MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--July 10, 2006--Encover (R), Inc., a leading provider of on demand software and services to enable manufacturers and their channel partners to maximize revenues from service contracts, today announced the release of Encover Online 5. Encover Online is a web-based application enabling manufacturers to effectively manage, market, and sell service agreements -- both direct to customers and in collaboration with their channel partners. Encover's solutions are used by leading high-tech manufacturers, as well as several thousand resellers around the world.
New capabilities of Encover Online 5 include enhanced "quote-to-cash" customer self-service; automated billing and collections; transaction-based access control to support resellers that buy through multi-tier distribution channels; multi-currency and double-byte multi-language support; real-time integration support leveraging the webMethods Enterprise Services Platform; and v2.0 of the Encover Executive Portal for on demand reports and statistical information.
"Encover Online 5 represents a significant leap forward for high tech manufacturers and their channel partners," said Chip Overstreet, president and CEO of Encover, Inc. "With this latest release, Encover Online can support the world's largest services organizations selling service agreements through complex distribution channels on a global basis. By dramatically simplifying the administration processes for service sales, Encover enables resellers to profitably engage in the sale of these contracts, and gives them that 'precious touch' with their customers for up-selling and cross-selling both products and services."
Specific functionality enhancements with Encover Online 5 include the following:
Opportunity Management -- channel partners have full access to their customers, contracts, installed base information, service history and price books. They can manage their service contract sales pipeline with a streamlined opportunity management system that automatically identifies renewal opportunities, and provides point-and-click capabilities for quote generation, customer notification, and interaction tracking. Resellers have visibility into their entire pipeline, and are able to proactively manage their service contracts business to maximize revenues for themselves and their vendor partners.
"Quote-to-Cash" Customer Self-Service -- Encover Online 5 supports the end-to-end "quote-to-cash" process for service contract sales, both direct to end-customers and in collaboration with their channel partners. The process includes: data segmentation for targeted campaigns; quote generation; reseller and end customer notifications; online review and update of quotes; automated tax calculation based on the location of software and hardware assets; "click-to-buy" using credit cards, electronic funds transfer (EFT), purchase orders and checks; and back-end reconciliation for all bookings with ERP systems of record.
Dynamic Quote Management -- resellers and end-customers have complete control over their quotes, including real-time changes to service programs, contract length, asset locations, contract merging, discounting, and automated pro-rations based on co-terminations and product-specific end-of-service-life and end-of-product-life. This enables a reseller or end-customer to easily update critical information about their installed base, and to rapidly iterate quotes to perform "what-if analysis" to ensure they are getting the right levels of service for each of their software and hardware assets. The system also ensures they are generating accurate and valid quotes that will flow through vendor order management systems without expensive rework.
Multi-Tier Distribution Support -- channel partners and distributors are extremely sensitive to security of their customer and pricing information. Encover Online offers the only field-proven solution for secure segmentation of reseller and end-customer information, down to individual installed products within end-customer accounts. Vendors, distributors and resellers can collaborate and share specific information as needed to complete the renewal cycle of service agreements and will get different insight into transactions (e.g., two-tier pricing) based on their role in the sales process.
Multi-Language and Multi-Currency Support -- with full double-byte character support for multiple languages, manufacturers, channel partners and end-customers can set their user profile to their desired language to manage and sell service contracts in their local language and currency. Current languages supported include French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
Real-time Integration -- Encover Online 5 provides full support for the webMethods Enterprise Services Platform, enabling batch and real-time data transfer to, from and between manufacturers, distributors, resellers and end-customers. WebMethods supports industry standards including XML, SOAP, and RosettaNet, and has pre-built adaptors for SAP, Oracle, Siebel, Salesforce.com, PeopleSoft, Clarify and many other ERP and CRM systems.
Encover Executive Portal -- Encover provides each member of the demand chain with real-time access to critical information about their service contracts business. Examples include pipeline reports, bookings reports and key performance indicator reports to track conversion rates and total available market. All the information can be segmented by territory, product family, opportunity type, coverage level, customer, channel partner, and other key parameters.
Encover Online 5 is currently available and in production with select clients.
About Encover, Inc.
Encover is a market leader in helping manufacturers and their channel partners manage, market and sell service contracts. The Encover On Demand solution is comprised of dedicated service sales professionals, multi-channel marketing programs, robust multi-channel software, and a suite of best practices that are proven to transform service sales and maximize service contract revenue. Encover drives top line service revenues and bottom line results for companies including Xerox, Kodak, Juniper Networks and Enterasys Networks, resulting in millions of dollars of incremental services revenue. For more information on Encover, visit http://www.encover.com or call 650-417-9000.
