Look for a money-back guarantee offer (especially for network versions):

Make sure that the software has a money back guarantee, especially on their multi-user network versions.  A money-back guarantee is a software manufacturer's way of saying that they stand behind their product and are confident that you will be pleased with it. Believe it or not, but some software manufacturers do not offer a money-back guarantee on their multi-user network versions. QuoteWerks offers a 30-day money back guarantee on our single-user and multi-user software.


Ask for a demo version of the software:

Make sure that you can obtain a demo version of the software so that you can verify for yourself that the product functions as advertised before you have to part with your money. This avoids the time consuming hassles of obtaining, and then returning products, just to get a look at them. Most people evaluate demo software when they can find some time in their schedule to look at the software, so it is also important that the demo version does not expire, or at least gives you a couple of weeks to evaluate it before it expires. QuoteWerks offers a completely functional, non-expiring demo version that only limits the number of quotes and the size of the quotes that can be saved.


Closely examine advertised features:

Features contained in software can be implemented in many different ways. If you are looking at two different quoting software packages and they both say that they have a XYZ feature, you should use their respective demos to see exactly how those features will work.  Although the same feature is advertised in both software packages, the feature may require additional steps to use, or may not work the way you assumed it does in one or both of the packages. Sometimes the biggest difference between software packages is not the advertised features, but the way in which the advertised features actually work.


Find out if the software requires other software to function:

Some quoting applications are written in Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel that require you have licensed copies of Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel installed before you can use the application. This can significantly increase the cost of the software, and it increases the amount of setup and maintenance time required.  It is very rare for commercial grade software to be written in Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel. QuoteWerks does not require any other software to function.


Not all companies and/or software is made equal:

Software has revolutionized the way we do business in the world today. It has made it possible for business to become highly efficient.  Part of the success of the software industry is due to the fact that it does not require a large overhead to write software and then sell it. In fact, it is relatively easy to do. However, as it became easier to write software, more less qualified software companies have appeared that write lower quality software products. It does not cost much for a one-person operation to write quoting software and then make it available for sale on their website. On the surface, all software products listed for sale on a website often appear to be equal.

When you look a little deeper, you will clearly see the differences. Is the application stable and well written, or does it crash constantly? The best way to find this out is to request a demo version of the software. It is easy to write software, however it takes knowledge and experience to write software that works well and that is stable.

Product technical support is also very important. Find out what type of support (voice support, email support, newsgroup support) is included and how much support (in terms of minutes, days, months, years) included in the purchase of the software. If voice and email support is included, how quickly will you receive a response. Don't assume anything here. Often, it can be days before you receive a response. One way to gauge the response time is to call or email with pre-sales technical questions to see how responsive the company is.  Rest assured that if the company responds quickly to your requests before you have even purchased, you will most likely continue to receive that level of support once you have purchased.  Is the support staff knowledgeable?  Receiving a response quickly is not very useful if it is not accurate or complete.

Does the company provide a retail box, printed manual and CD-ROM for the software when you purchase the product? If not, the company is typically trying to make more money on the sale at the price of providing you with less, and often, you will be charged the same price as a competing product that does actually include these items.

Does the company have a network of businesses that can help you install the software and integrate it into your existing systems? More established companies usually have a "Reseller channel" of local companies that have experience with selling and installing the software.

What is the focus of the company? Is the development of their product the primary revenue source of their business or is the software product just something else they do on the side. If the software product that you are purchasing from them is not the source of their primary revenue, you can be sure that they will not be focusing all of their resources of the product. Not focusing all of their resources on their software product will by definition slow the development of new features and the responsiveness to product improvement requests.

Companies have different update policies Some companies release updates every couple of months, and some companies make no changes to their software for two years at a time. If you purchase from a company that releases updates every couple of months you will benefit from the new features constantly instead of having to wait for years.

QuoteWerks is known to be very stable. Our customers tell us that we are very responsive to pre-sales and post-sales technical support inquires. We believe in providing our prospects and customers with an exceptional level of service, and therefore all of our knowledgeable staff can handle both sales and technical support inquires so you do not get the run around.  QuoteWerks is shipped in retail boxes complete with a CD-ROM and printed user manual.  We have a network of QuoteWerks solution partners world wide to assist customers with the installation and integration of QuoteWerks.  QuoteWerks is our flagship and only product so it receives our complete attention to detail and commands all of our resources. We are very proactive in releasing updates to our software. We release updates every couple of months that contain many significant new features which are usually found only in full version releases every two years by other software manufacturers.


Beware of exorbitantly priced software:

Beware of high priced software that costs significantly more than competing software. It is logical to assume that the price of competing software with comparable feature sets should be similar. Most commercial desktop software retails for around $199 per license. If you find desktop software for sale that costs much more like $400 or $800 per license, it usually means that the company bases it's business practices as more of a consulting company as opposed to a commercial software company, and they want/need the higher price because they are not selling as many units as a commercial software company is. Consulting companies by definition usually bill out all their employees by the hour (often $100 per hour or higher) and are used to charging high prices for their skilled labor. That is a good arrangement for them, but not for their software customers. Software that stores it's data in SQL server databases will generally be priced higher than $199 per license because the added complexity of SQL server costs the software manufacturer more to educate their technical support staff, and maintain the integration. QuoteWerks is cost effectively priced starting at USD $199 for a single-user.


Make sure that the contact management integration meets your needs:

Closely examine the advertised contact management integration features to make sure that they meet your needs. Just because different quoting software packages all claim contact management integration with ACT!, GoldMine, KnowTia, Maximizer, MS CRM, Outlook, Outlook BCM, salesforce.com, SalesLogix, SugarCRM, TeleMagic, etc. does not mean that all the quoting software packages have the same level of integration with these contact managers. For some quoting software packages, the extent of their integration may only be to retrieve the contact name and address information from a contact record in the contact management software. While other quoting software will do more like writing back forecasted sales/sales opportunities, schedule follow up calls, etc in your contact management software. QuoteWerks offers extensive integration with most of the leading contact management software packages.


Make sure that the software supports the pricing method that your company uses:

Make sure that the quoting software supports the method of pricing that you use to price your products to your customers. Companies sell their products based on many different pricing methods. Some companies discount from list, others markup from cost, sell based on volume, customer price levels, etc. QuoteWerks offers a very complete and comprehensive range of pricing method support.


Make sure that you can customize the printed output (your quotes/orders):

Make sure that the quoting software allows you to customize the look and feel of the printed quote.  The presentation of your printed quote to your customers represents your company so it is very important that it looks professional, and includes exactly the information that you want to include on it. Some quoting software has pre-defined quote templates that you cannot customize at all. Others allow you the limited ability to modify some of the aspects of the printed quote like changing your company logo. Some quoting software charges extra for a module that lets you customize the printed look of the quote.  Some quoting software requires external software in order to modify these quote templates. Some quoting software allows you complete and comprehensive control over the look of the printed quote including the ability to create formulas that calculating things like monthly leasing figures, and more. QuoteWerks has pre-defined layout templates and a built-in visual layout designer (no extra charge) that allows you to modify them extensively, and to create new layouts.  The layout designer supports the ability to create custom formulas.


Make sure that you can create and customize sales and other management reports:

Make sure that the quoting software allows you to run reports that show you information like a list of all the outstanding quotes, or all the outstanding quotes per sales rep, commission reports, etc. Since you will be using the quoting software to store all your product information, and all of your quoting and ordering information, you need to be able to retrieve useful reports using all this information. Some quoting software does not include any ability to create or run management reports. Some quoting software has pre-defined quote templates that you cannot customize at all. Others allow you the limited ability to modify some of the aspects of the printed quote like changing your company logo.  Some quoting software charges extra for a reporting module that lets you run these reports.  Some quoting software allows you complete and comprehensive control so that you can create reports to filter on whatever information you would like, and you can also customize the look of the report including the ability to create formulas that calculating things like monthly leasing figures, and more. QuoteWerks has pre-defined report templates and a built-in visual layout designer (no extra charge) that allows you to modify them extensively, and to create new reports. The QuoteWerks report filter builder allows you to create reports that contain only the data that you want in the report. The layout designer supports the ability to create custom formulas.


Find out how the software e-mails quotes:

Many quoting software packages advertise that they can email quotes, however they all implement this feature in different ways. Some send the quote in the body of the email as simple text so the formatting is not preserved resulting in the information floating around instead of aligning with columns, rows, etc all of which looks very unprofessional and unimpressive when received by your customer.  Some quoting software e-mails quotes as a Rich Text Format (RTF) attachment. The RTF format preserves all the formatting of the quote, and when received can be viewed and printed by any word processor application.  Some quoting software e-mails quotes as an Adobe Acrobat PDF (PDF) attachment.  The PDF format preserves all the formatting of the quote, and when received can be viewed and printed by the free Adobe Acrobat reader that can be downloaded from Adobe's website ( www.adobe.com ). For the method of sending the e-mail, some quoting software automates an external e-mail system. The downside to this method is that if the e-mail software that you currently use, cannot be automated, then you will not be able to use the quoting software's e-mail feature.  Also, generally speaking, it takes around 30 seconds just to begin sending an email when automating an external email system because you are in effect loading the external e-mail software which takes time.  The upside to this method is that the e-mail will be sent using your existing email software, so there will only be one software packages sending your e-mails instead of two different software packages. Some quoting software has their own built-in e-mail client. The downside to this method is that if you use specialized e-mail software that does not support the SMTP mail protocol (most mail systems support SMTP), then you cannot use the quoting software's built-in e-mail client. The upside is that a built-in quoting software e-mail client using the SMTP mail protocol is much faster and more reliable than automating an external e-mail system. QuoteWerks has a built-in e-mail client that uses the SMTP mail protocol, and can also send e-mails using Microsoft Outlook, and e-mails quotes as either an RTF or PDF formatted attachment.


Find out if the quoting software integrates with any accounting software:

Using the quoting/ordering software you will be creating orders that you will eventually want to send over to your accounting software. Of course, you can print out these orders, and then have the accounting department re-type the orders into the accounting software, but if your quoting/ordering software integrates with your accounting software, you can eliminate this unnecessary re-typing of information into the accounting software.  Some quoting software does not offer any accounting software integration, others offer integration with a variety of accounting software packages.  Also, some quoting software packages offer a generic order export feature sometimes called an "Export SDK" or "Open Export" that allows you to export orders in a generic delimited text file format that some accounting software packages are capable of importing.  QuoteWerks offers optional links to QuickBooks and Peachtree accounting software. It also offers an Open Export module.


Find out if the quoting software has security features:

If more than one person will be using the quoting software, you may want some security features that limit what tasks certain users can perform.  You may also want to limit who can view, modify, or delete each users' quotes.  If security features are important to you, make sure to find out if the quoting software has any security features, and find out exactly how those security features work. Some quoting software packages have no security features at all, some have limited security features, and some have a comprehensive suite of security features. QuoteWerks has a comprehensive suite of security features allowing administrators to control which menu options are available to each user, which users can view/modify/delete each users' quotes, and a variety of misc. security rights.


Find out if the quoting software can use external sources for product data:

You will be using the quoting software to quote products and services. While most quoting software packages will let you just enter product/service information "on-the-fly" in the quote in addition to selecting items from a product database, some quoting software packages require that all products that you quote must be in a product database. Most quoting software package require that you import your lists of products and services into the quoting software's product database. That is an acceptable requirement, but if you can find a quoting software package that lets you like to an existing database source instead of having to import it that can be useful. Some quoting software has specific links to vendors product databases that the vendors publish to the public. QuoteWerks can link to any ODBC compliant data source for product information so you do not have to import the product information into QuoteWerks if you already store it somewhere else. QuoteWerks also has links to PC Industry Distributor databases such as D&H, Ingram Micro, SYNNEX, and Tech Data. This link is useful in that you do not have to import data that is already in their databases, you can just use it.


Find out if the quoting software can access real-time product data:

Usually the products that you quote and then sell are purchased from vendors or distributors. These vendors and distributors usually change their pricing regularly.  The quantities of the items that they have in stock fluctuate daily.  It is very important to have access to real-time pricing and availability information so that you have all the tools you need to get product to your customer fast and as low priced as possible.  Having access to real-time pricing gives you the ability to deliver last minute price savings to your customer. Having access to real-time availability gives you the company the ability to know if the product will ship today, or if it will be backordered.  Since a backordered product cannot be shipped to a customer, knowing that a product is backordered before placing an order will give you the tools you need to make a good purchasing decision. QuoteWerks has a Real-time Data Module that retrieves real-time pricing & availability from PC Industry distributors Accutech Data, Arbitech, Bell Micro, BlueStar, D&H, Digitek, Ingram Micro, SYNNEX and Tech Data.

Find out if the quoting software can submit electronic orders:

The process of ordering products can become very tedious and time consuming. Your quoting software order will already contain all the product part numbers, quantities, pricing, and ship to location - yet when placing an order you would need to call your sales rep and read each part number, quantity, price, warehouse, and ship to location to him/her during which errors can be introduced.  QuoteWerks has an Online Ordering Module that enables you to submit electronic orders to D&H, Ingram Micro, SYNNEX, and Tech Data.

Find out if the quoting software data can be synchronized:

If you have multiple office locations or if you or your sales staff or co-workers have laptops and would like to create quotes on laptops while out in the field, you will need a quoting software package that supports the ability to synchronize or import/export these quotes. Some quoting software packages have no ability to synchronize / import / export their quotes. Some quoting software packages can synchronize quotes in either an automated or manual process. QuoteWerks offers several synchronization features that vary by QuoteWerks edition. Remote users can export their quotes and e-mail them to the main office (using the built-in e-mail features) where they can be imported. The remote can also initiate the synchronization of all changed quotes when the remote connects with the main office.  Updated pricing and product information can also be synchronized to the Remote.


Find out if the quoting software supports international currencies:

Many quoting software packages are written in the United States of America. As such, they are not always designed with the international community in mind.  Some quoting software packages cannot be used in countries where the decimal separator is a comma. Some quoting software packages can automatically retrieve the currency and decimal separator information from the Microsoft Windows regional control panel. Other quoting software takes international support a step further by allowing you to quote in your base currency and an alternate currency at the same time. This is very useful for when you create sales quotes for customers in other countries and you want to present the quote to the international customer in their own currency.  Canadians have different sales tax requirements than Americans called GST and PST.  Some quoting software supports the Canadian sales tax requirements, and others do not. QuoteWerks allows you to quote in both your base currency and an alternate currency at the same time. Canadian sales tax is supported.


Find out if the quoting software has a Configurator:

A Configurator is software that assists you in the creation of a quote. Once setup, it will guide the user through a step-by-step process of selecting items to include on the quote.  Based on the items selected, the Configurator may then offer new choices based on the last choice made.  For example, if you select a 15" tire rim, the next step in the Configurator would only show you 15" tires that would fit on the 15" rim that you selected.  Configurators are extremely useful for making sure that all the correct items are included in a quote, and they make your sales force highly efficient.  Some quoting software packages contain Configurators and some do not.  QuoteWerks has a built-in Configurator as described above.


Find out how flexible the line items in the quote can be:

At a basic level, all quoting software packages will be able to add product and service line items to the quote.  The more comprehensive quoting software packages will also support the ability to add subtotal, running subtotal, % discount, % charge, and comment type of line items to the quote.   If you are used to using these types of line items in your quoting, it will be difficult to do without them.  QuoteWerks has a comprehensive list of line item types as described above.


Find out what database format the quoting software stores it's data in:

All quoting software will need to save it's quote and product information into some sort of database.  Some quoting software packages store their data in industry standard database formats like Microsoft Access, Dbase, FoxPro, etc. The advantage to storing data in industry standard database formats is that it allows you to externally access the data that is in these databases. This is useful for creating applications that can enhance the quoting software's functionality by reading and writing to the quoting software's database directly.  This is also useful if you need to create reports using external reporting software like Seagate Software's Crystal Reports. Additionally, since you can view and modify the data from external applications, it makes it possible for you to export or extract your data in the event that you no longer need the quoting software and want to get your data out, or maybe you want to copy the data that is in the quoting software into some other software package. Other quoting software store their data in proprietary formats that no-one else can read or modify.   You lose data flexibility and data longevity when you select a product that stores their data this way because your data is held hostage inside of their proprietary format that you cannot get to or export when you no longer need the quoting software. As a patch, some quoting software packages that store their data in a proprietary format offer a utility that collects all the information in this proprietary format and then saves it to an industry standard database format that you can then view or export. This is a less than perfect patch because it means that your data in this database will never be real-time. You will always have to run the utility to have it update the industry standard database with the proprietary database information (your quotes).  QuoteWerks data is stored in industry standard Microsoft Access 2002/2003 databases in the Standard and Professional Editions or a Microsoft SQL 7 or 2000 databases in the Corporate Edition.


If reviews have been done on the product, find out when the reviews were published:

When a software company posts reviews of their product, check to see when the review was published. Sometimes the review was published years ago when competing software did not exist, and therefore the reviews can be misleading. Sometimes the favorable review is so old that the publication that published the review no longer exists.