Archive for October, 2010
October 21, 2010
Interested in what’s coming soon? A lot of the time this Blog announces new features and products after they have been launched. For a change here’s a mini-series of Blogs from the team here talking about things that they are excited about or currently working on. First up Tim:
“We’re working on a few projects and enhancements that I’m really excited about here are a couple of highlights for me.
1. A new menu option will be arriving in Beta format really soon called simply “Swift”. It allows an iQuote User to enter a system unit part and generate a list of all supported options priced and stocked along with “plain English” categorisation and HP PL Code. What a time saver and ideal for pre-formal quoting situations that are common in Channel. Better still in the future Swift will also allow an iQuote User to paste in a random set of HP parts and it will generate a price list in the same format. Can you imagine pasting a list of 100 (or more) parts into Swift and having it priced and stocked 2 seconds later?!
2. There will also be a formal reporting system for Distributors and Resellers so that utilisation information will be proactively emailed (opt in basis !!). We know that when iQuote is monitored and measured utilisation goes up. It’s an essential element of driving margins up for the Channel so am pleased that we are improving beyond just the standard Dashboard.”
Tim Moyle, Managing Director of channelcentral.net – the Company behind iQuote
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, iQuote, Product Management, Quote Software | 2 Comments »
October 8, 2010
Alterations to Microsoft Operating Systems means wholesale changes in Top Value. Pretty much the entire SKU selection has been refreshed so during this transition there is no place better than iQuote to help you source stock and ensure that you sell out residual SKUs with Downgrade rights on the Operating System. Here’s a great graphic from HP to remind people why Workstations are so exciting!
Here’s a list of the new SKUs that we’ve put into iQuote to support this transition:
Z200
KK666ET
KK703ET
Z200SFF
KK663ET
KK665ET
Z400
KK683ET
KK684ET
KK685ET
KK686ET
KK687ET
Z600
KK689ET
KK690ET
KK691ET
KK692ET
Z800
KK693ET
KK695ET
Statement from HP Workstation Specialist here in the UK:
From 30th September Microsoft no longer allows OEMs to ship their units with XP Pro Operating System (OS), OS with a downgrade to XP nor XP Pro Restore Media. Customers are entitled to use existing XP Media and are covered by Windows 7 Licence.
Posted in configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, HP Workstation, HP Z200 Workstation, iQuote, iQuote Update, PSG, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
October 7, 2010
Whatever price you want, in any currency. When we present iQuote to a HP Partner for the first time the most commonly (frequently) asked question is “what price do you show?” The simple answer is: any price you want. It is a little more scientific than that and is partly dependent on the IT capabilities and bandwidth of the iQuote Host (usually, but not always, a Distributor). The objective is clear though: if the price is what the customer would pay that’s very desirable – so that’s what we aim for.
Our initial integration takes price and stock via a text file over FTP and there is a basic margin control to allow some level of simplistic customer pricing. channelcentral.net (the Company behind iQuote) also supports other, more sophisticated processes such as XML and at that stage we can provide customer pricing to many customers. Moving forward we are also starting to engage with Distributors and their eCommerce partners to achieve the “Holy Grail” – End User specific pricing through iQuote and we believe we’ll see that within the next 4 to 6 months from leading Distributors.
Posted in Channel Business, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, Marketing, Product Management, Quote Software, ROI | Tagged Channel, iQuote | Leave a Comment »
October 6, 2010
iQuote keeping up with the latest product introductions for UK and Ireland. We now feature lots more Top Value systems as follows:
Desktops
HP 500B – WU364EA
HP Pro 3120 MT – WU269EA
HP 7100 Elite MT – WU399EA
Notebooks
HP ProBook 4525s – WS895EA
HP ProBook 4520s – WT113EA
HP ProBook 4320s – WS905EA
HP ProBook 4720s – WT141EA
HP ProBook 6555b – WD720ET
HP EliteBook 2540p – WP884ET
Posted in configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged configurator, HP, HP Desktop, PSG, PSG Desktop, PSG Notebook, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
October 4, 2010
Another 7 New Desktops in iQuote, this time across the 3100 and 6000 Series. Here is a list of the new systems available now (launched on Friday):
HP Pro 3120 SFF
WU190EA
WU189EA
HP Pro 3125 MT
WU262EA
WU573EA
6000 SFF
VW188ET
6000 MT
VW191ET
VW193ET
Posted in configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, HP Desktop, iQuote, PSG, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
October 4, 2010
iQuote now features new 8000/8100 Elite Desktops. October has seen a total revamp in HP Top Value for the UK. So many new models ! We’ve already put the following models live:
8000
WB674ET
WB680ET
WB673ET
WB677ET
8100
WJ997ET
Posted in configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, HP Desktop, PSG, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
October 2, 2010
Lots of features in these HP Notebooks! So iQuote now displays much more detail in the Table of Contents. This has happened gradually so iQuote users may have seen some of this already – as well as WiFi and Bluetooth we now also list items such as WebCam, Media Card Reader, Fingerprint Sensor and importantly Screen information (size and attributes). We also swept through all live systems to ensure that iQuote matched up with the specifications provided by HP (things like memory DIMM configuration) and a number of product descriptions have been enhanced. Screen shot of a HP EliteBook 8540w Table of Contents (TOC):
Posted in configurator, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, iQuote, PSG, PSG Notebook, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
October 1, 2010
Number of days for new ProLiants to appear in iQuote: zero. It’s not always possible but when we do put new products from HP into iQuote on the day of launch it’s very satisfying. It also allows iQuote users to be proactive with customers. We also set up TV and Golden Offers SKUs for the rest of Europe.
New Products Added for UK/IE:
DL380G7: 470065-375, 470065-376
DL385G7: 470065-384
(Separate Blog to list non-UK/IE Models to follow).
Posted in configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged configurator, Golden Offers, HP, iQuote, ProLiant, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
October 1, 2010
We are looking for someone to join our Team. Due to the success of iQuote and other projects that we are working on: channelcentral.net is expanding. The requirement is for a Web Developer/DBA to work on our SAAS eCommerce projects. That person needs to have capabilities around ASP (.NET even better !), SQL Server, XML (ideally), general scripting, Active Directory, Security, CSS, Javascript and general website “ability”.
Working on projects such as iQuote is both challenging and rewarding. If you are interested or know someone who may be interested simply email: interested@channelcentral.net.
Posted in Channel Business, Marketing, Product Management | Tagged ASP, ASP.NET, Channel, iQuote, XML | Leave a Comment »
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