Roger, It seems to me National Semiconductor Corp and ORCL are in the field playing too. This can a good thing, but also a bad thing.
Incomep
Inter@ctive WeekMay 11, 1998
Web-Based Tools Give Sales A Boost
By Kevin Jones
Many sales may still close with the age-old handshake and smile, but
the selling process has become a lot more high-tech as Net-savvy sales
representatives start taking advantage of new Web-based sales
automation tools.
"Any time, any place access to information is critical to salespeople,
but they weren't ready for it last year," says sales-force-automation
consultant Barton Goldenberg, president of Information Systems
Marketing Inc. "Now they have learned to use the Web."
Coming into play are tools and homegrown applications that put reps
more in touch with their customers, other members of the sales team
and critical sales data.
Tools such as Netgain from Firstwave Technologies Inc. let
geographically dispersed sales teams collaborate to make sales and, at
the same time, let management check progress and problems.
Other tools, such as Selectica Advanced Configurators for the
Enterprise (ACE) 2.0 from Selectica Inc., help reps manage sales
information to ensure that complex sales orders are submitted
correctly.
And then there are homegrown applications from companies such as
National Semiconductor Corp. that are built to let sales reps generate
password-protected Web sites where they can gather together all the
information a particular customer needs. For Amy Young, manager of
sales planning at Wyse Technologies Inc., a Windows terminal maker,
Netgain eliminated a complicated, internally developed spreadsheet
that invited error and, though it gave management the numbers it
wanted, was a painful administrative chore for sales reps.
"Now they've got something that helps them manage their
opportunities, figure out which [reseller] matches up best with a
prospect and lets them follow the process, see where the barriers are,"
Young says.
Indeed, Netgain not only gives managers the sales numbers they need,
but the package also can sort other data that bubbles up to provide
sales executives with a glimpse of the problems that may be blocking
sales, giving them a chance to address the problems, Young says.
Olicom Inc., a $238 million network switch company based in
Richardson, Texas, chose Selectica ACE to help its sales staff move
the line of routers the company acquired along with Crosscomm Inc.
in June 1997 for $90 million.
"They were used to selling simple products you could point to in a
catalog," says Jorgen Hog, vice president of network product
marketing at Olicom. "The routers, combined with our switches, could
be configured literally billions of different ways. It was too complex;
they just didn't try to sell them. They didn't know how."
Since management was counting on synergy between the two
noncompeting products, Hog was ripe for a Web-based application
that promised to solve his problem.
Enter Selectica ACE, which takes a lightly trained sales rep through a
series of choices to correctly configure products for a customer,
depending on its network. It's only been in service for a month, but at
least, Hog says, sales reps are now trying to sell routers.
Nothing so dire was behind National Semiconductor's decision to let
sales reps gather and publish on password-protected Web sites all of
the information their large customers needed about accounts and
ongoing projects.
"[Customers] were getting caught in voice-mail hell, and we wanted to
give them better customer service," says Phil Gibson, director of
interactive marketing.
Using a National Semiconductor-built publishing tool that lets sales
reps build the pages themselves with no training, a customer such as
3Com Corp. can see everything, from its contract, to status of custom
chips being built, to a list of whom to call.
"The customer gets the information and the products they want when
they want it; it's totally customized for them," Gibson says. Twenty
large accounts began using the system in April, with 200 expected to
be onboard by June.
"These tools are about more than productivity; they will actually help
salespeople bring in more money," says Goldenberg at Information
Systems Marketing. "But they are still early. What's needed is for
these vendors to hook up, for the collaboration tool to link to the
configurator. Demand is going to explode because salespeople are
ready for them."
Firstwave Technologies Inc. can be reached at www.firstwave.net
National Semiconductor Corp. can be reached at www.national.com
Selectica Inc. can be reached at www.selectica.com
Wyse Technologies Inc. can be reached at www.wyse.com
Olicom Inc. can be reached at www.olicom.com |
