DEMAND GENERATOR: Yacov Wrocherinsky, Infinity Info Systems

For the past five years, Infinity Info Systems of New York has been consulting on sales and accounting applications for Presperse, a Somerset, N.J.-based provider of specialty chemicals for the cosmetics industry. That relationship began when Presperse asked Infinity to replace a contact management application that had been built atop GoldMine software with a more robust sales management system built on top of SalesLogix, now a unit of Best Software focused on CRM applications.

Shortly thereafter, Presperse asked Infinity for help in enabling the alert system that came with SalesLogix. Infinity suggested that rather than create an alert system around a single app, Presperse would be better off installing DynaLink, a data-integration tool from Best Software that could be used to create an alert system for SalesLogix plus a wide range of other apps that Presperse uses, including the MAS 90 accounting system from another Best Software unit and the Crystal Reports software that today is owned by Business Objects.

"They saved us a lot of money on that one," said Christopher Martis, director of information systems for Presperse. "That was just a real big plus for us."

Infinity then followed up with a suggestion to deploy another SalesLogix offering called KnowledgeSync, which distributes reports and business updates to the Presperse sales force. The end result, said Martis, was a much smoother business-process management system that links all remote salespeople with executive management.

Next up on the agenda is a set of business intelligence applications based on QlikView from QlikTech, Raleigh, N.C., which Martis said is much more robust and less expensive to deploy than BI applications from rival Business Objects.

All the enhancements have come about as a result of a regular dialogue Martis has with Infinity.

"They know our business. We actually trust them," Martis said. "So many other people we deal with are fly-by-night. [Infinity] gives us the advice we're looking for."

What Martis likes most is how proactive Infinity is in terms of communicating with his company. "It's not uncommon for them to call us and ask us if we have thought about some new thing," he said. "They're looking out for us, but their salespeople don't give us a hard sell. They make suggestions."]

The art of the consultative sell is what Yacov Wrocherinsky, CEO of Infinity, preaches to his staff on a regular basis. And the ongoing educational process starts with Wrocherinsky, who insists on ongoing project reviews similar to the way doctors jointly review cases.

"Our approach is to transcend the product, and really drill down to a specific solution, based on the culture, flexibility and infrastructure of the customer. We're building a professional sales organization," Wrocherinsky said.

Infinity, which was founded in 1987 and has seen annual growth rates of more than 40 percent for the past four years, views employee education as a crucial ingredient for growth. Wrocherinsky also stresses the need for employees to back up each other.

"It's a real impact on our customers, our customers' customers, and their families, too," he said. "If we don't perform to the level that we promise, how many people may lose their jobs? It's a key thing to really keep in mind. The biggest thing to draw upon is a sense of unity."

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