Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions
Even if you don’t speak French, you can still make an accurate French quotation with Sofon
Eise Kroes and Robert Nieweg
SALES SUPPORT ENGINEERS
1 What kind of company is Bollegraaf?
Kroes: “Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions supplies solutions for the recycling industry around the world. Our product portfolio includes bale presses, sorting systems (among others waste paper, household waste and construction and demolition waste), shredders, conveyor belts, star screens and slitter-winders. In other words, we offer a complete package of products that allow our customers (among them municipalities and waste collectors) to recover valuable materials from waste.”
2 What does Bollegraaf use Sofon for?
Kroes: “We use Sofon for product configuration, calculation and quotation generation. Sofon has enabled us to introduce standardization without compromising on the creation of a customer-specific product variant for our customers. We currently use Sofon to make 98% of our quotations.”
3 What was the situation before you started using Sofon?
Nieweg: “Before, we put together each product using an Excel sheet that contained all components. This required a considerable amount of brainwork – and the risk of forgetting something or entering the wrong component was always there. Sofon has simplified our work significantly. Standards are pre-defined and Sofon takes all possibilities and impossibilities into account. As a result, we are always able to put together a feasible product variant and make an error-free quotation.”
4 What were the risks before Sofon?
Nieweg: “We used to work with various calculation methods. Coworkers might put together the same product, but at different prices. There were also risks from cutting and pasting text from old quotations. You had to make sure to change details like the dimensions. The new dimensions were also obtained from the Excel sheet. We’re very pleased with the fact that Sofon automatically enters the right variables into the quotation.”
Kroes: “We have achieved significant time savings in our sales and quotation process. It used to take me up to half a day to carry out all calculations. The secretary then needed an entire day to put together the quotation. It now takes only fifteen minutes to make a quotation. Highly complicated quotations take no more than thirty minutes.”
5 How else have you benefited from Sofon?
Nieweg: “We submit quotations in various languages. Sales representatives go through the question-and-answer process in Sofon in Dutch. With only one click of a button, they can then create a perfectly accurate French quotation, even if they don’t speak a word of French. Sofon also generates a bill of materials, which it then automatically forwards to Axapta. We now want to use Sofon to make budget quotations as well. This will make it possible to give our customers a price quote more quickly, so they can determine whether a solution fits within their budget before we set to work on making a ‘real’ quotation. This saves us considerable cycle time.”