Success Stories

"We can identify low-margin deals before they become an order"

– Jeff Burgess, President

Burgess Computer Decisions is a hardware-only solution provider to Fortune 500 companies. A couple years ago, President Jeff Burgess realized that to grow the company he needed to enhance his internal sales and purchasing tools. Burgess and his sales team were manually gathering product information from a multitude of sources, and then having to cut and paste the information onto an Excel spreadsheet and faxing or e-mailing the quote to clients.

Burgess knew he could continue on this route or look for a way to automate the process in order to run his business more efficiently and offer a better service to customers.

Burgess began using ChannelOnline™ in 2000. He viewed it as a one-stop shop to build quotes, since the application offers everything from product specifications to descriptions to side-by-side comparisons. "Customers noticed the difference. It was a lot more convenient and versatile in what it could do."

The hosted service played well into BCD's mission to provide a proactive service to customers, including a 30-minute turnaround on acknowledging a customer's order via e-mail. Burgess likes the fact that he can tailor ChannelOnline T's data to suit customer requirements. "I can have one part number and nine different customers looking at nine different prices, based on pricing rules I set up," he said.

Burgess also relies on ChannelOnlineT for report generation. "The reporting feature offers me a prompt, accurate summary on both quotes and orders. This is especially useful within the Quote feature as we can identify low-margin deals before they become an order," Burgess said. "With the reporting feature, I can look back on a given day, week,month, quarter or year. Based on the current economy, any dollar gained is worth two dollars -the one you gained and the one you would have lost."

During 2001 when many companies folded or lost sales, BCD grew sales by 40 percent and profits by 3 percent.

For more information on Burgess Computer Decisions, visit www.bcdsales.com