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Girls’Day 2025 at Aicomp – Fostering Young Talent in the IT Sector

AICOMP — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:55:19 +0000

On April 3, 2025, the international IT company Aicomp opened its doors to four female students as part of the nationwide Girls’ Day initiative. The company, which specializes in ERP solutions for the packaging industry, offered the participants practical insights into the professional fields of IT specialization with a focus on application development and system integration.

Promoting Female Talent: A Key Element in Addressing the Skills Shortage

For Aicomp, participation in Girls’ Day represents a consistent step toward promoting diversity in the IT industry. In a sector traditionally dominated by men, the company is deliberately focusing on fostering female talent. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to combat the skills shortage by tapping into previously underrepresented talent pools.

“Digitalization is advancing in all industries, and we need diverse teams to master the complex challenges of our customers,” emphasizes Elke Mayerle, EU HR Director at Aicomp Consulting GmbH. “Girls’ Day offers an ideal platform to demonstrate to young women the versatility and creativity that comes with a career in IT. It’s no longer just about programming – it’s about interdisciplinary thinking, teamwork, and innovative approaches.”

Robotics and Programming: Practical Insights into the IT World

The day’s program was divided into two main sections: The morning focused on independently constructing robots, while the afternoon was dedicated to programming these self-built systems. The students had the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with robot “thinking” under professional guidance – a core competency in the modern IT industry.

“It’s impressive to see the enthusiasm and competence with which the young participants approach technical challenges,” explains Patrick Mair, Head of IT at Aicomp. “With Girls’ Day, we aim to specifically inspire young women to pursue technical professions and show them that the IT industry offers exciting and future-proof career opportunities.”

Sustainable Commitment to Greater Diversity in the Tech Industry

With its Girls’ Day engagement, Aicomp joins a growing number of companies actively working against the gender gap in technical professions. Following the successful event, the company plans to further expand its commitment to promoting young women in IT and to conduct similar initiatives on a regular basis.

At the end of the day, participants took home not only their self-constructed and programmed robots but also valuable insights into potential career paths and a new understanding of the diverse opportunities in the IT industry.

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Digital Transformation in the Paper Industry: Opportunities and Challenges

AICOMP — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 07:49:23 +0000

In recent years, digitalization has impacted nearly every industry—and the paper industry is no exception. The study “Digital Transformation in the Paper Industry: Assessing Maturity, Challenges, and Opportunities”, published in the journal Sustainability (Othen, Padberg, Möbitz & Gries, 2025), examines the current state of digital maturity in the paper industry, identifies key challenges, and explores the opportunities presented by digital transformation.

Why is digital transformation important for the paper industry?

Traditionally characterized by stable production processes that have stood the test of time, the paper industry faces increasing pressure to digitalize in an increasingly interconnected world where efficiency, sustainability, and flexibility are crucial. The study argues that companies that do not actively embrace digital transformation risk falling behind:

“Digital technologies not only offer efficiency advantages but also open up new business models and markets.” (Othen, Padberg, Möbitz & Gries, 2025)

Study methodology: How was digital maturity measured?

Researchers employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to assess digital maturity in the paper industry, including:

Surveys of industry experts: Over 100 executives from the paper industry were surveyed about their experiences with digital technologies.
Case study analysis: The study examined specific companies that have already implemented successful digitalization strategies.
Maturity models: Digital maturity was divided into different stages, from initial (first steps) to optimized (fully integrated digital processes).

Key findings of the study

a) Digital maturity has room for improvement

Despite some companies in the paper industry already using digital technologies, the study indicates that the majority of the industry is still in the early stages of digital transformation:

40% of companies are in the initial phase, where initial digital tools are being introduced.
35% are in the integration phase, where digital technologies are increasingly integrated into existing processes.
Only 25% of surveyed companies have achieved a high level of digital maturity, where data-driven decisions and automated processes are standard (Othen, Padberg, Möbitz & Gries, 2025).

b) Challenges on the path to digitalization

The study identifies three main barriers to digital transformation:

Technological hurdles: Implementing new technologies requires investments not only in software and hardware but also in training and skilled personnel. Many companies struggle with outdated IT infrastructure and a lack of qualified personnel (Karl Isler, o. d.).
Cultural change: Digital transformation is not just a technical challenge but also a cultural one. Resistance within the workforce, fear of change, and insufficient digital skills complicate the transformation. The authors emphasize:

“The success of digitalization depends not only on technology but primarily on the willingness of employees to embrace new ways.” (Othen, Padberg, Möbitz & Gries, 2025)

Data security and privacy: With digitalization comes an increased risk of cyber-attacks. Companies must invest significant resources in security measures to protect sensitive production and customer data (Univio, 2024).

c) Opportunities and potential of digital transformation

Despite these challenges, the study highlights significant benefits that digitalization can bring to the paper industry:

Efficiency gains: Automated processes and data-driven decisions can reduce production costs and improve product quality (Voith, 2024).
Sustainability: Digital technologies enable more precise resource management, leading to reduced energy consumption and waste (Modellfabrik Papier, 2024).
New business models: Digitalization opens up opportunities for personalized products, data-driven services, and new distribution channels. An example is the use of IoT technologies for predictive maintenance of machinery (Karl Isler, o. d.).

Recommended actions for companies

Based on the study results and further analysis, the following recommendations emerge:

Gradual digitalization: Companies should begin with small-scale initiatives and conduct initial pilot projects before implementing broader changes.
Investment in training: Training and further education for employees are crucial to support cultural change.
Partnerships and collaborations: Working with technology providers and startups can facilitate access to new innovations.
Focus on data security: Implementing robust security measures is essential to gain the trust of customers and partners.

The future of the paper industry is digital

Digital transformation offers significant opportunities to the paper industry—from efficiency gains to more sustainable production processes and new business models. At the same time, the transformation requires investment, commitment, and a willingness to question traditional structures. Companies that embrace this challenge can not only secure their competitiveness but also actively contribute to shaping Industry 4.0.

“Digitalization is not a one-time project but a continuous process of adaptation and innovation.” (Othen, Padberg, Möbitz & Gries, 2025)

Further information:

You can read the full study here: Digital Transformation in the Paper Industry

References

Karl Isler (o.d.). Digitalisierung in der Papierindustrie: Wie IT-Services den Wandel unterstützen.

Modellfabrik Papier (23.05.2024). Forest on the way to the digital twin for the paper industry.

Othen, S., Padberg, A., Möbitz, T., & Gries, T. (2025). Digital Transformation in the Paper Industry: Assessing Maturity, Challenges, and Opportunities. Sustainability, 17(2), 770. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/770

Univio (06.02.2024). The 10 biggest challenges of digital transformation.

Voith (09.04.2023). Next Level: Voith Paper Customer Magazine.

Voith (11.10.2024). Next Level: Voith Paper Customer Magazine.

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Free Download: 7+ Facts Why You Should Improve Your CPQ & Q2C Processes

AICOMP — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 12:05:06 +0000

Optimizing CPQ (Configure Price Quote) and Q2C (Quote-to-Cash) processes in SAP ERP is critical for companies to remain competitive and increase their business growth. In the SAP ERP space, there are many reasons why companies should improve their CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) and Q2C (Quote-to-Cash) processes. Here are 7+ facts that show why these processes are important and how they can positively impact your business.

Better Customer Engagement: By improving CPQ and Q2C processes, companies can provide a personalized quote experience to their customers. This increases customer loyalty as customers feel that their specific needs are taken care of.
Shorter sales cycles: Optimizing CPQ and Q2C processes can help shorten sales cycles. By using automation, companies can create quotes faster and handle customer inquiries faster.
lower costs: automating CPQ and Q2C processes can lower costs by reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.
better margins: an optimized CPQ and Q2C solution can help improve margins by ensuring that quotes and prices are based on current data and market trends.
avoidance of errors: an automated CPQ and Q2C solution minimizes potential errors by eliminating manual entries and double entries.
flexibility: An optimized CPQ and Q2C solution in SAP ERP can help companies respond quickly to changing customer needs. By using real-time data to configure quotes and prices, companies can quickly adjust their offerings to meet their customers’ needs.
increase employee productivity: by automating CPQ and Q2C processes in SAP ERP, companies can increase employee productivity by reducing manual effort and simplifying the management of quotes, contracts and purchase orders.

The information source provided by Aicomp provides other interesting facts that illustrate why optimizing CPQ and Q2C processes in SAP ERP is so important. These facts include increased efficiency through automation, adapting to changing customer needs, reducing sales cycles, increasing customer adoption, and increasing employee satisfaction.

Overall, it shows that optimizing CPQ and Q2C processes in SAP ERP is an important step for companies to improve their business processes, strengthen their customer loyalty, reduce their costs and improve their margins.

We have compiled the most important statistics and show where the biggest potentials for companies are hidden.

Numerous statistical surveys show cumbersome processes in the daily work of companies, which are reflected in the revenues and performance of the companies. This circumstance is reinforced by increasing customer requirements. Customers are increasingly demanding more transparency and more personalization at increasing speed.

One way to meet these demands is to optimize CPQ (Configure Price Quote) and Q2C (Quote to Cash) processes by using innovative software solutions.

Download the statistics overview for free and additionally learn how you can improve your CPQ & Q2C processes.

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Do new possibilities demand a rethink in order management for manufacturing companies?

AICOMP — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 07:28:36 +0000

E-commerce offers in B2C segments open up new opportunities, especially for companies that use new innovations due to the increasing expectations on the customer end, thus allowing businesses to continuously move forward. The demands for individual product design with fast delivery capability and the highest possible price and process transparency are predominant.

For larger manufacturing companies, these requirements can only be applied to a limited extent due to B2B-driven business processes. Here it is rather a matter of ensuring the necessary coordination in the definition of quality and quantity with appropriate pricing directly between buyer and seller.

For some years now, even larger manufacturing companies have been noticing how the focus of requirements has expanded from the B2C segment to the B2B segment. The question now arises how well their own processes and the existing system landscape can meet these requirements and what possibilities do companies have to meet them?

Supply chain management (SCM) also needs demand chain management (DCM)

For many companies, the use and optimization of supply chain management for setting up and managing integrated logistics processes across the entire value chain is now part of their standard repertoire. A greater potential for optimization is often seen in transport and logistics optimization.

In the context of its stronger focus on the customer, however, SCM has in the past paid insufficient attention to the demand perspective. New manufacturing processes and the ability to analyze information flows (Big Data) can enable better collaboration between suppliers, customers, and all supply chain members, higher efficiency (e.g. lower inventory levels) and faster responses to customer needs.

This is where DCM comes in to match supply and demand. In a three-step process, it is advisable to understand customer needs, develop usable, alternative and modular service offerings, and ultimately increase operational efficiency with customer involvement.

This is where systems can be meaningfully integrated that reliably support planning scenarios through simulation options and forecasts, but also make coordination processes more transparent and faster by having all data consolidated and centrally accessible.

Guided Selling and automated offer processes

Especially in the CPQ process for products with many variants, the preparation of quotations can take on complex dimensions, which can lead to long preparation times and incorrect quotations. As a result, deals are at risk.

This is where an intelligent Guided Selling Tool can support your sales staff by suggesting the options that best suit the customer’s needs via a set of rules, and which can finally be produced. The configuration of the product itself can be taken into account, but also, for example, machine utilization, the availability of raw materials and delivery options.

An automated quote-to-cash process also guides sales staff through cost accounting and quotation generation. This prevents mistakes that could lead to a failed deal. It also shortens the time between quotation and receipt of payment, as other departments in the company can gain early insight into the activities.

Seamless processing and data handling in the quote-to-cash process

In the quote-to-cash process, seamless processing and data handling is of decisive importance for modern and reliable order management. Especially in industries with declining margins, data quality is extremely important to enable reliable pricing decisions. In order to enable this data quality, the data must be available as a consistent data basis from specialized services and systems in one system and must be processed in a user-friendly manner. On the other hand, the individual systems can benefit from the higher data quality of the other services and systems.

Interface development is therefore of great importance in order to avoid system breaks, which would otherwise require error-prone manual data acquisition and processing.

Product or variant flexibility

In the face of increasing cost competition, the ability to respond flexibly to customer requirements can provide a strategic competitive advantage for companies. In addition to the technological superiority and the quality of the products, the flexibility of being able to offer customers products in variants tailored to their respective requirements or situation is one of the ways to differentiate oneself from competitors and compensate cost disadvantages.

Especially in the case of products with many variants, this is nowadays only possible with a product configurator that is able to represent the product properties reliably and in detail, is easy to use and works quickly.

The more detailed the individual properties and production costs of the end product can be recorded, the more accurately prices with different quantity calculations for different variants can ultimately be retrieved by a system.

The simplicity of a product configurator is reflected in its ability to enable employees to make configuration adjustments to the products after a short learning phase. This can be achieved by using a WYSIWYG editor, for example.

Multi-channel was yesterday, cross-channel is today

Multi-channel has long been considered an important guarantee for successful customer relations and offers customers the opportunity to submit their enquiries to a company through various channels. Besides the simple administration of customer data, this was an important function in a CRM system. Unfortunately, due to the focus on information in the respective areas, the data was isolated e.g. between sales, marketing and service and was only communicated to a limited extent between the back office or production.

However, the expectations of customers and interested parties have changed considerably in recent years. They not only use different end devices, but also different purchasing and communication channels – and not just one after the other (multi-channel), but simultaneously (cross-channel) for the same transaction. While one channel is used to obtain information about products and services, another channel is used to purchase goods. A third channel is used to pay and a fourth channel is used to purchase a similar product. The customer also wants to be able to track the availability of products and the delivery status of his order at all times. In enabling sales, customer service, production and logistics to provide comprehensive support for the customer at every stage of his customer journey, it is essential that they have access to current data on the purchase history at all times.

What is still possible on a small scale via agreements is a considerable effort for larger companies. Here, the cross-channel approach provides a solution and concentrates on capturing all customer interactions in one interface and making them available to all necessary company departments at any time.

Collaborative sales processes

Collaborative sales processes are not a new concept. sales representatives have always relied on others to provide sufficient advice to prospective customers and win an order. However, the buying process is becoming increasingly complex due to changing customer expectations. Customers expect a salesperson to have in-depth knowledge of the products and services.

Only through technical experts who can work together and quickly as a team and exchange information, can sales representatives also have the opportunity to demonstrate solid knowledge and the performance of the company.

If additional partners are involved in the process, collaborative sales processes create a sense of community and an early connection in the sales process that extends across the entire customer journey.

Security and transparency have priority

Data security and data transparency are becoming increasingly important for customers and interested parties. In addition, the legal requirements are increasing with country-specific specifications.

This requires a technical IT infrastructure that prevents hackers, for example, from gaining direct access to customer and user data. In addition, data center locations are recommended to comply with data localization laws.

However, the collection and maintenance of the various customer data must also be carried out in compliance with the law. To make this possible, your customers should have insight and control over their data at all times. The collection of data should be carried out by an upfront consent management system.

Conclusion

Many developments today already show the necessity but also the potential of a customer-focused company orientation in order management. The complexity but also the performance of software that addresses these new requirements is continuously increasing. With new technologies, further possibilities and challenges will arise in the coming years.

With Aicomp you invest in efficiency, agility, and innovation and achieve:

Faster and more accurate quote generation
Higher customer satisfaction through a tailor-made customer journey
Reduction of effort in data maintenance and data processing
Greater flexibility in offering and delivering your products

Talk to us! We would be pleased to support you with your digital agenda.

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What Does the Customer Experience Mean to Your Customers and What Are You Planning to Do About It?

AICOMP — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 10:54:03 +0000

Everyone seems to be talking about the customer experience, that business growth will be less about product and more about providing a high level and engaging customer experience that is designed to gain loyalty and create a competitive edge.

During SAP’s 2019 Sapphire event, this theme was heavily articulated. While I still believe that superior products will always matter, we are now living in an experience economy, and have been for quite some time. Recent advances in technology now make it far easier for brands to manage experiences, and for customers to demand it.

According to Alfred Becker, Global Lead for Paper and Packaging at SAP, “Winning and keeping business will be based on providing great experiences across all interactions. “

Customer Experience

So, what defines the customer experience? It is the sum of all interactions with the supplier and includes encounters with sales, customer service, marketing, order fulfillment and more. The customer experience must always be positive. This means that customer experience must exceed your customers individual expectations.

Focal Point

According to Forbes “Customer Experience is the New Brand and that today 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience.” Nowadays customers care very much about the ease of which they can do business with you. Slow manual processes, from quote to product delivery do not work in today’s world anymore. Building out your customer experience strategy creates a huge opportunity for you to distinguish yourself from your competitors. Not reacting to this growing and stable trend will likely have painful outcomes to your bottom line.

When considering the topic of customer experience, we might be tempted to only analyze the most obvious segments like product, service and customer engagement, forgetting the order management touchpoint. Here, the customer experience depends not only on how quickly but also how accurately an order will be processed and fulfilled. Delays and inaccurate quotes, for example, lead to a negative impact on the overall customer experience. It is mandatory to provide the customer with a constantly optimized and positive customer experience and this often begins with order management, and the quote.

Obviously order entry and quoting are just one touchpoint for larger organizations, like paper and plastic packaging, for example. Outside of order entry multiple touchpoints can exist that will have an impact on the customer experience: quality, manufacturing, logistics, billing, returns, to name a few.

Why the focus on quoting? Because many order entry organizations are short staffed. It is therefore challenging to manage spikes or increases in seasonal demand. Customer services and estimating teams are working under pressure and can create critical errors in an effort to meet customers’ lead time requirements.

Optimizing Customer Experience with Automated Quote-to-Cash Technology

For paper and plastic packaging manufacturers, the estimating and quoting process is loaded with opportunities for errors. Many companies offer their customers thousands of different product configuration options, which adds layers of complexity. With increased complexity, the opportunity for errors increases exponentially. Add to this the fact that most interactions and tasks between estimating, sales and quoting teams are primarily manual and managed in spreadsheets via email, and you have a recipe for a poor customer experience.

How can such challenges as these be met successfully? Automation is of course, the simple answer but will require a thorough understanding of all the people, processes and technologies already in play and how they interact with each other to understand where the gaps are and how to address these.

What benefits can you hope to achieve with Quote-to-Cash automation?

Shorter quote to contract cycles
Higher quote to contract acceptance rates
Better customer response and experience
Higher sales revenues

Learn more about our business and technology insights into the paper and flexible packaging industry by browsing our website.

Der Beitrag What Does the Customer Experience Mean to Your Customers and What Are You Planning to Do About It? erschien zuerst auf aicomp | group.

Young Talents in the Starting Blocks

AICOMP — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 08:10:25 +0000

Aicomp Actively Cooperates with Reutlingen University

Reutlingen University is one of the leading universities for international and business-oriented academic education. Since its foundation in 2000, Aicomp has maintained a long-standing relationship and close cooperation with Reutlingen University. A large part of the staff at the office in Sonnenbühl came from the university. Some of the graduates now hold leadership positions at Aicomp.

Aicomp employees have been actively involved with the university at various levels since 2012.

A short time overview:

Since 2012: Supervision of the semester projects in the Bachelor’s and Master’s studies at the Faculty of Informatics.
Since 2013: Supervision of the final theses in the Bachelor and Master studies of the Faculty of Informatics and award of the Aicomp Prize (1500 €) for the best semester project.
Since 2018: Offer of a 3-day compulsory elective subject on the topic “SAP HANA“.

Involvement in Universities Creates New Opportunities

For Aicomp as an employer

Aicomp operates in a very specific environment in which SAP knowledge is enormously important. However, even greater emphasis is placed on industry-specific know-how. In view of these requirements, working with Reutlingen University and the students has proven to be an extremely effective instrument in promoting young talent.

The students at Reutlingen University already bring a large amount of SAP specialist knowledge with them and are very open when it comes to familiarizing themselves with a new subject.

In addition, there is the valuable opportunity to follow current trends in information technology live (AI, VR/AR, IoT, Industry 4.0, Edge Computing, etc.) and to talk to young motivated people. This allows interesting topics to be explored at an early stage.

For students

Aicomp employees at Reutlingen University actively contribute to the practical teaching through the HANA lecture, contribute ideas for theses and offer topics for student projects. Ideally, this means that cooperation already begins with the practical semester. If a positive summary is drawn from this for both sides, Aicomp offers a working student activity after the practical semester, which can then lead to a final thesis and an employment.

The Aicomp team makes you feel comfortable and in good hands pretty quickly. It's also good for your studies, as you get a good explanation of the processes and functions in the area of SAP application development from very helpful colleagues and you can use this knowledge in several courses. A further plus point in addition to the practical insight when working as a student trainee at Aicomp is the flexible working hours, which provide important freedom especially during the examination phase.

Dennis Uhland – Student trainee, Aicomp

For Reutlingen University

Cooperation with SMEs such as Aicomp, which on the one hand are rooted in the region and on the other hand belong to a Germany-wide and international network, is very important for us as a university of applied sciences. Especially the cooperation with Mr. Helmreich, Mr. Mezger and Mr. Bernhardt is characterized by professionalism, commitment and mutual trust. Aicomp has proven expertise in many areas of business informatics and broad technical know-how, which goes well beyond the boundaries of business software in areas such as industry 4.0, for example. The close cooperation with business partners in the region, such as Aicomp, is also reflected in their commitment to Reutlingen University. Aicomp regularly reports on application-related aspects of various technologies, such as SAP HANA, as well as on innovative fields and possible applications within the framework of a wide range of activities. Aicomp has been an innovation promoter and sponsor of the Aicomp Award for many years. The award regularly honors some of the best master's and bachelor's projects in business informatics. Our students appreciate this opportunity for practice-related exchange. In particular, they benefit from innovative ideas, practical scenarios and technical know-how.

Professor Armin Roth,
Professor Herbert Glöckle,
Professor Ilia Petrov - Faculty of Informatics, Reutlingen University

This is new in 2019 – It’s hacking time

Starting this year, Aicomp honored the winning team of the “HackIn4” event at Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences (https://www.hackin4.de), thereby relocating the Aicomp Prize awarded in previous years.

“HackIn4” is an international hackathon about industry 4.0, IoT, automation, visualization and process management in cooperation with the Universities of Vilnius, Latvia and Tartu. As a sponsor Aicomp got a spot on the jury and saw very innovative projects.

The winning team from HackIn 4

The winning team’s idea revolved around working and improving presentation skills. The group had considered that in a feedback round, you never get honest and detailed feedback and that this is necessary to improve one’s self. So, they decided to develop a tool that offered honest, detailed and comprehensible feedback.

The winners developed a tool to analyze and evaluate the emotions of the audience in a presentation. To make this possible, a webcam takes a photo every second, which is sent to an Artificial Intelligence, previously offered by Microsoft Azure. This AI engine recognizes the number of faces and their emotions during each second of the presentation. These values are measured and returned. As a result, the average emotion can be calculated and displayed in diagrams. With this prototype one can measure emotions like “enthusiasm” and “boredom” and judge exactly in which moment of the presentation the audience was animated or just totally bored.

For example, the tool can help a moderator to identify content that is interesting or uninteresting to the listener and adapt his presentation accordingly.

The result of the work is all the more impressive as only 24 hours were available for implementation.

Presentation Isabell Büttner

As an international business student, events such as the Hackathon give me a practical insight into the way computer scientists think and prepare me specifically for the challenges of our future. Each of us must understand that topics such as IoT, artificial intelligence and data analysis will later be an integral part of our daily work. I'm very grateful that companies like Aicomp are giving us the opportunity to be part of change and digitization.

Isabell Büttner – Student, Reutlingen University

Conclusion

Aicomp very much appreciates the cooperation with Reutlingen University. We are delighted when we as a company can make a positive contribution to the future of young people. Our interns, working students and authors of bachelor or master theses quickly realize that there are also attractive employers in our region who do not carry a star or anchor in their logo. I am therefore particularly pleased that almost all of the students I supervised joined us after completing their final thesis.

Sebastian Mezger – Senior Developer, Aicomp

Der Beitrag Young Talents in the Starting Blocks erschien zuerst auf aicomp | group.

Modern CPQ Processes need Collaborative Selling

AICOMP — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 08:01:50 +0000

Sales rarely do everything alone. While one person usually functions as the sole face of the client, intense collaboration often takes place behind the scenes. For example, in the areas of pricing, lead marketing, pre-sales consultants for developing solutions or negotiating a contract – multiple parties are essentially always required to complete a deal.

But what exactly is collaborative selling, why is it important, and how can you ensure that your team is committed to success?

What is Collaborative Selling?

Collaborative selling is not exactly a new concept. Salespeople have always relied on others to win a deal or provide sufficient advice to prospects. The difference is that today’s resources are becoming more customer-focused and collaborative in the actual sales process. Consultants participate in sales talks at an early stage. The service representative will meet with the customer to discuss ongoing support. Your customer’s CEO could get questions answered directly from your own engineers and designers. In short, Team Selling is everywhere you look.

Collaborative selling does not provide a rigid sales model. Instead, it’s about working with the client to form a team that aids in decision-making. Most business customers today say that they do not care about a vendor who is just selling. They want a trusted advisor in the sales process who creates added value for their business and leads both sides to a favorable agreement.

In addition to the awareness of anchoring Collaborative Selling in the company, new challenges for the mapping of your system landscape emerge from this claim, especially for large companies. In addition to bringing together know-how, customers expect fast and transparent processes and results in the CPQ process.

What Slows down the Sale?

With indirect sales channels increasingly dominating the mix of all manufacturers, many are finding that they could achieve better results with their CPQ channel strategies.

The general challenges that all manufacturers face when trying to achieve closer collaboration across different distribution channels and to sell more configuration-based products include the following:

They have to rely on paper and Microsoft Excel-based price lists and pivot tables.
No price exceptions discounting checks or automation.
No automated sales tools integrated with CRM systems for customer data.
No integration with supply chain systems to provide Available to Promise (ATP) and Capable to Promise (CTP) bidding.
There are no rule-based and constraint-based configurators that can be used to verify that a particular product configuration can be created.

Factors of an inefficient CPQ distribution model include:

Orders are lost to competitors who are more agile and can sell faster.
Offers for complex products take days, but the prospective customer needs them within a few hours.
Ambiguity relating to options, prices and products.
Offers are frequently and repeatedly revised.
Missing automated pricing and quote tools do not allow an accurate product configuration.
Forcing a mindset that applies only to transactions and already existing products.

How Collaborative Selling Improves the Customer Experience

Changing customer expectations makes the buying process increasingly complex. The pool of decision-makers involved in the buying process is much larger in business today than it was in the past.

Analyses show that 83% of business customers find it very important to interact with a salesperson who has in-depth knowledge of their company’s products or services. Sales teams must become experts to understand their customers’ goals.

To be fully prepared to meet the buyer’s expectations, a seller needs his own super team to assist. By having their own team of specialists who can work together quickly and share information, salesmen can demonstrate that they have more in-depth knowledge and support than their competitors.

Another added benefit is that the collaborative sales process increases the interest of customers and their partners. Suppose before the sale that a buyer has a question that he puts in a collaboration group. You receive the answer from your team and your partners involved in the conversation. This creates a sense of community and an early connection in the sales process that spans the entire customer journey. Ultimately, this collaboration enhances the customer and partner experience by strengthening the sales process and building trust.

What Is Required for Successful Collaborative Selling?

Pricing is today one of the most complex and powerful parts of a collaborative CPQ system. Take advantage of all the ways to create intuitive, simplified workflows for bundling, discounting, approving price exceptions, and escalations and price updates.
Build a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) to improve sales promotion and collaboration. With a PRM foundation to stabilize the partner community, they have provided the communication tools they need to enhance collaborative sales, even with the latest customer requirements.
Give your teams a seamless and consistent collaboration from sales to production to service. By bringing all the data from each team together to create a common view of the customer, each industry can deliver networked experiences that accelerate the sales cycle.
Make it easy for your customers to adapt and order products according to their wishes via different channels. Especially developments in eCommerce in recent years have shown interesting possibilities in the area of product configuration. The almost playful examination of your products, however, requires a consistent end-to-end solution and high user-friendliness.

The above four steps are a great place to start reducing revenue, margins, and time lost in a collaborative CPQ sales strategy. Manufacturers can achieve the following results:

Cost reduction when completing an order.
Minimize voting cycles.
Decline in order reviewing.
Reduction of the necessary support by specialist departments for the verification of offers.
Faster and more accurate quotation.

Conclusion

Manufacturers now need to fix revenue, margins, and time lost in their joint sales strategies. Complex products that can already be configured in the sales process (direct and indirect), the need to improve supply and price accuracy, simplify ordering, and extend customization options are required.

To meet the expectations of potential and existing customers, businesses cannot just rely on sales to do business. It has to be genuine cooperation between multiple parties, all working towards common goals.

We support you

With our software solutions, we significantly reduce the time and personnel required for pricing and product configuration, especially for complex product variants with a large number of features and characteristics.

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Mergers & Acquisition Activities Provide Opportunities

AICOMP — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 07:14:00 +0000

In most of the conversations where M&A activity is a topic, especially in the packaging industry, the common theme is about successfully combining the people cultures of both organizations and ensuring a complete and successful change management process. While it has been proven that not paying enough attention to the successful integration of work and people cultures has contributed significantly to the failure of some high-profile mergers, the same can be said of processes and technology. The rapid pace of change bought on by mergers and acquisitions can cause major disruptions to established workflows, create havoc in whole departments and can often result in lost profits and unhappy customers.

Recent M&A trends reports pointed out three top reasons (beside revenue improvement) why companies choose to acquire or merge with others:

Expand customer base in existing geographic markets
Expand/diversify products or services
Acquire technology

M&A Value Creation: An IT Perspective

With most M&A worthy companies using large and complex ERP systems like SAP and Oracle, value from an acquisition depends on successful integration which for most companies requires “end to end” IT engagement. There can be no doubt that increasing business value is a key driver behind most mergers and acquisitions. At the same time, outlining the role of IT systems in supporting M&A activity is critical considering the complex nature of such an undertaking. The key element in all of this is enabling IT to support differentiating business functions, since augmenting core processes should be an underlying objective of any acquisition. Some key elements of IT value creation could include:

Improving IT capabilities to support the reasons behind the merger. Enhancing production synergies through tighter control and coordination of manufacturing assets; improved profit margin protection, increased sales and access to larger market opportunities.
Assuring end-user satisfaction with the integrated systems. It is important to avoid disruption as much as possible with your employees; and avoid at all costs disruptions and inconveniences to your customers.
Improving the IT operating model. This is a great time to take a holistic analysis of how both organizations have been operating the “Business of IT” and make the critical adjustments necessary to ensure that IT stays aligned with the needs of the business post-merger.

How IT Can Support A Successful Merger

McKinsey, in their 2011 Quarterly newsletter noted that “IT can be a powerful factor behind M&A success, assuring synergies are realized and ultimately increasing the deal-making capacity of acquirers.” If the IT systems of both the merging organizations are properly and thoughtfully integrated with the existing and ‘to be’ processes, significant impact and business value can be obtained. For example, the packaging industry has seen significant M&A activity over the past 20 years. Each of the participating companies has no doubt made significant investments in technology to support their core business functions such as sales, marketing, estimating, quoting, pricing management, manufacturing and logistics. It is therefore imperative for IT to thoroughly understanding the business needs of the merging entities and be able to align these with the proper supporting technologies, even if this means going to outside consultants and vendors for the additional tools and resources.

Following are just a few of the keys ways IT can play a major role in supporting a successful merger:

Reducing overlap of IT in the merge companies by rationalizing application portfolios and IT organizations.
Optimizing infrastructure landscapes and determining operating models for the new entity.
Enabling synergies by integrating major business functions, improving communication, enhancing processes and providing uninterrupted customer service, both internally and externally.

Don’t forget IT

Of course, the comments mentioned in this article represent some pieces of the puzzle when it comes to post merger business and technology integration. If this material urges your curiosity to learn more, please contact us: sales@aicomp.com.

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Mergers & Acquisition Activities Provide Opportunities

M&A Value Creation: An IT Perspective

How IT Can Support A Successful Merger

Don’t forget IT