Cincom Systems has announced that its Guided Selling and Product Configurator is the first component to be made available of its new enterprise sales portal software, Cincom AcquireTM. As mentioned in the official release, it is designed to fill the gaps in traditional CRM- and ERP-based systems such as guided selling, channel and distributor collaboration, sales and product configuration, quotation and proposal management, project and bid management, and contract and order management.

Specifically, it provides:

-- Opportunity management
-- Customer needs analysis
-- Guided selling and specification
-- Product and service configuration
-- Quotation and proposal management
-- Proposal and document generation
-- Rule-based pricing
-- Detailed cost and margin analysis
-- Order submission
-- Workflow automation

Built on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server architecture, Cincom Acquire makes use of the Microsoft tools that employees use every day such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Project. It also easily integrates with "out-of-the-box" Microsoft Dynamics CRM and other Microsoft Dynamics ERP systems.

Cincom Acquire's Guided Selling and Product Configurator component is also available as a stand-alone product (marketed as Cincom's Sales ConfiguratorT) with specialised versions that integrate easily with certain SAP, Salesforce.com and Microsoft products.