Do you have writer's cramp? Unfortunately, many integrators do because they spend too much time handwriting their proposals, equipment orders, documentation files, and contact lists.

Throw out the pens and paper!

QuoteWerks 4.0 from Orlando, Fla.-based Aspire Technologies is a proposal-writing software system that integrates with third-party accounting applications (QuickBooks, Peachtree) and customer relationship management (CRM) database systems (GoldMine, ACT!, SalesLogix).

QuoteWerks also has the ability to synchronize product data to remote installations via laptops. The software currently has more than 40,000 users in 75 countries, according to Keith Carrington, vice president of sales and marketing.

 

One of those users is ECI Video in Dallas, where president Melinda Woodson has been using the software for seven years. She cites benefits that include "much faster proposals, professional presentation, no calculation errors, standardization of quotes for customer recognition, immediate retrieval of all quotes in the system, online record of telephone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses, email confirmation for receipt of quotes, and a never-ending database of client histories."

She estimates the ECI Video produces 25 percent more quotes than before, when they used a manual system, and the company's closing ratio is 10 percent higher.

The off-the-shelf software is not specific for the custom installation industry, but manages the quoting/invoicing/order cycle process with a real-time synchronization across the sales chain.

MSRP for a single-station license for QuoteWerks is $199.

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