Ralph Auchincloss - Antec International:

"We asked Act in in the first place because we had some problems with our sales performance internationally. We tended to find that we were starting the year particularly well, and then by the time we'd reached the end of the year, the gains that we'd made earlier in the year had slipped away. We really needed some help to get to the bottom of it.

I've been considerably impressed by their performance. I think the main benefit from my point of view is a deeper understanding of how the whole distribution system works for us. In the past we tended to view our distributors internationally as our customers, which in one sense they are, but in another sense they very much are not; the customer we now define as the person who uses the product, and we see the distributors' part of the channel as getting the products through to the end user.

Now that may sound a simple thing, but it has profound implications for the way in which you work, so that is the most important paradigm shift that has taken place in the business, which has led to a lot of other changes in the way in which we are doing our budgeting, our remuneration, and so on.

For me the difference between Act and other consultants is that Act's approach is entirely tailor-made to our individual needs. They're not trying to sell us a package - it's a totally personalised approach which seems to have been ideal for our situation."