1.Our company already has an off line Sales Force Automation (SFA) tool. How CenterStone can help us?

CenterStone provides ordering solutions for both sales forces as well as dealers, available in different modes -principally online but also off line. Most SFA tools do not provide for dealer access, which is a significant benefit of the CenterStone solution.
Selecting CenterStone will enable you to use our online application for your dealers and distributors and keep your existing SFA offline tool for your sales force. Order history from both solutions can be made available to your dealers. Our solution improves the level of communication between sales reps and their dealers by allowing them to collaborate through electronic "proposals."
You will always have the option of extending CenterStone's solution to your sales force at a later stage, both on and offline, and take full advantage of the interactivity between users (sending proposals, email alerts etc.) and benefit from the "one single solution" concept.

2.What is the benefit of a pure online ordering system?

Online ordering allows retailers and reps to access information in real time anywhere, anytime, 24/7. No discrepancies between the catalogs they consult and the product data in your back-end ERP system. Catalogs, prices, inventory, orders, order status... are updated frequently and ordering becomes much easier and accurate for field sales reps and their clients.

3.Our company is willing to change its Sales Force Automation tool. Why CenterStone?

CenterStone offers battle-tested, leading solutions that have been tested and validated by dozen of clients with well-known brands in North America and Europe. Prestigious suppliers such as The North Face, Smith Optics, Helly Hansen, Billabong...have adopted our tools, and our applications are already used by many thousands of sales reps and dealers.
We can have your solution operational in as few as 60 days. Our turnkey solutions are available immediately in 5 languages and our implementation methodology significantly reduces the time to market, which significantly improves your ROI. Rapid deployment and an unparalleled adoption rate by users differentiate the CenterStone solutions.
Our support experts deliver premium classroom training to your sales force, and we provide 10/5 multilingual assistance for any question related to the application. Our clients take advantage of our superior support and our operational presence in Europe and North America, which helps to drive strong user adoption and contributes to the large ROI of our solutions.

4.My back-end system is SAP, Oracle, GEAC, Movex... Do you have experience integrating with such systems?

Our solutions are neutral (often referred to as ERP system agnostic) and can integrate with all systems available on the market. Through our clients, and as a result of dozens of successful integrations, we have experience with large systems as well as small proprietary ERP systems.
By meeting our Data Specifications, you benefit from our extensive experience of data integration. We also provide flexibility to meet your wishes: we offer to quicken the integration (raw data), to implement highly secured transactions (EDI) or both (XML flow secured at the network level). But interfacing your back-end system with our solutions goes beyond an efficient and flexible integration: this is your opportunity to audit your information system, therefore to enhance the reliability of the applications built on your internal data flow.

5.My sales force spends the majority of their time travelling to visit clients. How do they access data?

Through our solutions, your field sales force can always access their specific data via two options:

• Online capability and mobility cards (2G / 3G technology) allow reps to instantly access real-time and accurate information anywhere, anytime. - No discrepancies between the catalogs they consult and the product data in your back-end system.
• We also offer an offline version that enables reps to synchronize their laptop with the online solution (or directly with your back-end system) through a single Internet connection and collect up-to-date data in batch mode.

6.How is information updated with CenterStone's solution?

Our solutions are data driven, based upon file transfer protocols with the supplier's ERP system. Files including information about catalogs, prices, dealers, inventory, orders, and order status can be fully updated on a frequency that the supplier determines (every 5 minutes or 3 times a day). Data can be updated in different ways, according to your resources and existing channel, via simple flat files or via more advanced formats such as EDI. Our IT team will bring its expertise and assist your IT department with the configuration of these elements.

7.My company does not wish to have full transparency regarding our inventory. How can your solutions handle this?

Our solutions offer advanced configuration capabilities that enable each supplier to customize the way data is displayed to users. Different options are available: display only color coding inventory excluding quantities or cap quantities to a certain limit. The comprehension of your business rules and specifications is part of our implementation methodology and will determine how your information is displayed to users.

8.CenterStone offers a turnkey solution but is it compatible with specific needs or customizations? How can CenterStone manage that?

We have more than 200,000 man-hours of development behind our solutions. Our "standard" order solutions are incredibly feature-rich and already provide the functionality that covers 90% of the market needs. These "basic" features are used by many thousands of dealers and sales reps every day. In addition, specific features can be developed on demand by our IT team, according to your RFP. Our team of developers will consult with you, analyze your needs and design a product roadmap that meets your requirements for customization.

9.We are thinking about building our own Online ordering system, why should we consider CenterStone?

Thousands of retailers and sales reps already use our solutions. This translates into rapid deployment and easy adoption for you throughout your supply chain. Driving adoption rates of any new business process is so vital to its success that the point cannot be stressed enough. Many suppliers or solution providers have invested thousands of development hours into Sales Ordering applications, but they do not meet the very specific requirements of retailers. Therefore, retailers refuse to use them, which results in a miserable ROI for suppliers.
Furthermore, 75% of surveyed dealers state that they do not want to learn multiple systems from multiple suppliers. Like most business people, they are very busy and don't have time. They want standardization across the industry. 86% of dealers said that FIVE or fewer systems are manageable but not more in the whole industry. And 23% feel that there should be just ONE industry standard.

10.What kind of ROI can I expect with CenterStone's solutions?

Our Sales Order Management solutions help vigorously work both sides of the profit equation - cutting costs and increasing revenue. Many suppliers don't know or grossly underestimate the true cost of order processing and management. The hidden costs associated with phone messages, faxed orders and order entry mistakes add up to big chunks of lost profits.

Key Finding n°1:
5 out of 10 dealers purchase more products from vendors that have on-line ordering systems.
> Implication
What is your average order size? If 50% of your dealers sent you one more order per season, what would that mean to your business?
> Example
Assume 2,000 dealers, 50% = 1,000 dealers. Assume € 500 = average order
If 1,000 dealers placed just 1 more order per season (winter & summer),
Incremental revenue = 1million €

Key Finding n°2:
When given a choice among various alternatives for placing orders, 78% of dealers prefer to obtain inventory availability and place orders on-line.
> Implication
If 78% of your dealers placed their orders on-line - and electronic order processing reduces costs by 80% (Forrester Research) - how much can you save on your cost of sales? How much more will you contribute to the bottom line?
> Example
Assume 2,000 dealers, 78% = 1,560 dealers

Cost to process an order (traditional):	10 €
Savings of order processing cost (automated)	80%
Savings per Order	8 €

EBIT contribution: 1,560 dealers x 5 orders x 2 seasons x 8€ per order = 124, 800€