Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia) Pty Ltd (HCA) improves customer service to its heavy equipment distribution network and ships more orders faster, while increasing user adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM internally.
- About 50% improvement in time-to-quote
- About 50% improvement in quoting accuracy
- Significant reduction in configuration and quoting errors
- Product options and pricing available in one configuration environment
- Increased Dynamics CRM usage across all seven company divisions
- More accurate forecasting of inventory requirements
Challenge
Heavy construction machinery, excavators, dump trucks, wheel loaders, and graders are highly complex pieces of equipment, typically custom ordered to fit the needs of each customer. Hitachi, a globally recognized brand, was increasingly challenged to configure orders with their current systems and procedures in place.
HCA operates 25 branch locations across Australia. The company had implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to better manage its diverse customer base. Microsoft Excel was used at each center to configure and manage quotes and orders.
It was extremely difficult to ensure that each instance of Excel contained the most current component parts and correct pricing, and the system was error prone due to heavy dependence on workers remembering what parts could and could not be configured with each product.
In addition, Dynamics CRM and Excel were not integrated, and it was difficult to instill discipline in using Dynamics CRM. The company made the decision to invest in an automated product configurator that would integrate with Dynamics CRM to improve quality assurance of configurations and quoting.
Heavy construction equipment requires customer-specific combinations of machines, components and options.
Separate spreadsheets made it difficult to ensure every location was quoting with current pricing.
Employees had to remember which components could and could not be combined with each product.
Disconnected quoting allowed work to happen outside Dynamics CRM, making consistent CRM usage harder to establish.
Solution
“Experlogix fit our business needs, and it integrated seamlessly with Dynamics CRM.”
For Hitachi, connecting product configuration with CRM was a major part of the solution. Sales representatives could no longer create disconnected quotes outside the customer and opportunity information maintained in Dynamics CRM.
Experlogix’s rules engine was another significant benefit. The rules engine permits only valid order configurations.
“Experlogix prevents people from making mistakes. It helps guide them to the right answer.”
Product rules help salespeople select valid equipment combinations while making the relevant options and pricing available during configuration.
Sales representatives configuring orders start in Dynamics CRM. They create a sales opportunity for a specific customer and then launch Experlogix, which presents the available product series, options and pricing.
Quoting begins within the Dynamics customer and opportunity workflow.
Rules restrict incompatible product combinations and guide salespeople toward valid orders.
Options and pricing are available during the configuration process instead of being scattered across spreadsheets.
New configuration pages can be created for new products, acquired companies or additional divisions.
Result
One of the major benefits of implementing Experlogix was a significant increase in Dynamics CRM usage across all seven divisions of the company. With CRM and CPQ working together, employees had more useful customer, product and configuration information available inside the sales process.
Experlogix also had a significant impact on time-to-quote, helping reduce time-to-market for assemble-to-order products.
“Experlogix has made it much faster to create valid orders. We’ve seen about a 50% improvement in time-to-quote, and accuracy in quoting has also improved about 50%.”
Experlogix also fits into HCA’s ISO9001 environment to help ensure document versions are controlled and equipment orders are supplied correctly to customers.
As an Experlogix administrator, Walsh also found it easy to create new configuration pages for new products or new divisions. When HCA acquired Wenco, a Canadian fleet-management company with substantially different quoting requirements, a new landing page could be created for that team within the same Experlogix system.
Accurate quoting with Experlogix in Dynamics CRM also gives HCA more useful information for forecasting inventory requirements.
Experlogix works within HCA's ISO9001 environment to support controlled document versions and correctly supplied equipment orders.
Quote and sales information helps HCA evaluate current activity and forecast future equipment requirements.
Administrators can create new configuration pages for products or business units with different quoting requirements.
An integrated CRM and CPQ environment helped increase Dynamics CRM usage across all seven company divisions.
Hitachi reports about a 50% improvement in time-to-quote.
Quoting accuracy also improved by about 50%, according to Hitachi.
Configuration rules guide users toward compatible product and equipment combinations.
Dynamics CRM usage increased across all seven divisions of the company.
More accurate quoting supports better forecasting of anticipated equipment and inventory requirements.
New configuration experiences can be created for additional products, acquired businesses and divisions.
“Experlogix has made it much faster to create valid orders. We’ve seen about a 50% improvement in time-to-quote, and accuracy in quoting has also improved about 50%.”
Craig Walsh CRM AdministratorSpeak with one of our experts or download the complete Hitachi Construction Machinery customer success story.
