My name is Sergey Fokin. I started my career at Hill's in 2011, when I was asked to set up and build a sales team across several regions and make sure it ran efficiently. Over the years, my role kept growing, and eventually I became responsible for the entire direct sales operation and for working with every channel — from KA (key accounts) to traditional retail and the veterinary channel.

Around 2014, we started thinking about an automated reporting system. We already had plenty of reports, but they didn’t let us draw big-picture conclusions or analyze data in a single format. Reports from sales reps and supervisors were often scattered, and some data was collected by hand, which made decision-making harder.

That’s what pushed us to look for a reliable solution that could bring all the information together, improve transparency, and give us better control over what was happening in the field.

We launched our reporting automation project around 2016, and the system has evolved a lot since then. We started with traditional retail, then added KA and the vet channel, which gave us a single database and timely, highly detailed reports. One standout feature was “cover sheet” reports, which replaced our outdated spreadsheets. The new system let us process data more accurately and quickly, and that was critical at every level of the business, from frontline sales reps to senior management.

By around 2020, we took the next step and added a module for managers to raise the level of control and the quality of field work. It was important that managers could not only verify the data coming in from their teams, but also oversee their training, assign tasks based on audit results, and track how those tasks were completed. The system became not just a source of data, but a tool for making sure field work was done right — including report validation, photo and location checks, and ongoing employee training.

One of the most noticeable business results of the rollout was saving up to 30% on promo investment, because we could now quickly change promo mechanics and manage how they were executed. On top of that, we could finally get an objective view of our distribution coverage and how our products looked on shelves, especially in remote regions.

The automation also helped us pull reports from different systems into one place, which made analysis much simpler and faster.

Working with the Automatica team was a genuinely great experience. Their engineers were highly skilled and quick to respond, so we could find solutions fast and adjust the system as our needs changed. Being able to test new features quickly was especially useful — we saw results right away and could fine-tune them as needed. I believe the team’s experience, their understanding of our needs, and their fast response to requests sped up the rollout significantly and made it as efficient and user-friendly as possible at every level.