PromoShop is an experienced promotional merchandising and marketing services company that provides creative branded merchandise to clients both large and small. They pride themselves on understanding their clients’ marketing strategy, objectives and target audience, and on turning the impossible into a unique reality.
PromoShop has a successful, growing business model, but its business management system wasn’t growing with them and couldn’t adapt to their unique needs . PromoShop was excited about the potential of OrderStream Pro (OrderStream Pro) to fit their model now and into the future – provided that OrderStream Pro could prove itself able to adapt.Consultants from OrderStream Pro visited PromoShop in Los Angeles to study their operations first-hand, and our designers and developers grew OrderStream Pro to fit PromoShop’s needs. Major delivered enhancements included credit limits, multi-level commissions, multi-level overrides, adjustable administrative rights, credit and debit memos and real-time, online integration with QuickBooks, all designed in close consultation with the client for whom these features were intended.In fact, PromoShop’s solution evolved so much that it became a unique stand-alone system branded as PS WorldNet. PromoShop has top-to-bottom administrative control over their dedicated solution.
PromoShop’s previous system was server-based, not web-based. This means that PromoShop had to install and maintain their software and updates on their own servers. Whenever they wanted to grant access to colleagues outside of their primary office, they had to set up a special remote session or a virtual private network.OrderStream Pro, however, requires no servers, installation, maintenance, precious IT resources or special arrangements for access. All any user needs is a web browser and an internet connection, anywhere in the world, with no hidden costs. This was a huge advantage for a business consisting of multiple offices and salespeople across the country.
One of OrderStream Pro’s core strengths is its ease of use. PromoShop’s salespeople love the ease of creating their own proposals and placing orders and tracking their own commissions. Operations staff love the ease of order management. PromoShop’s previous system required salespeople to submit requests to staff in order to get proposals added for them into the system, and a separate request to convert proposals into orders. With OrderStream Pro, salespeople can fill their own pipelines at will, convert proposals to orders with a click, and monitor progress as orders flow seamlessly to production coordinators for fulfillment and invoicing – and, of course, for commissions!
Each member of the PromoShop team has well-defined responsibilities. PromoShop wanted a solution that could be used by everyone, but that would show each user only the features that they are authorized to use. OrderStream Pro ensures that each user’s experience is as simple as possible by hiding unneeded features and menu options. A salesperson, for example, sees the simplest possible version of the system, enjoys the shortest learning curve (typically about an hour) and need never worry that they might do something unauthorized by accident. On the other end of the spectrum, a system administrator with maximum rights has full access to OrderStream Pro’s deep feature set, including the ability to define rights for other users.PromoShop also wanted to be able to fine-tune the rights granted to individual production coordinators, division managers and system administrators. Again in close consultation with our client, we grew OrderStream Pro to include each of the rights and rules that PromoShop required to ensure that their model was followed at all levels of their organization.Data security was also a paramount concern. OrderStream Pro ensures that any user of the system sees only data that “belongs” to him or her. No salesperson may see another salesperson’s data, no division manager may see another division manager’s data, and so on throughout the organization. Each user sees only the features they need to see and only the data that is theirs.
OrderStream Pro freed PromoShop from many of the limitations of its previous system with its web-based convenience, its ability to boost productivity for every member of the team regardless of their role, and especially its ease of use. At least as important to PromoShop was the capacity of OrderStream Pro’s designers and developers not just to take the time to learn their business, but to translate that knowledge into real features and refinements that would turn a good fit into a great fit. That was the key to cementing our excellent relationship today.
