Sales Configuration Systems By: S.M.Rahnamafard A.Farzam

Background 1. Order production 2. Mass production 3. Lean production 4. Mass customization: Built to order vs. built to stock Customer value chain vs. fonder value chain …

What is the configurator? A configurator is the engine of a sales configuration system "Configurators are software tools that allow a user to define a product that meets certain given criteria by combining a number of parts, features or functions.“ Durlacher Research Ltd

Gartner Dif. A system used to automate the configuration of ship-to-order, assemble- to-order or engineer-to-order products, and to configure product-related information, such as pricing, discounts and customized financing plans. SCSs (also known as "sales configurators") are designed to reduce complexity and improve productivity for salespeople by helping them match customer needs to unique products and service offerings.

What is the SCS?  Act as a virtual salesperson. It can allow customers to select and purchase their complex or customized portfolios online  Configuration requires large amounts of product knowledge: knowledge about matching customer requirements and about technical restrictions

Types of SCS  Product-Based Sales Configuration : ship-to-order (STO), assemble-to-order (ATO) engineer-to-order (ETO) Non-Product-Based Sales Configuration

Components  Data Base  Model Base  Knowledge Base  Interface

Functionality requirements: 1. degree of interactivity :  The configurator reacts immediately to any change in the user's requirements  As the user experiments with different options he educates himself about the product  When the user makes a choice that is incompatible with a previous choice, inform the user 2. Seamless integration:  The ease in which a configurator can be integrated into an existing IT infrastructure

3. maintenance :  no need for data replication  utilize existing database and other company information  Updating configuration rules 4. optimization possibilities:  There are many ways of combining components to achieve the same product functionality. Optimization is the process of choosing which one of the valid configurations is the best solution to the problem :  cheapest solution /highest quality /shortest time 5. handle complexity :  The ability to handle complexity with ease and low maintenance

Generations  1 st & 2 nd  making their solutions much less interactive, slower  total restructuring in each organization  3 rd  60 percent of organizations are today  unique constraint based technology make it highly interactive and its modeling environment makes it easy to maintain  found in companies that have made networked systems a priority  4 th & 5 th  technology is strategically aligned with the selling process

Famous Vendors  Source: Gartner Research (January 2004)