers can all use
it to build assortments and orders – the more people you give access to the catalogue the better the
return on investment.
3. Fast and simple - Go live in less than five weeks. Getting set-up and live is NOT an IT project – it’s an
Excel spreadsheet completion exercise combined with putting images in a folder. Try it for free with
your own branded catalogue. aWorkbook integrates using XML and with any system. Also PDF and
Excel outputs give instant usability without integration.
4. Free updates - New features and functions every three months. Coming soon: enhanced product
ordering, Excel sheet creation and more PDF output features.
5. Don’t confuse it with ... It’s NOT an online B2B ecommerce platform or a web shop, or a CRM or
PLM. When your product range is being finalised for the season is when aWorkbook starts, and it
finishes when the order is captured for processing.

Some brands who use aWorkbook
www.aworkbook.com
Skins
Levi Strauss
Icebreaker
Craft
O’Neill
Eddie Bauer
Timberland
Eastpak
Helly Hansen
Kipling
Pacific Brands
Outdoor Brands
Dickies
Asics America
HTI

Video evidence 1
www.aworkbook.com
O’Neill
A case study from O'Neill global HQ in Amsterdam which tells how
they achieved a faster time to market with the unique aWorkbook
software solution, winning two weeks saved time and getting all
round better processes, workflow and results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2V5itsLdcs

Video evidence 2
www.aworkbook.com
Craft
Benoit Nelles, French Distributor for Swedish outdoor brand Craft, explains
how aWorkbook can successfully be used to sell better without radically
changing existing processes. In particular he illustrates how using digital
alongside a simple printed range map can save money on samples and
reduce print costs. Notably this is among clients who might be thought of as
old fashioned - not so as it turns out as they do in fact embrace and
welcome change.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3qDJrdNLgU&feature=youtu.be

Quotes from PDF case studies
www.aworkbook.com
O’Neill
“We’re getting bigger, better orders ...
Our sales reps were really well prepared ...
aWorkbook makes them look tremendous”
http://www.aworkbook.com/media/ONeill%20aWorkbook%20Case%20Study.pdf
Icebreaker Merino
“The account managers love it because it saves them loads of time
and makes them look good ...
The project was rolled out in just 4-5 weeks, using the equivalent
of just one full time project manager
http://www.aworkbook.com/media/Icebreaker%20aWorkbook%20Case%20Study.pdf

Alternative options
www.aworkbook.com
Build your own
Find one system to do it all
Do nothing
1. Build your own – while there are success stories, the arguments against are that it’s not your core
business. If you contract out, then it takes more time and money than you expect and the spend will
never end. And that talented techie you employ who can do app development? He has a job already.
Renting ours or another solution gives a much better ROI and you can be live in a few weeks.
2. Find one system to do it all – it doesn’t exist so forget it. The big Enterprise providers will offer you a
fully integrated mobile/tablet option but look closely and it looks terrible, is a nightmare to configure
and will take a team of highly paid consultants to do it. And even then it won’t give your Go-To-Market
teams what they want and need.
3. Do nothing and find a reason – reps not ready, systems not ready, got no budget, ignoring it.

If you do something
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Know what you want
Get the right set of features/functions
Meet the need for printed materials
Choose the right vendor for deployment
Pilot it and manage the transition
Manage/minimise the risk

Brooks Sports view
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Michael Quinn
Director Footwear Development, Brooks Sports Inc on PLM
1. Seek a reference company to be confident promises are true.
2. The solution that meets 100% of needs does not exist.
3. Prioritise fast time to value and lower cost of ownership.
4. Go-live success includes validation, refinement and training.
5. Business case should be based mainly on fast time to value.
6. Guard against customization requests, have a process to listen.
7. Success takes time and requires commitment.
Source: Apparel webinar:
http://apparel.edgl.com/web-events/PLM--Are-You-Ready-for-Out-of-the-Box-86688

Good news
www.aworkbook.com
Your competition are NOT
as far ahead as you might think
More than 75% are not doing enough
See the orange bar on the next slide.

Challenges 2
Its not easy
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A view from the Oracle
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An Oracle Commerce White Paper
September 2012
B2B Cross-Channel Commerce
Complexity, consumerization, and change
Get the full report here:
http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/customer-experience/b2b-cross-channel-commerce-1852543.pdf

Start soon
www.aworkbook.com
The report from Oracle shows some interesting statistics on how
advanced companies are.
The process of getting this right has only just begun.
They found no evidence of any company that had the perfectly
resolved and sophisticated set-up.
In fact only 25% of the B2B companies surveyed could say they had
an ecommerce site for B2B, some even saying their main web site
was not current.

It’s not easy
www.aworkbook.com
This is not because B2B companies are lax or lazy or lack
innovation, it is because it is complex, it is hard.
B2B is a lot more difficult than B2C.
B2B supports a broader range of business models, operating
in multi-channel, multi-currency, multi-brand and
multilingual world further complicated by massive product
catalogues, custom contracts and pricing, complex supply
chains and localization issues.
Source: Oracle, B2B Cross-Channel Commerce

Complex yet requires simplicity
www.aworkbook.com
The 2012 B2B Oracle survey revealed that most B2B sales involve
more than two decision makers, but 28% have five or more
decision makers involved in the purchase process.
What remains a simple fact is that expectations of the B2B
customer are that their experience with technology should be the
same as when they are acting as a consumer. This is what is meant
by the consumerisation of B2B IT

The case for fast and simple
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The Oracle offer is what you would expect from them:
“.. a unified, end-to-end commerce solution that
delivers more lucrative experiences while simplifying
management, reducing total cost of ownership, and
accelerating time to value.”
aWorkbook offers an intuitive app providing necessary
functions without a lot of extraneous options. As such it
is more effective than a complex solution that has the
devastating potential of slowing employees down.
£5k per year licence for unlimited use
Deployed by you (or us) in 5 weeks

Exciting
www.aworkbook.com
Digital channels have become the dominant medium
for influencing the decision making and building a
stronger relationship between the brand the retailer
and the end consumer.
The most effective B2B digital initiatives will be those
that enable organisations to successfully use the right
technologies, engage customers, and enhance decision
making and business processes across the enterprise.

If not now, when?
www.aworkbook.com
“The pace of change is rapid and some B2B
brands are moving faster than others.
Brands who fall behind will begin to find
themselves at a competitive disadvantage compared
to those quicker to implement. Don’t be one of those
brands.
The future is here and its time to get started
finding the value in mobility for your B2B brand.”

Call to action
www.aworkbook.com
Talk to us, tell us what you want to achieve and
we will aim to give you best advice.
aWorkbook has a lot to offer when understood
and positioned correctly alongside the other
systems you already have or think you need.
You can have a free trial to review that and prove
it. If aWorkbook is not what you need right now
then you will at least understand better what it is
you do need.
+ 44 (0) 1460 279744

B2B software briefing aworkbook

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