Case In Point

When Chris Gripp first talked to Spinnaker Solutions, he just wanted to find a way for his salespeople to concentrate on selling. What the president and CEO of Sign Warehouse received was a single console for sales, order entry, technical and customer support and credit card approval. What the Denison, Texas-based manufacturer and seller of sign-making equipment didn’t get is equally important: the need to install accounting software on sales reps’ desktops, or train them on a second application.

“In the past, I would tie SalesLogix into MAS, and I would have a button on the SalesLogix menu bar to launch a MAS screen so the salespeople could place an order,” said Mitch Cannady, president and CEO of Spinnaker Solutions, Irvine, Calif. “The challenge is that takes two software licenses on that one desktop.

“Today we are creating that information inside SalesLogix and feeding that onto MAS. The point is we can now do all of these things from one single interface,” Cannady said.

Since going live the first quarter of 2003, the system has had a remarkable impact on both the top and bottom lines. That direct connection to Nova Merchant Services, for instance, has cut the company’s rates for credit card approval services by three-quarters of 1 percent.

“That’s significant when you’re handling $25 million to $30 million credit card purchases a year,” Gripp said.

Sign Warehouse also has added 10 percent to 15 percent in new business, a direct result of technology enabling his company to cope with the volume of customers that come its way.

 Published for the Week Of July 26, 2004