General Features
Pepper Sales and Service ("PSS") - is a customer focused multi-user software which is available for Microsoft NT Server, Windows 2000 Server or Novell. It will run on Windows 95, 98, Millenium, NT or Windows 2000 configured PCs or laptops, giving all staff, both in and out of the office, access to identical sales and service information.
Forgiving User interface - PSS has a consistent user interface that has been designed for ease of use. The customer ‘find’ facilities are fast and forgiving making it quick and easy to find the correct customer site and details. The system responds in a fraction of a second even if there are tens of thousands of addresses to search through.
Security Features - End-users can be granted access to just the features they require, helping keep the system directly relevant to their needs, and helping to preserve system security. The PSS security model allows System Administrators to be designated by a System Supervisor. Administrators can access PSS maintenance routines so they can set up and maintain end-user details. However, Administrators can only maintain system details within companies/divisions to which the System Supervisor has granted access. End-users can be granted rights restricting them to a range of records (those relating to their own division for example). User access to information can be configured giving any combination of: read-only; edit; insert and delete rights. Additionally, the ability to print or download reports can be denied. Laptops would normally be configured in such a way that customer records can’t be viewed or copied other than one at a time and printing from PSS customer records is not possible unless the laptop is in the office.
Complex Selling Simplified - PSS has been designed facilitate complex sales and service activities simplifying work flow and all related communications. In one system, PSS can be used simultaneously by up to ten operating sales/services divisions. An eleventh division is pre-defined to assist with company administration and a twelfth is allocated to record hotels used by sales/service teams. If required additional divisions can be added at extra cost.
Remote Users - PSS Remote users can work ‘offline’ at home or on the road until they are able to connect (via modem or GSM Mobile) to the office server. By mainly working ‘off-line’, communications costs are kept to the absolute minimum and the system will still be available even when a telephone line is not available or mobile signal is weak.
Customer Group Screen - allows customer group details to be recorded so they are easily accessible. Agreements, notes and a group account manager can be recorded. It is possible to see all other members of the group, and move between them by double clicking on each company name.
De-duplication System - is built into PSS which whilst a new customer is being entered automatically checks for duplicate company names, address lines and telephone numbers. The user is warned should the system suspect a duplicate.
Customised Screens - each of the ten pre-set companies/divisions can be customised and have their own dedicated Related Details screen. These screens can be tailored using the development system. The related screens help localise the database to specific divisions whilst keeping the core system uncluttered. The system base currency can be set overall and for each supplier. The system can operate with any international date format. All references to ‘Machine’ can be centrally replaced with any product name.
Sales Desktop Features
Customer Site, Contacts, Liaisons, Prospects and Machines – The main aim of this desktop is to group together sales related functions so they are easily controlled. All customers, existing or prospective, have a main screen for each site which shows the basic information for the customer (e.g. address, telephone, www address etc). On the right hand side of the site screen there are four sections showing lists of site contacts, sales prospects (see 2.2), liaisons (2.3) and machines in place. Any item on any of these lists can be double clicked to drill down to a screen showing fuller details. All four sections are linked so that highlighting for example a prospect will highlight any related contact and liaisons. If a prospect becomes an order any machine record(s) can be linked to the originating prospect, in this way the history of the sale of a machine can be tracked from first contact through to installation.
Prospect Administration Desktop ("PAD") - A system called PAD been written to facilitate control of sales prospects (by supplier, machine type and A/B/C rating) from enquiry through to completion of sale. The PAD screen will not only show information relevant only to the user, but an Administrator can grant rights to individual users to allow them to access the PAD screens of other users.
TO DO - A system called ‘TO DO’ has been written enabling customer specific communications to take place between all system users. Every "Liaison" (a contact with a customer relating to one specific subject) entered to the system appears on the TO DO list of the user to whom the liaison is assigned, copies of the liaison or further action relating to the liaison are recorded as "Carbon Copies". To control the TO DO system, all have an action date with a ‘read’ and ‘completed’ status. All move automatically from a ‘not due’ to an ‘overdue‘ section on the screen and can be hidden once read. Once marked completed they move onto a ‘Completed’ section. Liaisons can be carbon copied (as many times as required) to any other user, and will appear in the recipients TO DO system. The system is rather like structured e-mail system combined with a diary, but unlike email, the TO DO system is Customer-centric incorporating aspects of Workflow systems whereby all messages are automatically grouped by customer, and can be tracked from beginning to end by all involved. As many carbon copies as are needed can be sent for action to anyone until every sales lead is followed to its conclusion. The TO DO screen will show information relevant only to the user, but an Administrator can grant rights to individual users to allow them to access the TO DO screens of other users
Stock - The Stock Desktop is fully integrated to simplify the control of machines prior to delivery to the customer. Stock ‘Sites’ are created as per other PSS sites using the ‘Insert’ button on the sales or service desktop, but with the ‘Stock Loc’ check box ticked along with a division to which it applies. Machines can be placed on order for stock, or customer, or held in stock and then optionally assigned to a customer. Once assigned to a customer, the machine ‘appears’ on the customer site so call-logs can be entered in advance of the delivery of the machine. Once the stock machine is finally marked as delivered, it leaves the stock system and appears permanently on the desired customer site. The stock system allows unallocated and allocated machines to be quickly viewed. With a single mouse click it is possible to see all machines overdue for stock, or overdue for delivery to the customer. All allocations, de-allocations and movements of Stock are recorded for each machine record.
Ease of Use Features - on the Sales Desktop there are links between Prospects, Liaisons and Contacts and Machines such that with a single click of the mouse, it is possible to see relationships in the information. The system has also been designed for speed of data entry e.g. when entering a liaison, if a machine interest is selected, and a contact entered which is not already in the database, then the system will prompt to create a new prospect and a new contact. Similarly, if a prospect is entered with an unknown contact, then the system will prompt to create a liaison and a new contact. When viewing a single Prospect record, a summary of related liaisons are displayed for easy cross-reference - keeping the whole sales history together.
Competitor Front-end System - has been developed and fully integrated into the software. This system allows for efficient recording of machinery supplied by competitors. Controls are provided on the Sales and Service Desktops to hide or show these details as required.
Sales Areas - are kept by the system, however the exact mechanism will probably need some bespoke, as most approaches seem to be company specific.
Service Desktop Features
Customer’s Site, Contact, Call Log, Serviceable Machines and engineer Work sheet details - The main aim of this desktop is to group together service related functions so they are easily controlled. The screen is very similar to the Sales Customer Site screen except that the ‘prospect’ and ‘liaison’ sections are dropped and replaced with ‘call-logs’ and ‘worksheets’. A system called ‘Progress’ has been written to enable customer service call logs to be controlled through the call stages: ‘received’; ‘engineer allocated’; ‘worksheet received’. Various controls are provided on the Progress screen to help ensure all customer calls are properly followed through on time and positively completed by the department.
Telephone Fixes Recorded - if a customer call can be completed by telephone, then a telephone-fix worksheet can be entered. Thus it is possible to record all service-related work regardless of whether an engineer was required on site.
Integrated Records - Contacts, Call Logs, Machines and Worksheet details are linked so that with a single click, it is possible to see the relationships in the data so for example clicking on a call log will highlight the machine and any worksheets entered against the call. Clicking on a machine will highlight all calls and all worksheets ever entered against a machine. Clicking on a worksheet will highlight the machine and call-log to which it is associated.
Full Service and Location History on every Machine - when viewing detail of a single machine record, worksheet history for that machine is displayed. Also a location history shows details of when the machine record was created, moved or its status changed (i.e. via the stock system). All records are date/time stamped along with the operator's initials.
Customer Service Contracts
Service Contracts - system is available to retain details of the machines under a chargeable maintenance contract. It is fully linked with all other aspects of the PSS software making it easy to add and remove machines from the contract. The contract system also has a machine safety check recording facility where specific features of a machine need to be regularly checked.
Report Writing
Report Writer Module - contains various standard reports for each of the systems above. Where applicable, most reports can be simply configured via specific customisation screens. Any report can be produced using the powerful report writer within the underlying Development system. Using ODBC or data import/export, it is easy to query data directly into MS Query/Access/Excel or other third party report writers such as Crystal Reports from Seagate.
Systems Administration Desktop
Systems Administration Desktop - provides a maintenance screen for each file in the system. However, it should not be used without suitable consultation/training, and is only made available to the System Administrators and Supervisor.
Spares Front-end to Third Party SOP Systems
(is an optional bespoke module depending on Customers present systems)
Spares Front-end
The Spares front-end is a real-time link to all compatible Accounting and Distribution systems and can be installed with office based Users. Remote Users can potentially operate it via a dial-up networking connection to the LAN. This system combines the ease of use of the PSS Graphical User Interface whilst retaining investment in existing systems. Presently the link performs on-line credit checks (whenever a customer site is looked up in PSS), and displays all orders placed by the customer along with order status information. It also provides an efficient mechanism for stock part and price enquiries. Provided the target SOP system allows analysis fields such as the machine system number to be entered during order entry, and provided this analysis subsequently carries forward into the SOP invoice history file, it is possible enquiry which spare parts have been sold against any machine. Please call for further information.
Contact info:
John Cooper
Tel: 01323 871 274
Email: info@officefromhome.co.uk
Web: www.officefromhome.co.uk