Services
At Iphen, we believe that each link in the "People, Process & Technology" chain should be designed with the other links in mind. Since it is the chain and not the individual links that increases productivity, so it is that the chain must define the nature of the links and their relations. This is why our applications are different, and this is why we offer them with process expertise and with dedicated support associates. [more]
Processes: raising sales process efficiencies requires a clear understanding of domestic and international business processes and of the technologies that can effectively facilitate or enable them. Iphen Consulting Services offers this rare mix of know-how to deliver quickly and cost-effectively. [Trade, IT]
People: Process and technology initiatives need people's skills and support to succeed. Proficient in their specialties, our tools and technologies, Iphen associates deliver the support that your people need to be more efficient and to remain focused on your technology. [Sales Support, Helpdesk]
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Trade Consulting Services
As they expand in the US or globally and transition from local to multi-local forms of management, organizations face a number of new challenges: commercial, industrial, organizational, regulatory and cultural. With years of hands-on experience helping companies develop in the US, Europe and Asia, Iphen's consultants can help your organization grow smoothly, rapidly and cost effectively.
- Importing into and exporting from the US
Navigating through foreign markets and US import/export regulations is time and resource consuming. Our consultants' experience, compliance expertise, and their ability to operate in foreign environments will help your business grow at optimum speed and with minimum risks. We can assist you on a project or retainer basis.
- Foreign Importer/Agent/Distributor/Rep search, Sales Branch setup
- Foreign Source/Supplier search
- Classification, valuation, duties, origin & license determinations
- Customs broker, forwarder and carrier selection
- US Free Trade Zone benefit analysis and setup
- Compliance reviews, development of BIS export compliance manual
- Offshore manufacturing
There are many good reasons to go offshore. Some want to reduce the impact of currency/price instability on their margins and resellers. These want to offer better lead-times, different products or lower prices in a given region of the world. Others go offshore to recapture their own domestic market: high-volume orders are disappearing, their production capacity is eroding and low-cost competitors with little or no labor, marketing and R&D costs are redefining their market. Still others simply want higher returns for their shareholders (and benefit from labor rates as low as $0.5/hour in China and $2 in Mexico).
Whether your project involves an acquisition or building an operation from the ground up, we can help. We will help you find and negotiate with the best candidates (companies, staff and locations). We will help you understand and solve the accounting, logistic, engineering and ultimately IT issues raised by customs and temporary import programs (zero-value piece-part inventories, transfer pricing, engineering file synchronization etc.). We will help you estimate and control your costs and lead-times. We will succeed for you as we have for others.
- Multi-location/Cross-border integration
Cross-border mergers and acquisitions pose a serious organizational challenge to the executives who are expected to extract synergies and savings from the increased scale of their organization. While it is easy to shop-around for better prices and to yield bulk buying discounts through the integration of procurement activities; it is much harder to extract value from the integration of sales and production activities. Senior corporate managers want to avoid anything that might stifle local entrepreneurship and destroy local value. Local managers lack the awareness, perspective and motivation required to spot and pursue cross-unit or cross-functional opportunities. Fuzzy accountability and linguistic or cultural differences lead to poor execution.
Iphen will help you find and realize the latent cross-location value that exists in your organization. We will help you identify and lift organizational barriers. Should you decide to use our support services, the segregation of tasks that lies at the heart of our business model will further reduce delays, ambiguity and complexity. Should you rely on our tools, you will benefit from their native multi-location design.
- US Partner search: Fulfillment, Distribution, Reps, Payroll, Accounting...
- Recruitment of sales and support staff
Recruiting and retaining outstanding sales professionals will help you make the best of the services and technologies we offer. This is why we offer to help you find the best field sales people and hire the support associates that can best meet their needs. While our support and helpdesk associates are trained and experienced, hiring and training new employees may be necessary in some instances:
- When dual expertise is required (e.g.: client needs sales or customer support staff to be trained nurses).
- When customer service associates need to speak the language spoken in a foreign production or distribution facility.
- When sales support associates are dedicated to a foreign territory.
- When clients want to spin off and turn around a customer service.
- When no Iphen associate is available to join our client team.
Sales IT Consulting Services
The productivity gained through Sales IT lies not merely in the benefits of integration and automation; it stems mostly from what can be done with it: from increased manageability and the enabling of novel processes that can bring new revenues or higher margins. This is why our implementation services do not start with software; they start with You. Without people to choose and adopt them, there cannot be any reliable processes; without valid processes, there cannot be any effective technology.
- "As is" / "to be" analysis, requirements definition, rollout planning
Iphen places a particular emphasis on the "as is" / "to be" analysis, requirements definition and rollout planning phases of its implementations. Here is why:
Midsize businesses tend to vastly underestimate the complexity of data clean-ups and of migrations from legacy systems. By the time they have purchased and installed a system and migrated their data, their resources are depleted and momentum is lost. The executives who initiated the project abandon it to employees who can afford to spend time on details but who lack the authority to bring the project to completion. The implementation stalls. Technology has gobbled up all the allocated resources and time. Nothing is left for the two other pillars of software implementation success: Processes and People.
Users are not properly trained, processes are not solidly defined and approved (or imposed), people opt-out (explicitly or implicitly).
The "implementer" is gone and success does not materializes. None of this with Iphen.
- Flowcharting & policies, procedures & instructions writing
Hazy policies means hazy execution. Like any other enterprise software, sales software can be used (or misused) in many different ways. For sales information to be shared effectively and for reporting and automation to work, data must be entered and used with consistency; so procedures must exist to guide users, and users must be trained to follow them.
At Iphen, we understand that procedures are alien to the way Sales and Front-Office departments operate, that Sales Managers and their teams are bound by contract-like understandings and positive motivation (i.e.: not by the rigors of a quality system), that Managers have neither the time nor the inclination to delve into a complex system and to write procedures. This is why Iphen relies on a multi-tier, ISO-like, quality system to guaranty the quality of its clients' processes and data. With and for our clients' managers and sales staff, we build and maintain simple, binding, high-level policies. We then spell them out into a body of procedures and instructions for the personnel who support our clients' sales teams.
- Data cleanup and migration
It's far less expensive to retain existing customers than it is to seek new ones. It is also less expensive to store and retrieve information than it is to obtain it in the first place. Sales data is valuable. If it is readily accessible, it constitutes a substantial portion of the present and future value of an organization. As organizations grow - whether organically or through acquisitions - so do their data assets. Information is spread among locations, systems, databases, users and fields. Duplicates are created, maintenance and access become difficult and data becomes inconsistent. Iphen can help.
- Data extraction (from legacy systems) inventory & hierarchization
- Record and ownership mapping, client validation
- Cleaning, formatting & duplicate removal (via migration scripts)
- Actual extraction and importation into the new application(s)
- Installations, customizations (ACL, reports...), code development
- Integration among systems & with local/legacy tools
Sales Support Services
Paying your sales staff to operate sales software is not
cost-effective. Their added-value takes place is in front of customers, not in
front of computers. Their specialty is your technology, not sales
technology. Using our sales support associates to handle your low
value-added sales processes will both reduce your costs and increase
your
employees’ output. Our sales support staff can assume six functions or roles.
- Sales Assistance
The Iphen sales assistant manages your sales person’s schedule and tasks so that he/she can spend more time with customers. They communicate by phone during idle times between meetings. The assistant’s focus is on the maintenance of the customer relationship. His/her schedule matches that of your sales person. His/her role can include inside sales and customer service functions.
- Appointment scheduling & logging / Agendas & meeting preparation
- Trip routing, bookings & confirmations, expense logging
- Post-meeting data entry, reporting and follow-up actions
- Incoming calls and correspondence filtering, processing & filing
- Market research (databases, networking assistance…)
- Word processing and desktop publishing
- Inside Sales
The Iphen inside sales person’s role is to open doors for your sales people and to initiate relationships. She/he also qualifies your leads and handles your low volume sales. The inside sales person can be shared or dedicated to a territory or sales person. Here, the emphasis is on cultural adequacy, interpersonal skills, and industry knowledge.
- Cold calling, appointment booking and networking
- Lead qualification
- Proposal preparation, follow-ups and related data entry
- Web-based demonstrations/presentations
- Surveys
- SWAT assistance available
- Customer Service
The Iphen customer service agents deliver the service and experience that your customers need and deserve. They maximize customer retention and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities. They can be shared or dedicated to a territory, product line or sales person. Here, the focus is on availability, experience, product knowledge, and language skills.
- Inquiry processing (price, product availability, shipments…)
- Complaint processing, issue resolution or elevation
- Corrective action and customer satisfaction follow-ups
- Order entry (upon contract review, credit check…)
- Document processing (shipping, RMA…)
- Invoicing, payments processing, cash receipt reconciliation
- Logistics - Import / Export
Ignorance of US regulations and international trade techniques can result in costly delays, excess duty payments, fines, and the denial of one's export privileges. The Iphen Logistics & Import/Export specialist processes your international transactions and shipments and assists your staff in all areas of import/export compliance. She interacts directly with your customers, suppliers, and production or distribution centers. She liaises with customs and other agencies, with your customs broker, forwarders, insurers and banks.
- Document preparation, EAS and import entries
- Classification, valuation, country of origin, license & marking
- Denied party Screening (individual, company or country)
- Payments / Letters of Credit processing
- Recordkeeping & maintenance of export compliance manual
- Supervision
Reporting directly to your sales or general management, the supervisor manages and backs-up your Iphen support team.
- Work assignment/Scheduling, workload balancing, HR
- Training, evaluation / Performance & activity monitoring
- Compliance enforcement (to policies, procedures and the Law)
- Supply chain, inventory level monitoring/replenishment
- Purchasing, payments processing / book-keeping / Sales taxes
- Reporting (win & lost, time sheets, expenses & commissions…)
- Content management (training module, repository, price-lists…)
- Mail review & distribution / Conference call setups
Helpdesk
Sales-related technologies are complex because of the diversity of the functions supported, the complexity of the network environment, and the heterogeneous nature of sales data (which is both structured and unstructured). Few midsize organizations can afford to maintain in-house the mix of skills required to support these technologies. Our helpdesk agents will deliver the live support and hand-holding capability that your organization needs for a small portion of the cost you would incur in-house.
- Installations and upgrades
- Configurations (LDAP, ACL, Menu & Field Customization etc.)
- Data migrations, imports and exports, reports
- Monitoring & maintenance (database, security, bandwidth...)
- Backups and data Recovery
