Interprise Suite 2007 is a desktop windows application which offers out-of-the box completely integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and financials. There is also an optional ecommerce module (aspdotnetstorefront) which also seamlessly integrates into both the CRM and accounting functions.
Interprise has been written as something called a 'smart-client', this means that although it works a like traditional windows application on your desktop it can connect to its database across your company network or across the Internet. This opens up the possibilities for remote working and means that connections can be made securely and easily. On first inspection the application sports a very clean and modern looking interface. Certainly the company claim that it is a modern application designed properly 'from the ground up' rather than a legacy application which has grown over many years with cumbersome bolt-ons. The initial screen shows a familiar menu with 'bars' down the left hand side, certainly like other products on the market. The main screen is taken up with 'workflows' which is a way of grouping related functionality together. The main screen can be changed by altering the drop down field in the top right of the screen.
No doubt about it, CRM is a real hotspot for businesses looking to gain competitive advantage today. Organisations realise that they have to constantly strive to acquire new business and make sure they look after existing customers well. CRM is seen as something of a silver bullet, a 'cure all ills' although the reality often falls way short. So what makes a good CRM?
Typically CRM focuses on two aspects; pre-sales and post-sales. In pre-sales its all about managing leads, opportunities and making sure any actions are diarised and followed up. Additionally sales rep performance can be monitored along with the overall conversion ratios of leads to opportunities and quotations to sales. In post-sales it can either be about providing a high level customer service or targeting customers to identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
So we can change the main screen to get a 'summary' of a CRM and all the typical data is here; Opportunity reporting, cases and in fact some nice reports also. You can see in the screens below the different screens you can have within CRM. Interprise also offers 'document management', of course not a full blown solution but the ability to simply attach all types of file to a campaign which could be very useful.
Of course being able to create campaigns and segment your customer base is a key facet of CRM. Many solutions are particularly weak in this area which is surprising as this one feature can be key to actually generating a return on investment. Interprise has a couple of nice features which exist because of its integration into the financials. Now most CRM systems let you specify a 'target list' which in effect is the customer/prospect segment you wish to target. However that segmentation is normally done based on specific data tagged to each prospect, i.e. create a target list based on lead source or town etc. What you can do with Interprise as well as basic segmenting is to create lists around specific products you have either quoted for, or sold, to prospects and/or customers. Additionally Interprise has a very feature rich word processor and email client built in that let you mail-merge or bulk email your target list right within the program.
The functionality offered by the sales ledger is typical of any accounting system. The ability to raise quotations, turn them into sales orders and then invoice those sales orders. One nice feature is the batch document printing of sales orders and invoices but again this is found in other products also. You can also maintain prospects and sales reps within the sales ledger and these are the same functions used by the CRM module. Again the main screen can be changed to show the available reports and a business intelligence snapshot which gives some useful performance figures. One really nice feature is that of coupons. Coupons can be used to create promotional pricing for all customers or a selection of customers and can be used to give an overall order discount or discounts on specific items. When entering the sales order there is a coupon code field which providing the customer is attached to that coupon they will get the discount off of the order.
One other strong area of functionality is that of credit control. In addition to the standard production of statements, Interprise offers detailed analysis of aged debt as well as being able to record contact history to debtors as well as recording promised dates for payment.
Both the sales and purchase ledgers support multiple billing and shipping addresses per customer.
The purchase ledger offers the standard functionality of being able to raise requisitions, assign requisitions to purchase orders and turn purchase orders into purchase invoices. The first screen below also shows something called a supplier "template". In both the sales and purchase ledgers you can create templates and then when you add a new customer or supplier you can create them based on that template. So you can define payment terms, VAT codes and shipping methods just once and assign suppliers to that template. Purchase orders can be created on the back of sales orders for out of stock items (back to back) and there is also support for drop ship items which raises a purchase order against the supplier and tells the supplier to ship direct to the customer.
Again Interprise easily covers the standard nominal ledger functionality you would find in competing packages. Some of the larger systems on the market have a facility for including cost centres as part of the nominal coding structure. In Interprise these are known as "segments" and are slightly more powerful in that you are not limited to how many segments you can have and the segments are split up in the coding with hyphens. So a country, depart, cost centre nominal code could be for example GB-01-10-4000.
The chart of accounts allows you to look at individual accounts and to set budgets for each nominal code. A useful feature is to assign budgets across all periods, so you can say enter a budget amount of £12000 and then click a button to distribute this total amount equally across all periods. The transaction view shows you the transaction history for the selected nominal account and you can then drill into this to see the individual journal lines for that transaction.
Being able to generate useful profit and loss and balance sheet reports is vital and Interprise scores highly here. You can create one or more "layouts" and switch between them easily. Then the financial layout tool allows you to easily and visually add text lines, sub-totals, and additional accounts to any group or sub-group. Accounts can be indented which automatically controls where the grouping takes place. Certainly in other packages there is nothing like this amount of flexibility with regards to laying out and defining the groups on the report.
The stock ledger functionality is very comprehensive. In addition to the typical functionality of stock, non-stock and service based items you would find on any accounting system, Interprise also offers matrix and kit items. A matrix item is where you can define 'attributes' against a base product. A typical example is clothing where you have a base product such as trousers where you sell the item in varying colours, lengths and waist sizes. This avoids having to setup a separate stock item for each variation of a given product. In fact Interprise is the only solution on the market amongst all the other vendors to offer this facility. Each attribute added to the item builds up the stock code. So for example a pair of black trousers with a waist and inside leg measurement could be defined as "MTR-BLK-W34-L34".
Additionally, kits offer the ability to bundle one or more products into a single item. Each item in the kit can be defined as choose from a list, required or optional. Then when a sales order is raised using that kit item the person entering the sales order sees the "kit configurator" which presents the available options for that kit. Very useful in a telesales environment. Interestingly this also links to the webshop where kits being sold on the web also provide prospective buyers with a list of options as defined by the item in the stock ledger.
The stock ledger supports multiple units of measurements per item and items can be bought and sold in different units of measurements. Even price/quantity breaks can be set for different units so discounts can be applied for pack sizes or individual units.
One of the real key strengths in Interprise is its ability to be customised. Admin users can actually add custom fields to the database and then add those custom fields onto screens. Additionally developers can write 'plug-ins' which is a framework for adding functionality re-using the business logic that exists and maintaining the plug-ins in such a way that upgrades dont compromise any bespoke add-ons. The screen shots show the ability to add custom items by clicking the "customise" button and fields can be added to any of the tables.
Interprise is a modern, scalable, integrated solution which offers businesses some really great functionality out of the box and a structured base for which to add any bespoke customisations to meet any business needs. It is priced extremely competitively between other vendors entry level and mid-market solutions.
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