As simple as sketching on a pad

Launched just over one year ago, Framepoint from Tommy Trinder is already the go-to ap for more than 750 window and door professionals. Glass Times talks to founder and CEO Chris Brunsdon about how Framepoint is different from software that has gone before.

“Call me sad, but I’ve always loved selling windows,” Chris said. “27 years in the industry, and I’ve had a go at most parts. But selling windows to homeowners has always been the best bit.

“Finding the right software to help me sell was always my biggest bugbear, though. It always felt that the technology had been designed the wrong way around: inspired by the manufacturing department rather than the sales team.”

This frustration led Chris on a journey to develop Framepoint, a journey that took somewhat longer than expected.

“It was supposed to take a year,” Chris said. “In the end it took seven years of intensive development before we had a product we felt was ready for installers.”

The result is a piece of software that looks and feels very different. Gone are menus, drop down arrows and unnecessary jargon. Instead, the user is greeted with a blank page, reminiscent of a slice of graph paper from your old school maths book.

“I wanted to be able sketch windows on a computer, just like I did on my A4 pad,” Chris said. “We’re very proud of the results. You can literally free-draw any style of window with your finger and see it come to life in full photo-realistic quality. It really is as simple as sketching on a pad.”

Framepoint’s unique free drawing interface brings solid commercial benefits, Chris said.

“Selling has always been about engaging with a client; getting their hearts beating faster,” he said. “Face-to-face or via screen share, the effect is the same: when a client sees their windows brought to life on Framepoint the lights come on.”

Replacing the traditional pad and pen with Framepoint brings efficiency savings too. Re-drawing items after the initial sales visit, a long-held bugbear of installers, is eliminated. Instead, installers can send pricing requests to multiple suppliers directly from the app in a click.

Or, with Framepoint’s advanced pricing module, installers that want to deliver an instant price can pre-populate the app with price matrices for any product. Either way, quotes are easily generated and may be emailed directly to the homeowner from within the app in one click. The documentation looks good too, carrying photo-realistic inside and outside views of each product and clear, jargon-free text.

“Flexibility is key in today’s market,” Chris said. “Installers are constantly faced with having to source products from multiple manufacturers on one site. Unilateral software solutions, foisted on retailers by their suppliers, aren’t much help in these scenarios. From the outset we’ve always conceived of Framepoint as a wrapper for an installer’s entire product range – PVCU, aluminium or timber – regardless of where you buy. And setting up a product range is super-quick; you can be up and running in minutes not months.”

Framepoint is sold on a subscription basis, with fees starting at £95 per month. To find out more installers should visit www.tommytrinder.com