What we needed was four things from a CRM tool.

As a young start-up company we needed a CRM system that was easy to
digest and was project-based instead of contact based. The tool needed to be flexible in order to accommodate our expanding product range as well.  Our product portfolio is based on standard products and applications specific devices. All parts are individually configurable via settings and all having individual P/N's. Each standard product is in fact a "parent" with its own affiliates (child, cousins, etc...)

Second, we needed it to have the capability to bring on different aspects of the tool over time without having to pay for functions we did not use.  We needed this because we where bringing up our sales network little by little and we did not need everything right away. We discovered, to our surprise, that some of
our distributors already were using SIMS.  This made the use of SIMS easy for our partners.

Third, we did not want to host or maintain servers in our company.  We needed a solution that was hosted and maintained by the vendor.  We did not have the time nor the skills for this.

I personally had a few experiences with other tools at major semiconductor
companies. These were large companies and an imposing crew to
manage and support these tools.

SIMS provided all the functions we were looking for.

We wanted to approach the tool smoothly, slowly integrating more and
more users and slowly expanding the number of features. The nice thing about SIMS was their modular approach. The pricing per user and pricing per module keep our investment at the required level but gave us the ability to grow as needed.

The cost of SIMS was very attractive also.  We could expand the use of the
tool into our rep and distribution channel very reasonably.

SIMS is 100% hosted.  All aspects of the system were accessed securely via the internet and no software installation was required at the laptop or PC level, allowing us to avoid revision and compatibility problems and deploy the application simply be issuing a username and password.

What I liked very much, was the gentle support from the PRS personnel. There was always time to kindly explain how the different tasks work and how they are mutually related.

SIMS is in fact a very clever design. It looks very simple but it has an
incredible flexibility to adapt to the most crazy requirements. I believe
that we had "crazy" requirements. Sometimes, I was expecting that SIMS would
“go to its knees" because of these demands, but, there was always a way to solve it on our own. Just amazing!

The GUI is perhaps a little experimental but this is a very tiny detail
versus the tremendous flexibility it offers.

Nice was to discover, in the field, and like I said earlier, that the
tool was already in use as a standard in several distribution companies in
Asia. Clearly, it allowed us to very quickly implement our product strategy
without the need to organize implementation trainings, etc., even though we have a complex product strategy based on asic deviations and we have several different pricing tables based on different criteria.  SIMS gave us the ability to securely reveal customer information, price lists, etc. on a per sales person, per region, etc. basis.

Raoul Daniëls
WW Director of Marketing/Office Manager Belgium
ChipIdea Semiconductors N.V.