Businesses have become accustomed to moving away from paper based systems to using computers, most business have their accounts on either a spreadsheet or accounts package, personnel records in a database and stock control on a pc in the warehouse or similar.

However many business do not realise that there is a lot more that can be done, and handled from a web based system - for both in house systems and those that are used by the public.

This is something which i3media specialise in, and can be a big saver of both time and money as well as being faster, more reliable and more efficient.

Examples

• Online proofing
• Retailer orders
• Quoting
• Marketing materials
• Allocating work
• Credit checking
• Online proofing

We have two clients in different industries that need to have amendments made to drawings and plans during the flow of their business. This used to mean they sent out hard copies by post which were drawn upon, packed up and sent back.

This took a minimum of three days and the obvious costs of printing, postage, stationary etc.

Our solution was to take the original images - which were developed on pc anyway, post these on a secure website where clients can log in. The client then used a simple drawing tool (similar to paint) to make the changes - all while within the website - and resubmit them to the company instantly.

The system speeded up the business flows by an average of 5 days per job , saves one of the clients the postage of 3000 letters a year and means that multiple revisions can be done within minutes.

The saving for one client was over £9000 per year for this alone!

Retailer Orders

A national distributor has 1200+ shops buying their products, which are serviced by 20+ agents. While we were building their site we noticed that orders were being taken by phone, fax, agents visiting clients and a myriad of different methods.

We proposed a system that retailers can log into the site, pick the items they want, see their own exclusive prices and immediately pass the order into the company's fulfilment system. The client can also ask questions, view previous orders and see the status of current orders.

This has enabled a single place to see orders, to the point where even the staff in the office are going to be using it to update telephone orders.

The next step will be a direct connection into the client's accounts system to raise invoices and update accounts.

Online Quoting

A relatively simple solution which can give customers instant pricing for simple products or give the sales people in the office all the information they need to produce accurate quotes without needing to spend time on the phone finding out the data from the customer. This can also be added to the following items of marketing materials, and allocating work.

Marketing Materials

We have a client that has 12 different printed brochures that people used to request via the website. Obviously the print costs and time involved in picking the ones that have been asked for, making envelopes, and postage were considerable. The new solution has all the brochures as downloadable pdfs. However it doesn't stop there.

A customer can tick which ones they want , and that particular combination are put together into a zip file so they can download quickly, the name and address are added into a database for the client and the list of requests are emailed to the client every morning, as well as being visible in the sites control panel.

Allocating work

A client has a team of people in the field and regularly receives requests for work. The old method was to check on a map to see whose area the job was in, check they are available, ring them up with the details and they added in into a diary.

The new system has all the agents in a database along with the postcode areas they cover, and which areas they cover if a neighbouring agent is away. When an enquiry comes in the system checks to see who to send it to, but if they are flagged as away or holiday it gives it to an alternate agent. It then adds it to their diary as a "pending" and sends a link to the agent by email which they pick up on there mobile. They log into the system, add the job to the diary and carry on.

Faster, more reliable, saves time and avoids missing jobs. It also allows the clients to look at any or all diaries at any point to see where people are, how busy they are or even transfer job to another agent if the need arises.

Credit Checking

This is a system that is the backbone of a new business and involves part of all of the above items. An agent is allocated a sales lead, which they diarise on the site and go and visit. The system lets the potential customer download brochures before they meet so the job is easier for the agent.

Once they become a customer the system delivers credit reports, which can be commented on and re submitted and the system raises invoices, takes payments, reminds staff if payments are late and allocates back up visits to the nearest available agent when they are due.