Introduction
Permatron has been providing innovative air filtration products for commercial OEM and residential use since 1957. It is the original producer of electrostatic air filters, including air intake screens, and is still the leading manufacturer of best-in-class air filtration solutions. The company is setting the bar for innovation, performance, and endurance.
Challenge
For as long as Permatron has been in existence, its customers have enjoyed the highly customizable attributes of the products the company offers. But the complexity and volume of these highly custom orders were making it challenging for the inside sales teams to produce timely, consistent, and error-free quotes. And both efficiency and accuracy in defining and quoting an order are of paramount importance to achieving high levels of customer satisfaction–and ensuring Permatron’s success.
For years, the sales team created quotes within their own Excel databases. Engineers were needed to provide information to the sales team describing the correct configuration and pricing. Not only was the platform itself lacking in sophistication to handle complex custom orders, but each salesperson had their own unique process for building quotes. As a result, formatting was inconsistent, accuracy was difficult to promise, and the customer experience was simply not the same quality relative to the other ways that customers engaged with Permatron.
To make matters worse, the Permatron team had to endure the time-consuming task of manually updating the Excel database every couple of years. Multiple versions of the databases existed, and data could be easily lost. The entire process was inefficient and left many opportunities for human error.
The Permatron leadership had a growing concern that knowledge of best practices for this critical part of their business resided with individuals rather than in a documented, institutionalized format. This issue would be further exacerbated as employees retired or left the company. Permatron called in their ERP partner E&A to help them find and implement a solution.
Solution
E&A suggested that Permatron evaluate their INFOR ERP’s Configurator to automate and streamline the process. Using the Configurator, all information required to prepare a quote is stored and interconnected in the INFOR ERP.
Product features are tied to a base model, allowing the sales staff to choose which options a customer requires for a range of features. These variants can be made mandatory or can be excluded to avoid conflicts. The Configurator seamlessly integrates into Permatron’s ERP quoting and sales order management systems, producing automated and personalized quotes.
Results
Permatron has seen a range of benefits based on their successful implementation of the Configurator.
- Pricing policies are consistently applied to all customer quotes.
- Margins can be easily adjusted, allowing Permatron to respond to market changes very quickly.
- The hours and cost of maintaining the Excel-based quote databases have been eliminated.
- Cost of Sales is reduced because engineers don’t need to participate in configuring every salesperson’s quotes.
- Permatron has improved its customer experience. Quotes can be prepared in 5-7 days as opposed to the 3-4-week turnaround required by the competition.
- Permatron has entered into the custom product production arena, becoming active in new markets where their competitors can’t participate.
- Onboarding new sales staff is simplified because the product specification and pricing knowledge they need to learn is embedded in the Configurator, which greatly accelerates their learning curve.
- The sales staff fully embraces using the Configurator and the opportunities it offers to them–it has increased their quoting output while improving their accuracy. Additionally, sales staff can use the Configurator as a planning tool while discussing specification requirements with their customers which helps to improve the customer experience and build customer loyalty.
Permatron is excited about the contribution the Configurator has had in fostering its sales growth and expanding market reach trajectories. And its customers are happy too—they have benefited from the higher caliber product consultation received, the quicker quote turnaround and greater product alignment to their requirements.
Permatron’s relationship with E&A helped them to find and focus on the best option for streamlining their quoting system, and to bring the project to a successful conclusion. The results provided a win for all involved parties.
