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CommerceCenter's Customer Relationship Management Functionality Improves Customer Service

Yardley, PA, June 22, 2005 - In order to succeed in today's fast-paced business world, excellent customer service is a must. Today, many distributors turn to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to help them offer customers the attention they deserve.

Prophet 21 CommerceCenter, the leading enterprise software solution for distributors, provides CRM functionality fully inherent within the solution. CommerceCenter's CRM functionality allows distributors to access information quickly and efficiently, so they can streamline processes while improving customer service.

"Prophet 21 realizes that CRM tools are a vital part of a successful business," said Chuck Boyle, president and CEO of Prophet 21. "CommerceCenter's CRM functionality ensures distributors are providing their customers with the most up-to-date customer service capabilities around."

Brian Williams, director of IT for Industrial Supply Company, is impressed with CommerceCenter's fully integrated CRM functionality. "Before CommerceCenter, we used a third-party CRM solution that made retrieving information rather cumbersome," says Williams. "We realized that built-in CRM capabilities are especially important because every employee at Industrial Supply Company touches our customers. We didn't want them to jump into a separate CRM module; we want them to know everything they needed to know about the customer, right from the solution they use. That is what Prophet 21 delivers. Now, with CommerceCenter, all of the information we need is in one database."

Information at Your Fingertips

Contact management capabilities within CommerceCenter include basic customer information - such as name, job title, address, company size, industry, purchasing history, etc. - and more detailed information, including shipping preferences, personal information, and any other pertinent notes. In the past, this information was kept in a date book, Rolodex, or even a salesperson's head, and was mainly used to ensure good communications with customers. With CommerceCenter's CRM functionality, distributors can continue to provide this personalized service without the cost of the outside salespeople.

When entering orders, salespeople can view key customer data- from shipping preferences to past orders to notes made during previous conversations. Distributors can mail, fax, or e-mail specifications to the engineer, quotes to the buyer, and invoices to the payables person, each according to their preference. Customers receive outstanding personalized service, which translates into more sales for distributors.

"All of the information we need is right there in front of us, ready to access and analyze," says Williams. "We are now able to retrieve information much more efficiently and perform a wide array of tasks through CommerceCenter's CRM functionality."

Covering All the Bases

CommerceCenter's CRM functionality also includes alerts to remind distributors of impending tasks. When first opening CommerceCenter, a list of upcoming tasks appears. As distributors work with customers, future activities can be created and assigned for follow up. At any time the status of a task can be checked or new tasks can be created, regardless of where a user is in the solution. In addition, when a quote or contact is entered, a window automatically opens requiring users to add a task to follow-up, ensuring that they never forget a customer or prospect.

CommerceCenter tracks and records activities, so distributors have a complete contact history on each of their customers. This information helps measure the activities of a sales force by determining the revenue they generate per visit, if they spend their time where the money is, if they are developing new accounts, and much more. What distributors uncover can help their salespeople increase their effectiveness.

Multiple Purchasing Agents

Many larger companies who have multiple purchasing agents, now provide each one with their own credit cards. In order to keep up, a distributor's enterprise software solution must allow distributors to credit an account with multiple credit card numbers. CommerceCenter's CRM abilities allows distributors to store credit card numbers by contact, making it easy for them to process orders from different purchasing agents from the same company, thereby improving customer service, while increasing their sales.

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