Customizing Orders for Groups and Individual Customers - Technical Overview

Feb. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- F2 CRM (Customer Resource Management) - part of the F2 PlatFForm suite was mentioned in the overview of Rent-Tech's online solution. Foote Francis met with Rent-Tech's business managers and customized F2 CRM's functions to flow-with existing business processes. In many cases, F2 CRM streamlined and automated processes by removing the need for human intervention and printed paper files. Foote Francis vision and their smart adaptation of Joomla CMS (Content Management System) and F2 CRM to Rent-Tech's needs improved the quality and quantity of sales that Rent-Tech handles.

Web Applications Then Versus Now

In the past, project managers assessed the amount of time needed to develop a reliable online system and considered the impact to their existing, flourishing business. Management and technology managers know that the development of a customized, online CRM (Customer Resource Management) solution has historically been cost-prohibitive and typically becomes a multi-year project. The level of programming and sophistication of the software has limited the flexibility and adaptability of software to change as the business evolves.

Customizing and releasing F2 CRM for Rent-Tech was a quick project. From discovery to going-live took about ten months. During the three month discovery process, Foote Francis developed system requirements. Over the next five months, Foote Francis customized connectivity and integration with Rent-Tech's existing proprietary and industry tools. The remaining month was utilized for a short test phase and then a short period to release the online service to public customers.

What functions does F2 CRM provide to help an existing, successful business improve business? How does F2 CRM provide a faster sales cycle, increase the capacity of products being handled and ensure quality data tracking? We'll answer these questions by looking closely at the Rent-Tech / F2 CRM project.

Website Emulates a Unique, Successful Process

Rent-Tech (Australia) Pty Ltd provides financing to parents, schools and universities around Australia. Their packages include options for renting and purchasing a variety of computers. Their typical sale is to a parent with children at multiple schools. The parent has the option to finance or buy computers from pre-negotiated computer packages for each school. Schools can offer different packages based on the age level and academic requirements their level of student needs to meet.

Rent-Tech merged their business expertise with Foote Francis' online knowledge. By customizing Foote Francis' F2 CRM module, the rent-tech.com.au website intelligently directs customer requests through an automated financing process and commences the order process. Sales data is tracked in F2 CRM and available to the various staff involved in the sales process throughout the sales cycle. Sales and order procedures that used to take staff hours or days to complete have been streamlined to actions that often take less than an hour to process.

Business-specific procedures and data management can be added to F2 CRM. As an established financing business, Rent-Tech, had a variety of decisions in their sales logic. Foote Francis identified the business processes and set up F2 CRM to route and automate sales through these steps.

The customer identifies himself or herself through the actions he or she takes when initiating activity on Rent-Tech's website (Parent starts order). Foote Francis customized the web form to guide customer's inquiry to the correct process. In a common scenario, a parent finances computers and accessories for two children at two different schools that participate in Rent-Tech's program.

F2 CRM checks the parent's credit through a secure link to VEDA Advantage, a national credit agency. Parent's credit approval or decline is automatically returned to the parent within minutes of filling out the online form. Automation of the (Credit check) process removes human labour costs, reduces data entry errors and fulfills the buyer's inquiry faster. The parent has the confidentiality and comfort of being approved or declined for financing in the privacy of their home.

Order Details - Purchase Orders and Grouping Items by Vendor

Upon approval, the approved buyer begins the purchase (Order detail) and is offered pre-negotiated packages defined by each school. Behind the scenes, the various computers and components are re-grouped by vendor. Items are tracked by both the parents' order and the wholesale supplier (Items grouped by vendor). To facilitate purchasing, Rent-Tech requested that F2 CRM is customized to group items (Purchase Orders) for wholesale ordering from specific vendors. F2 CRMs communication of wholesale data has been customized to prepare purchase orders on a weekly, monthly or other cycle as arranged between Rent-Tech and their vendor. Rent-Tech staff have the ability to go in and change the interval for the purchase orders through their administrative logon to F2 CRM.

Financing Payment Plan versus Outright Purchase

When the parent is satisfied with the packages he or she has chosen, buyer is moved into the payment options window. The buyer can choose to finance the computers through Rent-Tech (Financing Payment Plan) or buy the items outright (Purchase).

F2 CRM sends data to Rent-Tech's existing business systems (Financing payment plan). When a parent finances packages, the hardware is the property of Rent-Tech. Rent-Tech's asset management will receive fulfillment data, such as computer serial numbers and models, from purchasing (Purchase Orders) and track data from the financing agreement (Financing payment plan). F2 CRM and Asset Management have been synchronized to send out automatic promotional offers (Lease upgrade offer) when the computers near the end of their depreciation or pay-off period. The automated offers improve the longevity of sales and increase repeat business.

Automated Payment Gateways and Service Contract PDF

The most common eCommerce systems can easily process payments from a variety of sources like credit cards. Direct debit, Credit card or Bank EFT. The payments are processed into Rent-Tech's existing bank and credit card merchant gateways (Credit card) (Bank EFT).

However, processing payment plans for direct debit from a buyer's private bank account requires an additional signature on paper and kept on file. F2 CRM facilitates the assembly of a PDF document with the parents' agreement details (Automated Authorization PDF). The parent views and is instructed at the time of the online transaction to print the direct debit PDF and to mail it to Rent-Tech's offices. By having F2 CRM handle the assembly and delivery of the PDF, fewer labour hours and less postage are needed in Rent-Tech's back office producing and mailing direct debit documents.

Rent-Tech's business was uninterrupted during and after the delivery of F2 CRM. Foote Francis integrated the solution intermeshed with the original business systems. While the orders are in various states of fulfillment, F2 CRM communicates with Rent-Tech's multiple in-house systems. Staff can view tables of data online through F2 CRM's administrator pages. Rent-Tech operations can track the status of purchase orders and finance can review the payment status of orders. Staff can edit packages by updating the data where parents first identify their child's school (Parent starts order).

Though the internal administrative access to F2 CRM, staff can update financing plans or orders, should manual changes be needed. F2 CRM can adapt to the evolving customer needs and product changes even after the system is implemented. Rent-Tech is able to respond to changes in their market immediately, such as changing a model offered to a specific school.

Not to be left out, the parent can track the status of products and payments. Self-service information can be retrieved any time of day by logging back onto Rent-Tech's website at any future date.

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Foote Francis ('F2') is a Perth - Australia based web development company founded by Hayden Foote and Aaron Francis in 2001. Since 2005, F2 has used Joomla CMS (Content Management System) and modules to customize corporate websites and web services.