Atlet produces and distributes electric fork lift trucks for indoor materials handling. The company has activities in approximately 50 countries and is head quartered in Mölnlycke, Sweden. The distribution is solved by using owned subsidiaries and a large number of external distributors. Except its own trucks Atlet also manufacture warehouse trucks for e.g. Nissan and is also marketing counterbalanced trucks under Caterpillar, Mitsubishi and Nissan trademarks.
The Challenge
Before Proconsa got into the picture the quotation/order process worked as follows:
- The sales person created a quotation in Word
- The order was registered at a local order office in an order system specific for that division
- The order was printed and faxed to the central order office
- Central order administrators registered the order towards the factory by using the, by that time, existing configurator
The order to the central order administrator was often incorrect. This meant that the order administrator was forced to contact the local administrator at the subsidiary/distributor who in turn had to get back to the sales person who once created the quotation on the truck. This process was costly due to extensive time between quotation and production. All division used different systems and hence lot of time was spent on updating, administrating and distributing prices and product data.
Solution
The mission Proconsa had was:
- To replace the fax orders and thereby reduce the errors
- To improve the handling of pricelists
- To reduce time from quotation to assembled product
- To reduce time required for introduction of new sales persons and administrators
- Reduce the lead time for introducing new sales personal as well as administrators
“Since the ProSales configurator is used when the order is registered at the local order office, the errors have been reduced radically”
Today, about 75 of Atlets’ sales organizations world wide use Proconsas’ sales configurator ProSales. Between 100-300 orders are created in the system each week. The sales persons still create their quotations in Word, but the order administrators at the local subsidiaries/distributors register the order in ProSales. The administrator at the central order office has immediate access to the order and can put the final hand at it before it is transferred to the production system. Since the ProSales configurator is used for registering orders at the local order office, the errors have been reduced radically.
“The time from quotation to assemblied product has been reduced with 2-6 weeks since the Proconsa Application Suite was introduced, which means a great reduction of costs” says Sören Fransson, Controller Atlet AB.
Product structures are maintained centrally and the local order administrators always use updated information. Fully implemented the system will provide the sales persons with the possibility to specify products and print technical specifications with prices and choices as they create a quotation.
Today the dependence in the competence of certain individuals has diminished radically. All necessary information is available in the Proconsa Application Suite. The administration of quotations and orders has been radically reduced both centrally and at the salesunits. This also secures the possibility to introduce new personell easier in the future.
Result
- All data in one location
- Maintenance in one location – lower cost for maintenance
- All administrators have access to the same product information in real time
- Very limited number of order errors
- Reduced time from quotation to assembled product with 2-6 weeks
- Fast and easy configuration of complex products and offers
- Less dependence of product knowledge of certain individuals
- Easier introduction of new staff
- More professional handling of the customer
- Orderliness on order related information
“In a longer time frame the aim is to move the configuration one step further that is to let the sales person configure products and produce quotations”. Sören Fransson, Controller Atlet AB
