FrontOffice Optimization.

TechExcel Inc.'s FrontOffice is an integrated suite of five products intended for managing all aspects of the customer lifecycle. FrontOffice combines ServiceWise, the company's customer support solution, with four new applications: SalesWise, a sales force automation package; MarketingWise, a complete online marketing tool; AssetWise for advanced asset management and FormWise for online forms automation.

The two components that struck our fancy, MarketingWise and Sales Wise, are geared to offer dynamic support for closing the loop in the customer lifecycle. MarketingWise manages comprehensive online marketing programs, from high-level marketing campaigns to sophisticated online marketing initiatives and data analysis. It focuses on the target customer and manages the complete marketing lifecycle from first impression to qualified prospect, tracking each prospect's qualification status throughout. MarketingWise also escalates qualified prospects automatically into SalesWise, initiating the sales process.

Among MarketingWise's features is detailed task management with easily assigned owners, due dates and progress status tracking. There is a document management component for marketing-related files (such as artwork and logo images, white papers, marketing collateral and banner ads) with complete revision history tracked for each file. Activities can be organized by major program, individual project and specific task, each with a different owner. The application allows for implementing sophisticated online marketing programs, and customized fields can be created for program tracking. Response rates to e-mail "blasts" can be tracked and individual responses can be monitored using sales points defined for each marketing program. Sales point values can be defined and assigned to all online programs, used to identify those prospects that accumulate the most points and escalate qualified prospects directly into SalesWise when defined thresholds are reached. Since MarketingWise and SalesWise share the same database, the transition from marketing prospect to sales lead is seamless.

SalesWise manages all aspects of the sales process, from initial contact through quote management and order processing. It creates an extended sales team that incorporates marketing, sales, support and field service into the sales process. SalesWise integrates seamlessly with ServiceWise to provide efficient customer support before and after the sale. The product allows for creating fully customized sales workflow, detailed task lists and logging of sales activities. It can create sales groups and automatically assign sales leads to the appropriate person based on any criteria defined by the user. Sales staff can easily monitor the support issues for all customers and prospects, and be automatically notified by e-mail, pager or cell phone when high priority customer support incidents are entered. Customized sales workflows can be created, and all sales leads and associated contacts are managed in the central SalesWise database. The module also provides for multiple quote generation and management, analysis o f competitors' Web sites, offers a wide range of reporting and analysis tools and provides a Web interface to facilitate collaboration with the extended sales team throughout the sales process.