Eilbeck Cranes Solution that simplifies and speeds up the buying process for Eilbeck Cranes

Eilbeck Cranes, a designer and manufacturer of customized overhead crane solutions, collaborated with Helioz Technologies to implement an internal usage solution that simplifies and speeds up the buying process for Eilbeck Cranes.

About
Eilbeck Cranes

Each crane at Eilbeck Crane is quality engineered in response to individual needs. The company's efficiency and flexibility provide customized overhead crane solutions at competitive prices. Eilbeck’s built cranes are sought after by many diverse industries, including well respected civil and industrial developers, local to Australia and worldwide. It is a 100% privately owned Australian company that has flourished in the face of fierce competition from multinational companies.

Since its establishment in 1907, Eilbeck Cranes’ Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence has continued growth. The company attracts new and repeated business, with strong relationships at corporate and individual levels. Eilbeck Cranes’ vast experience and its efficient and flexible approach allow the delivery of customized crane solutions at competitive prices.

Complementing its in-house specialist overhead crane design and manufacturing facilities, Eilbeck Cranes has been the sole distributor for German crane company ABUS since 1989 in Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Eilbeck Cranes is one of the leading ABUS agents in the world.

The Challenge

Facing many purchases and requests every day, Eilbeck Crane came to the point when simplifying and speeding up the buying processes is one of the keys to maintaining brand awareness, customer acquisition, and nurturing along the way.

The Solution

Solving this challenge is entrusted to Helioz Technologies and our solution for simplifying business processes. Eilbeck's invoicing process depends on a couple of general sections that affect the final price, so Helioz implemented a unique solution that combines the configurator, the scope of work, and installation sections into one place, enabling users to download them and to send the final result to the customer or other member of Eilbeck team. This solution is used by the Eilbeck Cranes team only, and it is not accessible for Eilbeck's customers at the moment. Before entering the portal, the Eilbeck salesperson has to log in.

Once the user is logged in, he can configure a crane and define specific options like Quote Number, Additional Options, or add some extra prices. While configuring a crane, the price automatically changes based on the chosen options. Some Eilbeck prices are SKU-based, while others are calculated out of defined formulas. Helioz has developed a set of rules for pricing calculations and implemented them in the backend. Since some Eilbeck prices are in Euros, the pricing system had to be enriched with an option to automatically convert prices from Euros to Australian dollars based on the entered conversion rate.

After configuring a crane, in the Scope of Work section user defines who will perform a specific action like installation or commissioning.

After configuring a crane, in the Scope of Work section user defines who will perform a specific action like installation or commissioning.

The whole process is rounded with the Summary section, which lists all options in one place for a salesperson to review all chosen options before finishing the quote. This Summary document is also sent to Eilbeck's customer once the whole process is completed. Along with the Summary Sheet, a salesperson reviews the Costing Sheet too. It lists all prices in one place so that salesperson can send it to the supervisor for the final insight and approval.

After configuration process is finished, and single prices added to the total price, the Eilbeck salesperson can download a 2D drawing document. This output contains the assembly's dimensions and related info, such as Quote Number, Crane Number, and Hoist Model Number. All information are automatically pulled from the configurator.

With this solution being added to the everyday business processes, Eilbeck Cranes is benefiting from best in website technology which is focused on helping business accelerate their complex processes and add significant value to their business.

Eilbeck Cranes -
Project Journey

The project's main goal was to simplify and speed up the buying process for the Eilbeck sales management team by creating a solution for the internal use of the Eilbeck team. The current process of sending quotes is slow and less user-friendly, so Eilbeck Cranes decided to invest in a solution that will speed up the whole business process.

Eilbeck's invoicing process depends on a couple of general sections that affect the final price. Those are crane price that is a result of configured options, the scope of work that defines activities and deliverables, and the Installation process. On top of that, Eilbeck also provides a detailed 2D drawing document and summary documents that collect crane specifications along with all project details and costings. Because of that, Eilbeck needed a simple solution that collects all written sections into one place, making the quoting system easier and faster.

With that being said, Helioz created a proof of concept and presented possible solutions which helped Eilbeck to understand how the whole process could be simplified.

Helioz has reviewed the documents Eilbeck provided and noticed a complex pricing system that needed to be maximally simplified. After identifying the main process sections, we have prepared and proposed a user interface and experience that best suits this process. While developing a user interface, the Helioz team followed the current Eilbeck brand identity and combined it with a unique and modern design, intuitive layout of the application pages, and easy-to-use functions.

We have separated the interface into five sections: configurator, the scope of work, installation, summary, and downloads. Every section communicates with each other making a different section work together.

While developing UI/UX, the Helioz team was building configurator and pricing logic too. Helioz developed and implemented rules/logic for the “drop-down” based configurator, where the logic was created upon input from the Eilbeck Cranes team. Rules navigate the end-user to pick only available and viable options. Users interact with configurator options from top to bottom and the selection options update in real-time. If some options affect the cost, its prices are automatically added to the final price.

Some Eilbeck prices are SKU-based, while others are calculated out of defined formulas. Helioz has developed a set of rules for pricing calculations and implemented them in the backend. This way, the end-user is not distracted by pricing calculations since the whole business is taking place in the backend. On the other hand, if any changes are needed, a user can easily access the backend and make them.

Helioz also provided an option to automatically convert prices from Euros to Australian dollars based on the entered conversion rate. Eilbeck salesperson can see the current conversion rate in the front end and proceed with the configuration process if that rate is appropriate. If not, he will inform a supervisor that the conversion rate needs to be updated and proceed with the process once it is updated. The supervisor then quickly changes the conversion factor in the backend.

A specific set of rules needed to be prepared for the installation part of the process, too, because Eilbeck offers an option to perform the installation instead of the customer. After the configuration process finishes, the installation price is added to the final crane price.

All the options are collected in the summary tab giving Eilbeck salesperson the possibility to review all chosen options before finishing the quote. Except for the Summary document, a salesperson can also review a Costing document that collects all project prices. Since some prices are visible in the frontend, and others affect the final price only from the backend, the costing sheet provides a detailed list of all of them.

While the summary sheet is the one that will be sent to the Eilbeck customer, a costing sheet is the one that the Eilbeck salesperson sends to the supervisor for final insight and approval. Both documents are easily downloadable from the last Download tab.

Along with the summary and costing sheets, a salesperson can also download a 2D drawing that shows and lists the most important dimensions of a specific crane. All dimensions are automatically pulled from the configurator.

Since this solution is only for internal use, Helioz implemented a basic login functionality, so the Eilbeck salesperson needs to log in before entering a configurator.

The whole solution is implemented on a portal separated from Eilbeck's website, giving Helioz the possibility to manage any issues or needed updates quickly.

Conclusion

Nowadays, being able to streamline and accelerate the quoting processes is vital. This solution will speed up the current too complex Eilbeck quoting system and make it more efficient by instant data combining and removing time-consuming manual calculations.