Marketing Information Systems and the Sales Order Process

November 24, 2015
Overview of Fitter Snacker
Fitter Snacker manufactures and sells two types of nutritious snack bars: NRG-A and NRG-B. The NRG-A bar touts “advanced energy,” and NRG-B boasts “body-building proteins. Fitte’s sales force is organized into two groups: the Wholedale Division and the Direct Sales Division. The wholesale division sells to intermediaries that distribute the bars to small shops, vending machines operators, and health food stores. The direct Sales Division sells directly to large grocery stores, sporting goods stores, and other large chain stores. The two divisions operate separately from one another in effect breaking the Marketing and Sales functional area into two pieces. * The two sales divisions differ in terms of quantities of orders and pricing terms
The direct sales division offers customer volume discounts to encourage larger sales orders. The wholesales division charges customers a lower fixed price. * Sells snack bars under the Fitter Snacker brand name * Packages the bars in store-brand wrappers for some chain stores

Problems with Fitter Snacker’s Sales Process
Many of Fitter Snacker’s sales orders have problems, such as:
Incorrect pricing, excessive calls to the customer for information, delays in processing orders, and missed delivery dates.
Reasons for problems:
FS has separate information systems throughout the company for three functional areas: * Sales order system * Warehouse system * Accounting system * High number of transactions that are handled manually * Information stored in the three systems is not available in real time
Sales Quotations and Orders
Giving a customer a price quotation and then taking the customer’s order at FS.
Sales call: salesperson either telephones the customer or visits in person.