Configurator: nothing more than an add-on?
09 February 2012
From an ERP and CRM perspective, a configurator is often seen as an add-on: a useful tool with which to configure products. And, indeed, that is possible with a configurator. But in other situations, you might not be looking for just a configurator, but rather a Guided Selling system – perhaps without even being aware of it.
Configurator as add-on
A configurator can be used effectively in certain situations as an add-on to a CRM or ERP system. In that situation, you make a quotation or an order in CRM or ERP. You only start the configurator in case of a configurable product. The configurator then ensures that your product configuration is acceptable both commercially and technically. When you finish configuring, you then return to the quotation or order in CRM or ERP, where the result of the configurator (the item number, text, picture and bill-of-materials + routing) is stored.
The limitations of an add-on configurator
The working method described above can work fine for certain types of businesses. But there are many situations in which this solution falls short. To give a few examples:
- The products in a quotation or order are mutually dependent;
- Not only the products are customer-specific, but also the conditions of payment and delivery;
- A quotation contains both products and services;
- The document generator of the CRM or ERP system is insufficient.
These points manifest themselves even more strongly if you sell solutions rather than products.
Guided Selling System: not an add-on
If you sell solutions, then generally speaking you offer more than simply a list of products. You describe your customer’s problem and you explain the solution that you can provide to resolve that problem. It's true that this solution often does have a customer-specific composition of various products, but the description of these products transcends the technical specification: you offer your customer a functional description of your solution, in which you utilize the language of your customer. In other words: you make a distinction between the functional description for your customer and the technical description for your own organization. This is precisely what a Guided Selling system supports. This type of system, therefore, is not just a configurator, but also for example a document generator.
Configurator or Guided Selling System?
Do you know what system you need? In both cases, we are happy to assist you. Even if you want to start with a configurator and then develop into a Guided Selling system, we would be happy to lend you a helping hand.
Marijn Schouten is Director Business Development at Sofon - supplier of sales support software. As Marijn has a lot of contact with clients, he has a clear insight into how companies that deliver customer-specific products and services can realize improvements within their sales and quotation process.
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