To quote any pump or fluid handling product, the sales team has to intake the customer’s conditions of service, detailed specs, technical data, and other critical information to help match them to the right product. This can take a lot of valuable time from both sales and the customer, and requires ongoing back and forth if the right questions aren’t asked up front.
Product selectors are portals that standardize and automate the process, guiding customers through a list of questions and options they can fill out in a fraction of the time it takes to make a phone call. The system can automatically pinpoint the best product matches in the catalog, saving customers the pain of trying to find a base product on their own.
Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software applies the same principles as product selectors to the product customization process. Engineers can program the backend of the portal to set different product attributes and create conditions for when customers are allowed to select them.
Manufacturers can also program rules-based pricing for the different attributes to automate calculations. Then, sales can work with customers to use the front end of the portal to select different customization options. Customers can make selections with total autonomy, and request help from sales people at any time in the process. And since rules are already programmed in, no one from the sales team ever has to check with engineers to ensure that a particular product build is viable, accelerating the time to quote.
With high costs and time constraints, it’s no longer feasible (or even possible) to create physical prototypes for testing — even for complex products involved in fluid handling. A new generation of engineering simulation technology is able to create such advanced renderings that they can function as “digital twins,” enabling testing “in the field,” without actually needing to manufacture physical objects.
Simulation software designed for fluid equipment manufacturers can test individual parts and components, or entire flow and pipe system builds. Since the prototypes are digital, they’re easy to share with other stakeholders and collaborators to collect feedback, or find opportunities to streamline, cut costs, and improve efficiency. Even better, this can happen anywhere in the world, without the need to physically be present at a facility.
Revalize offers a full suite of tools for managing the entire product lifecycle, from ideation and design, to simulation, sales, and beyond. Using a product selector, CPQ, and engineering simulation from different vendors can create integration issues, slowing down processes and mitigating your efficiency gains. Revalize consolidates all three of these solutions and more for a seamless suite of solutions. For many customers, this forms the foundation for their entire digital transformation.
