Just Zoogle It! Bridging Tradition and Technology for Pilmico Feeds’ Sales Teams

At Aboitiz Foods, our sales team members are on the frontlines of our operations. Their typical workweek demands a complex set of responsibilities, including customer engagement, managing their concerns, meticulous planning, and reporting. On top of these, they must also maintain expert technical knowledge across the different species we serve. This is particularly true for the sales team of Pilmico Feeds, the animal nutrition division of Pilmico, an Aboitiz Foods company headquartered in the Philippines.

To address these evolving demands amidst Pilmico’s growing product portfolio, the Nutrition, Innovation & Technical Research (NITR) team introduced Zoogle, an integrated knowledge hub. Co-developed by the Business IT Solutions (BITS) team, this web-based application houses every functional information the sales team needs—from feeding guides and farm management guides to calculating relevant farm performance metrics across multiple species, among others.

What sets Zoogle apart is its offline functionality.  Recognizing the challenges faced by teams visiting remote farms with limited network access, the app was designed to deliver critical features even without internet connectivity. This allows sales teams, especially those providing day-to-day support and technical guidance on farms, to obtain the information they need to perform at their best—anywhere.

This initiative is a great example of how Aboitiz Foods integrates animal production with technology, bridging traditional agri-food practices with modern innovation. Zoogle, conceptualized by NITR and co-developed by BITS teams of Aboitiz Foods, clearly demonstrates how we pursue shared wins through teamwork. In addition, it also brings to life the Aboitiz A+ 10 behaviors of being “Synergistic” and “Innovative.” Aligned with the Aboitiz Group’s Great Transformation journey, we are leveraging the power of technology to streamline and optimize our processes, revolutionize traditional ways of working, empowering our team members and partners to thrive in a rapidly evolving market.

Bridging tradition with technology for animal nutrition expertise

 

Zoogle has transformed access to comprehensive information, making the once tedious task of flipping through pages of notes into a simple process that requires just a few clicks. The platform provides easily accessible information on various species, including hog, rabbit, broiler and layer chickens, duck, and quail.

“As we expand Pilmico Feeds’ portfolio to explore new markets and opportunities within the livestock industry, it’s essential to provide our frontliners with the right tools to stay updated on key knowledge–whether it’s about our products or farm management practices,” shared Alvin John Oliveros, DVM, Product Development Manager (NITR), Aboitiz Foods.

Embracing technology and having a data-driven mindset is essential to becoming a Techglomerate. With Zoogle, we can provide data-driven technical support to our customers, offering automatic computation features that reduce human errors.

Keeping Customers Top of Mind 

Upholding one of our core values, “Keep Customers Top of Mind,” Aboitiz Foods is committed to building partnerships that extend beyond traditional sales by consistently prioritizing our customers’ welfare. This commitment is fully exemplified by Pilmico Feeds, which not only provides high-quality feed products but also holistic after-sales services, including technical support, to ensure our customers’ farms reach their full potential.

Zoogle plays a key role in this customer-first approach, empowering our Sales teams to become trusted and reliable partners in the field. “Zoogle offers the support needed to enhance the Sales teams’ efficiency, enabling them to become even more effective partners in driving growth for the company and our customers,” Oliveros added.

Since its launch in December 2024, Zoogle has become an essential tool for sales teams and NITR, especially during customer visits. Currently equipped with six modules, it is designed for growth and can be expanded to cover additional species such as milkfish, tilapia, and gamefowl. As Zoogle continues to evolve, it’s set to empower teams with even greater capabilities—helping them respond faster, think smarter, and serve customers better.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What problem did Zoogle solve for Pilmico Feeds’ sales teams?
Sales teams in animal nutrition carry a demanding dual burden: managing customer relationships while maintaining deep technical knowledge across multiple livestock species. As Pilmico’s product portfolio expanded, keeping frontline staff current on feeding guides, farm management practices, and performance metrics across hog, poultry, duck, quail, and rabbit became increasingly difficult to manage through printed materials or manual notes. Zoogle consolidated all of this into a single, searchable, always-accessible platform — replacing the tedious, error-prone process of flipping through physical references during customer visits.

Q2: Why does offline functionality make Zoogle fundamentally more useful than a standard web app?
Farms — particularly those in remote or rural areas — frequently have poor or no internet connectivity. A knowledge tool that only works online is effectively unavailable at the exact moments a sales representative needs it most: standing in a field answering a farmer’s technical question. Building offline capability into Zoogle from the outset was a design decision that prioritized real-world field conditions over development convenience, ensuring the tool delivers its value where it matters rather than only in office or urban settings.

Q3: How does Zoogle’s automatic computation feature reduce risk in customer interactions?
Manual calculation of farm performance metrics — feed conversion ratios, mortality rates, productivity indices — introduces human error under time pressure in the field. A miscalculation during a customer consultation damages credibility and can lead to poor farm management recommendations. Zoogle’s built-in automatic computation removes this risk by generating accurate outputs instantly, allowing sales teams to focus on interpreting results and advising customers rather than performing arithmetic. This shifts the sales team’s role from information retrieval to genuine technical partnership.

Q4: What does Zoogle’s development process reveal about how internal innovation works best?
Zoogle was conceptualized by the Nutrition, Innovation and Technical Research team — the domain experts who understood exactly what information sales teams needed — and co-developed by the Business IT Solutions team, who had the technical capability to build it. Neither team could have created an effective product independently: NITR without IT would have had the right content but no platform; IT without NITR would have built a tool without the right substance. The collaboration produced a product that was both technically functional and genuinely useful in practice.

Q5: What is the broader significance of a sales enablement tool like Zoogle for agribusiness?
Agriculture has historically been slow to adopt digital tools, particularly at the field level where connectivity and digital literacy present real barriers. Zoogle demonstrates that technology adoption in agribusiness does not require imposing entirely new ways of working — it succeeds by solving a specific, recognized problem that people already experience daily. When technology is designed around the farmer visit rather than the office workflow, and when it works without internet access, it earns adoption because it genuinely makes the job easier rather than adding complexity to it.