Case study

Westcoast empowers resellers
with quotation toolWestcoast provides HP iQuote to speed the quotation process
and aid hardware, software and services configuration
Industry
TechnologyObjective
Provide resellers with a self-service, web-based
tool to accelerate the quotation of hardware,
software and services whilst reducing
pre-sales enquiries
Approach
Identified an on-line business tool developer
and piloted the solution for HP before fullworldwide deployment
IT matters• Offers an efficient self-service portal for
resellers to create quotations, lowering
turnaround times significantly• Acts as a hardware configuration tool,
accelerating the ordering process andreducing errors and multiple quotations
Business matters• Supported an increase in monthly quotations,
reducing workloads by lowering pre-sales enquiries• Maintains a three-hour Service Level Agreement(SLA), ensuring customer satisfaction• Helps pre-sales specialists focus on high value
solutions, boosting quotation value by 40 per cent• Facilitates the sale of HP servers to small
businesses, increasing market share• Enables further growth, increasing
monthly sales revenue“With resellers using HP iQuote we’ve managed totransform our quotation and configuration processes.
This solution has been so successful, HP has rolled itout to all distributors across Europe, the Americas andsoon the Asia and Pacific region and it has become theHP global sales tool for configuring servers, storageand networking.”– Paul Harman, enterprise group and software commercial manager, Westcoast Ltd

HP quotation and configuration tool inspires resellers
Westcoast Ltd, a leading wholesale supplier of IT products,
provides HP iQuote to help resellers create quotations andconfigure IT solutions. Pre-sales’ workload fell by 50 per centbut monthly quotation value increased by 40 per cent,whilst maintaining a three-hour SLA. This has led toWestcoast increasing revenue and improving market
share significantly.

Case study | Westcoast Ltd

Challenge

HP iQuoteincreases quotation
value by 40 per centSeeking lower turnaround times
The wholesale distribution of IT solutions
to resellers, retailers and office productdealers operates in a highly demanding
and competitive business environment.
Whether the customers of wholesale
distributors require simple or complex ITsolutions, clients expect quotations in hours
rather than days. After placing an order,
they also want distributors to deliver thecorrectly configured products rapidly.
Wholesale distributors therefore constantly
seek tools to lower quotation turnaroundtimes, aid hardware configuration and reduce
the length of the pre-sales enquiry process,which releases sales specialists’ time for more
important sales duties. Satisfying stringent
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to maintainor boost customer satisfaction and increasing
quotation value, margins, revenue and market
share whilst supporting rapid business growth
were the main challenges faced by Westcoast
Ltd within this diverse market sector.
Westcoast Ltd
Westcoast Ltd, a major HP distributor,
is a leading supplier of IT products to thecomputer reseller and retailer networks within
the UK and Ireland. Established in 1984,
the company offers advanced hardware andsoftware solutions as well as creative credit,
logistics and marketing services to over 5,000
customers. Its customer base incorporates
large commercial resellers, well known
high street stores and established system
integrators serving the public, retail, corporate
and small-to-medium business sectors.

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Based in Theale, near Reading, and operating
regional offices in Dublin, Glasgow, Milton
Keynes and Nottingham, Westcoast’s
portfolio spans the computing spectrum
from desktop PC and notebook products tohigh-end server, storage, networking andprinting solutions, as well as consumables
and peripherals. As an HP distributor,
it offers a comprehensive range of
HP server, storage and networking solutions.
Not surprisingly, the company’s data
centre and disaster recovery facility are
equipped with a modern, highly scalable
server and storage environment basedon an HP Converged Infrastructure
containing HP ProLiant server blades.
Microsoft® Hyper-V forms the virtualisation
platform while HP Networking solutions
link all offices and provide core andedge connectivity at each site.
Over the last 12 years, the businesshas grown substantially with turnoverexceeding £1 billion in the last financial
year. The Sunday Times consistently ranks
Westcoast in its Top Track of the 100 largest
privately owned UK companies and Europe’s
500 lists the business tenth in the fastest
growing private European companies.
“About three years ago as we entered aperiod of rapid growth, we experienced
a considerable increase in the numberof quotation requests from both
existing and prospective customers,”
explains Phil LeBlond, enterprise group
technical manager, Westcoast Ltd.

Case study | Westcoast Ltd“We required a more effective way toprocess quotations for resellers especiallythose needing servers with customised
configurations for the small-to-medium
business sector. Our pre-sales specialists
were spending far too long involved
with the pre-sales process of small,single instance servers rather thanfocussing on larger and more complex
HP infrastructure solutions, and resellers
wanted a self-service approach to speed up
their response times,” continues LeBlond.
“We wanted to empower customers with aquotation and configuration tool for Servers,
Networking and Storage by shifting to aself-service capability,” states LeBlond.
“We simply couldn’t jeopardise customer
service by increasing our quotation SLA
to accommodate additional growth.
HP also recognised the importance of
this problem within its reseller partner
community and asked us to pilot a new tool
in development by channelcentral.net.”

SolutionWeb-based solution evolves
After a successful pilot which introduced
a series of improvements, the tool evolved
into HP iQuote, a managed cloud-based
service that resolves the problems
associated with the provisioning of complex,
rules-based sales quotations that also
aids the hardware configuration process.

“We helped channelcentral.net to develop
this solution and regularly suggested
modifications to enhance its capabilities.
Resellers now have a choice. They can accessour hosted copy or deploy it on their own web
site,” reveals LeBlond. “With resellers using
HP iQuote we’ve managed to transform
our quotation and configuration processes.
It’s a powerful addition to our existing on-linetools. This solution has been so successful,
HP has rolled it out to worldwide distributors
and it has become the HP global sales tool for
configuring servers, networking and storage.
“After deploying HP iQuote, the numberof quotations generated and entering
our system has risen dramatically while
maintaining our three-hour SLA even when
our pre-sales personnel become involved,”says LeBlond. “Empowering our salesforce
to generate their own quotes has allowed
us to achieve a much better service to ourcustomers and as a consequence increase
revenue significantly. Handling this numberof quotations with our existing staff level
would be impossible without HP iQuote.”
Multi-module solution
HP iQuote comprises seven modules whichsimplify and accelerate the quotation,
configuration and ordering process forresellers. The solution incorporates aconfiguration, price and quotation manager aswell as an inventory export and performance
manager. A message centre facilitatescommunications between HP iQuote users.
“iQuote is a real time saver. It has all thecompatible options in one place, whichhelps to ensure accuracy and provides
optimal performance for our customer’srequirements,” declares Ian Starling,account manager, Netteam Consultants Ltd.

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Case study | Westcoast Ltd

Customer solution
at a glance
Application
Hardware configuration
Quotation generation
Order placement
Software• HP iQuote
HP services• HP Cloud Services

While seeking a quotation, resellers simply
select an HP server, storage, networking,desktop, laptop or workstation solution,
configure, export and send a validated listof requirements to their chosen supplier.
If they approach a wholesale distributor
such as Westcoast that hosts HP iQuote,the reseller benefits from real-time stock
and pricing, shopping cart integration anddistributor promotions. With resellers
using this intuitive self-service facility,
they eliminate the generation of multiple
quotations which could potentially frustrate
their customers, leading to lost orders.
“To help resellers maximise margins andincrease revenue while offering better
customer service, our business development
managers provide a comprehensive training
programme to help the resellers’ sales
forces use HP iQuote,” adds LeBlond.

Benefits
Pre-sales enquiries fall while
quote value climbs
Today, approximately 400 Westcoast
customers employ HP iQuote generatingover 4,000 quotes per month. The quotationand configuration tool provides thecompany’s UK and Irish resellers with ahighly efficient and error-free self-service
system for placing orders, frequently
without involving Westcoast personnel.

“After deploying HP iQuote,the value of quotations
generated and entering oursystem on a monthly basis
has risen by 40 per cent while
maintaining our three-hour
SLA. By empowering oursalesforce to confidently
generate their own server
quotes we have freed up
our pre-sales experts towork on more complex
HP infrastructure solutions.”

A dedicated portal for Westcoast servers helps
the resellers focus on HP ProLiant server sales
while direct feedback to channelcentral.net
drives continuous improvements of HP iQuote.
“iQuote allows us to quickly and accurately build
server solutions while providing the correct
solution first time, at the best price for ourcustomers,” says Colin Weeks, technicaldirector, itQED Ltd.
“Although we’ve seen a dramatic increasein the number of quotations generated,the quantity of pre-sales enquiries handled
by our pre-sales specialists has fallen by
50 per cent while the quotation value managed
by the team has increased by 40 per cent,”
comments LeBlond. “Sales personnel nolonger experience excessive backlogs and they
don’t create customer service issues due toincorrect configurations or recommendations.
Rising market share and revenue
Westcoast has also found that HP iQuoteis helping an increasing number of resellers
to drive sales of HP ProLiant servers,
HP Storage and HP Networking solutions tosmall-to-medium business users althoughmany of them do not have an active salesforce.
“Following the introduction of HP iQuoteto empower the smaller businesses,
we’ve seen monthly sales revenue growby 100 per cent and our market share within
the HP CDP managed sector increase.
This impressive performance benefits bothour organisation and HP,” concludes LeBlond.

Learn more at
hp.com/go/iquote– Phil LeBlond, enterprise group technicalmanager, Westcoast Ltd

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4AA5-0512EEW, January 2014