Pro­du­cers and sup­pli­ers of vehic­les and equip­ment in the logi­stics indus­try are faced with exten­si­ve mar­ket requi­re­ments. In the trans­port sec­tor, the­se ran­ge from the ren­tal of sin­gle vehic­les (short-term ren­tal, long-term ren­tal) to com­ple­te ten­ders for enti­re fleets, taking into account coun­try-spe­ci­fic requi­re­ments and cus­to­mer-spe­ci­fic needs. The same appli­es to sup­pli­ers of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment. The amount of vari­ants that are made available to the cus­to­mers, given the wide varie­ty of use sce­na­ri­os, must be offe­red cor­rect­ly in sales.

In Short Term Ren­tal (STR), exis­ting vehic­les and machi­nes are ren­ted out on demand for a few days or weeks. The fast-moving natu­re of this busi­ness requi­res a well-main­tai­ned fleet with cle­ar­ly defi­ned input and out­put pro­ces­ses. Infor­ma­ti­on on loca­ti­on, avai­la­bi­li­ty and con­di­ti­on, in addi­ti­on to typi­cal fea­tures such as the lif­ting height of for­k­lifts or the con­tai­ner volu­me of mixing plants in agri­cul­tu­re, descri­be the desi­red machi­ne for a cus­to­mer. If the data is mer­ged and made available in a CPQ appli­ca­ti­on, the sales depart­ment can quick­ly and easi­ly gene­ra­te quo­ta­ti­ons with the cor­rect fee infor­ma­ti­on.

The requi­re­ments for offers in the area of Long Term Ren­tal (LTR) are dif­fe­rent and no less com­plex. Here, pro­vi­ders and users enter into long-term con­tracts, which are often accom­pa­nied by regu­lar rene­wal of the ren­ted fleet equip­ment. Often such offers are based on exten­si­ve ten­ders, which have to be ans­we­red with struc­tu­ral­ly sui­ta­ble pro­po­sal docu­ments. CPQ solu­ti­ons such as CREALIS® offer exten­si­ve func­tion­a­li­ties with their com­ple­te offer gene­ra­ti­on sys­tem to cover the requi­re­ments in inter­na­tio­nal sales.

Once a sup­pli­er has con­cluded an LTR con­tract with a cus­to­mer, he does not sim­ply sup­p­ly him with the equip­ment and vehic­les, but also pro­vi­des the neces­sa­ry or desi­red ser­vice at the same time. In the case of for­k­lift trucks, this can be the moni­to­ring of the equipment’s con­di­ti­on, the con­trac­tu­al agree­ment of tyre rene­wals, etc. In order to ensu­re that such topics can be defi­ned in the con­tract cor­rect­ly and com­pre­hen­si­bly for both par­ties, the respon­si­ble sales employee car­ri­es out a so-cal­led site sur­vey in order to record the con­di­ti­ons on site in the offer and to be able to esti­ma­te fore­seeable wear and tear. In the right CPQ solu­ti­on, this infor­ma­ti­on can be pro­ces­sed direct­ly as the basis for the quo­ta­ti­on cal­cu­la­ti­on, inclu­ding the ser­vice con­tract, wit­hout the tedious manu­al trans­fer of data bet­ween sys­tems.

With the right CPQ solu­ti­on and its cor­rect use, com­ple­te fleet cal­cu­la­ti­ons can be con­ve­ni­ent­ly hand­led by the sales staff. Issues such as offer adjus­t­ments or con­tract rene­wals on the basis of old cal­cu­la­ti­ons are easy to hand­le. In such cases, pri­ce adjus­t­ments are car­ri­ed out cor­rect­ly on the respec­ti­ve cur­rent data basis and chan­ges in the offer port­fo­lio are imme­dia­te­ly visi­ble and can be dis­cus­sed with the cus­to­mer. Of cour­se, this works in an inter­na­tio­nal envi­ron­ment, espe­ci­al­ly if the CPQ sys­tem mas­ters topics such as mar­ket vali­di­ty and time vali­di­ty.

In today’s cut-throat mar­ket in the indus­try, it is not only neces­sa­ry to bring inno­va­ti­ve solu­ti­ons to the mar­ket quick­ly. Pro­du­cers are forced to score points over the com­pe­ti­ti­on by offe­ring pri­ce reduc­tions and dis­count cam­paigns. To ensu­re that no sales los­ses are gene­ra­ted by this, release levels throug­hout the sales pro­cess are man­da­to­ry. In fleet cal­cu­la­ti­ons, for exam­p­le, a sales­per­son can access a team that deter­mi­nes pos­si­ble or neces­sa­ry dis­counts at various points in the offer docu­ments. A hier­ar­chi­cal repre­sen­ta­ti­on of decis­i­on-making levels is neces­sa­ry. A sales employee must sub­mit a dis­count request to his supe­ri­or team lea­der. The team lea­der can deci­de whe­ther he has the appr­oval for the neces­sa­ry dis­count or whe­ther he has to approach his super­vi­sor. The map­ping of such release hier­ar­chies for dis­counts on sales pri­ces, ser­vice pri­ces or even ren­tal pri­ces is an important part of a CPQ solu­ti­on. This must be backed up by an accu­ra­te aut­ho­ri­sa­ti­on sys­tem so that no misun­derstan­dings or wrong decis­i­ons occur.

If the sup­pli­er uses pro­mo­ti­ons in their sales (such as exten­ded dis­count equip­ment), sales staff should be quick­ly infor­med about such pro­mo­ti­ons. A CPQ sys­tem can be equip­ped with an infor­ma­ti­on chan­nel so that the sales staff is always up to date on what topics might be important in the sales pitch. It goes wit­hout say­ing that the right dis­count levels are set for such pro­mo­ti­ons. If a sales repre­sen­ta­ti­ve has a hesi­tant cus­to­mer, it is pos­si­ble to win him over spon­ta­neous­ly for a con­tract with a pro­mo­ti­on that has just been acti­va­ted. And if the CPQ sys­tem then imme­dia­te­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tes the­se chan­ges in the quo­ta­ti­on to the cus­to­mer, the­re will be no more obs­ta­cles to sig­ning the con­tract.

In the inter­na­tio­nal envi­ron­ment, it is abso­lut­e­ly neces­sa­ry to take into account the various inter­na­tio­nal­ly appli­ca­ble legal regu­la­ti­ons. Sup­p­ly­ing equip­ment to a coun­try that is on an embar­go list can be expen­si­ve for the sup­pli­er and lead to a loss of image in the indus­try. A CPQ sys­tem lin­ked to embar­go lists can draw atten­ti­on to the issues to be con­side­red at an ear­ly stage and, if neces­sa­ry, even pre­vent the pre­pa­ra­ti­on of an offer.

The cor­rect use of Inco­terms befo­re and at the sig­ning of the con­tract is also an important area to be taken into account in the CPQ sys­tem during a quo­ta­ti­on pre­pa­ra­ti­on in an inter­na­tio­nal envi­ron­ment. Through appro­pria­te defi­ni­ti­ons, depen­ding on cus­to­mer data and other para­me­ters, the appli­ca­ble Inco­terms and their mea­ning can be pro­vi­ded to the sales­per­son during con­tract nego­tia­ti­ons, ensu­ring that the­se issues are cor­rect­ly defi­ned and dis­cus­sed.

Nowa­days, machi­nes and vehic­les in the logi­stics sec­tor have a long ser­vice life and are of high qua­li­ty. Nevert­hel­ess, their use is some­ti­mes limi­t­ed in time becau­se needs and requi­re­ments chan­ge. The used vehic­les and equip­ment that beco­me available in this way are once again available on the mar­ket. Sin­ce the­se devices are often in the best con­di­ti­on due to the ser­vice con­tracts con­cluded with the manu­fac­tu­rer, it can be a pro­fi­ta­ble pro­ce­du­re to buy up the devices, check them through and then sell or rent them out again. The­re are enough inte­res­ted par­ties who­se bud­get does not allow purcha­sing a new vehic­le. In a CPQ solu­ti­on, resi­du­al value cal­cu­la­ti­ons can be inte­gra­ted so that the purcha­se and resa­le of used vehic­les and equip­ment can be cover­ed direct­ly by the sales depart­ment. The quo­ta­ti­on pro­cess is sup­port­ed in the same way as for new vehic­les. Addi­tio­nal func­tions such as loca­ti­on and desti­na­ti­on-depen­dent deli­very con­di­ti­ons can be inte­gra­ted to gua­ran­tee a fast resa­le.

ORISA Soft­ware GmbH offers con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on solu­ti­ons that enable users to crea­te their indi­vi­du­al­ly requi­red pro­duct vari­ants. ORISA sees its­elf as a sys­tem pro­vi­der for com­plex and mul­ti-vari­ant pro­ducts and com­pon­ents from the logi­stics and agri­cul­tu­ral sec­tor and has alre­a­dy crea­ted con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on solu­ti­ons for various manu­fac­tu­r­ers in this sec­tor.