Free Web Demo of Global e-line

" Independently of the capacity of the salesperson, the pedagogical approach or the quality of the presented template, the prospect always has the impression that you hide the Truth from him. He has the impression that once he'll be facing the software alone, it's not going to be as easy… As if everything seemed too simple, too smooth in the hands of the presales consultant. The consultant would be willing to hand-over a carefully crafted evaluation release, knowing full well that the prospect will probable not explore it on his own… but one could do better than that to convince the prospect of the solution's quality.

BusinessLine, provider of inquiry management software Global e-line, has been confronted with this problem for a long time: "How to make sure the prospect adopts the software on the very first meeting".

For years, the presales policy was to go visit the customers, carrying a portable computer configured as server (and not always stable), to make a demonstration at the customer's company on a corner of a table where he or she can see the screen without too much sunshine highlight-or in a dark conference room. It becomes an authoritative presentation for a reverent audience. End of presentation, laptop shut down, all forgotten. End of story. The customer asks about some features, though these have actually been presented (Would you like me to launch the application again?), and then he asks for a demo CD that he can show to the colleagues. Poor customer. Installation and configuration of a software package can easily take a whole day. Not like downloading minor freeware-applications. A meeting could be set up to make this test installation, but in the end, the informatics department can't spare the server, they're afraid of causing network-problems etc., and finally you just go home with your laptop.

The prospect has thus forgotten most the demo, except for the minor crash caused by the file you forgot on the desktop, and perhaps the way the consultant had of saying, with pride "If you could come to my office, I could show you everything!" It seem pretty sure that the software, once it's up and running in the customer's own company, would have much longer response time, that it would be necessary to improve the machine power - again, etc.

Then the Internet arrived. Videoconference, "Hello, can you see me? Please install this minor utilitarian on your Pc, then I'll take over to show you our application". The unique advantage of this system is that the salesperson or consultant no longer needs to go physically to the customer's company. But the other problems remain the same : How to make sure the prospect understands the software.

BusinessLine found the solution. The prospect controls the demonstration.

Global e-line is a Full Web Inquiry management software. "Inquiry" can be any question from a customer (from outside or from within the company) needing an adequate answer from a competent expert. From there, the software package is used in different set-ups as informatics help-desk, Employee relationship management, complaint management, Human resource management, etc.

The application has been developed entirely for use on the Internet (in opposition to the software packages which simply have a web interface module). The response time is immediate, independent of the localization of the participants (customers or experts) and the application server, the quality of the workstations is not important, and no plug-in (not even painless) needs to be installed on the workstations. Total liberty. One of BusinessLine's European customers has thus decided to install the application on a server in Switzerland, while the experts are in Paris, the customers all over Europe, and the administrator in Spain.

When your software is so easy to access, you simply must give your prospects the benefit of it. The meeting is scheduled by phone, the needs and requirements expressed in a few words, a preliminary configuration done in a couple of minutes to let the prospect recognize the vocabulary, the main business organization, and so on, and it's on the road on Internet!

The URL is handed over, the phone put in hands-free mode to avoid the torticollis, and the home page is displayed on the prospects screen. And then, surprise. The consultant asks you to take hold of the mouse and follow the instructions. The pre-sales consultant simply has to reinitialize his own screen to display the results of the prospects actions. "Click" errors sometimes happen, but these incidents are solved with humor and patience as the consultant tries to guess what window the prospect might be lost in.

In about 15 minutes, the prospect himself declares "OK, I've got it; I understand how your software works. You right, actually, it's logical and user-friendly." Sometimes, a prospect may break free from the consultant to go looking for a bug he won't find. He will see that the software works with very satisfying response times, that he's already capable of using it, and that he didn't need to install anything on the workstation. This makes it impossible to stay passive, it's like getting in a new car while the car salesman is away, and try all the buttons.
Once the presentation is over, the consultant will even offer configuring the tool for his specific situation. Configuration of the screens, new fields, vocabulary, etc. In about half an hour, the prospect will know how to use the software, and will have begun the configuration, playing the role of administrator.

The prospect will always ask if he can continue playing on his own. That is not a problem for BusinessLine. It is sufficient to allocate him a URL, and voila …

After several months of training, our pre-sales consultants have become the " Ray Charles of the internet ". Staring at nothing, the guess what the prospect is doing and what he wish to do. It is also an excellent way of doing presentations without annoying the prospect, without spending time and money on the roads with a laptop full of surprises.

The status is extremely positive. Now, when we tell people that Global e-line is easy to use, immediately operational and technically stable, they don't need to trust us - they can test it. "

Complying with the law n° 78-17 of 6th January 1978 concerning computers, files and public freedom (art.27) BusinessLine guarantees to keep the information in this document confidential, and the author of the information can on demand get insight into the information and modify it.