What could be more convincing than the experiences of clients themselves?
Sofon has many enthusiastic customers who will tell you about their use of Sofon Guided Selling with just that enthusiasm. They are regularly involved in seminars and customer days. But they also like to explain their reasons, experiences and results in black in white.
The Aebi Schmidt Group develops, manufactures and sells vehicles designed to clean roads and keep them clean in both winter and summer. The products manufactured by the Aebi Schmidt Group are complex and offered in numerous variants, and this was the reason why the group went in search of a specialized product configuration tool.
Bollegraaf Recycling Machinery is a global supplier of machines for the recycling industry. Its product portfolio includes balers, sorting systems, shredders, conveyor belts, star screens and reel splitters. Bollegraaf uses Sofon Guided Selling to configure, calculate and generate sales documents for these machines. Harry Buter (IT-manager) and Willy Keller (Head of the Internal Sales Department) explain their choice of Sofon and discuss the implementation and obtained results.
Broshuis manufactures trailers for the special transport sector and is also active in the container market. Each year, more than 1,000 Broshuis trailers make their way to the customer. Broshuis noticed regular breakdowns in communication between the customer, sales, and engineering during the sales process which often resulted in the customer’s expectations not being met. Broshuis took advantage of the opportunity to change this situation with the help of Sofon.
The Dokkumer Vlaggen Centrale (DVC) is a producer and supplier of promotional communication tools on canvas, varying from flags with a company logo to an ad for the latest model of a car. DVC is the market leader in the Netherlands and is also active abroad. Sofon went ‘live’ at DVC’s sales department in February of 2007. Together with DVC we look back on this period and look ahead to the future.
Erbi is an innovative supplier of kitchen counters and worktops. Specifying a kitchen worktop is more complex than it seems. Erbi wanted to deal more effectively with this complexity and found the solution in Sofon. After an implementation of a few months, Erbi and their dealers quickly recognized the results of this sales support system.
Fri-Jado B.V. is active in the food retail and food service markets in the areas of refrigeration, electronics, store computerization and safety. Fri-Jado operates in the market via their own branches in the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and the United States. They have a global network of local distributors and service companies. Fri-Jado uses Sofon Guided Selling successfully as a sales, product and project configurator.
Fronius develops, manufactures and sells products from three divisions: Welding Technology, Solar Electronics and Battery Charging Systems. It focuses on the transformation of energy with all its products. The family business is renowned in the market for its technological leadership and now has a workforce of 2,500 employees. This growth has made it extremely important for Fronius to make complex knowledge about its products available for its staff in a simple way. Sofon provided a welcome solution to this problem. Gerald Aigner (Project Manager Sofon Implementation) talks about the situation before and after Sofon.
GEA Goedhart has been manufacturing heat exchangers – such as air coolers and aircooled condensers – since 1933 for (semi)industrial and commercial applications.
Manufacturing takes place in both the Netherlands and in the Czech Republic. Since 2003
Sofon is utilized for product confi guration and quotation generation at GEA Goedhart.
The GEA Refrigeration Division manufactures refrigeration systems. These systems are put to use primarily in the food industry (breweries, slaughterhouses), during industrial processes, for sports and relaxation (ice skating rinks) and in air-conditioning systems. The division consists of various types of companies: 10 manufacturing companies, 20 sales offices and 10 contracting companies who produce refrigeration systems from all the components. The Refrigeration Division has purchased Sofon to bring together all the components produced in the division in one catalog. In this way, sales offices can, for example, produce complete offers with incredible ease and efficiency.
JéWéRET is a European wholesaler and manufacturer of mainly wood-related DIY products. Sofon Guided Selling is used to configure the cabinet and storage systems of the brands Stanley, Raffito and Storemax. JéWéRET not only uses Sofon in house at their office sales department for order entry, Sofon is also used for quotation and order generation for their distributors: DIY stores. Consumers can have storage cabinets put together according to their preferences in the store, check out the quotation and the visualization and buy immediately if they wish.
With 700 employees, the Kaak Group operates as an international supplier of complete production lines for industrial baking. No two bakeries that Kaak designs for its customers are the same. Generating a quotation accompanied by a correct sales drawing (layout) therefore presented a timeconsuming challenge. Sofon’s software will be used to speed up and improve the quotation process.
What do you do if your sales representatives require detailed knowledge to make a quotation? That was the challenge facing MarFlex, a developer and manufacturer of electrical deep well pumps for the shipping and offshore industries. The abundance of options and combinations made it difficult for the sales staff to provide an accurate quotation quickly. They often needed the help of the Engineering department. But, these days, Engineering is no longer involved in 90% of quotations that are made.
NASSAU Indus Deur is part of the Danish NASSAU DOOR A/S and has supplied the highest quality industrial doors for almost 40 years. However, not only quality in production and delivery play a role. For NASSAU Indus Deur, quality in service is becoming more important.
Nedschroef Helmond has been active as a producer of fasteners for more than 100 years. These days, the automotive industry and their suppliers are their biggest clients. Sofon has been ‘live’ at Nedschroef since February of 2007. Nedschroef has experienced a big improvement in their processes thanks to Sofon Guided Selling. Nedschroef explains the decision in favour of Sofon in this user story.
NOV ASEP Elmar is a manufacturer and supplier of standard and client-specific products (specials) for the oil and gas industry. This includes advanced winching systems that meet the strictest requirements in the area of safety and company security. NOV ASEP Elmar has branches in the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Singapore, Russia, Malaysia and China. NOV ASEP Elmar uses Sofon’s standard software worldwide and has seen wonderful results since.
Novoferm Nederland BV (part of Sanwa Shutter Corporation since 2003) is a manufacturer and supplier of quality doors for the industrial and private markets. Novoferm develops, produces and sells these doors from different branches in the Netherlands. Through a dealer organization and sister companies in just aboutevery European country, their products find their way to an international marketplace. The Dutch branches have started using Sofon as their Guided Selling solution.
Picanol develops, manufactures and sells highly technical weaving machines to weaving mills worldwide. In addition to the complex machines, the weaving machine giant also offers clients additional products and services, such as training, upgrading kits, interchangeable parts and service contracts. Now that Sofon has been up and running for a few years, it has proved its ability to streamline Picanol’s quotation and contract generation process. Katelijne Goethals (Sales Administration Manager), and Els Havegheer (Front Office Coordinator) reflect on the changes, value and efficiencies gained with the selection of Sofon.
Plasticon Europe is Europe’s largest producer and installer of composite structures. From their head office in the Netherlands, Plasticon oversees their production plants and international sales offices. Plasticon chose Sofon Guided Selling to optimize their operating processes.
The Dutch branch of Tyco Valves & Controls sells drives and circuit breakers – mainly from their own Tyco factory – in the Dutch market. Tyco supplies a customer-specific construction of these products to industrial installers and industrial end users: factories in which steam, water and gas are processed or moved. Tyco was looking for a way to improve their quotations both in terms of content and of design; Tyco got in touch with Sofon…
Veenman is traditionally a dedicated supplier of printing systems with experience in document management, digital solutions and process optimization. With a network of powerful partners, tailored advice and solutions are offered. Through a customer-oriented approach, the quality of organizations in many sectors is optimized. In 2007, Sofon went live at Veenman. Veenman now produces error-free, professional, uniform sales documents using Sofon.
VMG supplies balcony and gallery balustrades. The company is automated and robotized to a large extent. Thanks to this combination VMG is able to deliver custom solutions for the price of standard balustrades. With around 120 internal staff and 60 installers working in the field, each year work is carried out at 200 to 250 construction sites. This equates to around 1,700 quotations and 250 kilometers of balustrading. When it comes to producing so many quotations, quality plays an important role. Sofon provided a welcome solution to this problem.
VMI Holland BV develops, produces, sells and installs machines for the rubber and tire industry. Most of VMI’s machines are used to produce tires for automobiles, trucks and mining vehicles. VMI wanted to provide their target group with better quality quotations, faster. And they have succeeded in this thanks to Sofon.