Margin you can see before you discount it.
Integration businesses lose money in two places: an SLA promised per customer and measured nowhere, and a multi-vendor quote where the margin is only visible after the discount has been given. Both are the same problem — the number arrives too late to act on.
The day as it is
Three things that are true of this desk
Every customer has a different SLA
Four-hour response for one, next business day for another, an eight-hour resolution on P1 for the one with the penalty clause. All of them in a contract, none of them in a system.
A quote is five vendors in a trench coat
Hardware from one, licences from another, a third-party AMC, your own services. Different costs, different margins, different lead times, one price to the customer.
The discount happens under pressure
Quarter end, a competing bid, a rep with a number to hit. The approval is a phone call, and the margin is reconstructed a month later from the purchase orders.
What AcuityQ does about it
The same three, answered
SLA policy per customer, not per system
Targets attach to the customer and the category, on their calendar. Renewal conversations start with attainment per clock rather than with an assertion.
Bill of materials per vendor, margin per line
Cost, margin, lead time and currency held per vendor line and rolled into one customer price. Margin is visible at line, vendor and quote level on the screen where the discount is applied.
Bands that stop the document
Discount bands with a named approver. Outside the band the quote cannot be issued — not a warning, not a notification that arrives after it was sent.
Where the money actually goes
A two-point discount given without the margin on screen is a decision made blind. Over a year, across a sales team, that is the difference between a good year and an explanation. The software does not decide; it makes sure the number is in front of the person who does.
What it does not do here. AcuityQ does not hold stock or track inventory, and it is not a procurement system — it does not raise purchase orders with your vendors. It quotes, governs the discount and hands the won bill of materials onward.
How it is usually configured
| Desks | NOC and monitoring, field support, project delivery, licensing and renewals. |
| Clocks | Per-customer SLA policies, with priority-specific targets and pause conditions that match the contract wording. |
| QuoteDesk | Vendor lines with cost, margin, lead time and purchase currency; the sale in a single currency with the rate stamped on the version. |
| Approvals | Bands by discount percentage or by absolute margin, with the approver named per band and the approval tied to the quote version. |
| Renewals | AMC and licence lines carrying validity dates, so an expiry is enforced rather than noticed late. |
Configuration, not development. Every line above is a setting somebody at your end can change afterwards, with the change recorded.
How the clocks behave
Three clocks, what pauses what, and the calendar they are counted on.
How quoting behaves
Bills of material per vendor, margin on screen, and bands that stop the document.
What your IT function will ask
Deployment, residency, access, audit and exit — control by control, gaps included.
A walkthrough scoped to system integrators & managed services
We will start from your desks rather than from a generic tour. Simcomm replies within one working day.