The interactive tool has been developed to assist buyers in wading through the myriad options of cloud services that are available. The decision engine — ‘Cloud Intelligence’ — caters for technical and non-technical visitors, ensuring visitors are able to find the information that meets their needs.
“We identified a definite challenge in the market when it comes to researching and choosing cloud services,” says Adam Eaton, sales director, Pulsant. “Increasingly customers are doing a great deal of research before making IT decisions and ideally they want to do this without speaking to a salesman.
“However, there’s a lot of information and clutter to get through. We wanted to give people the information they were looking for on the solutions and services they were interested in, while still interactively engaging with them. The decision engine, designed and powered by 15Gifts, was the ideal option. It gives customers and prospects the ideal start to their cloud journey and opens the door for meaningful dialogue with a trusted supplier.”
The configuration tools separates technical users familiar with the technology landscape from those less knowledgeable, like procurement personnel tasked with researching technical solutions. It then guides these different visitors down paths customised to meet their requirements.
“In this way we can be sure that the questions and content are easy to understand and not steeped in jargon for the non-technical users, allowing them to understand the benefits of the services on offer.”
Today, decision engines, such as those 15Gifts offers, are used mainly in the consumer market on B2C websites. Pulsant is one of the first B2B organisations to recognise that buying behaviours in the corporate world are changing as a result of the way in which researchers and IT decision makers are consuming are information.
“One of the value adds of the tool is that we can constantly evaluate its effectiveness by looking at the stats generated in terms of completed journeys, paths chosen and drop offs,” adds Eaton.
The tool can be continuously improved based on this data, with different paths added in to address new demands and user requirements for information.
“Ultimately we want the research and decision-making process to be as smooth and informative as possible. And we’re already seeing the benefits, with 80% of visitors who start on the journey, going all the way to the end.”
In addition, once visitors have completed the configuration journey and choose to get in touch with the company, the information is captured and used to further refine and streamline the sales process.