Interview with Sidely: When CRM Becomes a Growth Accelerator
In a sector where every minute spent in-store matters, Sidely has established itself as a new‑generation CRM/SFA: fast to deploy, easy to adopt, and designed to reconnect field teams with headquarters.
We spoke with Arthur d’Achon, CEO and co‑founder, to understand how Sidely is reshaping commercial execution and why our collaboration creates so much value for sales forces.
Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
I’m Arthur d’Achon, CEO and one of the three co‑founders of Sidely.
We created Sidely with Alexis and Adrien five years ago, driven by the conviction that CRM tools in the consumer goods industry needed a fresh start.
In particular, with tools designed for the smartphone/tablet era, enjoyable for sales reps to use, and deployable in weeks rather than quarters.
How would you explain what Sidely is to someone who doesn’t know your solution yet?
Sidely is a CRM/SFA designed specifically for field commercial development, built for sales teams and their managers. We support more than 200 sales forces across various distribution networks.
On the field side, reps manage their routes, track their placements, take orders, and document each visit. At headquarters, commercial leaders get real‑time visibility into activity, distribution, and performance by point of sale.
This constant back‑and‑forth between field and HQ is what makes a CRM truly useful, and that’s exactly what we’re building.
What makes Sidely stand out in the market?
Fast deployment
We use innovative technologies that drastically reduce setup and configuration time during the critical project launch phase.
Where market standards are counted in months, we go live in weeks, sometimes even days, for “simple” scopes.
Easy integration with existing tools
These same technologies allow us to integrate seamlessly with our clients’ existing systems: ERP, BI, or specialized partners like EasyPicky. Information flows in real time, boosting team productivity and improving decision‑making quality.
Simplicity of use
We have an absolute obsession: making the tool simple and accessible. For sales reps in the field, but also for managers and administrators who remain autonomous in evolving their tool: building analyses, creating forms, managing assortments, and more.
In field CRM, data quality depends entirely on what teams are willing to input. A tool that isn’t adopted produces no value.
“With Sidely, we can verticalize each client’s experience on a single platform, whatever their needs. In practice, this means everyone gets a personalized and unique experience while sharing a common foundation.”
Adrien Jonquet
CTO & Co‑founder of SidelyWhat are Sidely’s core values, and how do they guide your work?
Our values are excellence, benevolence, and transparency.
Excellence
Excellence shows in our daily work with clients: an obsession with support and continuous product improvement. We release new updates, major or minor, every week, because we believe a tool that doesn’t evolve constantly is a bad tool.
Benevolence
Benevolence is reflected in the long‑term relationships we build. Our clients are our first source of inspiration: we co‑built Sidely with their field expertise from day one, and this still guides our product roadmap today.
Transparency
Transparency applies to pricing, functional scope, and visibility into our roadmap and product evolution. We believe this is essential to grow effectively in such a specific market.
What role does AI play in the design and evolution of your products?
AI in internal processes
Internally, we use proprietary AI models that allow us to deploy complex projects in record time. It’s now one of the major drivers of our growth.
AI within the product
In the product, LLMs (Large Language Models) have enabled us to go much further on key features that bring strong daily value to teams: advanced route optimization, automatic dashboard analysis, visit preparation and summaries, etc.
AI makes data more intelligible and improves decision‑making for both field teams and management.
AI for Sales Forces
More fundamentally, AI is redefining what it means to equip a sales force. For twenty years, CRM tools were built to record and consolidate. Tomorrow, they will anticipate, recommend, and act. Vendors who treat AI as a marketing feature will be overtaken by those who treat it as a paradigm shift.
Can you share a client case that illustrates what you aim to achieve at Sidely?
The Eckes‑Granini case is particularly telling.
Before Sidely and EasyPicky, shelf checks were done manually, product by product, a task that consumed most of the visit time for 50+ sales reps, when they should have been focusing on negotiation and launch development.
By working hand‑in‑hand with the EasyPicky teams, we deployed a complete solution in record time, with major impact on daily operations.
They cut shelf‑check time by 2.5×, saving 30 minutes per visit, and increased visit frequency from 4.2 to 4.7 per day. These gains unlocked something bigger: expanding category coverage and signing new distribution partnerships.
This is exactly what we aim to deliver: giving sales teams more commercial time and turning it into real growth.
How would you describe the complementarity between Sidely and EasyPicky in one sentence?
Sidely and EasyPicky form a duo that gives time back to sales teams, strengthens data reliability, and makes managers more reactive.
What do our two solutions enable together that neither could offer alone?
Individually, each solves part of the problem. Together, they solve the entire problem.
The sales rep conducts their visit in Sidely, triggers EasyPicky for the shelf check, films the aisle, and structured data flows back automatically into the visit. At HQ, field data becomes instantly actionable, transforming the organization’s responsiveness.
What benefits does the EasyPicky x Sidely combination bring to Eckes‑Granini?
The numbers speak for themselves:
Shelf checks 2.5× faster
30 minutes saved per visit
Visit frequency increased from 4.2 to 4.7 per day
Only a few hours of training needed for full adoption of both tools
But the impact goes far beyond time savings:
Data is instant and automatically synchronized at the end of each visit, enabling managers to adjust priorities and trigger corrective actions at the right moment.
The tools support diversification: Eckes‑Granini expanded from four to seven tracked categories, extended partnerships, and absorbed this complexity without increasing field workload.
Modernizing tools strengthened employer attractiveness, making recruitment easier in the sales force.
What keeps the project delivering value is the co‑construction mindset between Eckes‑Granini, EasyPicky, and Sidely. The tools evolve continuously based on real field needs.
“Today we can say we succeeded and we’re proud of it.”
Margot Brochet
National Sales Director, Eckes‑GraniniDiscover the full Eckes‑Granini Success Story and the teams’ testimonials
How do you imagine the evolution of our partnership in the coming years?
Over the next few years, three directions seem obvious:
Removing technical boundaries between our products so EasyPicky data directly fuels action recommendations in Sidely.
Supporting more brands together, especially in channels where image recognition is not yet widely adopted.
Continuing to build hand‑in‑hand with clients and partners. This co‑construction mindset, more than technology itself, is what has set us apart from the beginning and will keep us relevant in the years ahead.
Going Further
The complementarity between Sidely and EasyPicky shows how a well‑integrated ecosystem can transform the daily work of field teams and accelerate decision‑making.
Discover how this approach can strengthen your commercial execution and unlock new growth opportunities.
