Eckes-Granini Rolls Out ORBIS Retail Mobile

Consumers spend just a few seconds on average scanning a supermarket shelf for an item. If they don’t spot the one they’re after within that time window, they often end up putting a competitor’s product in their cart instead. Visibility through optimum shelf placement and availability are therefore critical success factors in retail.

Eckes-Granini appreciates just how strategically important optimum shelf placement is in the fiercely competitive beverages market. With brands including hohes C, granini, FruchtTiger, and Die Limo, the family-owned company – founded in Nieder-Olm in 1857 – is counted among Europe’s leading producers of fruit juices and fruit-based beverages.

In addition to high product quality, outstanding innovation, and consistent focus on the consumer, a key driver of this fruit juice producer’s commercial success is a strong, hard-hitting field sales force. By conducting regular visits to supermarkets, the team checks that products are given eye-catching placement on retail partners’ shelves, rolls out promotions, and monitors ongoing promotional activity at the point of sale (POS).

If a company is to stay one step ahead of the competition, it must have efficient, data-driven field sales processes. An internal analysis revealed that there was still room for improvement in this respect. Streamlined, swifter workflows would allow field tasks to be handled with even greater precision. Rolling out ORBIS Retail Mobile – a Power App based on the Microsoft Power Platform – is a key step in that direction.

The Power App integrates seamlessly with ORBIS Retail, the company’s existing sector-specific CRM package based on Dynamics 365, and is linked to its existing SAP ERP solution. Eckes-Granini didn’t take long to decide to remain within the Microsoft ecosystem. The new app – known internally as the “Fruit App” – maps every field sales process end to end: visit and route planning, shelf placement data acquisition, and ordering of (pop-up) displays for POS promotions.

ORBIS Retail Mobile was built almost entirely from scratch and replaces the Resco Mobile CRM app that was used in the field previously. The goal was to simplify, streamline, and bring transparency to field sales workflows wherever possible. The key focal point was therefore on maximum usability – confidently guiding users through each step over an intuitive user interface (UI) – along with process automation, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

“ORBIS Retail Mobile is a genuine milestone for our Field Sales Team. Even during the key user phase, it was clear that automation and the use of an AI agent are making workflows considerably faster, easier, and more efficient than before. At the same time, the Power App is a key bridge towards fully digital field sales operations,” commented Björn Romanski (Head of Field Retail at Eckes-Granini Deutschland).

The app’s benefits are especially clear to see when it comes to ordering (pop-up) promotional displays. What used to be a time-consuming, partially manual process that relied heavily on experience can now be completed in the Power App in just a few taps, since all the relevant information on available displays, stores, and promotions is right there. That’s a genuine gain, as it lowers the barrier to ordering and placing displays for a promotion at the POS, while the quick and easy digital ordering process frees up more time for field sales staff to make additional store visits.

This data broadens the information base and delivers precisely the POS insights needed to spot new trends and market opportunities even earlier, and to plan promotional activity with much greater precision. A sophisticated questionnaire with a dynamic question tree has also become established as a key tool for gathering additional information beyond the standard shelf audit data.

Another core objective is improving data quality. For Eckes-Granini, it’s essential to know at all times which stores within a supermarket chain carry its products, how they’re positioned on the shelf, and how current promotions are performing. As retail continues to undergo rapid changes and ranges rotate more frequently, optimum shelf placement can make the world of difference between success and failure. Up-to-date, precise placement and availability data reduces the risk of losing valuable shelf space and market share.

“ORBIS Retail Mobile now delivers this information promptly, consistently, and accurately. This enables us to make more informed decisions – in the likes of negotiations with retailers on listings, assortment strategy, or sales initiatives,” explained Mr. Romanski. Another advantage is the seamless integration of Power BI reports into the Power App, which deliver additional, clearly visualized insights into key sales metrics.

Looking ahead to the future, there are plans to integrate Microsoft AI features into the Power App to efficiently support shelf placement analysis. Photos that field sales staff use to document the placement of Eckes-Granini products would then be saved directly to Microsoft SharePoint, where a Copilot agent tags them with hashtags, organizing them by category and making them easy to find. Based on this information, the images can be analyzed using AI – to assess the placement quality, for example. There are plans to incorporate a second Copilot agent to answer specific questions by drawing on the continuously updated data structure stored in SharePoint. Further AI scenarios are also being considered to efficiently support field sales staff with their work and make the app easier to use – for example, by letting staff request information from the AI agent by voice.

Eckes-Granini turned to ORBIS SE to develop its field sales Power App. The fruit juice producer has been working with the IT service provider for around ten years – as ORBIS is a partner with profound expertise in the Microsoft ecosystem, extensive experience in the consumer goods industry, and an in-depth understanding of Eckes-Granini’s sales processes. Thanks to the collaborative partnership between the Eckes-Granini and ORBIS teams, this challenging development and rollout project was completed in a mere twelve months. The solution recently went live in the Food Retail business unit of Eckes-Granini Deutschland GmbH.

Mr. Romanski is happy with the results achieved so far:

“ORBIS Retail Mobile is speeding up our sales processes, making them more efficient, and enabling sound decision-making based on up-to-date data.”

Björn Romanski, Head of Field Retail at Eckes-Granini Deutschland GmbH

The app is now also set to be rolled out in the “Out-of-Home” segment (catering, hospitality, on-the-go consumption). Implementation is already underway and is nearing its first real-world test. There’s also nothing standing in the way of extending its use to include Eckes-Granini’s international subsidiaries.

The IT service provider is also marketing the Power App – developed in close collaboration between ORBIS and Eckes-Granini and tailored to specific processes – to other consumer goods manufacturers as a standard version. Their feedback is incorporated directly into ongoing development operations, so Eckes-Granini benefits from updates and new features as they emerge – which is a considerable added bonus.