# Case study: Barloworld Equipment: Sales Rep App for Cat Machines

> A tablet and phone app that put Barloworld Equipment's full Cat machine range, live stock, priced quotes, finance sums, and business mileage in every sales rep's hands, online or off. We built and ran it with BigBrave from 2018 to 2021, with the API and management portal behind it.

- URL: https://www.happen.software/case-studies/equipment-sales-app
- Publisher: Happen Software (https://www.happen.software/)

## At a glance

- **Client**: Barloworld Equipment
- **Category**: Equipment · Field & mobile apps
- **Running**: 2018–2021
- **Engagement**: Built with BigBrave in 2018, then run and extended until 2021
- **Users**: Sales reps in the field, and sales managers and admins in the portal
- **Platforms**: iOS and Android app for tablets and phones, an API, and a web portal
- **Catalogue**: Cat product data synced every night: product classes, families, models, and machines
- **Offline**: Product sections, favourites, and images downloadable for use without a connection

## Outcomes

- **Nightly**: Sync of Cat's product data, so every rep saw current models, specs, photos, and 360° views
- **On site**: Quotes built and emailed in front of the customer, with discounts that stop at each product's bottom price
- **Offline catalogue**: Downloaded products and favourites stay available on customer sites with no signal
- **Field visibility**: Managers can see reps on a map and review each business journey's route, distance, and cost

## Context

Barloworld Equipment sells and supports Cat earthmoving and construction machines. Its sales reps spend their days on customer sites and in yards, where the conversation turns on specifications, what's in stock, what it will cost, and how it could be financed, often far from a good signal.

With BigBrave, we started in June 2018 and built the app, its API, and a management portal together. Regular updates from Cat's own product data kept the catalogue current. Quotes, stock, product comparison, and controlled discounts followed through 2018 and early 2019, and we kept it running until 2021.

## The challenge

- **A big, changing range**: The Cat range runs from classes to families, models, and individual machines, each with detailed specs, equipment options, photos, and videos, and it keeps changing.
- **Selling where there's no signal**: Reps present on sites and mines where mobile coverage is weak or missing, so the catalogue had to work offline.
- **Quotes with guardrails**: Reps need room to negotiate on site, but every price has a floor, and the quote has to reach the customer straight away.

## Before and after

| Area | Without it | With the app |
|---|---|---|
| Product information | Brochures and spec sheets that go out of date. | Every Cat model's specs, features, equipment, photos, videos, and 360° views, synced from Cat every night. |
| Units | Specs converted between metric and US units by hand. | Each rep picks metric or US units, and specs and quotes follow. |
| Stock | A call to the branch to check availability. | Stock on hand and in shipping shown on each product and in a searchable stock list. |
| Pricing and quotes | Quotes put together back at the office. | A quote built on site, discounted by slider, percentage, or price down to the bottom price, and emailed to the customer. |
| Finance | Repayments worked out separately. | Instalment, balloon, total paid, and interest calculated from the quote's total. |
| Mileage | Business trips logged by hand for claims. | Each journey tracked by GPS with route, distance, and cost, and visible to managers in the portal. |

## A site visit, end to end

1. **Set off**: The rep starts a business journey in the app, named for the appointment. The phone records the route in the background, and the rep shows up on the managers' live map.
2. **Find the machine**: On site, the rep browses from product class to family to model, or searches the whole range. Downloaded sections and favourites work with no signal.
3. **Show it**: The product page shows features, specifications in the customer's units, standard and optional equipment, photos, videos, 360° interior and exterior views, and related products.
4. **Compare and check stock**: The rep sets machines side by side on their key specifications and checks how many are in stock and in shipping.
5. **Quote**: The rep picks the customer and contact, adds machines, sets the discount within the allowed range, chooses delivery or collection, adds notes, and finalises. The customer gets the quote by email.
6. **Finance and drive home**: The finance calculator opens with the quote's total for deposit, term, rate, and balloon. The rep ends the journey, and its route, distance, and cost are saved.

## What we built

- **Cat catalogue sync**: Cat's product range, specifications, photos, videos, and 360° views are updated regularly and presented in a format suited to reps' phones and tablets.
- **Rich product pages**: Features, grouped specifications in metric or US units, standard and optional equipment, photo galleries, videos, 360° interior and exterior views, and related products.
- **Offline catalogue**: Reps download product sections, favourites, and images before a visit, so they can present the range even when a site has no signal.
- **Compare & favourites**: Machines set side by side on their specifications, global search across the range, and favourites kept per rep for quick access on site.
- **Stock & pricing**: Stock on hand and in shipping on each product and in a searchable list, with list and bottom prices in rand for reps allowed to quote.
- **Quotes**: Customer and contact picked from the client list, discounts by slider, percentage, or sale price that never go below the bottom price, delivery or collection, notes, drafts, and resend by email.
- **Finance calculator**: Price plus extras less deposit, with interest rate, term, and balloon, giving the monthly instalment, balloon amount, total paid, and interest. Opens with the quote's total.
- **Journeys & live tracking**: Business or personal journeys tracked by background GPS, with the route mapped and its distance and cost worked out. Managers see reps live on a map, journey history, and location heatmaps.

## What each team gets

### Sales reps

- The whole Cat range on a tablet, online or off
- Quotes built and emailed on site
- Business mileage recorded automatically

### Sales managers

- Reps on a live map, with journey history
- Distance and cost of every business trip
- Discounts held above each product's bottom price

### Admins

- App users, portal users, and permissions
- Quoting and journey tracking switched on per rep
- Logs of app activity and integrations

## How it was delivered

- **Jun–Jul 2018, Catalogue & journeys**: Started on 12 June with the API, portal, and users. The Cat data sync, journeys, live tracking, finance calculator, product pages with 360° views, favourites, offline content, and stock followed within six weeks.
- **Aug–Oct 2018, Quotes & compare**: Quotes from August, with resend, notes, and delivery or collection by October. Product comparison in October, and over-the-air updates so fixes reached reps without a store release.
- **2019, Discounts & upkeep**: Discount sliders bounded by the bottom price in February, then platform, plugin, and location tracking updates through the year.
- **2020–2021, Support & maintenance**: Provided app support and maintenance for Barloworld Equipment's sales reps.

## Built to last

- Regular catalogue updates give reps a consistent, current view of the Cat range throughout the working day.
- Downloaded product sections and favourites remain available when a customer site has no signal.
- Discount controls protect minimum prices while allowing reps to prepare quotes on site.
- Journey tracking continues when the app is closed, keeping business mileage and costs recorded.
- Managers can follow rep locations in the portal without chasing updates.
- App improvements and fixes reached reps with minimal disruption to their working day.

Technology: Ionic, Angular, Cordova, .NET, ASP.NET Core, SQL Server, Google Maps

## Get in touch

Selling complex products in the field? We'll talk through how an app could put your full range, stock, and pricing in your reps' hands, online or off, with quotes they can send before they leave the site. Book a free 30-minute call with one of our engineers.

Contact: https://www.happen.software/contact or sales@happen.software