CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
December 2005
Product News
Tacton Configurator Helps Alo Keep Prices and Products Up-To-Date and Available
Alo AB is the world's leading manufacturer of front loaders and associated implements. Some 90 percent of its total production goes to export. The company is represented in more than 30 countries and has a leading position in 10 of them. Sales for 2004 amounted to some 24,000 loaders and 35,000 implements. Since the range of hydraulic systems, sub-frames and tractor models change constantly, it is vital that product catalogs and prices are kept up-to-date and available.
Alo has now invested in a configurator from Tacton, first and foremost for two reasons:
"Partly because we want a simple way of creating internal pricelists, and partly because we want support for configuring front loaders," says Urban Hadarsson, Sales Director at Alo.
Since there are many tractor manufacturers and, moreover, many different models of each brand, the range on offer and customer demand change daily. One of Alo's problems in the past was the expensive production of catalogues and associated pricelists.
"We no longer need to send out large volumes of catalogues, but above all we avoid the problem of pricelists becoming out-of-date even before they have left the printing presses," says Urban Hadarsson.
With Tacton Configurator, Alo employees can handle all prices in local currency in a single place -the ERP system Movex. Configuration data is handled by the PLM system SMARTEAM, the tool that keeps all information related to a product's entire lifecycle in order. With Tacton Configurator it is easy to see what fits with what; how loaders and tractors fit together, what accessories and implements are available and how they are attached to the loader depending on make, model and year of manufacture.
"Within a short period of time, the configurator is to be made available to all of the company's dealers. It is therefore also advantageous that the system is available around the clock, since the company operates in markets in various time zones," says Urban Hadarsson.
The implementation is taking place in three phases. In the first phase, users can configure via a Web browser, where price details are fetched from Movex and configuration data from SMARTEAM. Phase two covers quotes handling and, in phase three, it will also be possible to place orders via the configurator, which are passed on to Movex.
"Alo is an excellent example of how a configurator can solve immediate and salient problems that can be quite expensive for companies. In this case, it is about handling price and product information and the creation of catalogues, as well as in the long run being an invaluable aid for binding different partners and dealers closer to the company and supporting them in their sales efforts," says Christer Wallberg, CEO at Tacton.
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