Westcon launches instant quote tool

Westcon Group has launched an email based instant quote tool that speeds up the quote and stock availability process for resellers.

Developed in Australia, the Quick-e-Quote system is an email based service that provides resellers with their buy price and stock availability in seconds.

To use the service, resellers have to send an email to quickequote@westcongroup.com.au and include the product part code (SKU) into the body, followed by a space and the quantity required.

Bernadette Jenkinson, customer service manager at Westcon and project leader for the new tool said it targets resellers that know what they want and just need their buy price to finalise a proposal.

"Resellers who are sitting at 10pm doing that important proposal can close off their opportunity. The quicker they can get the proposal back to their customers, gives them a competitive edge," she said.

Quick-e Quote is available 24/7 and on weekends.

Jenkinson said it complements, and doesn't replace, existing Westcon quote tools such as e-commerce tools, and downloadable price lists.

"This is for a different type of customer. It's for the clients that just want an immediate response on a quotation without the hassle of logging onto a website, it's even easier than that.

Jenkinson has been driving the program for eight months and Westcon has an in-house programmer "taking care of all the smarts".

"We have a monthly innovation council which I was chairing last year. We come up with really big high level earth shattering ideas, or we look at particular parts of our processes where we look for tweaks in the systems.

"We had 100 system improvements, this was one of the ones that came out," Jenkinson told CRN.

To be eligible, resellers have to confirm that they have a valid Westcon Group e-commerce login.