Zim-Kings Trading Ltd. (Zim-Kings) is a leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sales and distribution business currently headquartered in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Zim-Kings distribution system comprises of a manufacturing plant, multiple warehouses, a sales fleet and an electronic shipment system that allows them to deliver products throughout Zimbabwe. Zim-Kings import their products from Zambia and distribute an array of products ranging from home care, personal care, foods, snacks, and drinks. Their products can be found in major retail stores, and many different wholesalers. Import permits into Zambia can be timely and difficult to obtain, meanwhile, there is a great need to deliver the products in the field. Due to the need of distribution and sales services, Zim-Kings has already begun to build their own manufacturing plant so that can bring products to the market much faster. Zim-Kings continues to prepare for growth internally and nationwide.

"Before we could only process a sales order with a signal. Thanks to MobiWork, we saw an increase of 40% in sales orders."
- Devan Pettigrew, Systems Administrator of Zim-Kings

Key Challenges: Lack of Connectivity & Visibility, Lost Stock

Zim-Kings key challenges were the inability to process sales in offline mode (a very common occurrence in that region), a lack of visibility and a disorganized stock inventory. Prior to MobiWork, Zim-Kings was using a solution that was not user-friendly, time-consuming and involved many steps in order to complete a single work order. With a limited system in place, Zim-Kings large volume of imported stock was not organized, managed, or tracked in the warehouses or in the field. Stock in excess of twenty thousand dollars would get lost or stolen. Reordering, shipping, and importing these valuable products caused major time delays, additional costs, and headaches for both the management team, as well as major clients and their customers.

In addition, there was no visibility as to the quantity and what products were sold in the field. Zim-Kings sent sales fleets of vans that market, sell, and distribute products. Approximately 70% of Zim-Kings field sales take place in remote areas where there is no network connectivity. Multiple sales prospects were lost due to the inability to sell in these remote areas. It was estimated that $120,000 was lost in potential sales. Some sales were processed, however, with limited connectivity, the sale transactions were not properly recorded or invoiced, and as a result, many products were unaccounted for or lost. It was critical for their sales team to find a way to organize, track, and catalog their stock, and have the ability to capture sales information and complete sales orders in remote areas in offline mode. This was a determining factor to increase sales and to meet their sales objectives.

Results: Tremendous Gains in Field Sales & Customer Satisfaction

Zim-Kings was trained and fully operational in less than a week from conception. Their team loves that MobiWork is user-friendly, accessible offline, and given them visibility on all sales operations. Their team also relies on other MobiWork features including the product catalog, inventory management, sales order history, forms, and the analytics dashboard. Zim-Kings believe that employing these MobiWork features have certainly contributed to a significant increase in sales results. The MobiWork analytics dashboard has shown an increase of productivity by 80% and a revenue growth rate of 35%.

Thanks to MobiWork's offline functionality, Zim-Kings has had an increase of sales orders by 40%! Devan Pettigrew, the Zim-Kings Systems Administrator recently stated, "MobiWork will be the first option for our future online product catalog." MobiWork's product catalog and inventory features have given Zim-Kings ultimate visibility in the field, as they can see stock quantity, stock availability, and much more. Zim-Kings loves that their stock inventory is managed, traceable, and lost stock is no longer an issue. Zim-Kings gained 90% of visibility in their stock inventory, sales orders, and field operations. Devan Pettigrew said, "Our stock shrinkage has been alleviated, our stock inventory is organized, and we now save $20,000 a year!" Zim-Kings plan for their next stage of growth with their upcoming manufacturing plant and expand their presence throughout Zambia.