Bottom line: Re-energizing your quoting and product configuration systems is all about getting focused on how to be easier to do business with. Knock down the barriers that separate your product configuration systems from serving customers and you can increase sales as a result.
* The proliferation of mobile devices is going to make untethered sales and product configuration a critical requirement for more companies than ever before.
* AJAX and optimized XML on private networks are going to be the foundation of distributed order management systems that can manage varying levels of product order complexity. Think scalability of production process, from assemble-to-order through engineer-to-order.
* The pervasiveness of cloud computing and virtualization is going to be a catalyst for product configuration strategies being used for standard products too.
Bottom line: Quoting and product configuration technologies, systems and processes are getting more responsive to company’s unmet selling and services needs. As a result, quote-to-order and quote-to-cash strategies are going to be the most profitable in 2010 they have been in years.
Bottom line: BMW and Audi’s innovative approaches to product configuration in an economic downturn illustrate how making products personal can accelerate sales no matter what the economic conditions are.
New product introductions open up the door for resellers to speak with their customers and clients, and also give them more of a base to deliver solutions from. At Cincom we’re seeing manufacturers move much more aggressively into selling build-to-order products as part of their new product introductions. There is more of a focus on how to tailor products that were assemble-to-order and make them build-to-order or configure-to-order so they can match the needs of resellers’ customers. This is particularly true in industrial plant and equipment, where this trend is becoming pervasive.
Whether it is the culture of the company slowing killing new ideas and resisting change or the lack of focus on getting systems and processes integrated together, product configuration strategies fail. For some it is the lack of adoption in channels, and for others, the lack of enough flexibility in the actual product configuration apps being able to scale to meet new product needs.
Louis Columbus Cincom Systems Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, presented recently at the Stanford Technology Ventures ProgramSpotlight on Scalability. Her insights into how to make an impact with your business based on scaling key processes, from sales channels, to service, to content delivery, are well worth listening to. Below is a 4 minute video excerpt [...]
Louis Columbus Cincom Systems The proliferation of programming languages including AJAX, XML and the resulting growth of Web Services is revolutionizing the development of channel management applications. With the integration capabilities of AJAX for example, Mash-Ups can quickly be created, integrating two or more data sets to provide a richer client experience than ever before. [...]
