Nigeria remains a huge market for field force management automation solutions – Papyrus boss
By Kasim Bakare
Lack of efficient digital solutions to help manage distribution channels, sales, inventory management and in-store sales activities has been the main impediment to an effective tracking and brand visibility evaluation for brands deploying salesmen and field representatives in Nigeria. This has led to the introduction of field force management automation, as an important measure in providing field insights to managers especially in the retail business. In the past, foreign firms which held sway in the market faced a major challenge of developing unique and well tailored products for the Nigerian market.
It was on this premise that Papyrus Digital Solutions Limited, a Lagos-based field force management company was conceived and launched in 2012. The premier, wholly-Nigerian field force management company was established by professionals with over 50 years of combined experience in Sales, Marketing and Technology. Leading the team of these young professionals is foremost salesman and brand communication expert, Richard Iweanoge. Richard was recently appointed the MD/CEO of the company after a 19-year successful stint that saw him traversing sales, consumer marketing and brand management & communication at Nigeria’s number 1 telco, MTN.
Responding to MARKETING EDGE’s enquiries on his assessment of the field force digital solutions market, Richard noted that though the market presented a lot of challenges at the earlier stage of the company because of the dominance of foreign players, the consistency of the company in working on the best unique solutions kept it going. He added that Papyrus’ unique selling point (USP) is its ability to build and deploy customised solutions for the Nigerian market.
Hear him: “The field force digital solutions market is one that is dominated by a lot of foreign solutions. We have a lot of Indian companies and lately we are having some South African companies. There is nothing wrong with others playing in the same market, but the question is: do they really understand the peculiarity of the market in terms of customising solutions for the market?
“We are Nigerians and we are proud Nigerians that know what is suitable for Nigeria. We have the capacity to offer solutions that are peculiar to Nigeria. The uniqueness of Nigeria can be best understood by Nigerians. We are the only indigenous company in this space providing end-to-end solutions. Having been a salesperson, I have been in the trenches and having been a sales manager, I have managed sales people. What we have done is to build customised solutions and not partnering with anybody. We are staffed only by Nigerians. From conceptualisation to the building and engagement, we are wholly Nigerian.”
With a vision to build solutions that will empower managers through insights on the field, the fast-growing digital solutions provider has built time-tested digital solutions and innovation in field management that has extended its client base beyond the shores of Nigeria. Recently, the company got a brief to deploy its digital solutions for a major client in Ghana through an FMCG company in Nigeria. Having made significant progress in the Nigerian market since it started operation in 2012, Richard as the CEO of the company, has the core mandate to extend its operations to other parts of Africa.
According to the CEO, another task will be on how to push the brand and its unique products in the Nigerian market. One of those products is FieldMaxPro, the flagship product of Papyrus.
FieldMaxPro is a field force automation management solution. It is made up of a mobile application, an administrative dashboard, a reporting and analytics backend with various components for the Field Rep, Manager and Administrators all for the effective management.
Meanwhile, the Papyrus boss noted that the Nigerian market presents huge opportunities and potentials for the field force automation business. Hear him: “Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa. Africa is the only remaining frontier in terms of growth. Think about it that way. So, if you are playing in the biggest economy in Africa, in a continent that remains the only frontier for growth in the world, the opportunities are huge. The Board of Papyrus actually gave two mandates that are instructive on what my responsibilities as CEO would be. One is that FieldmaxPro, our flagship product, needs to be the premier solution for field management in Nigeria. The second mandate was that the solution needs to see Africa as its platform. So, whatever I do in the next five years, I have a responsibility to ensure that those two mandates are achieved. Before I was appointed, we already had a client in Ghana through Nestle.”
Commenting on the challenges of running a digital solutions company and deploying digital solutions in Nigeria, Richard noted that the talent acquisition, Internet connectivity and skepticism of blue chip companies in the ability of local companies to build digital solutions, remain the biggest challenges in the industry.
Significantly, the avant-garde digital solutions company has a technical team led by an experienced techie, Seun Oludele. Seun has over a decade experience working on different digital solutions across different sectors in the tech space. Seun and his team were able to solve a major problem facing most field force digital solutions in Nigeria – making the app work offline. It is to the technical team’s credit that all apps on the Papyrus platforms can run both online or offline irrespective of location in the country.
“It is not everywhere you have good Internet connection in Nigeria. If you look at the other digital solutions, you need Internet connectivity to run. The challenge of running the digital solutions offline was the first major challenge our technical team had to overcome. Whether you are here in Lagos or in Damaturu, you can still do your work; the system will still capture what you have done even without Internet connection – you can send your report as a salesman or field representative. Beyond that, finding talents is a challenge. By far, the biggest challenge is skepticism.
“A lot of blue chip companies still doubt the ability of local companies to provide these digital solutions in field force management. They are so used to working with the foreign companies. But we have moved from that stage now. We have had situations where we pitched with a foreign company and got the job ahead of the foreign company because the client said he believes that we understand the business and can provide customised solutions. Our technical team is one of the best in the tech space,” he explained.
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