Leading US analyst firm publishes article on Sofon Guided Selling

Top Quote Andrew Daily from MGI Research (ex-Gartner Group) interviews Sofon CEO. End Quote
  • (1888PressRelease) May 10, 2011 - Son, the Netherlands - Leading American analyst firm MGI Research recently published a piece on Sofon Guided Selling. In an in-depth interview with Otto van der Tang from Sofon, Andrew Daily from MGI Research (ex-Gartner Group) hones in on Guided Selling, the gap between CRM and ERP and on Software as a Service.

    Gap between CRM and ERP
    Countless organizations have been working with both an ERP and a CRM system for many years. Van der Tang: "Companies that offer customer-specific products and services in particular tend to experience a gap between CRM and ERP. CRM systems focus on prospects, customers, contacts and activities, while ERP targets product logistics and production. Everything in-between is neglected, from needs analysis and product configuration to calculation & pricing and document generation."

    Guided Selling
    Sofon has addressed this gap in the market with its Guided Selling Software. "The gap between CRM and ERP can be bridged by offering companies a sales supporting system that stores business knowledge and makes it available to all users. Sales representatives can take advantage of their co-workers' knowledge stored in the system and configure products using a question-and-answer method. Once all questions have been answered, an error-free quotation is created and bills-of-material can be forwarded to ERP."

    Standard software, not customized
    Salesforce.com, which supplies SaaS CRM software, understands that CRM requires complementary tools in order to provide every customer with the best solution. That is why AppExchange was developed, which also offers Sofon software. Sofon is pleased with this recognition of its added value. "The added value of Sofon is not only found in the complementary solutions Sofon offers for CRM, but especially in the fact that Sofon provides standard software. In this instance, standard means suitable for any company and without any customization - which is exactly what companies are looking for nowadays. They are no longer interested in customized software, viewing it as little more than a dead-end street that offers little adaptability or flexibility."

    Software implemented and managed by the company
    According to Van der Tang, companies want a solution that can be easily implemented and managed by the company itself - without the need to call in the help of IT or external consultants. "They no longer want to spend three to four times more on consulting than on the software itself. Once they understand the Guided Selling concept, they realize how much money can be saved in the sales and quotation process. This concept is becoming increasingly adopted, which has made us a financially healthy company. To us, profitability means we can move quickly in the market without the financial help of investors or banks. We do see a very real demand for SaaS, but also that an application should be able to run offline."

    Read the entire interview here: http://bit.ly/kLQhK6


    Contact US:

    Sofon (U.S.), Inc.
    1054 31st Street NW, Suite 510
    Washington, DC 20007
    USA

    Contactperson: Dan Hopkins

    T: + 1 202 640 4415
    F: + 1 202 640 4416
    E: d.hopkins ( @ ) sofon dot com

    About Sofon
    Sofon supplies sales support software under the name Sofon Guided Selling. Using Sofon, quotations, contracts, orders and other sales documents can be generated quickly, simply and accurately. Sofon Guided Selling supports needs analysis, calculation, configuration, pricing, visualization and document generation in any language needed. This reduces sales costs, shortens sales cycles, increases scoring rates, simplifies sales processes and improves cooperation between clients, dealers, sales, engineering and production. Sofon can be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, SAP, Salesforce and other market leading ERP and CRM solutions. Sofon users are middle-sized to large internationally-oriented companies who supply client-specific products or services. Sofon is located in the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and supports customers in over 50 countries. Additional information is available at www.sofon.com

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