Schneider Electric

Keeping track of expiring service agreements can be challenging for any sales organization. At Schneider Electric, whose industrial software is sold and supported by more than 70 distributors and 3,500 integration partners in 50 countries, revenue loss due to the expiration of thousands of support contracts was getting out of hand.

The labor-intensive renewal process weighed down partners. Sales opportunities became too time-consuming and costly for many partners to pursue, so many chose to focus only on higher-revenue sales.

The company also struggled with disparate data sources, special pricing rules and challenges to contextualize, govern and forecast the business.

In 2013, Schneider Electric implemented MaintenanceNet's AutoQuote Campaign Engine and cloud-based platform, ServiceExchange. The technology helped Schneider integrate disparate data sources and systematically push accurate renewal quotes to its partners for immediate pursuit, which accelerated sales of service agreements.

"We gained insight into customers' buying behavior and complete visibility into software expirations and agreements, while also personalizing quotes for each distributor's unique business needs with special pricing and localization to address geographic markets," says Paul Trapani, director of customer support and services.

In the first year, the company saw a 5% improvement in its renewal rate and delivered $110 million in price quotes through the automated process. The initiative also streamlined renewal sales processes and eliminated manual tasks for partners -- giving them more time to pursue new software sales.