Channel-Distribution Challenges

Transcription

1 Drive Revenues and Maximize Marketing Efforts with Product Lifecycle Management Channel-Distribution Challenges Channel-distribution organizations face many challenges in today s marketplace. Eroding margins often due to time-consuming and outdated manual processes limit profitability. Sales teams are only as strong as the data they have access to, and outdated information can hinder the renewals process. Lack of transparent and accurate business intelligence hurts relationships with manufacturers, distributors, resellers, and customers. Not only are there millions of dollars in renewals being missed, but the potential increase in revenue through data mining installed base and creating product campaigns to increase cross-sell and up-sell. Most of all, ensuring that installed assets are well-managed from end-to-end, within a system that allows your business to retain control of its data and data integrity, can often mean the difference between success and failure. Product Lifecycle Management Product Lifecycle Management provides a product-information backbone for companies and their extended enterprises. An effective Product Lifecycle Management solution drives product and service revenues while integrating people, data, processes, and business systems. With a Product Lifecycle Management strategy, companies can refresh products within their customer base and attain the business intelligence necessary to make better manufacturer- and customeroriented decisions.

2 An optimal Product Lifecycle Management solution can provide many benefits for businesses, including: > Enhanced information collection and integrity verification > Improved long-term renewal generation > Higher attach rates and high-margin service revenues > Increased revenues from installed bases > Automated processes that can decrease costs and increase operational efficiencies Improving Operational Efficiencies According to Gartner, Inc., the leading information technology research and advisory company, Product Lifecycle Management employs product information and business analysis to support product portfolio strategy, product lifecycle planning, management of activities, and execution of those activities through each phase in a product s life. Rather than allowing renewal rates to diminish over the subsequent years once a customer has come onboard, companies can use Product Lifecycle Management functions like automated quote creation, price management, and notifications to more effectively manage and increase those rates annually. Renewals can also be more tightly tied to product lifecycles, thus allowing companies to implement more efficient product campaigns that include long-term renewals and other revenue-generating functions. Installed base management The benefits of a successful Product Lifecycle Management solution surpass the mere ability to collect and utilize accurate metrics. With iasset.com s strong foundation of installed base management, companies earn enhanced product and service revenues through intelligent and targeted campaigns. Applications that support the business activities enabled through Product Lifecycle Management include: > Product ideation > Design > Engineering > Manufacturing process management > Product data management > Product portfolio management > Marketing campaign management. Gartner s research has shown that Product Lifecycle Management also has significant impact on internal, supplier-facing, and customer-facing operational efficiency, and produces impressive payback for the firms that invest in it. The rate of return that results from an effective Product Lifecycle Management solution ranges from the significant number of dollars generated by up-sells and cross-sells, to clear visibility on what to sell, when, and to whom. Both trade-up and newproduct sales are targeted directly and intentionally, thus increasing the potential sales success rate. With proper Product Lifecycle Management tools in place, sales teams perform more efficiently, marketing dollars are spent more wisely, and bottom lines reach new levels of profitability. Good installed base management provides many benefits, including not only asset visibility, but also significant opportunities to drive revenue and enhance data integrity through the mining of the current installed-asset base data. This management process also cultivates better customer support by generating quality data, which ensures that customer-support issues are quickly addressed, and that the right configuration, product, and location information is available at the outset. An effective installed base management solution reduces resource costs, monitors installed base assets, provides visibility, and helps companies gain an edge over the competition. All of these business benefits lead directly to drive increased profitability and enhanced operational excellence: two goals that all successful companies strive for in today s competitive environment. Companies using such solutions are empowered in ways that they never thought possible.

3 Product Lifecycle Management in action iasset.com s single-platform solution enables powerful asset management functions while also enhancing services and revenues. > Effortlessly populate and validate addresses, serial numbers, and other information pertaining to products and contracts > Enable complete visibility and tracking end-toend, from supplier all the way through to the end customer; and from the initial sale throughout the entire buying lifecycle, continuously > Exponentially improve data integrity, resulting in more timely and profitable conversations with customers > Automatically identify cross-sell, up-sell and product refresh opportunities by mining their installed base > Ensure on-time renewal of maintenance contracts > Reduce operating costs through a more accurate renewal process A Fortune 500 global distributor recently turned to iasset.com for a solution to address its significant renewals management challenges. Prior to utilizing the iasset.com solution, the company s growth strategy was through acquisition resulting in disparate tools, and in some cases multiple ERPs and data sources. Plus the relationship with its thousands of resellers and a multitude of suppliers suffered from poor communication and lack of consistent processes. In addition, sales reps were not equipped with the right data to generate incremental revenue from existing customers. > Develop a sales cycle that freed up personnel to focus on new customers and opportunities > Accurate business intelligence that transferred into realistic pipeline reporting The distributor required comprehensive end-to-end lifecycle management, views into each area of the product lifecycle throughout the system, and vigilant ownership and control of its own data. After implementing a robust strategy that required intensive integration with their internal systems, the firm began to: > Seamlessly import data from their ERP and vendors; apply logic to their data and automate the renewals process. This includes complex pricing rules, reseller authorizations, notifications and ultimately the completion of the transaction process by automatically exporting back into their ERP. > Transparency of data to vendors and resellers on a single platform consolidating the workflows and providing easy access to information. Your robust, flexible Product Lifecycle Management solution The iasset.com renewals engine automates up to 90 percent of the renewals process, allowing users to be proactive and focus on larger deals. With its automated quote creation, price management, notifications, and scalable platform, iasset.com is the most efficient tool for managing not only the renewals process but a product s entire lifecycle.

4 iasset.com not only identifies renewals but also cross-sell, up-sell and product refresh opportunities. Users can then develop and automatically dispatch targeted marketing campaigns to customers, thereby improving pipeline effectiveness. The platform runs on the principle of business rules and exceptions. Users are made accountable for their renewals, data integrity, and performance of transaction partners, which can be measured and reported up the chain of command. iasset.com s modules cover the necessary core competencies for a successful renewals business. With iasset.com, your business can benefit from essential Product Lifecycle Management solutions, including: Lifetime Opportunity Management Full pipeline management reporting creates, manages, and reports opportunities, allowing sales teams new levels of proactivity in terms of selling items, renewing maintenance contracts, and upgrading the product as necessary Campaign Management Targeted marketing campaigns for renewals, crosssell, up-sell, or product refresh opportunities can be proactively identified, easily created, and automatically programmed well in advance to be sent out in a timely manner. Reporting & Exception Management Automated, straightforward management modules measure performance and identify trends and exceptions. Seamless Quote-to-Contract Process Automated quotes, contract creation, and price population to reduce required administration Automated Notification Notification of appropriate partners and personnel with attached quotes and additional documentation produces efficient communication procedures Key Feedback A notification center, including notification, chat and collaborative functionality, ensures that users across the supply chain are able to communicate from a single view of the data. This helps to improve data integrity and effective communication across all constituents. Workflow Management System workflows managed to drive behavior of internal users and partners, while ensuring that exceptions are appropriately approved and audited Collaboration Extensive collaboration and communication opportunities allow manufacturers, customers and other business partners to work together, using an online, 24/7 platform.

5 Firms currently using asset-management modules from large ERP vendors will benefit by choosing iasset.com to augment existing systems that otherwise are too expensive to customize. iasset.com provides enhancements through improved transparency into transportation partners and user bases. Companies using iasset.com enjoy the perfect bridge to enhanced controls. iasset.com also helps companies: > Increase revenues and improve channel enablement > Effectively collaborate and focus on the bottom-line goal > Improve pipeline visibility > Reduce transaction costs > Improve customer retention > Increase attach rates > Improve data accuracy > Train direct and indirect sales teams to effectively sell more by utilizing the embedded LMS > Track efficacy and ROI of training programs > Improve accountability > Maximize productivity > Reduce manual processes > Make more informed decisions Offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), iasset.com is available via the Web as a safe, secure, 24/7 platform. As companies grow, various automated functions built on rules-based exceptions continue to drive business, without requiring the customer to immediately invest in new resources. Companies can focus on building their business while iasset.com s automated system contributes to improvements in operational excellence. About iasset.com: Built by the channel for the channel, iasset.com is a cloud-based Product Lifecycle Management application that helps organizations automate up to 90% of their transactional processes. This allows companies to regain control of their data and improve data integrity, while helping them to scale and proactively manage the product lifecycle for increased profitability. Increase sales pipelines, boost renewals, train sales teams, track certification and compliance, enhance cross- and up-sell opportunities, and automatically validate and augment your data for accurate BI data with iasset.com. To learn more, visit info@iasset.com, or call SAN JOSE Tel: Fax: SYDNEY Tel: Fax: SINGAPORE Tel: Fax: BEIJING Tel: Fax: AUCKLAND Tel: Fax: