MEP improves sales process with Apra solutions, official partner of 3CAD for Italy.
The MEP Group is a world-leading manufacturer of metal sawing machines, specializing in the design and production of band and disc saws. The company, which began in a small workshop in an Italian near Pesaro-Urbino, now has four production plants on three continents, produces 4,000 machines a year and has a turnover of €50 million. The brand is constantly growing, and has many subsidiaries all over the world, including in Canada, China and Brazil).
The Challenge
MEP products are highly configurable so the company needed to equip its sales network, both Italian and foreign, with a tool capable of speeding up time to market and improving the sales process.
Because of the complexity of the products, the bidding process and specification required both the involvement of the technical office for the design and that of the commercial back office who would provide the quote.
MEP needed to optimize time and resources in creating their quotes, to improve the quality and efficiency of the service. The company turned to Apra to integrate a new web tool into its systems, capable of meeting these needs: the 3CAD graphic configurator.
The Project and the Solution
Thanks to 3CAD, MEP has been able to better manage and streamline its processes from presentation of the product to final quotation. The tool has also allowed MEP to evaluate the size of the proposed solution in real-time, thanks to the dimensional drawings in 3D and in plan. It is possible to simulate the movements of the configured machinery to better understand its operation.
3CAD was modeled on MEP’s business logic, this made it possible to obtain:
• Custom web interface
• Custom offer printing
• Integration with SAP S / 4HANA for constant updating of product information (codes, descriptions, prices, etc).
This tool is integrated with SAP and is available to the entire MEP sales network, including commercial partners and foreign distributors.
The advantages obtained
The project, launched in April 2019, immediately brought tangible benefits to the company:
• Creation of the estimate in real-time for the customer. This has enabled the streamlining of commercial back office activities which, by automating the listing process, no longer have to manually formulate quotes.
• Speed in the configuration of a machine / plant, obtaining the related 3D drawing, plan and quotation with prices always updated via the web. This takes pressure off of the technical office which no longer has to create ad-hoc designs for each individual offer.
• Increase in the number and value of both quotes and orders.
• Customer loyalty thanks to a better service offered.
• Prices always updated thanks to the integration with the management system.
• Use on the move: full web technology allows the instrument to be used anywhere and from any device.
• Revision management: versions and revisions are saved individually without overwriting, to quickly and easily resume previously configured projects.
“3CAD is a symbol of digital innovation,” says Enzo Magnani, Sales & Marketing Manager of MEP Group “which allowed us to have a technical drawing and a quote in a single tool. MEP is, by vocation, a company that always looks to the future, assuming the best scenarios to meet customer needs. 3CAD speeds up and streamlines the sales processes, offering customers a quick and complete service, with the ability to view the plant in action in its entirety. MEP improves sales process with Apra solutions.”
