Cincom announces latest release of configure, price, quote software

Cincom Acquire supports multi-channel selling for companies that sell complex products and services by providing channel and distributor collaboration, guided selling, sales and product configuration as well as price quotation and proposal management capabilities.

Cincom Acquire can also be used to extend existing platforms including Microsoft Dynamics, salesforce.com, SAP and other CRM and ERP systems to deliver best-in-class configure, price, quote capabilities across multiple channels.

Cincom Acquire has many new features including:

Enhanced business rules management:

Improved integration with external product data sources enables business users to effortlessly wrap knowledge around product and option data without the need for replication.

"Customers want a single system of record, particularly when dealing with product and pricing data," Jim Wilson, Cincom Acquire's product director said. "Acquire makes this easier than ever."

Advanced product catalog and option management

New Product Catalogue and Option Management modules are included in Acquire 4.0. Acquire Catalogue Management (CM) enables users to quickly select, configure and price products with minimal effort.

Integration with the Cincom Business Rule Engine (BRE) enables product managers to intelligently manage access to the catalogue based on channels and users so that each has their own view of products available.

Another key feature, Option Management (OM), supports rule-based workflows to manage customer special requests.

Multi-channel support enhancements

Acquire 4.0 supports complex, multi-tier sales channels including direct and indirect agents.

"One of the most important features added in release 4.0 is the ability for dealers to create and manage their own products and product options within the system," Jerry Miller, Cincom Acquire's managing director said.

"Eighty per cent of a reseller's business goes to the manufacturer easiest to buy from. By integrating the reseller's products and options, it's now quicker to generate complete proposals for their customers from one system."

New, easy-to-use administrative tools

Many new tools have been added to simplify the setup and management of the system.

"The Acquire 4.0 Administration tools have been extended to empower business users to easily manage the system without requiring additional IT support," Miller said.