Why Use Custom Pricing Applications?

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Does your business have a complex quoting process?
  • Do you or your sales team use an Access database or Excel spreadsheet to generate your quote?
  • Would you like to generate your quotes faster?
  • Can your sales representatives generate quotes while away from the office?
  • Would you like your customers to generate their own quotes online with a web based quoting tool?

If your quoting process is complex and you want to streamline it, then developing a custom pricing application is what you need.

For one of our clients, we designed an application that enabled the company's sales engineers to respond to a quote in one screen, reducing the processing time from 1hr (average) to < 5 minutes.

With your sales team generating quotes faster with no errors, you can keep your business running more efficiently, saving both time and money. Who doesn’t want to do that?

 

Here's some typical project scenarios that we have completed in the past when creating web based quote applications.

Scenario #1: Converting from Old Pricing Application

We have a lot of experience taking an old software application and converting it to a new web based application using modern technologies.

Often we find that the requirements for the old application are not written down, and the only documentation for the current pricing scheme is in the old application itself.

We will swim through the old code, no matter how old it is and whatever technology it's in. 

For these types of projects, Phase 1 is typically a fact finding mission to determine what the requirements were, what changes needs to be made, and documenting all of that so going forward everything is written down.

Many of these projects start with an old Access or .NET application that was created years ago and now is finally the time for an upgrade!

Scenario #2: Converting from Spreadsheet to Web Based Application

Many pricing applications that are used by internal Sales people start out as spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are actually very easy to determine what is currently being done and what the pricing algorithm is. Excel can be feature rich without being too complicated.

In this case, determining the original requirements is straight forward. What becomes more complicated is moving Sales people from a spreadsheet (where they usually have free reign to do whatever) to an application where the process is more structured.

Scenario #3: Starting from Scratch

Many times a client just wants to start from scratch. Either their current system is so old or there never was a current system.

Either way, when starting out from scratch, we'll take you through the process of documenting the pricing algorithm and sales process that you want to follow.

We'll also explain best practices for how to integrate the new application into your company and/or with your customers.

Scenario #4: Converting from CRM (Salesforce) to an Application

Every now and then a client will realize that they're over paying for Salesforce. Salesforce is a great tool but not everyone needs something that big and feature rich.

We are experienced in Salesforce and can help you pull out all of the data you need to populate a new application.

As with every scenario, we'll crawl through the existing Salesforce or other CRM tool and determine what you have working now, and what needs to be brought over to a new application.

Scenario #5: "Sign-Up" Applications

A "Sign-Up" application is one in which the customer goes through a series of steps to sign up for your company's product or service.

This is helpful when you have some solid marketing that is generating leads and you feel like your Customer would like to sign up for your service without going through an entire sales process over the phone.

Usually this will involve the Customer going to a website where they create an account, and go through a series of screens to select the product and/or service that they want to purchase.

We have integrated these types of application with Stripe as the online payment provider and PCI compliant repository of credit card numbers. 

Clients have used connectivity with Stripe to allow Customers to setup one time and recurring payments. Recurring payments are used when your service is purchased in a subscription model.

How Much Does It Cost and How Long Does It Take?

Typical projects last from 3 to 6 months and are between $45k and $100k. Obviously this is very much dependent on your own company and project requirements.

We have found in the past that our customers are looking for a solution that will have an impact on sales and they want that impact to begin sooner rather than later.

As with any customer software development project that we take on, you will work with a project manager and have weekly meetings to go over progress.

What Other Functionality Will I Need?

All of our web based applications have a common set of functionality that is required regardless of the type of project. This function includes creating an application that handles:

  1. User roles and permissions for internal and external users
  2. An 'admin' user that has rights to everything
  3. Login/Forgot Password functionality
  4. Ability to send emails through your own email server
  5. Ability to customize various elements of the application, such as pricing thresholds, content, email templates, etc.
  6. Ability to generate PDF files for Quotes/Orders
  7. Connectivity for storing and processing credit cards (such as Stripe)
  8. Reporting, both by user and by manager for aggregate reports
  9. Integration with an external CRM (when used with a "Sign-Up" application)

Can the Application be Mobile Friendly?

Yes! All of our projects use Bootstrap or Material which are technologies that allow us to make browser based applications that work on a desktop and on a phone.

By doing this, there is no need to create a native phone application (such as an iPhone app).

How Do I Get Started?

Everything starts with a form and phone call. Just fill out the form below and we'll be in touch to setup an initial investigation phone call to see if we're the right fit for you.