CRM Software adds analytics and mobility.

Press Release Summary:



Enhancements to ProChannel 5 Web-based CRM and channel management software include new and improved modules. Software allows companies to navigate sales transactions from first contact through commission plan payout. New modules include ProVision, Channel & Direct Inventory, Stock Rotation, Price Protection, ProMobile, Executive Dashboard, Channel (MPP), and OEM Contracts. Improvements were made to Product Catalog, Point-of-Sale, Debit Management, Commissions, and Reports modules.



Original Press Release:



Azerity's New ProChannel 5 Delivers Integrated CRM for the Entire Sales Organization



New Modules Extend Channel Management, Add Analytics and Mobility to Industry Leading CRM Software

San Jose, CA - June 24, 2002 - Azerity, a leader in enterprise sales solutions, today announced the immediate availability of ProChannel 5, bringing over 1000 enhancements to the high-tech industry's leading, Web-based CRM and channel management software solution. ProChannel 5 allows companies to navigate the full range of sales transactions, from first contact through commission plan payout, across the extended enterprise.

The new product modules featured in ProChannel 5 bring mobility, enhanced channel management and business analytics (ProVision(TM), see today's release, entitled, "Azerity's New ProVision Provides Instant Visibility into Channel and Customer Activity") to an award-winning CRM suite that now includes 26 modules. ProChannel 5 also offers major enhancements to existing ProChannel modules including ProChannel Product Catalog, ProChannel Point-of-Sale, ProChannel Debit Management, ProChannel Commissions and ProChannel Reports. In addition to new functionality, ProChannel 5 features a new graphical user interface that enhances usability, and provides flexible display options to make it easier for users to work with information-intensive screens.

"One of the biggest problems facing CRM implementations is that they are incomplete, by no means serving all the people with all the functionality required by today's complex selling environments," said Stephen Gold, Azerity president and CEO. "ProChannel provides tangible benefits to users at all points in the sales process, automatically connecting all the information relevant to a given order, quote or opportunity. Immediate and ubiquitous access to 100% accurate data produces a direct and measurable impact on customer acquisition, retention and satisfaction. Our current customers are already familiar with the ROI benefits that result from a single system - rapid user adoption, reduced training costs, increased accuracy, ease of bringing on new people. This list goes on."

ProChannel 5 allows selling organizations to turn inconsistent and disparate data into accurate and actionable data. For example, new data aliasing capabilities automatically build the linkages and terminology mapping that makes it easy to reconcile apparent discrepancies between manufacturer and distributor data. Different channel partners may have completely different names or numbers for the same part. ProChannel 5 can learn these data relationships, requiring less manual intervention to ensure that transactions are accurate.

What Customers Say About ProChannel 5

"Using ProChannel we've been able to double the number of transactions we complete without adding sales people. At the same time we've reduced costs by 40%, improved the accuracy of sales data, and improved our customer satisfaction rating," said Fred Jones, manager of Distribution Sales and Operations for Micron. "We've seen dramatic improvement in both first call effectiveness and customer response time. We're now measuring turn-around time on quotes in hours rather than days."

"ProChannel 5 lets us extend the benefits of accurate and efficient sales transactions to users across the entire internal and external sales organization," said Dave Horton, director of eBusiness for Cypress Semiconductor. "Mobile users, channel partners, internal sales and executives are able to work seamlessly together to generate more business and increased profitability."

"ProChannel is becoming the standard CRM and channel management solution for the semiconductor industry," said Kalki Radhakrishnan, CIO for California Eastern Laboratories. "ProChannel's modular architecture, standard integration points and vertical focus significantly reduce the time and expense of deployment and ownership. We are able to implement functionality in phases, and there is a clear product roadmap that allows us to grow our application in an effective fashion."

What's New In ProChannel 5:

Channel & Direct Inventory Modules ProChannel 5 integrates a customer's entire inventory status inside all sales related processes. A new Channel Inventory Module, in addition to enhancements to the ProChannel Manufacturer Inventory Module, bring a new level of accuracy and throughput to business processes such as quoting, order capture, point-of-sale reconciliation and parts catalog search.

ProChannel 5 provides the sales force, manufacturer reps, distributors and other channel partners with user-specific access to an aggregated view of channel and direct inventory availability and locations. The ability to view accurate inventory status for a specific part, customer, quote or order, arms sales people with the information they need to close orders, reduce returns, stabilize price fluctuations caused by excess or insufficient inventory, and prevent sales from migrating to the competition.

Stock Rotation Module
ProChannel 5's Stock Rotation Module allows manufacturers to simplify and expedite the entire stock rotation process. Its sophisticated set of business rules can be set to automate the governance of stock rotation periodicity. ProChannel 5 streamlines the collaborative review/approval process between distributors and the manufacturer, making it easier to keep the right mix of products readily available to customers. By eliminating discrepancies between approved rotational levels and return-material-authorization (RMA) requests, and comparing inventory levels to rotation requests to verify correct inventory levels, manufacturers have reduced the time and costs of managing stock rotation programs by as much as 200%.

Price Protection Module
The ability to accurately determine which distributors and which inventories are eligible for credits when the manufacturer revises published pricing can add millions of dollars to the bottom line. Using the ProChannel 5 Price Protection Module, manufacturers can analyze in advance the impact - amount of credit to issue - of price changes on the channel inventory and backlog. This speeds the review/approval process between distributors and the manufacturer, further reducing costs and administrative overhead.

ProMobile Module:

ProChannel 5 ProMobile Module gives a manufacturer's mobile users the ability to work on opportunities and design tracking transactions off-line. By enabling mobile sales people to access critical data on opportunities and products even while disconnected from the network, ProMobile can increase first call effectiveness by 50% and triple sell through rates. For more on ProMobile, please see the May 14, 2002 Azerity news release entitled, "ProChannel Introduces ProMobile to Power Sales Productivity on the Road."

ProVision(TM) Executive Dashboard Module:
ProVision provides executives with a graphical, Web-based "dashboard" from which they can visually monitor their leading business indicators such as billings, bookings, book-to-bill ratios, profit margins, sample requests, quote activity, manufacturer and channel inventories, commission payouts, competitive analysis and more. Executives have clear visibility into accurate and timely sales data, enabling them to identify causes and correlations influencing sales activity, predict market trends and make proactive decisions. (For more on ProVision, please see the June 24, 2002 Azerity news release entitled, "Azerity's New ProVision Provides Instant Visibility into Channel and Customer Activity.")

Channel (MPP) and OEM Contracts Modules:
ProChannel 5 Contract Modules allow sales organization to quickly and accurately implement contract terms into sales transactions including quotation, pricing, and order capture. With these modules, channel contracts can be automatically referenced and managed to ensure that contractual agreements are consistently and accurately applied across all sales transactions quickly and easily. This completely eliminates operational inefficiency, with, the potential to reduce profit loss by as much as 75% while doubling customer satisfaction, according to several early users. Linking OEM contracts to sales activities ensures consistent and rapid response for all quote requests. For example, relating contracts to the actual backlog avoids orders being shipped at the wrong price, and the corresponding time-consuming correction process.

About Azerity
Azerity is a leading provider of enterprise sales solutions. Their award winning CRM and channel management software suite, ProChannel, allows manufacturers and their sales channel partners to create a highly efficient sales environment by synchronizing complex business processes across the entire selling community. Azerity's products are supported by a professional service organization possessing deep domain and technical expertise, and complemented by top tier technology and service partners. Azerity focuses its products and services to meet the specific needs of worldwide customers in the high-tech, chemical, automotive, building products, and health care industries. The company headquarters are located at 1560 Berger Drive, San Jose, California 95112. For additional information about Azerity, visit www.azerity.com or call 408-324-2300.

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