Doppstadt extends customer portal with Build!
A configurator inside the my Doppstadt customer portal
How Doppstadt uses Build!, the product configurator by inforum, to connect everything from the customer’s application to the quotation in SAP.
Doppstadt Umwelttechnik GmbH develops and manufactures machines for processing recoverable materials. The portfolio ranges from Smart Shredding through Smart Screening to Smart Turning, covering shredding, screening and turning, and is complemented by the Core Line. From its sites in Velbert, Wülfrath and Calbe, the company supplies more than 40 countries and works with its own dealer network.
Which machine is the right one depends heavily on the material. Waste wood, biowaste, refuse-derived fuels and green waste each place their own demands on shredding and screening. Sales therefore first guides customers to the suitable machine and then equips it for the specific application.
With myDoppstadt, the company already operates a customer portal used by sales and partners. This was exactly where configuration was to take place in future, so that internal sales, sales partners and dealers would all work on the same basis.
Project Overview
Customer:
Doppstadt Umwelttechnik GmbH
Industry: Maschinenbau
Headquarters: Wülfrath, DE
Key Facts:
• Product finder and configurator
• 33 machines
• Around 2,000 configurable items
• Integrated into myDoppstadt
• Quotations sent directly to SAP
• Multilingual and multi-currency
Why Build! and inforum?
Build! is the product configurator from the inforum Digital Apps portfolio. With Build!, complex products can be adapted to individual requirements and assembled in numerous variants, with every selection automatically resulting in a precise quotation.
What tipped the scales for Doppstadt was that Build! fits into an existing system landscape. The configurator runs inside myDoppstadt, takes its permissions from the portal and accesses SAP directly for item master data. Users therefore do not have to switch environments for product selection, configuration and quotation.
The rollout was accompanied by the JAWA team, which carried out the implementation and contributed its experience with processes in mechanical and plant engineering.
Technical implementation
At Doppstadt, the product finder comes before configuration. Users answer a series of questions about the planned deployment, covering the material, the desired result and the conditions on site. The answers lead to a proposal listing the machines that fit. Behind this sits a set of rules linking every possible answer to the machines in the portfolio. A question can allow several answers, and each machine can be assigned to several answers. The more matches a machine achieves, the higher it appears in the result. Even with a broad portfolio, sales arrives at a reliable shortlist quickly.
Once the machine has been chosen, it is equipped in the configurator. Build! generates a quotation from the configuration, which is managed under its own quotation number. Sales partners and dealers create quotations themselves in this way. The quotation is then handed over to SAP together with the complete machine configuration. SAP creates its own quotation there and returns the internal quotation number. Special terms are worked out in SAP, and the binding quotation is produced depending on the permissions in place. Item master data and quotations run between Build! and SAP via OData interfaces.
Platform and integration
The implementation is based on inforum. The entire administration of the configurator is integrated into the platform, which means Doppstadt decides for itself which further areas build on it.
The Build! frontend can be connected to different authentication methods, including inforum itself as well as OAuth, SAML via Microsoft and token-based authentication. The configurator is embedded in myDoppstadt via the token route. Who may configure which products and create which quotations follows from the portal’s permission concept.
Results and benefits
Sales at Doppstadt now works in a single environment, from the customer’s first question through to the quotation. The product finder leads from the use case to the suitable machine, the configurator equips it, and the result goes to SAP without an intermediate step.
Dealers and sales partners create quotations themselves, within the permissions Doppstadt assigns in the portal. This creates room to act locally, while prices, items and rules remain centrally maintained.
Quotations arise directly from the configuration, and the machine data is held in full in SAP, ready for further processing.
Outlook
The configurator at Doppstadt is designed to grow. In a next step, it will be opened beyond myDoppstadt to end customers, who will then be able to assemble their machine themselves.
An ordering function is also planned for sales partners. An order will then lead directly to a sales order, keeping the path from configuration through to order processing uninterrupted.
With inforum as the basis, further modules are open to Doppstadt, for example for complaints. They build on the same platform without the existing environment having to be changed.
Customer perspective
Questions for Christian Jenk, Head of Internal Sales
at Doppstadt Umwelttechnik GmbH
Was läuft seit der Einführung von Build! konkret besser als vorher?
Christian Jenk: Distributors, customers and sales now all see the same products and configuration options. Our sales staff can configure a machine and create a quotation right there in the customer meeting, so nobody has to wait for a quotation any more. Because the dependency rules are stored in the system, we no longer get queries or faulty configurations coming back. On top of that, we have a clear overall picture and configuration management that genuinely works.
We recommend inforum without hesitation.
Wie haben Sie die Zusammenarbeit mit dem JAWA-Team erlebt?
Christian Jenk: Extremely positive. We had a direct contact person throughout who dealt with every topic at short notice and brings extensive expertise. Whatever we needed was implemented straight away, and the way solutions were found impressed us. We also liked the path to placing the order: all the agreed conditions were met, and there were no false promises.
inforum – the leading Management Software
inforum is the leading management platform for industrial manufacturing companies. The modular platform maps complex processes across the entire life cycle in a standard-compliant and scalable manner on a shared database and enables end-to-end control of supply chains, quality, production and service.