So what does Sherwin-Williams, the nation's largest specialty retailer of paint, stains, coatings, wall coverings and associated supplies and sundry items have to do with the Palm Treo? Well, the company recently deployed more than 2,000 Palm Treos to its entire sales force in the United States, Caribbean and Canada.

By using the Treos as wireless tools, sales representatives gain immediate access to valuable company resources that improve customer service, centralize information, and enhance their daily business operations. The Sherwin-Williams employees are able to use their Treo smartphones as their mobile office as they manage email and phone calls while at customer locations.

Collaborating with AppForge, a member of Palm's new Select Developer Program, Sherwin-Williams created the customized Palm OS (R) application. The application allows its sales force to record daily sales calls, calendar updates and customer contact information immediately after visiting with a customer, regardless of whether they have cell coverage. Once returned to cellular coverage, the data automatically synchronizes with the corporate network.

"The Treo smartphone presented an opportunity for us to integrate and centralize all information, and also provides a common tool for our sales representatives to manage their daily activities," said Emiro Uribe, manager of systems development for Sherwin-Williams.

"The Sherwin-Williams program is an innovative implementation of a mobile customer relationship management system, and we applaud them for their successful deployment," said Tara Griffin, vice president of enterprise markets for Palm, Inc. "Companies like Sherwin-Williams illustrate that the promise of a highly effective mobile workplace is now a reality."

Before the deployment of Treo smartphones, Sherwin-Williams' widely dispersed sales force relied on a manual process of recording sales calls. But now the sales force have Treos which are able to help improve customer service and reduce administration costs by providing email and messaging.

If you're wondering why Sherwin-Williams chose the Palm Treo over other devices, it's because of the Treo's size and form factor, the integration of its PDA and phone features, and the stability of the Palm OS platform. So, it seems that Sherwin-Williams is another happy customer who appreciates the "Zen of Palm."

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