IMSI introduces new sales forecaster

IMSI, a leading provider of business productivity software, has announced the release of Sales Forecaster one of the few retail-packaged applications that offers sales professionals a powerful solution for tracking, managing, and successfully closing sales opportunities. Sales Forecaster enables sales managers and field sales teams to achieve a higher level of organization and control over forecasts, a critical function that many have attempted to accomplish using cumbersome spreadsheet programs. The software features an easy-to-use template and the ability to work with popular contact manager databases like ACT!, Access, Excel, GoldMine, and Maximizer. The product is available in South Africa from leading software retail stores.

"Sales professionals are generally not computer experts, nor do they have to be," said Dean Scott, general manager of IMSI's business productivity unit. "A sales person's function is to sell, and Sales Forecaster supports that goal while instantly tracking the "pipeline" progress of sales teams in any type of organization."

Sales professionals benefit from the system's ability to roll-up group and individual forecasts on the fly, and synchronise that data for managers at their company headquarters with a simple e-mail message.

The system also features:

• Customized information fields for specific products and categories

• Status lists and field names

• Order entry

• Ability to print or fax a quote using multiple formats

• Automatic updates of notes and history fields within a select database

"For sales representatives, the system allows them to stay abreast of voluminous and evolving contact information," Scott added. "It equips them with a simple way to keep track of quotes, orders and proposals. All of this detailed information can easily be transferred into clear reports for managers without having to create separate spreadsheets."

Sales Forecaster works well with popular databases or functions as a stand-alone system. With the click of a mouse, Sales Forecaster automatically imports and integrates contact information from other databases, eliminating the need to re-type information into its database. Five additional information fields provide a quick, big picture view of a sales forecast, quote or proposal. The software also calculates gross margin percentages or dollar amounts, and monitors inventory.

Sales Forecaster features 17 useful charts and reports, allowing users to create strong presentations, reports and proposals utilising Crystal Reports® technology. IMSI will provide additional charts and reports in the future as users specify preferred formats. New formats will be available free to customers via a download from IMSI's web site.

System Requirements

Sales Forecaster requires a 486 PC or higher and a Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 operating system. It also requires a minimum of 16MB RAM (recommended 32 MB RAM for NT), 10MB hard drive space, 256 color VGA monitor, CD-ROM drive, printer and mouse.