UniDirect knew it had outgrown its sales information software when the system couldn't handle the volume the start-up mail-order software company was generating. "We couldn't even get new customers into our prospecting system," according to vice president Michael Silton, who is in charge of marketing for the company. "When we wanted to do mailings, our customers were in one system, the prospects were in another, and nobody knew what we'd sent to them. It was unbearable."
Productivity was suffering, too. The contact management software they were using was a single user, DOS-based system on a PC. It worked when the company consisted of only two people, but then there were three, and then four. "There was only one PC, and everybody kept running to use it," he said.
Silton knew that managing information efficiently was central to the success of UniDirect's distribution business. "It essential to any business, but especially ours where we have to reach customers, keep track of their equipment and interests, get them information about our product's efficiency, and let them know about new products in high targeted mailings and telephone calls," Silton said.
Silton and Bernard Jubb co-founded the Irvine, Calf.-based firm in the fall of 1990 to sell shrink-wrapped UNIX software packages directly to large multi-users such as the USDA Forest Service, Yale University, MasterCard, GE, and Southern California Gas Company. Their aim was to go from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of millions in direct sales. But the single-user sales and marketing software was stopping them.
Silton considered moving up to a network version of the DOS program the company was using, but it would have required the expense of a 386 computer on every desk as opposed to the cheaper alternative of a spared PC with terminals on each desk. And the program had some additional drawbacks. It wouldn't connect to UniDirect's accounting systems and the structure and consistency of the data were not controlled well enough for a multi-user environment.
Instead, the company chose the UNIX-based Sales Information Response System, SIRS, from Data Systems Support (DSS) in Orange, California. to tie together the sales and marketing data flow. SIRS is a multi-user, enterprise-wide software solution that handles database marketing, telemarketing, customer service and support and account management. "Our whole business starts within SIRS and branches off from there" Silton says.
The System is central to UniDirect's flexibility and sales productivity. It lets them track customers and prospects efficiently, is easy to work with because it is integrated with word processing, fax and accounting programs, and involves a smaller hardware investment than the upgrade of the previous contact management software would have.
"It gives us instant access to essential customer information," Silton reported. "What kind of hardware and software prospects have, what their business needs are, a record of previous conversations and purchases."
Silton restricted his choices to UNIX-based software because of its salability and its flexibility. "We could leave SCO UNIX and be on an IBM RS/6000 tomorrow if we wanted to, and take our applications, our data and our experience with us--all without having to re-key a customer," he says.
He rejected another popular competitive program not only because customization was expensive but also because telemarketers found it cumbersome. For example, handling a simple function like ending a call required too many keystrokes and commands that didn't make sense.
UniDirect installed SIRS and has been watching sales rise ever since. Installation was complete within a week, including a three-day training course Silton attended. DSS transferred the data from the former system into the new program, and Silton spent a half day setting up the codes. It took him about half a day to train each sales rep, so everyone was up and running in less than a day after all the software was loaded.
Once the system was in use, it provided integrated and efficient access to all sales and marketing functions. When customers call UniDirect, the telemarketers pull the caller's records up on the SIRS screen right away to see what kind of computers they own and what the last conversation was. If callers ask for information about a specific product, the rep can tell if it will work with their system or not, and what the benefit is.
From the SIRS option menu, the rep can select the appropriate documents to send, create a cover page from the SIRS record, a quote from the accounting software, attach documents and send it out through the on-line fax facility directly to the customer.
When the prospects responds with an order, a macro can transfer the SIRS information to accounting software. Then the rep can type the product and payment method on the screen, and send the product out the door.
"Our data is much cleaner now because we enter it using pack lists. For example, when we enter a ZIP code, the city and state are automatically entered and spelled correctly, so we spend less time taking information on the phone and can take more time on the issues," according to Silton.
"Our prospect list is always up to date and we don't have to do double entry of the customerÆs shipping and billing address in the accounting system because it comes over automatically from the from the prospecting system," he added.
Silton has been very satisfied with the Sales Information Response System. Anybody can get out and start a business selling software, but if we maintain a good relationship with the customer, they're going to stay with us. And SIRS makes it happen, " he concluded. "It's flexible, it's modifiable, it's expendable and it's accessible to everybody on inexpensive hardware."
[SIRS |
ABOUT DSS |
SERVICES |
SOLUTIONS |
HEADLINES |
CONTACT DSS ]
Data Systems Support Home Page
Send comments and questions to:
info@dssmktg.com
For more information, please click here to
contact Data Systems Support (DSS).
© 1995 A Client Technologies Company, Inc. All rights reserved