Archive for February, 2010
February 25, 2010
Return on Investment (ROI) is a vastly 
important tool to evaluate business decisions and purchases. iQuote is an innovative Sales System that delivers a strong ROI through its unique features. This week the Blog will detail and serialise our ROI White Paper created to highlight the potential benefits that iQuote’s Distributors and Resellers currently enjoy.
Leverage & Plan Inventory
Shippability! Resellers may place quotation requests into a few Distributors to see who can ship an order quickly. The Distributor that can complete an order often wins the order provided price is competitive. Promotional and End User Special Bid Pricing often means that complete orders must be placed on a single Distributor. To stand a better chance of winning an order from a Reseller quote items that are either in stock or on a short lead-time. Sometimes it is possible to achieve similar configurations to a customer solution using different options – so switch selling is possible.
How does iQuote help with Inventory?
When Sales are doing a quotation in iQuote they are shown stock availability by part number. For options this can be in a single view so comparing different configurations is easy. If you had a choice would you choose a System Unit as your base model with no stock and a long lead-time? No Sales would switch sell to a model you have. This reduces weeks of stock and price protection risk. iQuote highlights ‘shippability’. iQuote will also start to produce inventory reports that show weeks of stock per part number based on current stock position and recent quotations.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, iQuote, Product Management, Quote Software, ROI | Tagged Channel, configurator, iQuote, ROI | Leave a Comment »
February 24, 2010
Return on Investment (ROI) is a vastly important tool to evaluate business decisions and purchases. iQuote is an innovative Sales System that delivers a strong ROI through its unique features . This week the Blog will detail and serialise our ROI White Paper created to highlight the potential benefits that iQuote’s Distributors and Resellers currently enjoy.
iQuote Return on Investment – Stock Alerts
Inventory is a scarce commodity even though it doesn’t always feel that way. Often Resellers will have ‘requirements’ registered with several Distributors for items in constraint. A proactive Sales Person will monitor constraint items as the first person to tell a Reseller they can ship an order has a good chance of getting the order. This may not be the first Distributor to receipt free stock of course.
How does iQuote help with Stock Alerts?
As part of a major development we call Quotation Health Check, iQuote will inform Sales if something has changed from non-shippable to shippable. We will also bring in the concept of stock thresholds so if something is in stock but selling fast iQuote will prompt Sales if it hits a level that they can define.
Posted in Channel Business, iQuote, Product Management, ROI | Tagged Channel, configurator, iQuote, Return on investment, ROI | Leave a Comment »
February 17, 2010
Return on Investment (ROI) is a vastly important tool to evaluate business decisions and purchases. iQuote is an innovative Sales System that delivers a strong ROI through its unique features. This week the Blog will detail and serialise our ROI White Paper created to highlight the potential benefits that iQuote’s Distributors and Resellers currently enjoy.
Price Agility Improves Margin. How does iQuote help with Price Fluctuations? Users of iQuote can re-price a quote with a single click from the Open Saved Quote function. Sales are advised of price changes at part number level as well as the global change on the quote. Moving forwards iQuote’s Quotation Health Check (on the roadmap) will proactively tell Sales if a product goes up or down in price. The earlier a price change is detected the more choice Sales have on how to handle it. iQuote can also factor in price changes due to new or expired promotional pricing (e.g. Bundles).
For discussion and further information on the potential ROI of iQuote please visit our LinkedIn iQuote user group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2081850
or the specific ROI discussion on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2081850&discussionID=14021974
Posted in iQuote, Product Management, Quote Software, return on investment calculator, ROI | Tagged Channel, iQuote, Return on investment, ROI | Leave a Comment »
February 16, 2010
Return on Investme
nt (ROI) is a vastly important tool to evaluate business decisions and purchases. iQuote is an innovative Sales System that delivers a strong ROI through it’s unique features . This week the Blog will detail and serialise our ROI White Paper created to highlight the potential benefits that iQuote’s Distributors and Resellers currently enjoy.
Attach Rate Selling Improves Margin. How does iQuote help Attach Rate? iQuote measures the Attach Rate globally per Manufacturer or per Product Subset. It also measures the attach rate against every user so if one sales person has an Attach Rate of 8 and another of 4 it identifies a training requirement. Attach Rate measurement at Sales Quotation level is the purist indicator of how much effort is being put into clothing Systems.
iQuote also makes it easier to Attach Sell by offering options that are supported by systems (only). It also validates the quantity to improve Sales Confidence (a major factor in Attach Selling). iQuote offers a near comprehensive number of options and coverage is improving all of the time.
For discussion and further information on the potential ROI of iQuote please visit our linkedin iQuote user group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2081850&trk=hb_side_g
or the specific ROI discussion on linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2081850&discussionID=14021974&goback=.anh_2081850
Posted in iQuote, Quote Software, return on investment calculator, ROI, Uncategorized | Tagged iQuote, Return on investment, ROI, wordpress | Leave a Comment »
February 12, 2010
First iQuote Reseller Rollout.
When iQuote was first designed one of it’s primary objectives was to be portable: to sit within any tier of the channel from Manufacturer to end user. Thus far, the majority of iQuote’s activity has been within the distribution tier (i.e. with Distributors). We at channelcentral.net are excited to announce that in the UK we are mid-way through a rollout to one of the largest and best known HP Gold Preferred Partners in the UK.
In monitoring feedback there are some subtle differences to the feedback we get from Reseller Sales People compared to Distribution. However, what is clear is that there is plenty of appetite for iQuote across this Reseller’s Sales Floors. Subject to a successful rollout and Return on Investment Study the Reseller hopes to move iQuote from a standalone (off the web) service to a fully integrated sales tool that is made available to End Users through the Reseller’s existing customer eCommerce solution.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, iQuote, Product Management, Quote Software | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, iQuote, Reseller | Leave a Comment »
February 9, 2010
How iQuote can help you to forecast. We have just added some figures to the Management Portal that displays Value of Exported Quotes. If a Saved quote gets re-exported we only show the latest export value (avoids double counting but does make historic numbers fluid). This will give the Sales Management a good view of utilisation but it doesn’t differentiate between an open or closed quote.
Pipeline View.
We’ll soon be introducing another view of quotes: ‘pipeline’ will give total values for all active quotes. Useful for forecasting…! Assuming all Sales (and Customers) use iQuote and that when a quote is won or lost it is removed iQuote will show your pipeline for HP and the Business Unit. OK so life isn’t always that simple but we will add new features that move you towards that goal.
Understanding potential future business is a key component in Vendor Management.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, iQuote, Product Management, Quote Software | Tagged Channel, configurator, iQuote | Leave a Comment »
February 4, 2010
New HP 500b Microtower Business Desktop PC. The new HP 500b Microtower Business Desktop PC has been added to the iQuote system and is now live. As a result, users who have PSG access can now actively use the superior iQuote reporting system to create quotes. The 500b desktop uses the Intel® Celeron® E3200 processor and is designed for budget-conscious small businesses that need PCs which are easy to set up, use and expand.
HP state that the Microtower is clean and functional in design, and allows a business to equip with essential technology whilst being budget aware. The 500b comes with Windows 7 professional, with a downgrade to Windows Xp and a standard one year warranty.
In the next few days, channelcentral will be proud to announce new lines of products going live in iQuote. The work does not stop as we strive to make iQuote a premium quotation tool.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 2, 2010
The new HP 6545b Probook Notebook has been added to iQuote and is now a live system. Users who have access to PSG can now actively take quotes and resource information on the product via iQuote. The 6545b is based on the AMD Turion™ II Dual-Core Mobile Processor and offers combination performance, durability, and security.
The new range of Probooks look to build upon the EliteBook line of durable business-grade notebooks and make them more affordable so small and medium businesses can buy them. The 6545b is a follow on to the 5310m, and both come with windows 7 and as standard a one year warranty.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 1, 2010
New HP 5310m live on iQuote. The New HP 5310m Probook Notebook is the newest addition to the PSG range of products now live on iQuote, and available to all users who have PSG access. The 5310m is based on the Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor SP9300, the sytem is billed as “the worlds thinnest full performance notebook pc” by HP.
The new range of Probooks look to build upon the EliteBook line of durable business-grade notebooks and make them more affordable so small and medium businesses can buy them. The 5310m comes with Windows 7 and as standard one year warranty.
There will be further announcements on new ranges and models to the iQuote system over the next couple of days.
Posted in Channel Business, iQuote, Product Management | Tagged Channel, HP 5310m, iQuote | Leave a Comment »
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