Success Story: Santa Helena Alimentos and the CadClick App

In today's post, I want to talk about a success story from BeC Inteligência. It concerns an application we developed for Santa Helena Alimentos — a project I hold with great affection because we worked very hard to create something truly personalised, and the feedback we have received has been extremely positive.

If you have been considering the possibility of having a bespoke app for your company, do not skip this post, as it will be very enlightening.

Who Is Santa Helena Alimentos?

I cannot begin talking about the project without first introducing Santa Helena. It is simply the largest manufacturer of peanut-based products in the country, based in Ribeirão Preto (SP), and has nearly 80 years of history.

If the name does not immediately ring a bell, just think of Paçoquita and Mendorato Japanese Peanuts, among other treats that sweeten our lives every day.

What Was the Project?

We were contracted to create an app to be used by the company's sales representatives and agents to carry out client registration: CADCLICK.

The need to improve the registration system was identified by the business team, as employees were spending a great deal of time performing tasks that could be automated — such as typing in the company name when simply entering the tax identification number would make it appear automatically.

Logically, this delay in the registration process was having a negative impact on employees' day-to-day work and on sales — after all, as everyone knows, time is money. Think about it: if a collaborator registers a client more quickly, they not only make the process more reliable, but can also visit more clients per day, which certainly increases the chances of closing more deals.

When asked what the company considered when deciding to create a bespoke app for its needs, Denis Chiodi, head of the systems team at Santa Helena, highlighted 3 main factors:

• Reduction of operational time,
• Improvement and reliability of the information validation process and
• Costs.

As this was their first experience with BeC Inteligência, it was natural that they had some uncertainty about various aspects — which is why we put together a detailed schedule whose first phase began in November of last year and concluded in January of this year.

The App Development Process

As you all know, the process of developing a bespoke application is something completely customised to the needs of a specific client, so it is essential that the client is present at every stage of the process — which was certainly the case throughout our partnership with Santa Helena.

Régis Martins, a SAP analyst, followed everything very closely throughout the 3 months we worked on the first phase. A very detailed schedule was drawn up in which they presented their needs to us and we progressively proposed alternatives that could meet them, resolving the issues raised.

Where Are We Now?

As I mentioned, the first phase concluded in January of this year and in March — last month — we began the second stage.

To date, there has been no need for any urgent corrections and the results are very positive. I would like to highlight three aspects that Guilherme Duarte, another Santa Helena employee who followed the entire project, pointed out regarding the investment made:

• The improvement in the registration process, reducing time and facilitating access to information.
• The positive feedback from those who actually use the app — namely the sales representatives and agents.
• The fact that this project has become a benchmark case within the company, receiving many compliments for the quality with which it was executed.

The feedback has been very strong regarding the app's responsiveness — it has versions for both Android and iPhone, and is also available for web access.

At this point, you might be wondering: how much did Santa Helena pay for all of this? According to Denis, one third of the total charged by other companies that took part in the same competitive process. And it was precisely because of this that it was possible — during a pandemic, when the economic situation of most companies was far more challenging — to carry out a project of this scale.

I wanted to write this case study so that you know it is not impossible to have a bespoke app for your company. It is well worth reflecting on your needs and, based on them, requesting a quote. BeC did it for Santa Helena and can do it for you too! Get in touch with us and let's talk about it!