Government business focus:

The best business development management system is uniquely focused on the issues government contractors face in identifying, pursuing and managing strategic and ID/IQ bid opportunities. It works by:

1. Capturing, storing, and prioritizing all business opportunity data
2. Maintaining a record of actions taken regarding an opportunity
3. Facilitating accurate company-wide communication
4. Reducing redundant reporting and meeting requirements
5. Supporting post award analysis and learning

The best system is a product of strategic value to a business development or marketing organization. It directly increases the marketing capacity of the organization as well as its win ratio. The winner allows the business development or marketing organization to sharply focus its activities for the direct benefit of the entire company. It is linked to our recommended bid decision support software.

The best system manages the information gathering process for exploratory and specific business opportunities including the full history of activity for each opportunity. Each opportunity is managed through the marketing life cycle by retaining relevant data detailing the nature of the opportunity, the responsible business unit, action items, the cost associated with the bid process, bid amounts, and other budgetary information. The security subsystem controls user and manager access to view, add, change, and delete data information. It includes a full reporting capability and lead prioritization procedure. Reporting, query and MAPI compliant email capabilities support communication of information in an effective and selective manner.

The best system is in use by over 1,000 users creating a business development engine for their companies that yields more business booked. It is a tool for changing a company's business development culture to meet the realities of today's competitive marketplace.

Commercial business focus:

The best system automates the more traditional sales force organization by taking a "super" contact manager approach. It provides all the power, scalability and customization capability required by enterprises with as many as 2,000 salespeople and as few as ten. You can have it without the high price, the excruciatingly painful (and extremely lengthy) implementation process, or the ongoing maintenance of your typical high-end solution. But there's more to this consideration than power or price. The sales automation software you choose must be software your salespeople will use--every last one of them, every single day. This software was created by a salesperson to appeal to salespeople. If they don't use it--if they don't love to use it--your sales automation project doesn't stand a chance. That is the biggest reason why salespeople, sales managers, executives and even IS professionals love this winner. It has everything you need to turn your organization into a selling machine.

The best system has features galore:

Ease of use

the look and feel of your familiar contact manager--but with all the power of an enterprise solution.

Account and Contact Management

If you deal with more than one contact at any of your accounts, you need to see a company-wide view of your relationship.

Lead Tracking and Opportunity Management

Manage a pipeline of opportunities until they turn into sales, from lead to close. Automatically roll up forecast information. Forward qualified leads to field salespeople. Easily share information between sales teams. Create multiple sales cycles with stages and track progress. Track products, pricing, key contacts, activities and competition for every deal. Track lead sources for contacts and opportunities. Trigger processes to automatically schedule activities and literature requests, print form letters and more.

Calendars and Scheduling

Coordinate activities with the entire sales team using group scheduling with conflict resolution.

Word Processing, Fax and E-mail

Track all correspondence with your contacts and record it for historic access.

Mobile Sales Tools and Literature Fulfillment

Send literature to your prospects without ever leaving your desk and receive confirmation that it was delivered.

Reporting

Automatically receive graphical reports generated with fresh data, including forecasts, lead status, account detail and more.

Customization and Control

Quickly build custom screens-- without programming. Changes are automatically rolled out to the remote salespeople.

Synchronization and Security

Send and receive account information for a specific region and subscribe to data as needed to reduce database size.

Administration

Centrally manage user settings, data security, database customizations and more.

Customer Relationship Management

Get a better picture of you customer and build lasting relationships as you work with the customer support team. Use optional Customer Support system to keep customers happy after the sale.

For further information, contact John Bender at 703-642-5153 or at jbender@acibiz.com

Advantage Consulting helps clients make the right tool decision.