September 5th, 2009 by Brian Cors
SalesDoc Architect has always been a great tool for handling configuration, pricing and document generation for service and support solutions. Whether you base service and support pricing on the new solution equipment that you sell, or you create separate “support part numbers” for the items you support – which works especially great for sites with existing equipment – SalesDoc Architect handles it well.
For those who base service and support pricing on the list or sell price of the new equipment that you sell, SalesDoc Architect now offers the ability to automatically create a schedule of supported parts that shows your customer or prospect the precise list of parts that are covered under your support plan.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 15th, 2009 by Brian Cors
One of the things that differentiates SalesDoc Architect from other document generators is that you can automate the selection of document sections for inclusion in an output document such as a proposal or statement of work. Most document generators require users to manually select each doc section that they’d like to include.
SalesDoc Architect can automate doc section selection in several ways. One of these ways is to use part numbers to automatically drive the doc sections to include in output documents. In other words, specific doc sections will be automatically included in an output document based on the part numbers that a user has selected and/or configured (this automation also works for parts that have been imported from vendor configurators).
You can create this automation by associating doc sections with part numbers in SalesDoc Architect Manager. When parts are selected/configured by a user, SalesDoc Architect will automatically output the doc sections that are associated with the selected part numbers.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 6th, 2009 by Brian Cors
You’ve been able to use SalesDoc Architect™ to win more deals by producing customized, differentiated proposals with just a few mouse clicks. You’ve also been able to increase your margins by generating statements of work that set clear expectations with customers and prevent “scope creep”.
Now, with just a few more mouse clicks, SalesDoc Architect can generate internal documents such as implementation procedures, manuals and checklists that can help you increase profitability by increasing efficiencies and reducing implementation errors.
For the SalesDoc Architect end-user, the process is very simple: configure your solution of hardware, software and services as normal. Next, generate your proposal and/or statement of work by clicking the Outputs button, then “Generate Proposal” (or “Generate Statement of Work”). Within seconds, a proposal or statement of work will be produced that exactly matches your configured solution and is customized to the particular prospective customer.
When your company is ready to implement the solution, open up the SalesDoc Architect file for the solution and click the Outputs button, then “Generate implementation doc” (the name will vary depending how your administrator has set up this output option). Voila! Within seconds, a customized implementation document is generated that your operations team can use as their guidebook for the implementation.
Read the rest of this entry »
February 22nd, 2009 by Brian Cors
One of the nice things about SalesDoc Architect is that you can “start small” with basic automation that requires a relatively small up-front investment of time and money – but pays big immediate dividends for your company – then gradually add more automation over time.
Create a basic proposal generator
A great place to start is to set up SalesDoc Architect as a basic proposal generator that blends schedules of pricing for the specific solutions you are offering with proposal content that describes your company and its products and services (with a few good graphics thrown in for illustration).
Start by identifying 20-25 document sections that you’d like to include in your initial proposal library. You might want to include a section that provides an overview of your company and its key competencies, along with sections describing and illustrating your key product lines. You should also include a document section with legal terms and conditions, as well as a place for the customer to sign.
Read the rest of this entry »
February 9th, 2009 by Brian Cors
In our article on Basic Automation, we talked about setting up a basic proposal generator that incorporates solution pricing, and includes the peripheral products and implementation labor that are required in turnkey solutions.
In this article, we are looking to take the next step up in level of automation for the purpose of reducing the number of inputs required by users to configure, price and create proposals for turnkey solutions. By reducing the number of inputs, this not only increases ease of use and saves time for users, but it also better ensures that complete solutions are being configured so that required products and services are not missed or forgotten. This results in fewer mistakes and reduces project margin erosion.
Use Excel’s formulas to automate configuration
One way to increase the level of automation is to take advantage of Excel’s built-in formulas and functions to help you configure your solutions, instead of requiring users to manually select the items that should be configured. You can do this by first creating drop-down boxes and input cells that users can use to select systems and input high-level item quantities.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 27th, 2009 by Brian Cors
In the beginning, SalesDoc Architect was an all-or-nothing proposition that required a substantial up-front investment of time to set up and customize the application. The trade-off was between two extremes: don’t automate anything, or spend a substantial amount of time adding the content and customizing the application to obtain a high degree of automation.
Over the past several months, we have added numerous features to SalesDoc Architect that enable our clients to fine-tune how much time they wish to spend on setup and customization to achieve various levels of automation. These features also allow our clients to fine-tune their approach by vendor, so that they can more fully automate SalesDoc Architect for their major vendors while providing a lower level of automation (thus reducing the time spent on customization and maintenance) for their lesser vendors.
Now, our clients have a “smoother curve” of customization effort vs. automation options from which to choose.
We have written a series of articles on The Productivity Edge to delve into each level of automation. We recommend starting with the ideas mentioned in the article entitled “Customizing SalesDoc Architect with Basic Automation” so that you can get SalesDoc Architect up and running as quickly as possible, enabling you to immediately realize SalesDoc Architect’s benefits to your organization and differentiate your company from the competition.
Read the rest of this entry »
