| Abstract: | The sales automation vendor rolls out four functional components it says can be used to shorten the inquiry-to-cash cycle through collaboration and automation. |
| Keywords: | Complex selling, complex sell |
Sales automation software purveyor Cincom Systems Inc. this week announced a selling and business acquisition product aimed at reducing the time it takes to turn a sales opportunity into a customer order.
The product, Cincom Acquire, targets manufacturers selling complex engineer-to-order and configure-to-order products. It works with CRM and ERP systems by adding functionality for guided selling, channel and distributor collaboration, sales and product configuration, quotation and proposal management, project and bid management, and contract and order management.
The software includes four functional modules: sales and product configuration; quotation and proposal management; bidding and estimating; and contract management and billing. Each is available separately — but when used together, all work from a single, integrated database to ensure data quality.
The sales and product configuration module, a revised version of the company's existing Quote-to-Order product, is the only component currently available. It features customer needs analysis, quotation and proposal management, rule-based pricing, detailed cost and margin analysis, and advanced calculations for complex requirements, among other capabilities. The quotation and proposal management module will be available in May, and the remaining two will be rolled out over the course of the year, the company said.
The Cincom Acquire software is built on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server architecture and Office Business Applications, which connect line-of-business systems and processes with the people who use them.
"The reason that is important to sales [teams] is because most companies today are using Microsoft Office — Outlook, Word, Excel — to manage that process," said Cincom's program director, Jim Wilson, in an interview with Managing Automation. "We have an application suite that integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft Office components."
The SharePoint Server collaboration platform aligns information and strategies from a variety of departments that may be involved in the overall selling process.
As a complementary offering to CRM and ERP, Cincom Acquire integrates out of the box with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP systems. It can integrate with other systems, including PLM software, through an enterprise application integration layer that provides XML interfaces.
The target markets for Cincom Acquire are manufacturers in heavy equipment, high-tech electronics, and aerospace & defense sectors — companies that have expensive, collaborative sales processes.
"It is aimed at reducing cycle times, improving quality, and creating the perfect order," Wilson said.
According to AMR Research, a 3% improvement in perfect order fulfillment translates into a 1% increase in profits.
One Cincom Acquire early adopter has been able to reduce quote-to-order cycle time from four weeks to one hour, Wilson said. "This has been accomplished by our sales and automation configuration component, which is a knowledge-based toolset that allows a company to automate the translation of a customer spec into buildable product."
The Cincom Acquire product announcement was made yesterday during Microsoft's Convergence conference in Orlando, FL. Pricing information on the four components was not disclosed.
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