QuoteWerks Joins the ASCII Group

ASCII members to benefit from the efficiencies and channel centric features offered by QuoteWerks.

ORLANDO, FL June 30, 2009 — Aspire Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of sales quoting software solutions for the global small and mid-markets, today announced that it has teamed up with the ASCII Group, a professional association of independent information technology (IT) solution providers, integrators, and value added resellers (VARs) to offer QuoteWerks to the association’s membership through their vendor program.  A much anticipated collaboration for the two organizations’ many mutual customers, the new relationship promises to deliver leading quoting solutions and resources to both ASCII members and their customers alike.

The ASCII Group was launched in 1984 with the sole focus of furnishing solution providers with the tools necessary to survive and grow in the competitive technology market.  The program today has over 7,500  members worldwide and partners with leading manufacturers and distributors ConnectWise, Dell, Kaseya, Synnex, and Tech Data.

“The catalyst in forging this new relationship is the desire to familiarize ASCII members with the opportunities that QuoteWerks offers them which increase profitability and grow their businesses,” explains Keith Carrington, vice president of sales and marketing for Aspire Technologies, Inc.  “QuoteWerks has created a unique reseller program that offers ASCII members no enrollment costs, no sales quotas, and no support requirements as we will provide support to the ASCII member and their customers alike.”

Additionally, ASCII members will benefit from the affordable pricing and concurrent user license model QuoteWerks offers to members, along with such IT centric features as:

Real-time Price & Availability:  A real-time data module using our DataOnDemand^TM technology is available for QuoteWerks that delivers Accutech Data, Arbitech, Bell Micro, D&H, Digitek, Ingram Micro, SYNNEX and Tech Data real-time pricing and availability to QuoteWerks users.

Real-time Product Content:  In addition to providing Real-time Pricing & Availability, the real-time module can also provide Real-Time Product Content through OpenICEcat. OpenICEcat is a worldwide open catalogue developed in co-operation with over 160 sponsoring manufacturers for the purposes of providing real-time product content such as detailed product descriptions, pictures, and spec sheets. There is no charge for the OpenICEcat service.

Online Ordering:  An online ordering module is available for QuoteWerks that can place online orders with Ingram Micro, SYNNEX, and Tech Data from within QuoteWerks.  Users can order items from a single order, or combine items from multiple QuoteWerks orders into a single distributor order.  QuoteWerks Online Ordering supports government and educational pricing. For Tech Data, it even supports Tech Data MyOrderTracker and assists Tech Data MyOpportunityTracker by optionally supplying end user details with the order.

About Aspire Technologies and QuoteWerks^®

Aspire Technologies, the creators of the award winning QuoteWerks^® sales quoting software, is the leading provider of sales quoting software with its award winning QuoteWerks^® application deployed to thousands of businesses and
enterprises worldwide. QuoteWerks^® integrates with leading CRM and accounting packages, along with numerous  IT distributors including D&H^®, Ingram Micro^®, SYNNEX^®, and Tech Data^®, enabling businesses in all industries to integrate QuoteWerks^® seamlessly into their existing environments.  Aspire Technologies is headquartered in Orlando, Florida and is a Microsoft Certified Partner.  For more information please visit www.quotewerks.com.

QuoteWerks is a registered trademark of Aspire Technologies, Inc.  Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

Build 47 Webinar

QuoteWerks will be holding a build 47 webinar on July 1st, 2009.  This webinar will demonstrate the newest features added to QuoteWerks.

The webinar will include but not be limited to:

• SugarCRM integration
• D&H online ordering
• Peachtree 2010
• and more!

It is free to sign up for the webinar, and you can do so by following this link.  Space is limited and it is first come, first serve.

If you are unable to make the webinar or it is at an inconvenient time we will also record it and you will be able to watch it for free on our website.

For more information on QuoteWerks please visit our website.

QuoteWerks Releases Build 47

QuoteWerks has just released build 47.  All current users whose maintenance is up to date are eligible to download the latest release.

The new build includes the much anticipated integration with Sugar CRM (all versions of 5.1 and 5.2) and support for Peachtree 2010.  The new build also fully supports GoldMine 8.5 and D&H has been added to the online ordering module.

Users can also take advantage of some new features including linking to Microsoft Access 2007 databases and appending pasted items into the quote at the bottom rather than inserting them at the top.

For a complete list of all available features and to download the latest build click here.  To download a demo copy of QuoteWerks click here.

For information on the QuoteWerks product please visit the QuoteWerks website.

QuoteWerks Knowledgebase

Tip of the week:

QuoteWerks users can take advantage of the knowledgebase found on the QuoteWerks website.  The knowledgebase is a searchable article database that allows users to search by keyword, article name, category, and more.

The knowledgebase is a great place for users to find useful information to questions that are frequently asked.  It includes everything from how-to questions to walking users through the process of creating calculations in the layout designer.

The knowledgebase is an excellent tool that can be utilized by any user at any time.

For more information on QuoteWerks please visit the QuoteWerks website.

QuoteWerks Tip of The Day: Security Settings on Product Databases

Today’s QuoteWerks Tip of the Day is how to place user restrictions on product databases.  Many companies have a variety of products from a wide selection of vendors and would like to limit which sales reps have access to each vendor or product database.

To place restrictions on product databases is a two step process.  First, log in to QuoteWerks with Master Rights and click on Tools -> Options.  Click on the “Security” tab and check the “Enable individual product data source level security” box.

From here close the options window and select Products-> Setup Product Sources.  If you are adding security settings to a previous product database, choose the database you wish to edit and click Edit.

Click next until you reach the Security screen pictured below.

You can choose to apply settings to a group or to the individual users.  After making your choices click next and then finish.  The settings will be applied to all users when they sign into QuoteWerks.

If you are adding security settings to a new product database you will just choose new and run the product setup as normal.  The security screen will appear in the setup steps.

Note: Before editing any settings, ensure all users are signed out of QuoteWerks.  Most settings will not take effect until the user signs back into the program.

For more information on the product visit the QuoteWerks website.

Sales Quoting Software Can Help in a Tough Market

When business is good, many important internal projects are left undone as management and staff is too busy with the day to day business and can’t find the time to upgrade or implement new systems. A slower business environment presents the ideal opportunity to revitalize your existing software solutions.

Here are five ways a good quote system can help when markets get tough.

1.         Improve service: Quick quote turnaround gives you an edge over the competition. In many industries a quote delivered within hours increases the likelihood of a sale. The longer the quote takes to get to the customer the probability of getting the business drops significantly. By simplifying the sales quoting process, and getting the quote in front of the customer in a timely fashion, the sales rep gets a “jump start” to closing the sale.

2.         Know where you stand: Customers become even more demanding believing it’s a buyer’s market. A good quote solution will tell you where you stand (margin and dollars) on any given job. You have the flexibility to adjust prices if desired while still maintaining a respectable margin. Equally important, is knowing when a potential sale is no longer profitable and knowing when to walk away from the opportunity.

3.         Be more proactive: A single source of quote data is another benefit of an automated sales quoting solution. With all your quotes in one place it’s easy to review past history to look for opportunities that may have gone inactive and may well be redeemable with some proactive selling.

4.         Sharpen your focus: The quote database is full of market intelligence that you can use to evaluate reasons for won and lost business by region, sales rep, product family, customer and much more. This type of analysis is almost impossible to do if your quote data is spread out in multiple Excel and Word documents.

5.         Leverage efforts: A quote system leads to standardized procedures and best practices that ensure everyone in the sales process is generating consistent and accurate quotes. Follow-up is centralized and any changes in pricing are immediately available to all sales and customer service staff. What’s more, new staff is more productive, faster and if someone is away, all their quotes are readily available for others to keep the sales moving forward.

Every boom cycle eventually comes to an end. It’s during these slower periods that progressive businesses get ready for the next market upturn with internal projects to improve business processes. Now is the time to implement projects that you put off when you were busy earlier in the year.

To learn more about how QuoteWerks can help benefit your business

call 407-248-1481 or email sales@quotewerks.com

To download a free, fully functional demo of QuoteWerks, please visit:

www.quotewerks.com/reqdemo.asp

Now is the Time to Improve Your Sales Quoting Process

Enabling your sales force to spend more time selling and less time quoting will improve your bottom line.

If you are like me, you subscribe to a multitude of business journals.  Of late they all seem to be telling their readers that we should spend more marketing dollars on advertising as a way to weather the financial storm we find ourselves in today.  Some even go as far as to drop the names of large companies that are successful today because they increased their advertising during previous recessions, and yes, even the Great Depression.

As a marketing professional, I might be inclined to jump on the bandwagon and champion this cause within my own organization.  Perhaps now would be a good time to promote our software on a blimp!  On second thought, I think I would be better served (and remain employed) if I can find ways to cut our expenses and increase our company’s marketing and sales efficiencies.  Some might argue (at least those who suggest I should up my advertising spend), that my cost cutting and drive to increase efficiencies will further stagnate and already stalled economy and may be so short-sided that I will miss key opportunities for my employer.

However, living in Florida for over a decade now, I have learned that one should be prepared to ride out a storm with sustainable provisions.  This way, if the storm is worse then expected or hangs around longer then expected (remember hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne from a few years ago?), then I can comfortably ride it out and emerge in a better position when the storm passes.

Few would argue with my logic when it comes to riding our hurricanes or what ever Mother Nature throws their way, but we tend to forget this simple concept when it comes to our businesses during periods of economic tumult.

So, where am I going with this?  I am suggesting that you take the money you would spend on increasing your marketing and invest in the business tools needed to support long term cost reductions and increased efficiencies for your employees.  One area worth looking at sooner rather then later is your sales organization and its quoting (or estimating) process.  It stands to reason that if your sales department is charged with generating your revenue, you might want to improve their efficiencies first.

All too often, companies today are utilizing an inefficient quoting process that not only costs more in overhead expenses than needed, but can also account for a significant percentage of lost sales, instances of underselling the opportunity, and a host of customer service issues that may or may not be apparent to the firm at first glance.

Consider the company that uses a manual quoting process including word processing and spreadsheet software.  The key phrase here being “manual quoting process.”  This approach to quoting, while saving the company money on software, requires the sales rep to spend more time than needed on creating the quote document for the customer.  They need to research the product and draft a description, pull in photos if possible, price the quoted items, calculate tax, shipping, and other relevant fees.  What happens if and when they miscalculate the costs quoted to the customer?  Does it come from the firm’s margin?  Is the customer expected to pay it?  Throughout this process, did the sales rep also remember to add those required items?  The customer needs the quote ASAP, did the rep have time to discuss and quote optional items that might optimize the customer’s purchase and use of the products or services, while adding valuable dollars to the company’s bottom line?

Yet other companies have attempted automation by running their sales quoting process through the firm’s accounting software, only to adopt another set of problems.  The “cost of software” pendulum has just swung from no expense to unnecessary expenses.  Since most accounting applications require seat based licenses, the company may be required to buy costly accounting licenses for each member of its sales team, regardless of how frequently or infrequently they are accessing the accounting system.  Let’s also not forget the fact that when quoting through an accounting system, the firm exposes its financial system to the clutter of prospective customers and outdated quotes that were never converted to orders.  This can cause significant challenges for the accounting department when it comes to preparing timely, accurate reports, reconciliations, invoices, and filings.  Does the marginal improvement for sales outweigh the burdens now incurred by accounting?

This is where a sales quoting application can be the right choice for your company.  Quality applications will streamline and automate the quoting process so your sales team can quickly prepare accurate, professional looking quotes that can be emailed to your customers within minutes.  These applications will also interface with your existing CRM and accounting applications ensuring complete transparency and portability of your critical sales data from your generated quotes, orders, and invoices.  While some quoting applications are costly, you should seek out those applications offering low total cost of ownership price points and rapid ROI payback periods.  You should also look for solutions that have a concurrent user licensing model as you can reduce your overall license count and save even more money.  Doing so may let you keep enough of your hard earned money so you can still take out a few more ads if you subscribe to the current school of thought on increasing your marketing spend.

Personally, I will stick with improving my sales team efficiencies.  This way, they can spend less time quoting and more time selling!  That’s a sure way to weather the current economic downturn.