Wrigley Uses Sales Portal To Collaborate In Real TimeWrigley Uses Sales Portal To Collaborate In Real Time

Wrigley Jr. Co.'s 400 sales professionals needed a new way to communicate with one another. They were using E-mail, voice mail, fax, and snail mail to send and receive Wrigley product data and sales presentations. But Wrigley executives decided it was high time the sales employees forgo the postage stamps and voice-mail messages and start collaborating with one another in real time.

To do so, Wrigley's IT team integrated an SAP sales portal application with Participate Systems Inc.'s Participate Enterprise 2 application services that can be accessed through a Java-based API. The modules can wrap around existing applications such as marketing data, sales data, or customer data, and deliver that information to employees via Wrigley's SAP Portal.

The sales staff, which has been using the new technology since October, can use the Wrigley Sales Web Center to communicate with peers, as well as brand experts, and access competitive data, sales information, and training modules.

"We knew we needed to be quick and responsive to our customers and be proactive and ahead of any issues that might arise," says Ralph Scozzafava, vice president of U.S. sales and customer marketing for Wrigley. "The only way we'd be able to do that is if we could communicate the issues and opportunities faster."

Scozzafava says Wrigley will also save money. Instead of using traditional mail channels to deliver new sales presentations or product data, employees can pull the data from the Web. In addition, employees can create custom sales presentations that incorporate product data and competitive information, giving them a more robust sales tool. Scozzafava admits there's a learning curve involved with the new technology and adoption will take time. Managers receive reports about the number of hours sales professionals spend with the new site. If an employee hasn't been using the site, the company will offer the employee additional training.

Pricing for Participate's software starts at $300,000.