Quote Library

The Quote Library is content management specifically for factory generated quotes. Upload quotes as they come in from partners, assign end customers, distributors or contractors to the document and set an expiration date and alarm for notification and rapid search. The Quote Library is a central repository for documents that need to be accessed by many people in the organization. Search and access quotes in seconds with RepConcert’s powerful search tools. You may also view Quotes that participating manufacturing partners have shared with you.

Contacts vs. Accounts

Possibly the single most powerful aspect of (most) CRM products is the relational way they use and present data. (An organized set of tables where data resides and can be accessed in predetermined ways) In our case we consider the “Account” to be the most important way to organize and associate other documents in the database. An Account (Company) can be linked to Quotes, Opportunities, Expenses, Campaigns, etc. This allows superior organization of this information and allows users to not only locate the specific documents from multiple areas of the tool, but provides greater insight into your customers’ relationship with your company in general. Users will see any open Quotes, Cases, Opportunities or Projects in which the particular Account may be involved. Show me.

Contacts are unique documents for individual people. They too may be linked to an Account (the place they work) and even incorporate certain Account attributes like Business Address, Phone or Account Type, but the record itself provides specific fields designed to capture specific information about the individual. Contact records can also be synchronized with Outlook / Exchange Server providing sales people with multiple options for maintaining Contact information in the database.

Probably the second most powerful aspect of CRM is the fact that it is a “centralized” repository for all of this information. Often territory knowledge is one of the most important things a sales rep brings to the table. CMR lets you organize much of this information, make it available for all to participate in customer intelligence gathering and ultimately leverage it in company strategy.

A new day for PRM

A new day for PRM… CRM – PRM – ABC – XYZ - I know, I know. Partner Relationship Management was really ahead of it’s time though. Actually it may have just been ahead of technology. Traditional PRM solutions were expensive, on premise, separate or add-on to CRM and really focused on lead sharing and deal registration. I understand these are very important features especially for the VAR and reseller channel but really only scratch the surface when it comes to the level of collaboration required between a manufacturer and its independent manufacturers’ representatives. The technology has definitely caught up. PRM is alive and about to be as popular an acronym as CRM, only with a better reputation.

Dell Picks Salesforce.com PRM Platform

DATE: 05-DEC-2007

By Jessica Davis (Channel Insider)

The PC maker will use Salesforce.com's new CRM-meets-Facebook technology, which links separate Salesforce CRM implementations. Dell and its solution provider partners are among the first customers of Salesforce.com's Salesforce to Salesforce technology, which lets different companies share their Salesforce.com information.

Dell first began using Salesforce.com's CRM (customer relationship management) platform a year ago for its direct sales force. Over the last 60 days, the PC maker has taken the relationship a step further, implementing Salesforce Partners, Salesforce.com's PRM (partner relationship management) platform.

"They wanted one solution to collaborate with direct and indirect sales," said Elay Cohen, senior director of products at Salesforce.com. "They have a history of being a direct business, and their No. 1 business problem is they want to mitigate channel conflict. The only way to do that is to have a single platform."

Dell solution providers can leverage the platform even further if they use Salesforce.com in their own operations. For example, rather than use the different deal registration screens at all the different vendors' portals, solution providers can enter the required information on a single familiar interface—the one they use at their own company.

Dell's deal registration through Salesforce.com has about eight required fields and two clicks.

Ultimately, Dell may also look at using the platform for use with some of its bigger strategic partners such as EMC, according to Channel Chief Greg Davis.

Enterprise ($125 user / mo.) and Unlimited ($195 user / mo.) edition users can share data using Salesforce to Salesforce for a fee of US$1,200 per year, per connection.

http://www.channelinsider.com/article/Dell+Picks+Salesforcecom+PRM+Platform/221021_1.aspx

Welcome to RepConcert

Welcome to the RepConcert blog. I hope this site grows into a true resource for current RepConcert users as well as those thinking about implementing RepConcert. As you may know, RepConcert is … OK I’ll say it … CRM. The thing is CRM is really misunderstood. I like to point to Brent Leary’s definition from Web 2.0: Moving CRM in the direction of CMR - DMNews.com, Aug 09, 2007.

“In plain terms, CRM uses technology to implement strategies aimed at helping companies acquire new customers, sell more to current customers, analyze the effectiveness of marketing activities and provide better customer service. All in the name of building stronger, longer lasting business relationships.”

Our approach, like many other vertical niche players out there, is to tailor a technology towards specific markets so that our baked in features align with our customers strategies for accomplishing their goals. This is a difficult model because most vertical markets do not have the numbers of potential users to make it attractive to compete with the more traditional horizontal CRM solutions. As a result, any given vertical market is peppered with solutions from the who’s who in CRM, from tightly integrated ERP/CRM down to inexpensive out of the box software.

Recognizing the system integration issues between partners working within the same vertical markets, we created a platform from which partners in the value chain could collaborate and share specific pieces of information with each other while leveraging the standard (CRM) features of RepConcert within their individual organizations. Being on the same platform is really the only way a manufacturer and its partner representatives will efficiently be able to implement internal and mutual strategies towards achieving goals.

This blog will be a resource for you, I appreciate your checking it out.