GRANALU and the portatour^® route planner

About GRANALU and Alexej Nowototschin

The Spanish company operates in the commercial vehicle sector and specializes in tipper trailers, moving floor trailers and platforms as well as other vehicles in this area. GRANALU has been on the market since 1997 and is Spain's leading manufacturer of semi-trailers with over 15,000 units produced to date. With a production capacity of 1,200 trailers per year, GRANALU currently has an annual turnover of between 35 and 40 million euros. The company now manufactures its trailers completely from aluminum. Alexej Nowototschin works as Country Manager for Germany and Benelux. At GRANALU, the trained businessman is currently building up the German market and the surrounding countries for the company and is responsible for all agendas including sales and field sales force.

Why automated route planning?

The original reason for using portatour^® was to simplify the planning of efficient tours, as Alexej Nowototschin explains: "It always proved to be very time-consuming to manage an efficient route. As we had not yet divided up territories for our field reps, it was important for us to be able to split between the different zip codes. Today, if I say I want to select zip codes starting with 8, the system automatically creates an optimized route for me." Another major advantage is the flexible rescheduling of existing routes, which the system does at the touch of a button. "It is often the case that at least two to four of the 15 appointments you have planned for a week are rescheduled or cannot take place. portatour^® takes care of this automatically."

The graphical representation on the map is simply great. I can see what is already being processed well and where I should perhaps follow up and what the problem is. In short, we also avoid the risk of customers being overlooked or forgotten.

Alexej Nowototschin, Country Manager Germany & Benelux

Accuracy meets efficiency

The option of call block, which is planned and taken into account by the software accordingly, is also a great advantage for Nowototschin. The route optimization and its graphic display on map also represents a massive added value for the country manager: "With portatour^®, I always have an optimal overview of my tours and can see immediately if there is a need for improvement somewhere. I can see at a glance if customers has not been visited for a long time and can adjust call intervals at the touch of a button. With portatour^® it has become virtually impossible for customers to be overlooked or forgotten. That is a huge advantage."

Implementation and user-friendliness

The introduction of portatour^® went smoothly and Alexej Nowototschin's employees have accepted the software very well. The initial skepticism about learning something new gave way within a few minutes to enthusiasm about the possibilities that were opening up. "I said at the time, 'Watch out, let's sit down and I'll show you for half an hour' and in the end everyone was immediately convinced. Our field reps quickly realized how much time they could save thanks to portatour^® and that it is a great advantage when their routes are created automatically according to their own specifications." GRANALU is also impressed by the user-friendliness, as Alexej Nowototschin emphasizes: "The software is extremely simple to use, which makes the application very easy for anyone to use. Everything is easy to understand and simply works. I have seen several systems and none work as straightforwardly and simply as portatour^®."

After some initial skepticism, portatour^® was quickly well received by all employees. After a half-hour demonstration, it quickly became clear how much time and work they were saving with this software.

Alexej Nowototschin, Country Manager Germany & Benelux