Laird tunes in with global sales quotations system

The company, which serves the ICT, automotive and medical devices sectors from plants and offices in 12 countries, wanted to improve its 'quote to order' turnaround time – also standardising global pricing, providing global quote visibility, improving quotation pricing control and providing quote history and metrics. Laird CIO Todd Rumsey says he also wanted the system to be maintained in the US, while providing access anytime, anywhere via the web – and adds that it had to integrate with the company's QAD's Mfg/Pro ERP system, to eliminate data replication. "Aggressive growth and business acquisitions have resulted in multiple, disparate sales quote tracking systems within Laird," he says. "This has hindered our ability to reduce lead time and analyse sales cycles enterprise-wide." Rumsey says ISS offered its iPurchase solution to be the foundation for its iQuote. The system provided many of the data maintenance and approval workflow concepts required, except that, instead of customers and creating sales quotes, it uses suppliers and creates PO requisitions. He says that requirements definition, development, and testing took nine months, and that Laird went live a couple of months ago, with iQuote an instant success. "In ISS Group, we found a partner who brings a wealth of QAD Mfg/Pro knowledge, as well as the ability to develop and deliver a system on time and within budget," says Rumsey. He adds that Laird realised immediate results – successfully processing over 30 quotes on the first day of going live. "Normally, it would have taken nearly a week to secure the input and information necessary to process the same volume," says Rumsey.