AMSE
Sofon makes even the most complicated proposals simple to produce
Dirk Mermans
SALES SUPPORT MANAGER
5 questions for a Sofon User
1 What does Alliance Machine Systems Europe use Sofon for?
“We have been using Sofon since 2005 to produce proposals for machines and projects in the corrugated cardboard industry. One of the reasons we chose Sofon, was the fact that we wanted more uniformity in our organization. We are a merger of a number of Dutch, Belgian and American companies who all used different methods for proposals. Thanks to Sofon we now produce uniform, professional sales documents. This is of great importance to us, as a good sales force also is.”
2 How complicated are your proposals?
“Our proposals vary from simple to complex. The complex proposals are often quite long; some 50 to 60 pages. That’s because we sell complete product ranges; each product is therefore included in the proposal with all its technical specifications. Now we use Sofon, we have divided proposals into two parts: a commercial and a technical part. So each specialist reads only the information that he or she needs. This saves our clients a lot of time and energy. We also save time ourselves. Previously, we had to put together our proposals manually. These days, we use a Sofon model with a question and answer set-up. In this way, even the most complicated proposals are simple to produce. It is now no longer necessary to pay much attention to content or lay-out. So we are really reaping the benefits of Sofon.”
3 How long does it take you to produce a proposal?
“That’s hard to say, as we have complex and less complex proposals. In the past, it would take us 45 minutes to produce a standard proposal, for example. This is now only 5 minutes. This used to take so much time because we would look up old proposals and change, say, the conditions by hand. Of course, this method was risky and it was easy to make a mistake. If certain changes were not made in a proposal this could result in big adverse effects. Luckily, this is no longer the case. Because of Sofon’s question and answer set-up, our proposals are error-free and a lot of time is saved.”
4 How do you rate Sofon Guided Selling?
“Using Sofon, we not only put together professional, error-free proposals, but we can share knowledge. Our various specialists can put their knowledge into one system. Our staff can make use of this knowledge at any time and anywhere. I’m very happy with the way So-fon works in a day-to-day sense for our business. The software works just fine. Of course there are small points that can be improved – we would like more flexibility in lay-out for example. But I’m sure this can be solved.”
5 What will Sofon mean for the future of Alliance Machine Systems Europe?
“We are looking for an ERP system. However, ERP systems do not have good proposal generators and can therefore never replace Sofon. For this reason, Sofon will probably be asked to build a link to this ERP system in the future.”