| Platte River Systems, Inc, a Delaware Corporation, was founded in
2004, by a
team of semiconductor sales and IT professionals in order to solve a
serious and unaddressed problem related to sales and revenue tracking in semiconductor
sales channels. That problem is the seamless management of design
win tracking, international business transfer and revenue tracking
amongst a dynamic market and sales network.
Mission Statement
Increase the revenue and profits of our customers
and PRS by unifying the information flow and cooperation between
sales channel partners. PRS will provide the industry's best and
most productive sales and revenue management
tools which by design will satisfy the unique requirements of each channel.
The Problem
There are massive inefficiencies in the way OEMs, distributors
and representatives in the semiconductor sales channel communicate,
gather data and present that data in a useful and productive way for
each member of the sales chain.
Many companies have tried to solve this problem by creating
CRM solutions that solve only one aspect of the problem. The main
focus of these companies has been
the management of contact information by the semiconductor manufacture.
They do not address the needs of the sales channel as a whole and
actually make the efficiency of these channels worse by forcing the
representatives and distributors in the channel to use a different CRM
tool for every line they service. This has created large
overhead in the channel that is not related to the direct design in,
sale and revenue gain of
anyone's product. It results in inconsistent data flowing up to the OEM
and lost business for all parties due to lack of prioritization and response to the
customer needs.
In addition to overhead in the channels many of the current systems
are designed for generic users and are not focused on the special needs
of the 'design in" orientation of the semiconductor market. This
forces each company to customize a generic
tool which costs money and further promotes inefficiency in the channels.
Even if some companies have tried to address this market there tools can
not be use by everyone in the channel.
The PRS Solution
- Company focus on high-tech industry needs and
solutions.
- Unique and in-depth experience.
- Next generation information technology to
simplify the complex nature of communication and information
requirements
Platte River Systems, Inc., based on its
many years of direct experience in
providing, implementing and promoting the use of sales and revenue
management software to a pre-IPO and a public company, as well as
its representatives and distributors worldwide, has designed a new system
that truly takes into account all the special requirements that
semiconductor and system level manufactures need to manage their sales
channels and revenue outlook on a worldwide basis, with confidence.
The system is designed to make each company that uses it more
efficient in the analysis of its own sales and revenue data. It enables
immediate response to customer inquiry and provides a unified method of
transferring data between members of the sales network without using
multiple systems, methodologies, protocols or spreadsheets. PRS
has taken a global approach to providing a superior Sales and
Information Management System (SIMS) solution to the market by addressing the following:
1) Unity of the
Complete Sales Channel - The sales
channels for semiconductor companies are complex and ever changing.
Achieving and maintaining a companies mindshare amongst its channel
partners is difficult. Simply having a traditional CRM is not
enough to make sure your are getting the most out of your sales channel.
Representatives and distributors are faced with managing different
OEM lines everyday. Many times they are required to track and enter data
on their company's system, as well as a set of very different CRM
systems that OEMs provide. Many times these systems are simple
Excel spreadsheets that are emailed back and forth and provide no real
data due the time, inefficiency and priority of the process.
PRS provides the ability for any
company in the sales channel that uses the SIMS system to seamlessly
communicate sales data without having to waste time utilizing multiple
systems. This means that the more companies that utilize the power
of the SIMS system, the more effective and efficient its potential
sales channels become. No more wasted time inputting data into a
variety of systems. No more need to for reps and distributors to develop
or modify their own systems to manage the data in their own unique way.
By cutting out this need sales people using the SIMS system can do what
they do best, SELL.
For those companies who what to share their data
with their partners who are not using SIMS, they may allow "guest" logins,
further enhancing the ability for everyone in the sales channel to take
advantage of the SIMS tool, increase efficiency and generate revenue.
2) Proven "Best
Practice" Methodology - Each sales channel has its
own unique way of keeping track of its sales data. There are
different names for the same task, different words for the same stage of
design activity, different ways to gather the same data. Many of
these differences do not need to exist but are reinforced by the sales
tools or language that the sales group uses. Some of these
methodologies are good and effective. Some are not.
PRS provides Sales and Information
Management tools that take advantage of the many methods that companies
use to gather and manage data. For over 6 years PRS founders and
advisors have been working with thousands of users and hundreds of
companies from all aspects of the sales channel. PRS has taken the
inputs from those channels and developed a best practices model that all
members of the channel can use. By solidifying on a standard
language and methodology, representatives, distributors and OEMs alike
can work together in the most efficient ways possible. Forecasts become meaningful, Trip reports become consistent.
Trends become predicable and useful. Sales people know what
their priorities are.
Where custom requirements
need to be addressed, like the ability to look at data in a specific
way, the SIMS system allows each user to do that via its highly
flexible interface.
3) System and IT management: - Many
companies do not have the MIS staff or the ability to create custom
solution to address their needs. If they do, they must maintain
that solution from both a hardware and software perspective.
Maintaining this infrastructure is a very costly proposition and many
companies spend $300,000 dollars per year or more in salaries, licenses
and systems and opportunity costs.
PRS provides a totally hosted or Software as a Service
Model for its customers. This means that PRS supplies all the
systems, licenses, maintenance and support required. Your MIS
department does not have to provide any resources to support the SIMS
system from PRS. The PRS licensing model allows small companies to
gain access to enterprise class services for a fraction of the cost of
of traditional CRMs and also allows large companies to pay for only
those individuals who use the system while freeing up critical IT
resources for other corporate tasks. In both cases the return on
investment is high and the cost is minimal.
All systems are located in a highly secure facility that
sits
on the backbone of the internet to insure high speed access and
availability. Customers data is backed up on a regular basis and
stored in a secure facility off site. The systems and
network are fully redundant and are monitored by highly trained MIS
personnel on a 24/7 basis to insure that any issues with the systems are
handled immediately guaranteeing that you have access to your data from
anywhere in the world at any time.
Platte River Systems Credentials
The principal architects and developers of the SIMS
system have a total of 85 years of software development, sales,
marketing and operational management experience. The principal
developers have extensive software development expertise in mission
critical systems and application software tools. Positions held by the
principals include. CEO, President, VP Marketing, VP Worldwide Sales,
VP Business Development, Director of European Operations, Director
Software Engineering and VP of Information Technology. All these
executive positions and the prior positions that lead to them, were with
high technology software, systems or semiconductor companies.
Those companies include: Intel, Unisys, Silicon Graphics, S3 ,LSI Logic,
PLX Technology, Sperry-Univac, Kubota Graphics, Gould, Quantum,
GlobalSight.
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