US deal for Auckland software developers

By CHRIS BARTON

Ponsonby-based StayinFront has scored a $1 million-plus deal with US pharmaceutical company DJ Pharma to implement its customer relationship management system
on handheld PCs.

Asia Pacific managing director Tony Bullen said StayinFront's Pocket Elk system was designed to improve sales territory management and provide more complete
and up-to-date information to DJ Pharma's 300 sales representatives. A key requirement was to be able to electronically capture doctors' signatures in order to comply with regulations concerning sample disbursement and inventories.

DJ Pharma markets branded prescription pharmaceutical products to physicians and clinical practitioners.

Mr Bullen said handheld PCs were becoming increasingly popular among sales staff because they were light and small and had an extended battery life compared with notebook computers.

Unlike notebooks, handhelds were also instantly available for use when turned on.

After completing their sales calls, staff could either return to the office to synchronise the newly gathered data with their PC and back-end order management
systems or send the information from remote locations using dial-up or wireless modem access.

Another key factor in the handheld uptake was that compared with Windows, Microsoft's Pocket PC (formerly Windows CE) and Palm's operating systems were designed with pen input in mind, making them much easier devices to use.

The substantially lower cost of handheld devices was a further reason for the trend - especially with the growth in broker-based sales staff who were required to buy their own hardware.

Mr Bullen said the bulk of StayinFront's new business involved Palm or Pocket PC implementations.

After its success with DJ Pharma, the company had also begun a smaller handheld rollout with pharmaceutical com
pany Bayer in Singapore. But while the trend was taking off overseas, handheld use among sales staff had yet to catch on in New Zealand.

That meant a change of tack for Stayinfront. It usually developed and and tested products here before taking them to other markets. But the company now had ready access to both resources and distribution channels in the United States after a multi-million dollar acquisition by Redi-Direct in February of a 78 per cent interest in the New Zealand company (previously
called Great Elk).

The buy-in led to a merger with another Redi-Direct company, WindSoft, which had been distributing Great Elk's flagship customer relationship management software, Visual Elk.

The company now had 180 permanent staff with offices in Auckland, Sydney, New Jersey, Illinois, Maine and London.

Most R&D had remained in the Auckland office, with about 50 staff. "The key to keeping people is to have interesting work to do."