Cogent Web Apps FAQ

What is sales force automation?

Sales force automation (SFA) gives companies the tools and insight they need to maximize revenues and cut operational costs. Cogent Web Apps, SFA enables oversight of your sales pipeline and delivers instant snapshots of key sales metrics, such as revenue collected, Outstanding Dues, sales pipeline,etc. As a result, sales teams can generate accurate forecasts of revenue and customer demand, eliminate costly pipeline bottlenecks, and effectively collaborate to transform prospects into profitable customers. Flexible customization allows companies to easily configure the application to match their own unique sales methodology or sales process. Because every lead is recorded, automatically routed to the right sales organization and sales representative, and tracked through the pipeline in real time, no opportunities are missed.

What is customer service and support?

The Cogent Web Apps built-in Service & Support application enables companies to forge strong relationships and increase customer satisfaction while simultaneously streamlining customer service operations and keeping costs down. Cogent Web Apps Service & Support includes comprehensive multichannel service capabilities. As a result, companies can gain valuable insight into the source of top customer inquiries, identify up-sell/cross-sell opportunities, and ensure that no customer inquiries are dropped. Additionally, a centralized knowledgebase of customer solutions helps support teams retain organizational expertise, standardize solutions handling, improve response time, and shorten the ramp up time for new reps. Easy integration with call center and back office systems enables companies to deliver more effective customer service through a single point of contact. Regardless of whether service agents are located down the corridor, at home, or on the other side of the world, they can manage their time and tasks with Cogent Web Apps.

What does Cogent Web Apps.com do?

Cogent Web Apps.com flagship offering is Fortune 500 skillsets and applications to Companies of Smaller to Medium sizes. These applications are customizable, online CRM (customer relationship management) solution that provides the On-demand and system driven approach. But Cogent Web Apps.com delivers more than just a powerful, easy-to-use (SFA) product. We offer a complete integrated platform that empowers every business to experience the benefits of on-demand throughout its entire organization.

How does Cogent Web Apps work?

The Cogent Web Apps.com platform represents the foundation for on-demand computing. In the same way you would log on to your favorite Web site, you can securely connect to Salesforce and manage detailed information about your sales, service, and marketing activities. Built on a world-class infrastructure and delivered on the Internet, the components of salesforce.com work together seamlessly to deliver the core value of on-demand - the ability to manage and share information easily.

I'm a sales manager. How can I benefit from using Cogent Web Apps?

Cogent Web Apps is beneficial for everyone from individual salespeople to sales managers and top executives. Managers need visibility into the activities of their reps and insight into where they stand with their pipelines. Cogent Web Apps provides powerful opportunity management, forecasting, reporting, and customization capabilities, so sales managers can be confident their teams are producing at their full capacity. Cogent Web Apps makes it easy to train new employees and make existing employees more productive with easy access to sales best practices. The powerful, real-time reporting and dashboard tools of Cogent Web Apps Analytics make it easy to keep executive management up to speed without having to manually aggregate data from across the organization.

I am an individual salesperson. Can just one person use Cogent Web Apps?

Yes you can. However, the solution was designed from the ground up to empower teams to easily share and track Client information . Consolidating your customer and sales information into a single, centrally available system gives you a complete view of your customers, improving your productivity and increasing customer satisfaction.

I work in a team-selling environment. Can my entire team use Salesforce?

A key benefit of Cogent Web Apps is its ability to share data real-time and enable all team members to leverage a common set of information in one easily accessible location. As the owner of a given account (e.g., Bay Fastening.), you have the power to grant fellow team members full access to ensure everyone can add data, and view each others' public notes, upcoming activities, and opportunities related to Bay Fastening, as appropriate.

My organization uses resellers to sell our products. Can they access Cogent Web Apps, too?

Cogent Web Apps.com's partner portal toolkit makes it easy for you to create a portal or integrate Salesforce functionality into an existing Web site to facilitate the exchange of sales and marketing information with indirect sales channels.

I'm a customer support manager. How can I benefit from using Cogent Web Apps Service & Support?

With the multichannel capabilities of Cogent Web Apps Service & Support, support managers can successfully deliver a high level of service while keeping costs low. Cogent Web Apps provides:

• A comprehensive view of customer information via an easy-to-use agent console

• Automated queuing and routing to promote agent productivity

• Around-the-clock access to product information via a built-in knowledge base that suggests solutions to agents based on similar queries that have been resolved in the past

• Real-time reports and performance metrics

• An audit trail for each case

• Integrated email support

• Workflow, case queuing, escalation, and other capabilities to increase agent productivity

• Instant access to the information agents need to handle inquiries more quickly, increase first-call resolution rates, anticipate the needs of customers, and exceed their expectations

• A Web self-service portal for an efficient and cost-effective way to handle support requests

• Pre-built computer telephony integration (CTI) capabilities.

What platforms do I need to have in order to run Salesforce?

Cogent Web Apps.com is committed to freeing companies from traditional CRM software and its hidden costs, high failure rates, unacceptable risks, and protracted implementations. All while providing a comprehensive, flexible CRM solution that meets the needs of businesses of all sizes, from the world's largest enterprises to small and mid-sized companies everywhere. As an on-demand service, there is no software or hardware to buy, install, maintain, or upgrade with salesforce.com. This equates to savings of as much as 90% compared to similar client/server solutions, as you can see in the TCO comparison chart below. Cogent Web Apps.com's subscription pricing includes everything you need, so that unlike CRM software, you won't be surprised later by hidden people and technology costs that can quickly add up to as much as ten times the original licensing fees.

How do I get upgrades to Cogent Web Apps?

Because Salesforce is an on-demand service, any time we release a new version of the application or add a new feature, you will have access to it immediately the next time you log in, free of charge.

Cogent Web Apps Excel Questions

What is Cogent Web Apps Excel?

Designed for larger or more complex businesses, Enterprise Edition combines the power and flexibility of a custom-built enterprise software solution with the immediacy and value of on-demand CRM — deploying rapidly across multiple departments and divisions, seamlessly integrating with other corporate systems, and encompassing your most complex customer operations. Enterprise Edition allows you to easily simplify and standardize your most complex customer operations through a single, online solution that can be rapidly deployed across multiple departments and divisions. With support for multiple divisions and processes, workflow automation, product line forecasting, revenue allocation, and much more, Enterprise Edition is designed to flexibly support all the complexities that are the realities of many large companies. The Apex platform — included in Enterprise Edition — empowers even non-programmers to customize Salesforce by creating custom tabs, renaming existing tabs, and more. And IT teams can use industry-standard tools to easily customize and extend Salesforce or even to build and deliver new applications with all the benefits of the on-demand model. And with the Apex API, you can integrate Enterprise Edition with your existing third-party or homegrown applications.

What large companies have you already sold?

Some of our larger customers include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), America Online (AOL), Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Avis/Budget Rent A Car (Cendant Rental Car Group), Corporate Express, Dow Jones Newswires, Gateway, Nokia, and SunTrust.

What is the difference between Cogent Web Apps Excel Edition and Cogent Web Apps Surpassl Edition?

Designed for larger or more complex businesses, Enterprise Edition provides the extensibility that the world's largest organizations demand — deploying rapidly across multiple departments and divisions, seamlessly integrating with other corporate systems, and encompassing the most complex customer operations. Advanced customization and administration capabilities meet the needs of companies with complex customer-facing organizations with multiple sales groups, team selling environments, thousands of users, and/or international divisions. Enterprise Edition customers can use the Salesforce API to link Salesforce with ERP, HR, data warehouse, and other business-critical applications.

Which product is appropriate for my company?

It depends on your company's requirements. If you are looking for a turnkey CRM solution and don't require tight integration with existing applications or advanced customization, then salesforce.com Professional Edition may meet your needs. Visit our "How to Buy" page for more details on each of our editions and a comparison chart.

Can I upgrade from Cogent Web Apps Excel Edition to Cogent Web Apps Surpass Edition?

Yes. Cogent Web Apps.com Excel Edition customers can easily migrate all of their existing data and settings to the Surpass Edition with no effort on their part and minimal work on Cogent Web Apps.com's part. Customers may want to work with Cogent Web Apps.com's Success Matrix team or with one of our partners for the business implementation work needed to take advantage of the robust customization, integration, and administration capabilities included in Enterprise Edition.

How do I upgrade from Excel Edition to Surpass Edition?

Contact your account executive to complete the necessary agreement, including an annual subscription agreement. Once salesforce.com is notified of the change, we can upgrade your account as quickly as within 24 hours.

Can I migrate from Excel Edition to Surpass Edition?