Archive for November, 2010
November 30, 2010
Management Users to get improved reporting. Eagle-eyed iQuote Management Users will already have noticed that there have been changes to the Reporting Dashboard. The most visible one is that global ‘pitch rate’ by HP Business Unit is now shown MTD and Last Month for easy comparison. Pitch rate is the number of times you quote a part number on a quote (per system). If your pitch rate improves it follows that your attach rate will improve and this is a key part of iQuote’s business case.
Also if you have internal users, resellers using your web store and even customer clones there has been no easy way of getting that information off the dashboard (although we can supply ad hoc reports). So now the Dashboard has been stripped back so that it only shows internal users and over the next few weeks we will be building on that to provide web store users if you have them and reseller clone users if you have them. Everything in a single view will be really powerful and a major simplification. Remember it’s all about the pitch rate !
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update | Tagged Attach Rate, Channel, HP, iQuote, iQuote Hints and Tips, Pitch Rate, Return on investment | Leave a Comment »
November 30, 2010
HP Business Unit filtering is live and you can page up/down when viewing the Blog in iQuote. If you don’t sell PSG you don’t want PSG-related information on display so we’ve applied a filter for iQuote Blog viewers. Also if you are on the iQuote Home Page reading the Blog and you want to browse you’ll see Next and Prev buttons that allow you to Page up and down to view older and then newer posts.
PS: the Blog replicates to both the channelcentral.net Home Page and iQuote from WordPress about every 10 minutes or so.
Posted in iQuote, iQuote Update, Marketing | Tagged configurator, HP, iQuote, iQuote Hints and Tips | Leave a Comment »
November 30, 2010
The Validation Checklist has been improved. Live now a subtle change: if you load a System Unit without options iQuote will display a summary listing of the pre-installed components (e.g. Memory 6GB). As you add Options iQuote will dynamically change the quantities so if you are working from a high level specification it saves time.
This is a useful visual aid but more importantly it is the foundation work for a future modification – we get asked a lot for a Config Specification Summary as part of the Export. It is coming.
Posted in configurator, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged configurator, iQuote, iQuote Hints and Tips, Validation Checklist | Leave a Comment »
November 19, 2010
iQuote now features the latest Desktops and Personal Workstations. Here’s a list of the new products recently added:
New Desktops
8000 Elite
WB683ET HP 8000 Elite CMT Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 Processor (3.00GHz 2MB) 3GB (1x2GB + 1x1GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 320GB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) 3yr Next Business Day Warranty
WB684ET HP 8000 Elite SFF Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 Processor (3.00GHz 2MB) 2GB (1 x 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 320GB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) 3yr Next Business Day Warranty
WB685ET HP 8000 Elite USDT Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 Processor (3.00 GHz 2MB) 2GB (1 x 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SODIMM 250GB (7k rpm) Non-Pluggable 2.5in SATA 8X SuperMulti DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) 3yr Next Business Day Warranty
3120 Pro
WU191EA HP 3120SFF Pro Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Processor (3.06 GHz 3MB) 2.00GB (1 x 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 320GB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (64-bit) 1yr Onsite Warranty
6000 Pro
VW195ET HP 6000 MT Pro Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 Processor (3.00GHz 2MB) 2GB (1 x 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 320GB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) 1yr Next Business Day Warranty
VW196ET HP 6000 SFF Pro Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 Processor (3.00 GHz 2MB) 2GB (1 x 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz DIMM 320GB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) 1yr Next Business Day Warranty
New Personal Workstations
HP Z400
KK718ET HP Z400 Intel Xeon W3550 Quad Core (3.06GHz 8MB 1066MHz) Processor 3GB (3 x 1GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz UDIMM 500GB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) 3yr Next Business Day Warranty
KK719ET HP Z400 Intel Xeon W3550 Quad Core (3.06GHz 8MB 1066MHz) Processor 6GB (3 x 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz UDIMM 1TB (7.2k rpm) Non-Pluggable 3.5in SATA DVDRW Windows 7 Pro (64-bit) 3yr Next Business Day Warranty
Posted in iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged HP, HP Desktop, HP Workstation, iQuote, PSG, Top Value | Leave a Comment »
November 11, 2010
Moving iQuote forwards. Dan is also part of the iQuote team (officially our Technical Solutions Director) and he built iQuote from scratch (database, application, data flows). That’s a huge simplification though, as Dan also gets involved in major customer integration projects and peripheral, yet important, tasks such as our Dashboard. We (you) are keeping Dan pretty busy so here’s a flavour of some of the projects that he is working on:
- iQuote Swift. We realised that iQuote is pretty much the only place that HP’s Channel can access Options Compatibility at System Unit level, and wanted to make that information available as a comprehensive listing within iQuote. It took a couple of weeks, but we’ve now delivered the first installment of Swift and the rest (more features) is coming soon. I hope you like my logo! I am switching on “reporting” on iQuote Swift so we can see what the uptake is, but we are confident it’s a really useful addition.
- HP StorageWorks. If you have read the article from Paul you will know we are working on getting HP StorageWorks into iQuote. I’ve been working closely with Paul to build the data structures and get these products available to quote. Very challenging work, but I am looking forward to the launch. One of the things that I’ve been working on for several months will come into action as part of this project: quote stitching – it allows two or more quotes to be joined together, and opens up many possibilities.
- Promotional Bundles. We’ve got really good bundle handling in iQuote but HP is driving more complexity so I have been actively looking to make this a really seamless user experience in iQuote.
- Performance. People don’t often notice the performance of a web application when it is good, but they certainly notice when it isn’t! We are a bit obsessive about performance, so I spend a good deal of time refining and even re-engineering whole sections of iQuote to keep the whole user experience as ‘crisp’ as possible. Even though functionality, useage and the product portfolio have all increased greatly in recent months, iQuote is running faster than ever.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, iQuote, iQuote Update | Tagged configurator, HP, iQuote | Leave a Comment »
November 3, 2010
Lots of iQuote quotes means your Saved Quote list is getting longer. So we noticed that loading Saved Quotes was taking longer than it used to. In response this section of iQuote has been refreshed with the end result being that load times are significantly reduced (from our testing). We hope you notice this too.
We also know that many Channel Sales People will quote off screen and not save the quote. It takes a couple of seconds to save a quote in iQuote and we always recommend this…why? Here’s a couple of reasons:
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Let your business know what you are quoting so they can plan inventory.
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Keep a record of the quote in case your customer queries it but also Saved Quotes can be used as templates or even re-priced via a single click.
You can save as many quotes as you like and the value of Saved Quotes isn’t used for Management reporting.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, iQuote | Leave a Comment »
November 2, 2010
A couple of modifications for iQuote Swift. Margin control and a new location for the CSV export button warrant a new version number. Early demonstrations of iQuote Swift have been really well received proving that it addresses a real-life Channel sales issue. So don’t be shy, press the link, enter a system unit part number, margin and see what happens.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, iQuote, iQuote Swift, Swift | Leave a Comment »
November 1, 2010
What has our resident technical guru been working on lately? Paul is part of the iQuote team and is responsible for many things but one key activity is introducing new products into iQuote. Since the ProLiant G7 launch and the major PSG transition Paul has been working on the HP StorageWorks iQuote project. Here’s what Paul has to say about this new and different product range:
“Previously all systems in iQuote have been computers: Notebooks, Desktops, Personal Workstations, Servers and Blades so the HP StorageWorks project has been interesting and challenging as we’ve really had to start from the beginning. However, some of the recent iQuote enhancements such as PCI slot validation and optimisation lend themselves to slot-based systems, such as Storage Systems.
I’ve been going through the StorageWorks Commercial product range in huge detail mapping the product attributes and expansion capabilities. These are then uploaded into our SQL database ready for the application development to bring them to life as configurable systems. Progress so far has been good and we have a number of systems that are available in Beta form. I fully expect to see HP StorageWorks live for iQuote users in November 2010 and seeing these systems quoted will be hugely rewarding. More good news is that the HP StorageWorks Commercial products will also work with our new iQuote Swift service.”
Next up for “View from the Team” will be Dan who will be covering off his view of iQuote Swift, HP StorageWorks implementation, price list optimisation and more.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged Channel, configurator, HP, HP StorageWorks, iQuote, StorageWorks | Leave a Comment »
November 1, 2010
We’ve launched Version 1 of iQuote Swift, allowing quick execution of System Unit centric price and availability lists. Just use the link on the Home Page to try out this fantastic new addition to iQuote. Simply enter a valid HP System Unit part number and iQuote Swift will show a list of valid options (plus the system itself) along with part number, description, categorisation, price and stock…in seconds with an option to export to a CSV file. The export version also pulls in HP Product Line (PL) code which is really handy for OPG (bid) work. You can even suppress products out of stock (electronic only items will still display).
iQuote Swift addresses a slightly different need in the Channel – iQuote is about putting together a very specific configuration but customers (End Users, Resellers or Distributors) often want to just get indicative price/stock before moving towards a formal quotation. Also some customers know the products so well they just want a listing.
So this is Version 1, which indicates we are already working on additional features for iQuote Swift. Version 2 will follow soon and we know you’ll love it, especially if you have customers that just send large numbers of parts asking for price and stock. iQuote Swift will take care of that in seconds. Version 3 is also planned and will allow Channel partners to subscribe to iQuote Swift and receive a feed of systems and their specific options.
If you have any feedback on this new feature, or any other aspect of iQuote please contact us through WordPress, Twitter, LinkedIn, iQuote or via our website.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update, Product Management | Tagged configurator, HP, iQuote, iQuote Hints and Tips | 1 Comment »
November 1, 2010
See if you can spot the common denominator. 3 email responses:
- “491191-B21 is a Factory Only option. Check with Disti/Techie but I think 462969-B21 (BBWC) and 462834-B21 (212 w/256MB Cache) may do the same thing but be Disti orderable.”
- “405132-B21 which has gone EOL. This part: 462862-B21 looks almost identical to the one you wanted (P400 with 256MB Cache). Any good? Lots of other options in iQuote of course.”
- “You will need to purchase the following option to add a LTO 3280 to a DL380/385G7 family server: EJ013A – HP Ultrium 3280 SAS 1Drive 3U Rackmount.”
So they are all product recommendations, but the interesting common thread is that all of these Support responses were sent in response to automated requests. An iQuote User looking for a part that is not supported or no longer available receives a response like this without logging a call.
A recent Blog explained what happens when the Options Search is used, and that drives this proactive service. iQuote is the application, the service is delivered by channelcentral.net and to be effective you need both elements.
Posted in Channel Business, configurator, Hewlett Packard, iQuote, iQuote Update | Leave a Comment »
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