By David Sims
TMCnet Contributing Editor
Vendor Cincom Systems (News - Alert) has introduced Cincom's Sales and Product Configurator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The new configuration, company officials say, "captures the product, services, and business knowledge needed for guided selling, complex product and sales configuration, and proposal management."
Gregor Newland, channel manager, said the product allows partners to help clients improve such front-office processes such as guided selling, product configuration, estimating and bidding, and quotation and proposal management.
To the end-user, the interoperability is achieved with two simple buttons on the Microsoft (News - Alert) toolbar marked "New Configured Opportunity Product" and "Reconfigure Opportunity Product." These buttons open a Web-based version of Cincom's Sales and Product Configurator for Microsoft Dynamics and lists all of the products that can be configured.
The "new" button adds a new product to an opportunity after going through Cincom's configuration application. The "reconfigure" button does the same but for a product that has already been configured at least once. Products configured in the Cincom's Sales and Product Configurator are stored and routed in the Microsoft Dynamics applications.
Last month New Delhi-based Cincom announced the first release of its new selling and business acquisition software, Cincom Acquire. The product suite is described by company officials as an "end-to-end selling and business acquisition product for companies that sell complex products and services," designed to "fill the gaps in traditional CRM- and ERP-based systems strategies."
Built on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server architecture, the product supports collaborative selling processes. "Our customers' product management, engineering and marketing divisions can now align information and strategies, and move that information closer to the sales cycle," company officials say.
The product integrates with "out-of-the-box" Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and integrates with other Microsoft Dynamics ERP systems.
Cincom Acquire's core components are used by manufacturers selling complex engineer-to-order or configure-to-order products to streamline their sales, design, and proposal processes. Cincom officials say their products can reduce proposal generation time from five days to 15 minutes, and decrease time to close a sale by 80 percent.
Cincom Acquire is currently nominated for Microsoft's Office Business Application of the Year.
