For 25 years, Scott Kay has been designing hand-sculpted jewelry, including wedding bands and fine fashion collections. Recognized as the No. 1 best-selling bridal brand in North America, Scott Kay is an artist and metalsmith. His intricate designs are crafted from a variety of metals, including palladium, cobalt, sterling, and 14K and 19K gold.

Starting in his studio in Teaneck, NJ, Kay and his team of 80 artisans sketch out each idea, and he personally sees them through to completion. From there, the challenge for the Scott Kay sales team begins: take the designs to market. The company sells to more than 2,000 jewelry retailers. The sales team’s newest showcase of choice for its jewels: iPad.

“At Scott Kay, everyone in sales, marketing and merchandising is immersed in showing our product designs,” says Dawn Pearson, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “iPad is a tool that allows our team to be productive and convey our message, but not be burdened with carrying around so much product.”

Portable Jewelry Showroom

Before moving to iPad, the sales reps had hauled vast amounts of product line sheets, sales brochures, binders, and jewelry with them on the road, which was a cumbersome—and even risky—process.

“The reps were carrying a heavy briefcase chock full of valuable, hand-crafted jewelry samples through airports,” explains Rudy Pospisil, Senior Art Director/Interactive, at Scott Kay. Salespeople were often uneasy carrying the valuable jewels, and loading and unloading was no easy task.

Then the sales team at Scott Kay had the brilliant idea to move the entire product line virtual—to iPad. Pospisil worked with Pearson and the salespeople to design and develop a new way to take the brand on the road. Within three months, all the Scott Kay sales materials—including training manuals, catalogs, order forms, press releases, merchandise videos, and advertising—were available on iPad. “Anything that a salesperson could want is on iPad, so we really don’t carry anything else,” says Pearson.

Start-to-Finish Sales

The Scott Kay team uses a variety of apps on iPad not only to display the jewelry to its retailers, but to make the actual sale. “From the time a salesperson walks into a meeting, iPad facilitates them throughout the entire appointment,” says Pearson.

The team uses Mail and Calendar on iPad to first set the appointments. The latest images from the designers are stored and shared using the Dropbox app, and they are also available in iPhoto and as PDFs in iBooks. The salespeople use DocsToGo on iPad for spreadsheets and other internal document sharing.

At the core of the company’s ordering system is FileMaker Go for iPad. The app allows salespeople to display the jewelry designs and set up line sheets and sourcebooks with detailed pricing and specs for each piece. Designed by Pospisil, the ordering module lets salespeople interact with customers, create a purchase order, and email the order details—all from iPad.

“On iPad, the POs have pictures and SKU numbers, so there’s no mistake. iPad and FileMaker Go have been a big help in improving our customer service,” says Pospisil.

Precious Savings: Money and Time

One of the key benefits of Scott Kay’s shift to iPad was a significant reduction in the amount of inventory salespeople now need to carry. The reps went from hauling several hundred jewelry samples to half a dozen, resulting in significant sample cost reductions as well as lower insurance expenses.

Moving the workflow to iPad also saved countless hours in preparation time, and material printing costs. The sales cycle is significantly shorter with iPad, too. “We’ve saved anywhere from three and seven business days. With iPad, I’m able to get information in a second to a retailer from anywhere in the world,” says Saro Keciyolu, Operations Director for the Canadian market at Scott Kay. “iPad promotes efficiency, ease of accessing data, and organization, which is essential to any business.”

Reputation Booster

iPad has also helped Scott Kay improve the more intangible aspects of its business—its sophisticated, ahead-of-the-curve image.

“Using iPad makes us look more savvy to our retailers. The device is like Scott Kay himself—very attuned to craftsmanship and design,” explains Pospisil. “iPad is an incredible asset to our brand.”