- Another Integra customer standardises on sales-i’s sales intelligence service

Solihull, UK - May 26th , 2008 - sales-i, (www.sales-i.com) the real-time sales acceleration service for front line sales people today announced that Harts Office Solutions is the latest Integra customer to standardise on sales-i for its sales intelligence.

Harts is a household name in the office products industry, first established in 1836 as a ‘high class’ printer in Saffron Walden, Essex. Today Harts is one of the largest commercial stationers in East Anglia, offering high levels of product availability, rapid delivery and consistently high levels of customer service. The company’s industry achievements were recognised in 2001 when it was awarded the British Office Supplies Industry Federation Award for Technology and in 2002 as runner up in the European Industry Awards.

Keeping track of customers and who is buying what products is a challenge for every office supplies company and Harts Office Solutions is no exception. Andrew Turnbull explains, “We have waited for years for a product or service to come along and offer us straightforward, easy to use sales intelligence. We have relied for some time on a rather haphazard approach to gap analysis and any systems that did exist were difficult to use and beyond our novice users.”

Harts is part of the Integra Office Supplies Group, (www.integra-office.co.uk) the leading Office Supplies and IT dealer group in the UK and Ireland and this is where news of the new sales-i sales intelligence service first came to light. Integra offers sales-i to deliver accelerated sales awareness and gap analysis for member companies highlighting cross sell and up sell opportunities across all product ranges. Changes in customer behaviour and buying patterns are provided in real-time by email and text message to alert front-line sales people to new sales opportunities. The Integra service is called Sales Alert and is provided as a service, on-demand with a monthly fee; no software, no downloads. Integra hand-holds all members to acquire the necessary data and upload to the Sales Alert system.

Harts has now invested in the sales-i system and has appointed a ‘sales-i champion’ to lead the success of the sales intelligence service within the company. Andrew explains, “We have a ‘champion’ in place to oversee how best to use sales-i, ensure that all data is uploaded and then feed the necessary alerts and changes or gaps in customer buying behaviour direct to our sales team who can action and upsell or cross sell accordingly. We are very excited about the difference that this will make to our margins, profits and share of customer wallet.”

Harts has just completed its first sales-i training session and according to Andrew after only a half hour they were confident enough to work with the system and start to make some early inroads into the future of sales intelligence at Harts.

Paul Black is co-founder of sales-i and is delighted with the take up from Integra customers, “This has been a tremendously successful partnership with Integra and it is a pleasure to welcome Harts on board as a new customer. More than 20 Integra member companies have selected sales-i to date and the number is growing weekly. We look forward to underpinning their sales awareness and success over the months and years to come.”

To find out how sales-i can transform your sales intelligence, get in touch today on www.sales-i.com.

About Harts Office Solutions

W Hart & Son Limited was established in 1836 as a "high class" printer in Saffron Walden, Essex. Through three succeeding generations of Harts the company grew to become a local producer and retailer of books, office supplies, musical instruments and printed stationery. In 1930, Edwin Turnbull, sold his stationery & printing business in London and acquired W Hart & Son Ltd from the surviving members of the Hart family.

The last 15 years has seen the company grow steadily focusing its efforts on expanding its commercial product & service offering. Harts are now one of the largest commercial stationers in East Anglia, offering high levels of product availability, rapid delivery and consistently high levels of customer service.

For more information please visit www.hartsdirect.co.uk

About sales-i

sales-i© is a real-time sales acceleration service for frontline sales people. Through sales-i, sales professionals are empowered with real-time customer buying behaviour alerts which are delivered by email and text messaging, empowering them to make better informed, personalised and faster decisions which maximise repeat sales and reduce customer slippage. sales-i is a true Software-as-a-Service solution charged on a per-user, per-month, basis. Sales and marketing organisations rely on sales-i to accelerate their sales intelligence. This delivers protected customer share, better margins, visible cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and increased customer buying behaviour know-how resulting in more intelligent, profitable selling. sales-i is a privately held company with headquarters in Solihull, UK. For more information about sales-i visit www.sales-i.com or email tellmemore@sales-i.com

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