ABB Robotics selects Tacton Configurator to shorten sales lead-time for customized products
November 6, Stockholm, Sweden, 2006 – ABB Robotics has chosen Tacton Configurator to provide their sales force and partners with a Sales Configurator Tool to shorten sales lead-time for customized products. Tacton Configurator will be integrated with ABB’s Order Management System and their ERP-system (SAP) - providing configuration functionality such as quotation generation, price handling and order processing.
ABB has the world's largest installed base of industrial robots -- also providing robot software, peripheral equipment and modular manufacturing cells for tasks such as assembly, painting and finishing, and machine tending. Key markets include automotive, foundry, packaging, material handling and consumer industries. A strong solution focus leverages thousands of successful applications for manufacturers worldwide.
Today, specification, quoting and cost calculation of robot products and systems is very time-consuming. Information about robot orders and quotations are manually entered up to six times in a vast number of local systems. This leads to an inefficient sales force, high transaction costs, and an error-prone sales process.
ABB Robotics Division is now developing and implementing a common front-end system (BOSS) for the Sales Units, supporting the following processes:
• Quotation process including local products with possibility to convert to an order
• Sales configurator for specification of robots and Arc Welding products
• Common cost calculation tool (Transfer / Sales prices)
• Order routing to different Production Units and suppliers both for robot products and local products
• Online quotation acceptance and/or order entry for end customers and channel partners in a later phase
ABB is now moving into the new generation of configuration for more efficient sales. By implementing Tacton Configurator the goal is to reduce the number of errors in the order process.
“Tacton Configurator will become our virtual sales support person, supporting our sales organization and partners for error free quotations and orders, it will reduce the lead-time dramatically,” says Marc Leidner, Project Manager BOSS, ABB Robotics.
This totally integrated configurator will allow design and productivity to go hand in hand in the future. Tacton Configurator has the advantage of being both embeddable and open, without being locked into one particular business system. It is reassuring for the future that it can integrate with any system.
A first prototype was ready for testing at the beginning of April 2006. The first sales unit at ABB to deploy BOSS 1.0 in a Pilot phase was ABB Robotics Germany in June 2006 - ordering robots from ABB Robotics Products in VTMsterås, Sweden.
The actual status of the BOSS Pilot installation in Germany by end of September:
• 3.7 MEUR (4.7 MUSD) order intake and 92 robots have been handled in the system
• generated 39 different orders to 20 different customers
“With proven technology, Tacton Configurator has been a success at the sister company ABB Motors and now we are happy to also provide ABB Robotics with a similar solution to support their sales process,” says Christer Wallberg, CEO, Tacton Systems.
For more information contact:
Christer Wallberg, CEO, Tacton Systems AB
Telephone: +46 8 690 07 50
E-mail:
Email Contact
Marc Leidner, Project manager BOSS, ABB Automation GmbH
Telephone: +49 6031 85 193
E-mail:
Email Contact
About Tacton Systems
Tacton Systems develops and sells embeddable software for sales configuration. The Tacton Configurator enables the effective selling of customized, complex products both offline and online. The Tacton Configurator integrates with surrounding systems and has standard integrations with many leading e-commerce, ERP, CRM, PDM, PLM and CAD systems. Customers currently using the Tacton Configurator include GE Healthcare, Ericsson, ABB, Black Box, Pentair, Hoffman Enclosures, Mod-Pac, FlTMktWoods and Albany Door Systems. For more information:
http://www.tacton.com
About ABB
ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 104,000 people. For more information:
http://www.abb.com/robotics