What is a product-configurator?

Not always PQ.

Sometimes it is important to be able to quickly make calculations or automatically generate technical specifications, drawings, assembly instructions, etc. That is, only focus on C as in Configure, not P as in price or Q as in quote. Of course, it is often desirable to also show a price or generate a complete quote. But sometimes it may be more important to automatically and quickly generate an assembly instruction, image, 3D model, BIM object.

It also usually turns out that far from all companies have a handle on their business logic, or rather, they have a handle on it, but the way they work or sell today does not match how the items were once set up in the business system. For this reason, industry changes or other reasons, it may be wise to wait with P and/or Q, and start with a C. That is, only a configurator to put together an offer with, for example, items, products or services.

Benefits of a CPQ / product configurator.

There are many advantages to using a product configurator to put together items:

Trigger purchasing decisions and streamline flows.

Some things that vary in a CPQ or product configurator are, as we mentioned earlier, what you want to get out of what you choose and put together. Sometimes it is important to quickly trigger a purchase decision by showing the assembled parts in an image or in a 3D model, as we do in our railing demo and mezzanine demo, for example, and sometimes the goal is to quickly make calculations and produce data, assembly instructions, drawings, technical specifications, product sheets, etc.

Another thing you can do with 3D is to easily give a sense of what something will look like, for example testing the size and placement of logos on a car, as we do in our car branding-demo.

When it comes to what you want to get out of a configurator, the sales side often wants one thing and administrators and engineers another. It also turns out quite often that you don't have a complete overview of your articles and processes, and that new/different requests often appear during the journey. Our recommendation is therefore always; don't do everything at once. Grab the low-hanging fruit first.

Business system with product configurator?

There are many business systems that offer modules for CPQ systems and product configuration. Sometimes they are really good and fit the business perfectly, sometimes they are nothing special and lack the functionality you want. A common thing can be, for example, that it is not possible to put the configurator on your or your reseller's website so that customers can use the configurator themselves.

They also often require expensive specialist expertise to implement a CPQ module and the desired items/models. And perhaps the business system is not as dynamic to further develop or integrate with other systems as you would like. It may also be that the business system you once chose simply does not have a product configurator.

Integration with other systems.

Today, companies often have a plethora of different digital tools and systems to streamline their operations. These can include various business systems, ERP systems, accounting systems, sales support systems, project management systems, customer portals, various machine optimization programs, etc.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult and sometimes even impossible to integrate your systems with each other and take advantage of all the advantages and possibilities of the different systems.

This is where our platform Wengine comes in handy. Wengine has API for communicating with other systems such as Monitor, Pyramid and Fortnox, and Wengine can, for example, complement them by making data easily accessible, automating flows, allowing the customer to build their own product or see their orders and previous orders, etc. Only your imagination sets the limits.

Advantages of Wengine CPQ.

A great thing about our platform Wengine is that we are completely free to code exactly as we want. We don't have to (if we don't want to) adapt to a standard look and feel of an interface or say that we can't integrate with a certain system. There are also no frameworks or guidelines that we have to strictly follow that limit our systems. We can easily build new functionality completely according to the customer's specific wishes, as new wishes/directions arise.

We simply don't build ourselves into corners. And we always build completely according to the customer's wishes. This makes it possible to start with a small system and develop the system over time, as new needs and wishes arise. We always work in a close relationship with the customer, which results in intuitive and simple web systems that are truly appreciated and used.

Our main goals when building a sales and configuration tool.

Wengine often complements a business system by being a more accessible and flexible system that can also take on slightly different roles in the business:

Wengine often becomes the spider in the web that can quickly adapt and integrate with other systems and complement them with functionality and easily accessible role-controlled functions and interfaces.

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