With a large sales force across the US, this company needed a better way to process quotes, orders and proposals. Using custom spreadsheets was too slow and creating proposals from scratch was cumbersome.
BACKGROUND
Using Access and SQL Server, IT Impact, Inc. designed a custom quoting and pricing tool for a large sales force around the entire USA. Quotes are delivered electronically to the corporate office then approved, modified or rejected as needed. Quoting time has been reduced from hours to minutes and quotes can now be done with Word templates distributed from the corporate office.
SITUATION
With many sales people around the US, this company was having a terrible time trying to process quotes and orders via email and fax. Communication between corporate and sales associates became so bad, they gave corporate the nickname, “Black Hole”, since information would be sent to them, but they would receive nothing back. Sales people would type information into Excel, and then corporate would type it into Access and Oracle. All that repetitive typing consumed time and introduced errors into the process.
SOLUTION
On the sales side, IT Impact, Inc. designed an Access database that allowed them to keep track of customers, easily create proposals and orders and to electronically submit either to corporate for approval. They are then imported into SQL Server at corporate and routed to the correct person for processing.
Sales managers get copied on all documents, thus allowing them to gauge the performance of the salesperson. The SQL Server would email the engineer when the proposal was received and display who it was assigned to. More emails go out when the order is approved and entered into Oracle.
SUMMARY
Using Access, SQL Server and the Internet, we were able to reduce quote times by 75%, increase customer service and eliminate the paperwork needed to review and process orders.