American Patio Covers Inc. and Helioz Technologies joined forces to implement a
solution that helps
select the correct patio cover product for a given application with
ease, thus accelerating the
sales process.
With over 25 years of experience, American Patio Covers Inc., located in Arlington, WA, USA, is a leader in Patio Cover sales and installation with unsurpassed customer service, offering standard and customized solutions to suit the unique styles and needs of any outdoor space. Patio covers, balconies, gables, sheds, and railings could be found in their portfolio.
Selecting the right product for a given application requires many customers’ inputs (dimensions, house attachment type etc.). The sales representatives used to utilize the internal offline tools to reach the proposal that would align with the customer requirements, thus making the process very time-consuming and prone to errors.
The zipCPQ tool, proposed by Helioz Technologies, was greatly aligned with the American Patio Covers’ needs to dramatically simplify and speed up the buying process for their customers. zipCPQ product suite provides an application to configure, price and quote products online, with the possibility to include 3D visualization and CAD downloads. The customer enters all the needed information directly in the configurator, and the right product for given inputs is configured and shown in real-time. A customer may then easily request a quote for that product.
EXPLORE zipCPQ +Development for American
Patio Covers
Before starting any development project, the Helioz team summarizes all the requirements and anticipates the
ones that may occur in the future, thus assuring that functionality and modern layout will meet them.
The project conducted for American Patio Covers was based on the proposal to build configurator logic in
Onshape, pull the logic with the zipCPQ Onshape Integrator, and convert it to the standard zipCPQ web
configurator with the 3D viewer and 2D/3D CAD download options.
CAD integration with Onshape technology provides 3D visualization of the configured product. It’s possible
to download the CAD file in one of the 9 available Onshape formats, or PDF file with 2D drawing of wished
configuration.
When using the web configurator, the end-user will be able to select only the available and viable options,
and the selected options will update in real-time.
American Patio Covers
Online Product Catalog
Seamlessly integrated with the American Patio Covers website, the Helioz Technologies team integrated
gable, shed and balcony product information into an online product catalog that makes it possible to
access online pricing for the products, export CAD formats or 2D drawings and more, while any additional
product information can be added at any time.
Visitors of American Patio Covers’ online product catalog first select the product line - gable, shed or
balcony (available through the “Pricing” drop-down menu item).
If the shed is being configured, all available product attributes are listed in the drop-down menus on
the right, grouped in several categories (for example, “Width”, “Glazing Type” or “House Attachment”
type; in this example, the last one can be “Wall”, “Fascia” or “On Roof”).
While the customer configures the product that best suits its needs, photographs of installed products
are displayed, but clicking on the “3D” option gives the 3D viewer of the exact configuration. When
parameters are changed, clicking on the “Build” button loads the new view.
Simultaneously with implementing the Onshape integratior, pricing rules were built to reflect the price
of selected product features.
Once a product that meets design requirements is identified, its detailed product
specifications and schematics
with dimensions are available for review to validate the product selection and purchase. Before requesting
the
quote, customers may also add their notes and upload their images. Customers’ requirements were taken into
consideration during the process.
One of the suggestions was to enable the customer to upload the image of the object where the patio cover
will
be installed, and this request was successfully developed on Helioz’s end as Notes and Upload Images
features.
Quote request is then sent to the zipCPQ, where the APC salesperson reviews and approves the quote, which is
then sent to the customer via registered email address.
Apart from the possibility of extending the online product catalog to more product lines, the next enhancement
implementation plans include adding Shipment Tracking, Payment option and CRM Integration.
American Patio Covers and its customers have reported that the new product catalog is a big step forward in
digital customer experience compared to navigating and interpreting product information earlier only available
in multi-page PDF datasheets.
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