Oncontact Software Nets CRM Excellence Award for Third Consecutive Year
CEDARBURG, WIS. (July 17, 2002) - Oncontact Software, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for mid-market companies, today announced it has captured the exclusive CRM Excellence Award, sponsored by Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine, for the third consecutive year.
The CRM Excellence Award honors Oncontact Software as a CRM software leader that truly understands first-rate customer service and what it ultimately means to the bottom line. Oncontact Software was chosen for the CRM Excellence Award for the outstanding quality of its CRM system and the success that system has brought to Oncontact Software customers.
Oncontact Software demonstrated that success by showing Customer Inter@ction Solutions editors how it improved business for its client, Foremost Insurance. Foremost is the largest specialty insurance carrier in the United States. Foremost leads the industry in insuring products such as mobile homes, motor homes, travel trailers and specialty dwellings.
Oncontact Software's CRM system has revolutionized the way Foremost Insurance operates - internally and with its customers. Oncontact eliminated Foremost's cumbersome dependency on mail, fax and voicemail communication by giving mobile and home-office users a shared view of every customer and prospect. Oncontact enabled sales reps to identify a competitor's position within an opportunity. Keeping tabs on competitors enables Foremost to develop effective strategies to box out competition and close more deals. Oncontact provided new reps with a comprehensive overview of the territory and a full history of each account. This background material reduces training time and the time it takes to become productive members of the sales team.
Implementing Oncontact has produced an impressive ROI for Foremost. Foremost calculated a cost-benefit analysis of the automated system and determined that the savings from reduced operating costs total more than a million dollars to date. That figure even includes the absorption of all expenses associated with the new system. Here's how the savings break down:
• Foremost used to spend a fortune on paper documents and the resources it required to support their production.
• Foremost incurred huge faxing and postage fees to distribute documents to mobile sales reps. Correspondence and sales material can now be accessed for free in Oncontact.
• Word Processing fees were outrageous because Foremost's support staff had to retype reports every month and retype supporting documents, such as letters and memos, because there was no electronic template. Oncontact has facilitated electronic templates and allows the sales reps - not support staff - to fax or email documents directly from Oncontact or print labels for mailings.
• Oncontact has eliminated the need for paper training manuals and newsletters because those items are now available electronically in Oncontact.
• Oncontact has trimmed travel and automobile related expenses by enabling reps to manage their territories more efficiently. Reps can target all the agents in a particular area and plan their meetings accordingly so they're covering areas of their territory at once rather than driving back and forth to agents located throughout the region. Less time on the road not only saves travel and automobile expenses, but also frees up more time for the reps to recruit new agents and manage current agents.
• Staff attrition was a major source of cost cutting for Foremost. With Oncontact in place, sales reps can independently perform almost all the tasks they had previously relied on support staff to complete. Foremost did not force out any members of the support staff. Rather, as staffers left the company on their own to pursue new opportunities, Foremost did not have to hire new employees to replace them.
Oncontact has truly revolutionized the way Foremost's mobile sales force does business.
"Efficiency and superior customer service is at the center of Foremost Insurance's universe. Foremost Insurance is a key visionary in providing its employees with a 360 degree view of the customer and their life cycle. Foremost Insurance saw those capabilities in Oncontact Software and has embedded our CRM system into everything it does," says George Kofman, president of Oncontact Software. "We're grateful that Customer Inter@ction Solutions has recognized the achievement of Oncontact Software and Foremost Insurance with the CRM Excellence Award."
"Our editors selected Oncontact Software for their innovation and vision, as well as for the outstanding impression they've made amongst market constituents," said Rich Tehrani, president and group editor-in-chief of Technology Marketing Corporation. "The CRM Excellence award is designed to honor companies with innovative products that have furthered Customer Relationship Management. We are pleased to award Oncontact Software our highest honor in recognizing their exemplary contribution to the industry."
About Oncontact Software
Oncontact Software develops award-winning CRM software for mid-market companies. Client Management Software (CMS), Oncontact Software's CRM solution that automates the sales, marketing and service areas of an organization, can be run in a Windows and/or Web environment. ClientNet and PartnerNet are Oncontact Software's audience-specific Web portals that enable a company to share information with all business channels.
Oncontact Software is a privately held company whose applications are marketed and implemented throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Middle East. Oncontact Software's products are available through its corporate headquarters in Wisconsin and an international alliance network of value-added resellers, system integrators and distributors. Oncontact Software has over 300 customers worldwide, including Prudential, Steelcase, Sears and Carfax.
Additional Oncontact Software information is located on the Internet at www.oncontact.com or via phone at 800.886.0866.
Oncontact Contact:
Tim Vertz
262-375-5143
timv@oncontact.com
