Sun Microsystems at one time offered its customers tiered service pricing, based on a parts and pricing database. Service contracts were calculated not just on the databse, however, since pricing could be modified not only by level of service, but also involved surcharges for distance from field offices (uplifts), and a variety of discounts.

Sales personnel were unable to provide service price quotations for new purchases. Customers had to contact Customer Service, and wait for a quotation to be prepared. Customer acceptance of the quotation then called for a conversion to a service contract, involving duplication of data entry.

Sun lost valuable man hours for sales and customer service personnel in this inefficient process. Valuable service contract opportunities were inevitably lost in the confusing process.

A much more streamlined system was needed - one that allowed the sales personnel to be able to seamlessly offer accurate service contracts to customers as a natural part of the sales process.

Stonegate ported Sun's parts and service prices from standalone PC database to a client-server architecture built on a standard relational database. A service quotation system was designed to draw prices from the database. A flexible pricing variation algorithm was crafted to apply discounts and surcharges. The quotation was automatically generated from the customer's sales order.

Sales personnel were then able to provide standardized service quotations for appropriate levels of service, automatically taking into account applicable discounts and surcharges (uplifts). Service quotations, also stored in the database, were automatically converted into service contracts upon customer acceptance, eliminating multiple data entry points.

Sales personnel were then able to provide standardized service quotations for appropriate levels of service, automatically taking into account applicable discounts and surcharges (uplifts). Service quotations, also stored in the database, were automatically converted into service contracts upon customer acceptance, eliminating multiple data entry points.