Martinez and Valdivieso: Delivering timely customer quotes while improving profitability
Explore Martinez and Valdivieso’s journey with SAP
For field-based salespeople at Martinez and Valdivieso (M&V) Company, it was a challenge to get the information needed to set prices that are attractive for customers while bringing a profit for the company. To address this, the agricultural supplies company developed an AI-based solution using the SAP HANA Cloud vector engine.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Agribusiness | Santiago, Chile | 187 employees |
Anticipated automation of sales order entries
Anticipated reduction in order typing times
Sales Manager, Martinez and Valdivieso Company
Helping farmers maximize crop yield by optimizing plant health
From phytosanitary products, fertilizers, and seeds to services and financing, M&V provides a range of agricultural solutions that help farmers get the best out of their land. More than 95% of the company’s salesforce is field-based, with M&V’s salespeople meeting and advising farmers in person in some of the most remote areas of Chile and Peru.
With a client base that spans small farms to large agribusiness producers, M&V intentionally customizes pricing for each customer using factors such as order volume, purchase history, and payment terms. However, for field-based staff, getting the information needed to set attractive prices while maintaining profitable margins was a challenge.
M&V is a strong believer in the use of technology to enhance its operations. Recently the company migrated to SAP HANA Cloud to take advantage of the latest AI-based innovations. M&V’s salespeople now engage with customers using up-to-date and tailored pricing—significantly impacting the effectiveness of its salesforce.
Combining AI with business context to provide customized pricing
Initially, M&V considered creating a mobile app to provide salespeople with quotations. However, due to low Internet coverage in many areas where they operate, the company’s internal development team instead opted for a less bandwidth-intensive solution based on instant messaging.
To request a customized quotation, salespeople simply send a text message or record a voice message with details of the quantity of products required and desired payment or credit terms. Using third-party speech recognition technology, an AI bot converts natural-language voice messages to text. A machine learning model hosted on SAP Business Technology Platform then uses this information and draws on contextual business information provided by the SAP HANA Cloud vector engine to produce a quotation. To tailor the model to specific business needs, the internal team is training a custom machine learning model using the machine learning libraries embedded in SAP HANA Cloud, which are accessible through both R and Python. This provides flexibility and leverages the full power of in-database processing in SAP HANA Cloud.
This price is generated specifically for the customer that the salesperson has inquired about and is based on order details, previous purchasing history, and credit rating. An individualized quotation is then delivered back to the salesperson’s mobile device within a couple of minutes in the form of an instant message.
Setting the right prices for commercial success
Once the solution is fully deployed, M&V anticipates a significant positive impact to the bottom line. The company hopes to eliminate the need to block sales due to low margins, which currently happens for 5% of all deals. In addition, M&V anticipates reducing the number of sales with a margin of less than 15%. The solution should increase the company’s overall profitability while enabling it to remain competitive in its pricing approach.
Forecasting is another key area where M&V looks forward to considerable improvements. Currently, the company is achieving 60% accuracy with financial projections. With this solution, however, the expectation rises to 70% or possibly even higher. Improved forecasting accuracy enables the company to better manage the supply chain as well as the response to overall demand.
Customers now get an efficient service and the best prices for M&V’s solutions, and the salespeople can close deals without delay.
Chief of Data Analytics, Martinez and Valdivieso Company
Nurturing business growth with AI-enabled solutions
With the scalable pricing solution based on SAP HANA Cloud, M&V can now support the remote salesforce to perform at its best as the company grows. Meanwhile, parent company NS Agro S.A. is planning to roll out the pricing solution to its other businesses.
The team at M&V are also looking into further developing the pricing solution to accept input information in the form of images, translating these into text before using the details to generate pricing proposals. In addition, the company is considering other use cases for the context-enhanced, AI-enabled solutions that draw on the vector-based technology offered by SAP HANA Cloud. Potential use cases include the handling of inquiries about stock availability and the creation of a product knowledge base that can be interrogated by salespeople in the field.