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Unique Features

This module manages contracts with customers functions and has many unique features including:

• Multiple contract types - trial, rental, sales, hire purchase, short term, promotion, and minimum utilisation
• Catches 'professional trialers' - a history of all contracts is maintained enabling you to monitor customers who take multiple trials without ever converting to a live contract
• Multiple agreements per customer - any customer can have multiple agreements each of a different type if desired
• Multiple assets per agreement - each agreement can contain multiple assets within it
• Fast Trial - a new customer can have their details recorded and a trial created from any point within the system
• Reinstate agreements - terminated agreements can be reinstated without having to create a new contract
• Convert from one type to another - a contract can be converted from one type to another
• Third party asset agreements - contracts can be created to maintain equipment supplied by third parties
• Controlled ending process - when customers wish to end their contracts, the implications are provided to the sales team, and they are guided through the steps to end the agreement
• Partial agreement - customers may end part of a rental agreement, i.e. return some but not all equipment
• Automated invoice generation - invoices are generated automatically based on customer contract details
• Automated email on closing - customers can receive a welcome email automatically when an agreement is closed
• Journey requests - these appear on the appropriate journey scheduler's screen whenever a contract is created or ended

The remainder of this page contains further information on the features and functions of the contract management module.

Trial Agreements

Industries such as the water cooler industry provide equipment on a 'free trial' basis to entice customers to utilise their services. Whether the trial is provided free or is chargeable, there is no obligation on the customer who receives the trial equipment to convert to a contract. However details of the trial have to be recorded including:

• Customer details - name, address, contact names, purchase order requirements
• Equipment details - details of the equipment being provided - templates are often used to reduce data entry
• Estimated duration - length of time that the customer will have use of the equipment
• Sales rep - the sales rep assigned to convert the trial to a contract (close the contract)
• Lead source - source of the lead which is used in reports to assess the effectiveness of various forms of promotion

A trial agreement is on the 'Quick Menu' meaning that it can be accessed from anywhere within the system. Once a trial agreement has been put in place, the following actions can be performed on it:

• Close - the trial can be 'closed' (converted) into a rental or sales contract
• Cancel - if the customer does not close, the trial can be cancelled which automatically raises an order to collect the equipment from the customer
• Extend duration - the trial continues indefinitely unless closed or cancelled, but any trials still open beyond their expected close date are highlighted on the trials report

Orders to deliver trials are automatically generated whenever a new trial is created. The matching POD shows how long it took to deliver the trial. Trial cancel requests automatically create orders to collect equipment from customers. The PODs associated with the collections automatically cancel the trial agreements.

Rental Agreements

Rental agreements are used when equipment is provided to a customer for a fixed monthly fee. The rental agreement can be created by converting a trial agreement, or it can be created as a 'Straight Rental Contract' where there is no trial involved. The terms and conditions of each contract are recorded including:

• Sales rep - rep that negotiated the contract - this information is provided on reports so that commissions can be calculated
• Close Date - date on which the contract commenced
• Sign Date - date on which the customer signed the agreement (contract)
• Invoice immediately - some companies charge the first month's rental as soon as the agreement is signed rather than on the normal monthly billing date
• Invoice when not on site - rental is charged even if the equipment is not on the customer site
• Total advance rental - sum of the individual item charges that form part of the agreement
• Total deposit charge - refundable deposits may be charged on equipment supplied under the agreement
• First invoice months in advance - amount of rental to charge in advance on the first invoice
• Months in advance - the standard number of months rental to charge in advance
• Next invoice date - date on which the next invoice should be generated for rental
• Minimum contract period - minimum number of months that the customer is committed to pay rental
• Minimum notice period - number of months notice that the customer must provide before the contract can be ended after the minimum contract period

For each piece of equipment supplied under a rental contract, the following may be recorded:

• Code - product code for the equipment
• Rental charge - fee for renting the equipment
• Initial discount - a discount can be applied to the standard rental charge for a defined period of time
• Deposit code/charge - refundable deposit charged (if any) when the equipment is supplied to the customer
• Training - charge for training on the equipment (if appropriate)
• Purchase order - purchase order number to use for rental charges
• San/Service - sanitisation/service level associated with the asset
• Maintenance agreement - charge and duration of the maintenance contract

Once recorded and in place, rental contracts are invoiced automatically and apart from the information recorded when setting up a rental agreement, additional information may be queried:

• Last invoice date - date on which an invoice was last generated for the rental contract
• Next sanitisation/service date - date on which the equipment supplied under the agreement is next due to be sanitised/serviced
• Serial numbers of equipment on site - once delivered and recorded through a POD, details of all of the equipment supplied can be examined

When saving a new rental contract, the following activites may optionally be performed on the system:

• Record first order - defines the first delivery to be made to the customer to minimise delivery frequency
• Raise delivery journey request - informs distribution that a customer needs to be put on a delivery schedule
• Raise service journey request - this is similar to a delivery journey request except that it relates to service schedules

When a customer wishes to end all or part of a rental agreement, information is gathered that is used for billing and analyses purposes.

• Notice date - date on which the customer requested that the rental agreement be ended
• Notice given by - customer contact that requested the ending of the agreement
• End method - channel through which the notification was received, e.g. email, phone, letter, fax
• Date ended - date on which the agreement actually ended
• Ended by customer - customer contact that finally confirmed that the agreement should be ended
• End reason - user-definable list of potential reasons for ending the contract
• Winning competitor - used if the business was lost to a competitor - this allows for detailed analysis of business churn to competitors
• Requested collection date - date on which the equipment should be collected
• Refund deposit - if the equipment is not returned in good condition, the equipment deposit may not be refunded
• Ramification analysis - the loss of revenue over the remainder of the contract is assessed and is presented on screen along with the minimum contract duration and minimum notice period
• Invoice/Credit - a balancing invoice/credit note may need to be generated by the system
• Invoice immediately - an invoice can be generated on the spot and sent to the customer

When the end request is recorded, there are a number of processes activated on the system:

• Sales rep notified - the sales rep/account manager associated with the account can be notified of the end request by email
• Collection order created - an order to collect the equipment on site with the customer can be created automatically if the equipment has not already been returned
• Delivery journey removal request - a request can be submitted to distribution to remove the customer from all delivery journeys
• Service journey removal request - request that the customer be removed from service journeys
• Customer notification - confirmation that the contract has ended can be sent to the customer by email, post or fax (where available)

As you can see from the functionality available for rental contracts, it automates many labour intensive and time consuming tasks while providing key staff such as sales and distribution with information they need through the system.

Sales Agreements

Sales agreements are used where assets are sold to a customer and as a result are less complex than rental agreements.

• There is no recurring invoicing, minimum notice periods or minimum contract durations
• They list the assets provided to the customer.
• Sanitisation/service contract details may also be included.
• They can created as a 'straight sale' or converted ('closed') from a trial agreement
• Notifications to sales, distribution and the customer operates as per rental agreements
• Only the service/sanitisation component of the contract can be ended, so the ending process is less involved than that for rental agreements

Hire Purchase Agreements

This form of agreement shares elements of rental and sales agreements. When the agreement is created, it has fixed monthly payments for a defined period of time after which the customer owns the equipment.

Short Term Agreements

This form of agreement is used when equipment is provided to customers for a short duration, e.g. a water cooler provided to an exhibition. It contains details of the equipment supplied, the charge and the expected return date.

Promotion Agreements

This is another variation of a rental agreement. The distinguishing factor in this type of agreement is that the customer pays discounted monthly fee for a specified period before the contract continues at the standard monthly charge.

Minimum Utilisation Agreements

Unlike the other contracts outlined above that relate to the provision of assets, minimum utilisation contracts relate to the consumption of agreed volumes of products in return for discounted prices. This form of agreement operates as follows:

• Products to be monitored as part of the minimum utilisation contract are recorded along with the minimum quantities
• The agreement can be put in place for a single customer or for a group of customers
• At the end of each period of the contract, a report is generated showing the committed consumption levels for each customer along with the actual consumption levels
• An invoice can be raised if consumption did not reach the committed level
• Committed and actual consumption can be aggregated across customers connected by a minimum utilisation agreement

Reports

Examples of the reports that can be generated from information processed through this module include:

• Trials list - list of all customers with trial agreements
• Rental agreement closes due - all rental agreements that are due to be invoiced in the current period
• First time rentals invoiced - list of rental agreements that were invoiced for the first time
• Rental renewal due - details the rental that will be invoiced in the current period
• Rental renewal invoiced - rental agreements excluding first time closes that were invoiced in the specified period
• Rental returns due - lists all rental charges/refunds due to be invoiced in the current period for ended rental agreements
• Rental returns invoiced - charges/refunds invoiced/credited to customers in the specified period
• Sales agreements due for invoicing - sales contracts due to be invoiced in the current period
• Sales agreements invoiced - income from sales agreements invoiced in the specified period
• Minimum utilisation due - lists total charge and estimated deliveries due to be invoiced
• Minimum utilisation invoiced - lists minimum utilisation charges invoiced