Webcom, Inc., a leader in simplified quote-to-order enablement for the selling of complex products and services, is pleased to announce that Elliott Tool Technologies has selected the Webcom WebSource CPQ solution to simplify its quote-to-order process. Elliott Tool is known throughout the world for manufacturing quality tube expanders, cleaners, pullers, cutters and other related tube tools and equipment.
“After a careful selection process, we selected Webcom’s WebSource CPQ based on the functionality the solution can deliver to our business,” said Elliott Tool vice president, Mike Nemeth. “We feel confident in the solution and the expertise Webcom is providing and our goal is to equip our sales channel partners with a competitive advantage to help enhance customer service and grow market share.”
WebSource CPQ is designed to help drive increased revenues and margins, increased customer satisfaction, reduced costs and improved productivity. Requiring nothing more than a web browser, WebSource CPQ will allow Elliott Tool to easily and skillfully configure, price, quote and order, addressing the complex needs of their customers.
“As we have learned over the many successes we have had in the marketplace, quick quote turn-around time, coupled with the highest degree of accuracy, is critical in providing good customer care and taking market share,” said Aleks Ivanovic, Webcom president. We look forward to assisting Elliott Tool achieve their goal.” WebSource CPQ Order Management allows you to manage orders across all channels, including direct access by your customers in a B2B or B2C world. It supports simple and complex products and services, while handling anything from the most simple e-commerce orders to the most complex multi step order approval processes.
A built in configurator and workflow engines ensure that all orders are processed completely, accurately and efficiently.A variety of products are inherently complex, not only to install and use, but also to specify and purchase. Customers must evaluate and choose from a broad range of base models, options, and accessories to identify the best solutions to meet their needs.
The constant introduction of new technologies, products, and features only makes the sales process more difficult. Constant change has resulted in longer and highly challenging sales cycles. Customers often require more time to research, learn about, and evaluate their options before the purchase decision is made. Along with this, sales representatives must make special efforts to understand a customer’s needs - often times consulting with headquarters marketing and engineering experts - prior to identifying and recommending the best solution. Even then, the recommended solution may not exactly satisfy the customer’s unique requirements.
In addition, the overwhelming complexity of many products is driving sales costs higher.In the past, manufacturers typically selected one channel over another on the basis of cost or convenience. Successful selling strategies today generally require the use of multiple channels to reach different customers and offer different products and services. Some customers may prefer to buy from a direct sales force, while others would rather purchase from a channel partner (ex. wholesaler), and others may want to purchase on-line over the Internet.
As a result, many manufacturers are aggressively expanding their channel mix - broadening and strengthening existing channels and developing new channels such as the world wide web.A configurator is a rule and constraint based software application designed to assist a user specify and select a product by describing general needs and requirements.
The configurator “guides” the user through the process. The user can specify requirements and make selections in any order. Based on the step-by-step selections, the configurator applies the rules and constraints in real time to ensure that at the end of the session, only a valid product is defined. At the conclusion of the selection process the item can be placed in a shopping cart. The configurator generates all pertinent product information including: specifications, prices, and fulfillment lead times.
Depending on the complexity of the product and customer needs, configurators (at the wish of the supplier) might also generate installation/assembly instructions, user manuals, and literature.Configurators are ideal for complex products and services that include many options and accessories that are often times mutually exclusive.Not only do configurators generate product information (ex. part number and specifications), but they may also generate specific market, contract, discount, and “special offer” pricing in multiple currencies.On-line configurators are an intuitive interface for customers and sales channel participants, but many configurators can also generate bills of materials and associated documentation (ex. work orders) that can be integrated with other business systems including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Sales Force Automation (SFA). Configurators have been available for “internal use” in companies by highly trained personnel for years – the newest configurators being implemented on-line are “customer focused” and developed first and foremost to meet the needs of customers when purchasing products.Configurators can be utilized to define both products and services.
Since manufacturing is the focus of this white paper, characteristics and features of product configurators will be emphasized. Customers’ expertise and core competencies are on their own products and the applications of those products, not the supplier’s products. Tools that simplify the customers’ selection of complex components that are part of their product, or used with their product increase their productivity and enable them to devote more time to ensuring the growth and success of the business for which they are directly responsible. There is no need to worry if a valid product is being selected - the configurator ensures it. The fast pace of today’s economy requires that businesses be capable of responding almost instantly to customer requirements and new opportunities. Determining valid products, available accessories, product specifications, price, and availability with on-line configurators eliminates the necessity of waiting for a salesperson or factory representative to provide assistance in specifying and selecting complex products. The frustration of missed phone calls, lost faxes, and scheduling conflicts can be avoided.
Additionally, on-line configurators allow a wide variety of different products to be easily compared (attributes, price, availability) to determine the best product to satisfy the application requirements. Products with different features from the same product line or products from different product lines can be compared. Easy order placement A shopping cart is integrated with most on-line configurators. Once the product selection process is completed, the item can be easily added to the shopping cart for purchase and checkout. There is no need for the customer to prepare extra paperwork. Depending on supplier policies and sales channels, ordering documentation can be generated and forwarded electronically directly to the factory, distribution center, or any other channel intermediary such as a wholesale distributor. Convenience The Internet age has made it possible to conduct business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On-line configuration, and e-commerce in general facilitate conducting business at anytime and anywhere based on individual circumstances. The constraints of “normal business hours” and the availability of service personnel during that time no longer apply. This convenience is particularly helpful when conducting business on a global basis across multiple time zones.
Primary supplier benefits include: § Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty § Shorter sales cycle § Increased sales § Reduced costs § Improved time to market Following are overviews of the supplier benefits as well as related issues associated with realizing those benefits. Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty The cost of obtaining new customers is significantly greater than the cost of retaining existing customers, so customer satisfaction and loyalty is key to ensuring long-term success. Product configurators contribute to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty as a result of the following: § Guided selling process § Simplifying complex products § Real time updates Guided selling process Configurators provide a guided selling process enabling customers to define product and application requirements by description.
Customers work at their own pace and make selections in any order; the configurator doesn’t require defined starting and endpoints. If a mistake is made during the selection process, it can be corrected at anytime. Similarly, if additional options or accessories are required, they can be added at anytime. Throughout the process, as product requirements are specified, configurator constraints and rules ensure only valid products that can be assembled and delivered can be specified and selected by the customer. Additionally, “help” bullets and suggestions are provided to assist the customer in making appropriate selections to satisfy their requirements. The on-line configurator interface and specification process is intuitive and logical, providing customers with confidence and a comfortable experience.
This level of comfort encourages customers to continue through the process to completion and order entry. A downfall of more elementary, less customer friendly systems (for example on-line “static” catalogs that are not configurator based) is that the order process is abandoned as much as 75% of the time before an order is actually placed. Simplifying complex products Customers are experts in their own products, not the supplier’s products. Configurators enable customers with limited knowledge of a supplier’s products to successfully specify and select only valid products – even when there are hundreds or even thousands of possible product variations. Only compatible accessories and options are presented to the customer by the configurator, based on the selections that the customer has already made.
Product configurators incorporate the “skills and best practices” of the most successful salespeople to ensure the customer specifies and selects the product best suited to satisfy the application requirements. Real time updates With every click of the mouse, product description, price, part number, specifications, product availability, and other information are updated and displayed to reflect the selections made. Real time updates enable customers to compare the value and functionality of products, price additions of individual features, and the effect that any individual selection has on product availability. Shorter sales cycle Virtually every phase of the sales cycle can be shortened as a result of product configurators powering on-line sales channels that can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Activity durations can be reduced during: § Product specification and quoting § Sales order processing § Manufacturing Product specification and quoting Suppliers utilizing product configurators report decreasing product specification and quoting process times by as much as 80%, from weeks to days, days to hours, and hours to minutes depending on the product. A significant portion of the timesavings is the result of avoiding the delays between customers and supplier personnel associated with voice mail, email, and manual handling of documentation. Sales order processing On-line configurators also expedite the sales order processing phase.
Orders are placed and routed electronically to the appropriate location. There is no need for either the supplier or customer to generate extra paperwork (ex. purchase orders, invoices, and order acknowledgements) it can all be done electronically as the transaction is completed. Like the product specification and quoting phase, delays with handling paper are avoided. Reductions in order processing times from days to minutes are easily achieved. Manufacturing lead time Because only valid products can be ordered, more aggressive manufacturing lead times can be promised and achieved. Shorter lead times can be achieved because it is not necessary to plan and allow for time to resolve ordering errors. Additionally, manufacturing lead times can be reduced because systems can be structured to support “make to order” requirements instead of having to manufacture for stock, based “projected” orders. More effective use of work in process and manufacturing on-demand have resulted in as much as a 75% reduction in lead time by machine tool manufacturers. Increased sales In effect, the on-line product configurator is a virtual “expert sales consultant” assessing customer needs, providing help and suggestions, and pricing – just like your best salesperson.
The guided selling process provides complete information for valid products during each step, giving the customer a degree of security and assurance to proceed with the order process through completion – closing more sales. Finally, accessing product information and ordering systems 24/7 makes it easier for the customer to do business with suppliers. Increased sales also result from: § Cross selling and up selling § Flexible and dynamic pricing § Lower customer transaction costs Cross selling and up selling Product configurators are modeled to present multiple product variations, options, and accessories to customers based on the description of their requirements. As a result, configurator generated on-line average order sizes may be larger in comparison to traditional orders.
On-line average order sizes are often times larger because customers that are not familiar with the supplier’s product offering purchase items that may have been “forgotten” or may purchase products that they were unaware of. In addition to increased sales and order size, increased margins are also often realized through the sale of more complex, differentiated products. Flexible and dynamic pricing Like product attributes, pricing is updated click-by-click during the product selection process.
Built-in pricing flexibility in product configurators enables suppliers to offer contract pricing, discounted pricing, and “special offer” pricing dynamically to provide incentives to customers to purchase specific items or larger quantities. Pricing methods often provided include “cost plus” pricing and “base plus option” pricing. Lower customer transaction costs Customer transaction costs are reduced by the electronic exchange of orders, associated information (ex. address, contact name, etc.), payment (ex. with a credit card), and the elimination of traditional paperwork and its manual handling and processing. Reduced costs Cost reductions are used most frequently to justify investments in implementing product configurators and associated e-commerce systems and solutions. Cost reductions can be realized in almost every segment of the business: § Cost of goods sold and administration § Selling § Engineering § Information technology Cost of goods sold and administration
Significant cost reductions can be realized by eliminating ordering errors. As many as 20% to 60% of first time orders include errors. Even after orders have been checked, up to 10% of the orders still include errors, which find their way into the manufacturing system. Large teams of people within organizations participate in checking orders, verifying product validity, processing rework, and processing returns when products are manufactured and shipped in error. By reducing the need to manually validate orders and process returns, realized savings in the cost of processing orders has been as much as 96% in one year, equal to 1% to 2% of total revenue in a single company where a product configurator had been implemented. Additionally, cost savings can be realized because there is less material scrap and rework.
Selling On-line product configurators provide expert sales consulting to customers 24 hours, 7 days a week. Typical selling costs of 10 to 15% of revenue can be reduced through the efficiencies gained from on-line product configurators in developing product specifications, electronic order entry and every other phase of the sales cycle. Built-in expertise in the configurator system frees sales and marketing personnel to focus on more profitable activities such as relationship building, prospecting for new accounts, and executing promotional programs. Finally, sales training times can be dramatically reduced by as much as 90% due to the guided selling features of product configurators.
Engineering Engineering costs can be reduced because some of the traditional engineering functions (ex. bill of material generation) can be performed within the product configurator application. Pre-engineering can be reduced, and the necessity of reviewing incorrectly specified or invalid products prior to manufacturing can be minimized. The potential savings is obvious when anywhere from 20% to 60% of orders include errors, and as many as 10% of orders that have been manually checked/validated still include errors. Additionally, the cost of product documentation, drawings, and routings (and their maintenance) can be reduced by up to 40% to 80%. Information technology Information technology costs can be reduced by implementation of highly functional off-the-shelf product configurators. Administrative interfaces of many configurators enable product managers (non-programmers) to develop models and introduce new products, options, and pricing. Highly skilled and specialized IT computer programmers are not required to maintain and grow the functionality and usefulness of product configurators.
IT personnel roles and responsibilities can be limited to the initial installation of the configurator application and integrating the application with other business system applications such as financial, distribution and inventory, ERP, CRM, and SFA. The use of off-the-shelf configurator packages also reduces IT costs by benefiting from new technologies and capabilities developed by application vendors, leveraging the expertise and experience of application vendors in similar industries, and avoiding the distractions and interruptions of peripheral activities that may not be directly linked to the IT organization’s core competencies and expertise. All of these combine to provide a lower total cost of ownership and a shorter time to market. Improved time to market Fierce competition and a rapidly changing environment demand improvements in time to market for new products and services. Product configurators facilitate time to market improvements through: § Easy on-line administration § Consistent and simultaneous product information § Reduced pre-engineering requirements § Interface with other business systems Easy on-line administration Configurator applications include administration tools to enable suppliers to easily model products, define validation rules and constraints, and implement pricing policies. Administrative tools are available in various forms including: graphical “drag and drop”, simple spreadsheet or database data entry, and definition wizards.
Webcom, Inc. the leader in simplified quote-to-order enablement for the selling of complex products and services, announced today the availability of version 6.2 of its market leading WebSource CPQ (Configuration, Pricing, Quotation & Proposal) solution. With Webcom, users can create timely, accurate, high-quality and attractive quotes and proposals with up-to-the minute pricing and availability, promotions, product specs, images and more. read more
Enhancements to WebSource CPQ Demonstrate Continued Leadership in End-User Functionality and Administrative Ease of Use
Webcom, Inc., the leader in simplified quote-to-order enablement for the selling of complex products and services, announced today the availability of version 8.1 of its market leading WebSource CPQ (Configuration, Pricing, Quotation & Proposal) solution. The new release continues to demonstrate the leadership Webcom brings to the market in terms of both end-user capabilities and administration ease of use, set-up and ongoing maintenance.
“Version 8.1 adds unique and innovative enhancements to what was already the strongest solution set in the industry,” said Aleks Ivanovic, CEO and founder of Webcom, Inc. “We continually improve our application using direct user feedback. Our true multi-tenant architecture provides a foundation to quickly and frequently provide enhancements to our WebSource CPQ application, while still providing a secure, scalable platform that is always available to our user base through an Internet browser.”
Based on client feedback, requests and implementation work done with our CRM partners, WebSource CPQ V8.1 provides significant new user and administrative enhancements. WebSource CPQ makes it extremely easy and intuitive for sales persons to configure products and services, price them, and build quotes and proposals. A few of the key features are:
“Already a strong offering, the additional work done in providing a generic interface to CPQ from external sites really helps support our marketing strategy, which analysts have recognized COLT as an early-mover in bringing our network and managed services together in a joined-up and coherent single point of sale,” stated Garry Beauvoir, director at COLT Telecommunications. “I see many partners strive for success, but Webcom is the only one I have seen that has it as "business as usual",” added Beauvoir.
WebSource CPQ is designed to help drive increased revenues and margins, increased customer satisfaction, reduced costs and improved productivity. Requiring nothing more than a web browser, WebSource CPQ allows sales people, channel partners and consumers to easily and skillfully configure, price, quote and propose products/services.
“The release of WebSource CPQ V8.1 further strengthens our leadership in the multi-tenant configure-price-quote marketplace," stated Chris Lesar, Executive Vice President of Webcom. “As with each new release, all of our SaaS customers enjoy the new features immediately with no delay to any sort of upgrade.”
Webcom, Inc. provides software solutions that
simplify the complex and helps you attain your business goals.
Obtain more business by simplifying the quote-to-order process for
the selling of complex products and services. Requiring only a
browser, WebSource CPQ allows customers to configure, price, quote
and propose their offerings across multiple sales and distribution
channels, anytime, anywhere. WebSource CPQ addresses the guided
selling, proposal generation and multi-level channel management
tasks associated with sales configurators, as well as handling the
traditional bill of material, routing and diagram generation tasks
frequently associated with product configurators. Retain your
customers by simplifying case management with ResponsAbility: you’ve
always had the responsibility, now you have the ability to respond.
The solutions help drive increased revenues and margins, increased
customer satisfaction, reduced costs and improved productivity.
Companies utilizing Webcom’s products and services include Rockwell
Automation, Danfoss, Corning Cable Systems, Network Appliance,
Grayhill and Broan-NuTone. Founded in 1997, Webcom is a privately
held corporation headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with offices
in the USA and Europe For more information, visit Webcom at
http://www.webcominc.com or
call 414-273-4442 (toll free 877-508-6323).
Webcom, Inc. Announces New Release of WebSource CPQ (Configuration, Pricing, Quotation & Proposal) V8.0
Enhancements to WebSource CPQ Demonstrate Continued Leadership in End-User Functionality and Administrative Ease of Use
Webcom, Inc., the leader in simplified quote-to-order enablement for the selling of complex products and services, announced today the availability of version 8.0 of its market leading WebSource CPQ (Configuration, Pricing, Quotation & Proposal) solution. The new release continues to demonstrate the leadership Webcom brings to the market in terms of both end-user capabilities and administration ease of use, set-up and ongoing maintenance.
“Product options continue to become more complex and sales reps are under increasing competitive pressures to satisfy the needs of their customers immediately,” said Aleks Ivanovic, CEO and founder of Webcom, Inc. “This requires not only a transaction platform, but a collaboration platform, as well. With WebSource CPQ, collaboration is a snap: sales professionals can now send quotes to their customers, where they will be able to view the quote, accept the quote, reject the quote, or request changes.”
Based on client feedback, requests and implementation work done with our CRM partners, WebSource CPQ V8.0 provides significant new user and administrative enhancements. The new user and administrative enhancements are focused in areas that include collaboration, social networks, flexibility and administration ease of use, such as:
“The new release of V8 of WebSource CPQ has refined the Product Setup Wizard (PSW) from the initial release of this wizard in V6,” said Robert Fill, Marketing Information Specialist at ABB. “Some nice touches have been added to help reduce work in the future, from sort ranking of attributes to greater flexibility in viewing attributes in the responder.”
WebSource CPQ is designed to help drive increased revenues and margins, increased customer satisfaction, reduced costs and improved productivity. Requiring nothing more than a web browser, WebSource CPQ allows sales people, channel partners and consumers to easily and skillfully configure, price, quote and propose products/services.
“The release of WebSource CPQ V8 further strengthens our leadership in the multi-tenant configure-price-quote marketplace," stated Chris Lesar, Executive Vice President of Webcom. "The enhancements we made to WebSource CPQ V8 were driven by our customers' requests and our focus on constantly improving the customer experience. With our multi-tenant platform all of our customers simultaneously reap the benefits of enhancements designed for any customer - this is only possible with a true Software-as-a-Service application as represented in WebSource CPQ.”
About Webcom, Inc.
Webcom, Inc. provides software solutions that simplify the complex
and helps you attain your business goals. Obtain more business by
simplifying the quote-to-order process for the selling of complex
products and services. Requiring only a browser, WebSource CPQ
allows customers to configure, price, quote and propose their
offerings across multiple sales and distribution channels, anytime,
anywhere. WebSource CPQ addresses the guided selling, proposal
generation and multi-level channel management tasks associated with
sales configurators, as well as handling the traditional bill of
material, routing and diagram generation tasks frequently associated
with product configurators. Retain your customers by simplifying
case management with ResponsAbility: you’ve always had the
responsibility, now you have the ability to respond. The solutions
help drive increased revenues and margins, increased customer
satisfaction, reduced costs and improved productivity. Companies
utilizing Webcom’s products and services include Rockwell
Automation, NEC Europe, Corning Cable Systems, Easynet (a BskyB
company), Grayhill and Broan-NuTone. Founded in 1997, Webcom is a
privately held corporation headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
with offices in the USA and Europe. For more information, visit
Webcom at
http://www.webcominc.com or call 414-273-4442 (toll free
877-508-6323).
WebSource CPQ allows you to configure, price, quote, propose and order your offerings across multiple sales and distribution channels, anytime, anywhere. For more info about WebSource CPQ click here.
Many of the tools have been developed to enable non-computer programmers to perform administrative functions. The intuitive and simple functions of the administration tools require limited or even no involvement by IT personnel. There is no need to write code to develop the product models and constraints. Tools generally provide off-line and on-line administration capabilities enabling suppliers to introduce new products, information, and pricing strategies almost instantly. Consistent and simultaneous product information
A critical element to the success of new products and the ongoing sales growth of products is ensuring the same product information is presented consistently and simultaneously to customers. This enables suppliers to get a fast start and competitive advantage when introducing new products, pricing, or options. With the increased use of multiple sales channels – especially indirect channel partners, this is becoming increasingly more difficult. Product configurators present information in a structured format based on the model developed for each product – every customer and all sales personnel see the same information while specifying products, regardless of the order or process that the specification is being completed. Reduced pre-engineering requirements Due to the automated operation of the product configurator (based on validation rules and constraints), pre-engineering of each and every possible product can be minimized.
This is particularly significant as the majority of most suppliers’ sales come from a relatively small number of items from all of the possible items that are offered. Machinery manufacturers have reduced engineering and assembly documentation by as much as 80%. This enables complete product families to be introduced, as opposed to introducing one product at a time as engineering is completed. The ability to reduce pre-engineering is dependent on the configurator’s functionality – for example the ability for the configurator to generate bills of materials and interface with other business systems (ex. ERP). Interface with other business systems The complexity of business today requires the integration of business system applications – including product configurators.
The open architecture design (ex. XML) of many product configurators facilitates the sharing of information between applications. When information cannot be shared directly between applications, simple interfaces can be developed to enable the seamless operation of “separate” applications. Product configurators are often times integrated with financial, distribution and inventory, SFA, CRM, and ERP applications. Utilizing Multiple Sales Channels On-line configurators have been developed to work efficiently and effectively in multiple channels from direct sales over the Internet to internal use by sales personnel and channel partners such as distributors. Products and best sales practices can be modeled once, and deployed across all sales channels. This ensures that customers access product and service information consistently and in the exact same way, no matter who or what their preferred channel is. Because customers interact with suppliers through more and more touch points, ensuring that the answers are always consistent regardless of where the interface occurs, is critically important.
On-line configurators are a single source of valuable information, information that can be retrieved in the same way by customers or channel partners. On-line product configurators make existing channel participants more effective, and are not generally intended to replace them. Good existing customer relationships are developed over time and are extremely valuable, every effort must be made to maintain and grow these relationships. By providing information about products and ordering capability on-line, sales personnel can minimize the time they spend on administrative tasks such as performing research in product catalogs, price books and spread sheets, and manually processing quotes, orders, and product returns. By eliminating or minimizing these tasks, sales personnel can devote more time to value-added activities such as growing their relationships with existing customers and establishing relationship with new prospects.
Manufacturing industry companies that supply complex products with many options and accessories (that are often times mutually exclusive) have adopted the use of configurators fastest. Additionally, companies that utilize multiple sales channels (direct, indirect, and on-line) have realized substantial benefits from implementing on-line configurators as part of their e-business strategies. Following is an overview of the manufacturing industry segments with the greatest participation in e-commerce in 2001 (the latest statistics available from the U.S. Census Bureau).