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16
SOLUTIONS
Vantage Online was designed and
developed in-house by Vantage.
Managing Director Tony Milford said
that it was launched in September
2016 as a completely re-written
replacement for its legacy on-
premises solution Service Accent.
“Whilst Service Accent is used by
hundreds of office equipment and MPS
businesses worldwide, as with any mature
product, you can only keep adding features
and functions for so long before you end
up with a solution that is less user-friendly
and flexible than you would ideally like it to
be,” he said.
“In 2013, recognising this was going
to be the case with Service Accent, in
conjunction with both clients and partners,
we started work on the complete redesign of
our service management and billing platform
– Vantage Online is the result,” he added.
Milford explained that from the earliest
scoping meetings, they identified that the
new solution would need to have a much
wider range of integration with the myriad
of complementary software solutions and
supplier systems that clients need to use.
“As part of this, our move to an MS SQL
database and API-driven architecture was
a conscious decision that enables us to
massively reduce the amount of duplicate
data entry that needs to be undertaken by
our clients,” he stated.
Direct integration
The latest development is what Vantage
describes as a ‘cutting-edge’ direct
integration between Vantage Online and
Westcoast, which at the time of writing,
had completed final testing and was
expected to be available to users within the
next few weeks.
Vantage Online already has out-of-the
box integration with almost all leading
accounting applications and industry-
specific solutions including Print Audit,
PrintFleet, XDA/XSM, eMaintenance and
@Remote, to mention just a few.
With many office equipment, MPS
and managed services clients already
utilising Westcoast for the procurement,
supply and delivery of equipment, parts
and consumables, Milford said that the
partnership will give both companies’
clients an end-to-end solution that will
enable them to save time, reduce costs and
improve profitability.
He commented: “In the case of
Westcoast, the fact that many of our
dealers and distributors now source their
machines, parts, supplies and consumables
through Westcoast, means that the ability
for clients to push orders directly from
Vantage Online (which manages their
billing, contract administration, service
and helpdesk, stock, consumables and
reporting), into Westcoast’s back-office
system, and in return receive updates on
the progress of those orders, (from picking
through to end-user delivery), gives them
complete end-to-end visibility over their
order processing.
“At the same time it ensures a massive
reduction in the time it takes to process
orders and reduces the potential errors
associated with keying data in manually
into multiple places,” he added.
Purchase orders on demand
This functionality allows Vantage Online
clients to send purchase orders on demand
from Vantage Online to Westcoast via the
use of the Westcoast API (XML Portal). They
will then seamlessly receive the despatch
notifications and other updates, including
tracking information. Invoices from
Westcoast can then be received directly and
made available as supplier invoices within
Vantage Online.
“Work is already underway to further
Vantage has announced direct
integration between Vantage
Online service management
and billing system and
Westcoast
Out-of-the box
integration
enhance the information shared between
these two key components of our shared
clients’ businesses, with the ongoing
aim of ensuring that both Westcoast and
Vantage Online remain the leading choice
for industry-specific solutions,” Milford said.
Westcoast Managing Director Alex
Tatham, said: “We are pleased to be
working with Vantage and this integration
with their market-leading software products
will enable our joint customers to achieve
significant cost savings and increase
efficiency. It allows orders to be placed
seamlessly via our bi-directional integration
(EDI) and gives resellers full track and
trace visibility, with full invoice matching
to streamline the payment authorisation
workflow process.”
“This logical extension of the
partnership between Westcoast and
Vantage will save our clients huge amounts
of time and give them even greater visibility
of this essential aspect of their business. We
have exciting future plans to extend this
partnership and look forward to delivering
further enhancements for our clients
over the forthcoming months,” Milford
continued.
“The full API and SDK for Vantage
Online will be launched before the end of
2017 and we are already working with
several key customers and partners to
provide integration with their CRM and
eMarketing solutions,” Milford said. “The
overall aim is to ensure that Vantage Online
continues to be the dealer management
solution of choice for office equipment and
MPS/managed services business in more
than 35 countries worldwide,” he said in
conclusion.
It ensures
a massive
reduction
in the time
it takes to
process
orders and
reduces the
potential
errors
associated
with keying
data in
manually
