Customers

Smart Modular"With Nsite, we've gained the visibility we needed to win more business. We now know how many quotes we are making in any given period, with which rep firms, for which products, and to which customers. We know which competitors we are quoting against, and we get closure on all our quotes, whether we win or lose them."

Mike Robinson, Director of Business Development, Smart Modular

Smart Modular Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned operating company within the Technology Solutions Business Unit of Solectron Corporation, is a leading designer and manufacturer of memory modules, memory cards and communication products. Like most companies in its field, Smart works with rep firms to get its wares spec'ed into its customers' products. Yet the vital processes of receiving RFQs from the rep firms, and delivering price quotes back, were based on an ERP application that was ill suited for following up on submitted proposals, and offered no information to analyze why deals were won or lost. Smart needed a better way. The challenges of generating and routing price quotes are numerous. Varying customer requirements, volatile market conditions, and changing process participants require a solution with more flexibility than enterprise applications can offer. Yet manual systems - such as email and faxing - provide no insight into the processes themselves. As a result, Smart was poorly informed of what happened to the quotes they had submitted, and found it difficult to follow up on opportunities.

"We wanted better insight into our quote routing processes so that we could monitor the larger opportunities and, if necessary, adjust our proposals to win more business," said Mike Robinson, Director of Business Development for Smart.

Smart's rep firms also wanted historical data to inform the shaping of their services. And because they could not track the progress of their RFQs, productivity was lost while the reps made phone calls and sent emails to see where their bids were. Across the board, valuable time was being diverted from finding new business.

Benefits to Smart Modular

Benefits to Rep Firms

Smart now uses Nsite to close the loop on two crucial RFQ processes: the rep firms' submission of RFQs to Smart, and Smart's delivery of price quote proposals back to the rep firms. Using Nsite, Smart's rep firms now complete an HTML form, route the RFQ to Smart, and track the progress of the forms. Anyone with an email address can be included in the process, and there is no longer any need to make phone calls and send emails to track down quotes in progress. Using Nsite, Smart quickly responds to each incoming RFQ and can then follow the quote's progress through to customer acceptance or rejection. Nsite enables Smart to prepare reports on all pending RFQs instantly, enabling them to follow up with the rep firms to help win the business. Quotes may be quickly retrieved, edited, and rerouted to more competitively position them. Additionally, Smart's rep firms are required to complete the reason for loss field within each quote process, providing valuable information that helps to shape Smart's sales and pricing models.

"We had no visibility into the number of price quotes we were making every month, quarter, or year. We were receiving confirmation only on the quotes we won, and we had no way to ensure closure on all quotes, won or lost. Nsite has provided the control we needed over our quoting process, as well as the information with which to quote smarter," said Robinson.

Nsite gives Smart's sales managers a clear picture of their business. It shows information on total deals in the pipeline, while also enabling Smart to drill down to information on specific deals. Smart can quickly create reports on all price quotes sent to a specific rep firm and can route the report to the rep to expedite follow-up on all current business.

"With Nsite, we now know how many quotes we are making in any given period, with which rep firms, for which products, and to which customers. We know which competitors we are quoting against, and we get closure on all our quotes, whether we win or lose them," elaborated Robinson.

"Nsite has provided the control we needed over our quoting process, as well as the information with which to quote smarter."

Mike Robinson, Director Business Development, Smart Modular (a Solectron Company).

It took just a month to design, develop, and launch the Price Quote system using Nsite. With its simple interface, Nsite met rapid user adoption and began delivering immediate and measurable benefits. The bottom line is that Nsite has increased revenues, decreased costs, and raised sales efficiency.

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