Thern Inc., a manufacturer of cranes and winches, was looking for a way to boost business efficiency, streamline operations and processes, and digitize their quoting process. The solution to their problem is zipCPQ.
Thern wanted to be able to provide faster quotes and increase lead generation while eliminating mistakes made by humans in the quoting process, that could led to unnecessary delays and mistakes.
Helioz Technologies developed zipCPQ application, a cloud-based configure, price, and quote app that helps companies who sell configurable products to accelerate their sales process.
Thern Inc. implemented zipCPQ into their operations, which allowed them to reduce the time it took to generate quotes by 75%, streamlining their sales processes and boosting business efficiency. They also saw a 15% increase in leads and decreased the amount of human error in their quoting process by eliminating the human factor completely (thanks to zipCPQ's automated features).
For Thern, the goal was to customize and implement this solution and add some extra features and
integrations. The whole process was done in two phases and three sprints in each one of them. While phase
one included COMMANDER 500, 1000, and 2000 series, in phase two, ENSIGN 500, 1000 and FIRST MATE have been
added.
The main goal of sprint one was to build a product configurator and product selector logic and implement it
to meet the specific product requirements.
Working with the Thern team, Helioz has developed a Product Selector/filtering system to guide Thern website
visitors to select the Thern product line relevant for their application. This way, earlier used Thern’s
Request for Quote form, which required manual data input, has been replaced with a product selector whose
data can be easily managed in the backend enabling Thern to update logic and rules any time.
While building the logic, Helioz also prepared a design, ensuring the best user interface and user
experience by creating a smooth and intuitive graphical layout, visual elements, interactions, and
animations. Configurator logic combined with the UI/UX resulted in a unique visual experience implemented on
Thern’s website.
The specificity of Thern’s cranes is in parts that can but don’t necessarily need to be requested along with
the crane. Whether a user wants to request a crane only or wants to combine it with a winch, base, or wire
rope, a configurator enables him to manage all those requirements.
A complete user interface and experience have been highlighted with a cart feature implemented
during sprint
two. For the project’s purposes, it is called My Project. This feature allows users to add
different
products into cart/my project progressively and request a quote after the process is finished. The cart
is
entirely interactive, meaning products can be removed from it at any time, and its quantity can also be
changed.
During sprint two, we have set a Quote Management System too. Once configured in the configurator
and added
to the cart/my project, selected configurations are loaded into Quote Management System, where the
configured part numbers are combined with the pricing and order quantities that result in a Quote.
Specifically for Thern purposes, Helioz implemented a budgetary quote also, which is a quote that gives
user
a basic price for ordered products. The final quote is being sent by the Thern team directly through the
Quote Management System. A quote is shown as an HTML document where Thern's sales manager can add or
change
discounts and automatically create actionable Quotes ready to be sent to Thern’s customer for signature.
Quote Management System enables the Thern team to see the quotes generated through the configurator and
track their status.
During the final third sprint, Helioz implemented a detailed 3D view of cranes providing visualization
of
the configured product with CAD and graphic downloads available in 60+ CAD formats, powered by
TraceParts.
Helioz has implemented a CAD download cart that collects all downloads in one place, allowing users to
download more than one
file simultaneously and enabling them to do the other actions on the website and download a file once
it is ready to be downloaded.
The Helioz team of developers and project support personnel made this journey straightforward. It’s not often that you find such smart people that are so fun and pleasant to work with!
VP of Sales & Marketing at Thern, Inc.
Project
Journey
Also interesting and valuable is that, after the RFQ form is submitted, a specific Thern salesperson gets an
email notification that includes an URL that redirects him directly to the zipCPQ to that particular quote.
Every quote is easy, fast managed, and accessible any time later.
The purpose of both forms, the Request for Quote and CAD download form, along with the zipCPQ solution, is
to help the Thern team boost business efficiency and streamline operations and processes.
This type of integration shows how easily zipCPQ features can be integrated with other solutions for the
benefit of our customers and the end-users.
After the last sprint has been finished, tested, and approved by the Thern team, the Implementation process
has started. The Thern web development agency performed implementation of the product configurator and
product selector into a Thern website with the assistance of Helioz, where Helioz prepared all necessary
implementation data and provided it to Thern. Helioz organized several meetings to propose and document the
best way to implement the solution into Thern's website, ensuring technology compatibility and ease of
maintenance in the future.
Helioz Technologies and Thern developed a long-term partnership that goes beyond finished phases.
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