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Meet the People at Tacton: Ann Jerreborg

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If you apply for a job at Tacton, you will eventually meet Ann Jerreborg as she is the head of HR. Today, she will tell us a bit about how it is to work at Tacton and how the recruitment process is here.  

Why did you choose to work at Tacton?

I have been working a lot with engineers in previous HR jobs which is something I really enjoyed. Engineers tend to be very ambitious people and people who work with something they have a great interest in. So when a former colleague invited me to apply for this position at Tacton, I was excited about working in a Swedish high-tech company with its own product. I also loved the challenge of being in a key position to find talents for a company with a very high expansion rate.  
I want to make sure Tacton is a great place to work at so I can market it genuinely towards new talents.  

When you recruit new talents, are there any specific skills you always look for?

In most positions, whether you are a developer, a sales person or a business consultant you need to be good at problem solving and have great social skills. It is also important to be comfortable with constant change since we are working in an ever-changing environment.  

What do applicants usually find special about Tacton?

Something that appeals to many of our applicants is the fact that we are a company with a strong international presence. We work all over the world and we have people from all over the world working at our office. With offices in Germany and USA, you also have a chance to work abroad if you want.   Another thing that applicants are positively surprised by is our Talent Program that gives each employee a kick-start into the company. It also enables each employee to get a great network in the company from the very beginning.   During the interviews, everyone gets to meet our CEO, which may come as a surprise to some applicants. We want everyone who are hired at Tacton to feel they have a personal connection with our CEO.  

What do you do to ensure the Tacton employees are happy with their job situation?

For me, it is very important to really make sure Tacton is a great company to work in. I want to know for a fact I am ”selling a great product” when I market our positions towards new talents.   In order to verify the quality of our work environment, we work with ”A Great Place to Work”. It is an excellent tool to evaluate, perform work culture audits, and develop your workplace. This is a very important tool for us to make sure we catch up on what we do well and what can be improved.  

Which factors receive the highest scores on these evaluations?

One of the things that always score high on our evaluations are factors regarding the co-workers and the camaraderie. People truly like to work with each other here, which is something we value highly.   The employees also have a pride of the product we deliver. We strongly feel that we have a great product on the market which is a very important feeling, especially when you work with the technical or sales aspects of the product.   One thing that is generally appreciated is the possibility to work with interesting and challenging projects that affect the core business processes of our customers. Another thing is that there are many ways of pursuing a career within the company and it is easy to move around since we always try to hire internally first.  

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The importance of mental accounting

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The specification was almost completed. After hours of explanations and presenting a state-of-the-art tipper truck was being specified and visualized within the new and shiny CPQ-tool.   – This is the ultimate tipping truck, said Bob. It’s exactly what I wanted.I think it will sum up below the budget you mentioned, said Sue. Let me get back with a price tomorrow.   Sue almost pressed the button to send Bob the offer. The price summed up to 100. Just remember the number 100 and keep in mind that budget mentioned above was 120.   When Sue did a final review of the order she realized that they could have included the popular multi-angle rear mirrors. The only problem was that it would raise the price another 10. If she added it as an option Sue knew it would backfire and this would typically be Bob’s reaction:  
– How dare you charge me 10 for that mirror?! It’s a rip-off. In the spare catalog, it only costs 2!  
What Bob didn’t realize was that that particular mirror would require significant changes to the truck’s configuration. The order summary would differ in no less than 14 different places! All in all, that added up to the higher price of 10. From a “total cost of ownership” point-of-view, the new price would still make sense. However, this is usually a difficult message to get across. What Sue understood was that even if the new option provided a much better handling of the truck, Bob would perceive it as far too expensive. In the end, Sue could never sell this option if she just added it as an option reflecting the real price tag.   What is going on here? Why does it matter how the price for this fantastic mirror is added to the quotation? This is an example of what is called mental accounting: the fact that we tend to split things we buy into different accounts. Mental accounting is exactly what was happening with Bob and his tipper truck. Indeed, in our mind the truck is one account and the additional benefit of an option is another. The truck is not price sensitive if we’re not maximizing the budget, but the option sure is.   So, what tactics did Sue use for the pricing? She knew that simply putting the price increase as an option would be seen as a scam by Bob. She knew better than that. Instead, she put part of the additional price on the truck, increasing its price but keeping the mirror price seemingly low. This way, she kept the mirror option attractive. So, the final price was 109 for the truck and 1 for the option. Playing the game this way, Sue sold a better truck, at a higher price, to a happy customer. Bob still got a price below budget and added the mirror option at “half price”.   What’s the lesson learned here? Make sure to have the flexibility to manipulate the price and when you do, make sure your reps understand the basics of mental accounting. Sometimes options turn out to be unreasonably costly. And to be able to close this kind of deal, you must have a CPQ-tool at hand to package your offer in a way that sounds and looks better.

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Meet the People at Tacton: Esther Bergmark

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Esther is one of the newer recruits to the Tacton family, and works as a Product Manager handling the Tacton document engine and SAP-integration. As a native German she is one of many employees at Tacton with experience from working, and growing up, in another country. As a Product Manager, what do you do at Tacton? Basically, I make sure the requests, complaints, and feedback from our customers makes their way into updates of our products. For example, I visit customers and sit by them as they work with our product to learn how they really use it. For example, do our customers actually use that new button we added and if not, why not? This is very enlightening but also a great way to find out about problems before they turn into complaints. Outside of that, I also have regular meetings with representatives from our customers in a more formal setup where we discuss issues with the product and possible improvements. With this type of feedback from our customers, I can distinguish the changes needed for the product and promote these functionalities towards our development department. After the functionalities have been developed we perform new usability tests and finally release the updated product back to the market. The whole idea is to make sure important new functionalities are implemented into the product as soon as possible after the need has been discovered.   You work with Document Generation. What is that? An important part of CPQ is to dynamically create documentation based on the product configuration. The slightest alteration of a product configuration could have large implications on everything from details in the user manual to legal documents related to the product. In addition to that, changes of the product also change the product images, the Bill of Material, technical specifications, quotations etc. The Tacton CPQ generates these documents on the fly and it is my responsibility to make sure it all works.   You are also responsible for Tacton’s SAP integration, could you tell us something about that? Tacton CPQ can integrate with SAP ERP to create quotes and orders, among many things, and I am responsible for these and similar products. The work with these products is a great challenge and a lot of fun. I am currently working with a development team of highly experienced integration and SAP VC experts for a research project where we dig deep into the topic of SAP integration. This project is just about to go live with SAP integration options for our products Tacton CPQ and Tacton Extensions: Business Data for SAP and Business Logic for SAP, so I have my hands full at the moment – but that’s how I like it!  
“My feeling is that Tacton picks the best people, no matter where they are from.”  
What is your impression from your first time at Tacton? My strongest impression has been the people working here! There is an amazing work culture at Tacton with fantastic, smart, and creative people. People are quite unique and have very different backgrounds, which creates an interesting workplace. I have also noted that many of my colleagues, just like me, have backgrounds from different countries. My feeling is that Tacton picks the best people, no matter where they are from.   What is the difference between working in Germany compared to Sweden? In general, I find the workplaces in Sweden to be less formal and not to be very hierarchical. Something I like about working at Tacton specifically is that there is a good balance between work and the rest of your life priorities here. On the other hand, I believe decisions too often need to be consensus based in Swedish companies. I think German companies are better in that aspect.   What do you do when you’re not working? I do a lot of sports: running, squash, biking, and yoga for example. I also like to cook and listen to opera, especially when I travel to new cities.   Esther Bergmark Product Manager | Magister Degree in Media Sciences, Sinology and Political Science | Stockholm | 11 months at Tacton Passionate about: Sports, cooking, and opera

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Meet the People at Tacton: Jyotika Mehra

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  I was happily surprised when I met Jyotika Mehra to talk about Technical Documentation. Her passion for writing Technical Documentation and User’s Manuals is really contagious! Technical Documentation is often a neglected part of product development – but this is never the case with Jyotika.   Why do you like writing Technical Documentation so much? Writing is my passion in life and I love all forms of writing, it’s as simple as that. I write in my spare time as well: I write poetry and I also have a lifestyle blog about human behavior and optimism. When it comes to writing a User’s Manual, I like the service I’m providing to the customer in the end. I like to feel that the end user will truly understand our product through my text. I also love the challenge of transmitting our knowledge of the product in text so that this knowledge is transferred to the customer. There is a certain “poetry” in Technical Documentation in that sense. As far as I am concerned, writing Technical Documentation is an art form in itself. You have to make sure you are correct, for obvious reasons. You have to be concise since no one wants to read too much. You have to make sure the content is complete and covers every aspect and question the reader may have. Your content needs to be comprehensible so you need to make sure to use language that the end user will understand. Lastly, the content needs to be cohesive and synchronized so that all references add up in the end. Everything is about putting yourself in the customer’s shoes, and trying to look at it from his or her view. What do I need to explain and what can (should!) I leave out? This all sums up to a great challenge and I love that challenge!   Why is Technical Documentation so important? The most important is, of course, that the customer will understand how to use the product. I also find it important that the Technical Documentation can help the user to find new features of the product, which is not always easy to find through “normal use”. I also look at the Technical Documentation as a company’s legacy. The different versions of User’s Manuals show what the product used to be like. I like how my work with Technical Documentation serves as a history of all the transitions the product has gone through during its lifespan.   What do you do when your fingers are too tired to write? Being an Indian native and fairly new to Sweden I’m currently learning Swedish in my spare time (at this point in the interview, Jyotika briefly switch language to Swedish and it is impressive how much she’s learned already!). I also like to experiment with food, especially Indian-Swedish crossover. I meditate frequently and was very happy to hear about the Spiritual Room at Tacton. When I heard about the Spiritual Room during my interview I knew I had found the right place to work!   Jyotika Mehra 4 months at Tacton | Master of Computer Application, Master of Philosophy (Computer Science) | Technical Writer (Documentation Manager) | Passionate about: Writing!  

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Why buying blindly is a thing of the past

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Seeing is believing and believing helps buying. 3D visualization gives crucial feedback during the buying process that saves time and money for you and your customer.

The worst summer job ever? When my friends and I were in our late teens and needed work, there were three options – flipping burgers at McDonald’s, a job in the family business, or a gig as a telemarketer. Most of us chose a  career, albeit brief, in telemarketing – selling everything from magazines to laundry detergent. My friend Johan drew the short straw. He sold sweater subscriptions. He was literally calling people to sell a monthly supply of sweaters that they couldn’t see! Picture the scene… ”Well, sir, I am holding one of the sweaters here in front of me and let me tell you…it’s blue…sort of navy blue…with some nice white stripes on the shoulders. It is 90% cotton and has soft, yet stretchy feel to it. It is a great looking sweater and I am sure you would look handsome in it. What do you say? Should we sign you up for a monthly subscription of these high-quality sweaters? Next month’s will be green.” As surprising as it is that someone thought it would be a good idea to market something like this over the phone, even more surprising is that he actually did manage to sell these subscriptions on occasion! From sweaters to something more relevant When it comes to clothes, being able to see what you buy is a given. It’s also becoming increasingly important for build-to-order products. So, rather than sweaters, let me give you an example of more complex, configurable product that benefits greatly from visual configuration – the elevator car. Elevator cars often have different measurements, interior finishes, button placements and so forth. Your configuration tool will hopefully make sure everything can be produced and will work together. But a visual representation of the product during configuration gives crucial information and feedback that not only helps your customer to make that all-important buying decision, it also saves you and your customer a lot of time and money down the line. Let me explain. In our example, the elevator is mainly used to transport boxes from the production floor to the delivery depot. The Production Department fills the elevator with boxes through the south end, selects the floor and sends it up. At the delivery depot, the elevator opens through the north end, where the boxes are removed and the car is sent down to production again. Everything is as is should be, and perfectly fitted, but the elevator buttons are placed on the north (wrong) end of the elevator car causing production some logistical issues. They first have to walk in into the elevator, select a floor and then go outside to fetch the boxes, while making sure the elevator doors doesn’t close! This is something that wasn’t anticipated during sales configuration. Whose problem? This kind of error is typical of something that causes a conflict between the customer and the seller. Whose mistake is it? And who carries the cost? Often the seller will resolve the issue by re-designing the elevator for free, or at a reduced cost, which of course eats into the profit margin on the sale. Not doing so risks a disgruntled customer. Whatever the resolution, the error takes time, costs money to fix and erodes trust. The days of buying blindly are coming to an end  With the help of a 3D visualization tool, this flaw would become obvious during the sales cycle, before the order is placed. Not only that…seeing is believing and believing helps buying. 3D visualization aids your customer’s understanding of your product, giving them confidence in that all-important buying decision. For industry leaders, 3D-visualization of configurable products has gone from being a ”nice to have”  to an essential tool – helping sales to close deals, reducing order errors and creating up-selling opportunities. You wouldn’t expect to buy a sweater blind, what makes an elevator car any different?  

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Tacton CPQ and SAP ERP integration – Helping to unite front and back, and eliminate back and forth

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These days, even in the B2B world the demand for customization and a compelling user experience is growing for sophisticated, highly configurable products. Sales reps face more pressure to produce winning quotes faster and more profitably. At the same time, the different applications that need to communicate with each other to optimize sales enablement have, quite frankly, made integration issues a major headache for IT departments. So, uniting back-office with front-office processes is more crucial than ever. For decades, we’ve been helping companies sell custom products and variants using simple, smart tools for configuration and guided selling that streamline processes within the larger lead-to-cash process. But we’re also determined to ease integration pain. That’s why we’re offering an enhanced version of our innovative configure-price-quote (CPQ) tools to our SAP® enterprise users, right out of the box. As the world’s leading provider of business software solutions, SAP helps hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the world manufacture and deliver configurable products. And as an SAP partner, Tacton can leverage the product data and configuration rules from SAP ERP and SAP Variant Configurator (VC) to deliver accurate, up-to-date pricing, bundling and product configuration information to sales teams, partners and end customers.   Seamless and structured, or still in silos? For many businesses, the processes, tools, and expertise they need to optimize lead-to-cash are still stuck in silos. Information simply doesn’t flow smoothly from one business function to another. And there is no single “record of truth.” With Tacton’s configuration and needs-based selling solutions for SAP, users can configure complex products quickly and accurately using up‑to‑date, authoritative master and transaction data from SAP ERP. SAP remains the system of record where the data is maintained. Tacton makes that data easily available for sales configurations and automatically synchronizes the configuration results with quotes and orders in SAP. This way, companies can rest assured that their sales teams and partners quote products that are actually buildable and optimally priced and sold.   Goodbye custom code and chatty calls – hello peace of mind! IT administrators can spend 100% of their working hours transferring data on materials, BOMs, pricing, and more from SAP to CPQ. Resource-inefficient implementations require custom code developed by programmers to convert extracted data into formats that can be imported to the CPQ tool. As a result, any changes an SAP administrator makes will probably require additional maintenance (at a high cost, of course). Also, typical integrations use direct BAPI calls to request and return pricing data from SAP ERP. Any changes made by a salesperson will lead to many frequent “chatty” calls in real time that lower network performance. Tacton automatically extracts and translates SAP VC models to Tacton models on a frequent, scheduled basis, eliminating these problems.   How it works: The lead-to-cash flow Here’s how it works from the business user’s point of view. Product inventory, capacity, and available-to-promise from SAP ERP are made available to the quoting screens in your CPQ tool. After this is done, your opportunities and quotes are created in CPQ and pushed to SAP sales order management. Finally, to complete the order-to-cash process, you process and ship your orders, invoice them and collect payments within SAP. The entire process is completed when inventory is updated and made available to the CPQ tool for the next quoting cycle. It’s a seamless, highly automated end-to-end process – one that users experience as taking place within the same system. No need to jump from application to application, no risk of double maintenance, no manual errors.   Main benefits of Tacton configuration tools for SAP Slash data administration overhead
  • Eradicate redundant processes and double maintenance by automating data sync
Reduce manual errors
  • Automated data transfer eradicates manual manipulation
  • Reduce the reliance on technical experts in the sales process
Increase order accuracy
  • Quote and place orders with correct configuration data and precision pricing
  • Full connection between articles in quotes and materials in SAP (SBOM > MBOM)
Optimize the manufacturing process
  • Drive production planning/MRP from the sales order
  • Automatically build production forecasting on proposal and order data
  • Secure an understanding of available-to-promise, capacity and lead time
Lower your implementation costs
  • Faster implementations by leveraging existing data and models
  Why not test Tacton CPQ on your organization’s SAP data? Download a demo version and contact us today to get started.  

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Meet the team behind Tacton for SAP

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If you’re working in the manufacturing industry, chances are you’ve encountered SAP one way or another. Since Tacton’s CPQ solutions are developed for complex configurations especially common for manufacturing companies, an SAP integration is a given.   Tacton for SAP is our latest product release, which combines the power of the Tacton Configurator with SAP. This tool provides full control of configuring, pricing, quoting and ordering complex products by tying together the power of Tacton with SAP data and logic.   We decided it might be fun for you to get to know the team behind the product a bit better, and managed to schedule (almost) everyone on the team for a joint interview. We talked about Tacton for SAP, the value it brings, and what the pre-launch process looked like.   Let’s start by introducing the team. Esther Bergmark is the Product Manager for Tacton for SAP (if you’re a loyal reader of this blog, and we know you are, you’ve read her interview for Meet the People at Tacton earlier this spring). Additionally, these specialized developers are the brains behind Tacton for SAP and are constantly working to make the product better and more seamless:
  • Albert Haag (Germany) – SAP Luminary who worked on the initial creation of the SAP ECC variant configurator (SAP VC) already back in 1992.
  • Johan Eriksson (Sweden) – Solution Architect and Tech lead with 20 years’ experience in integration. Created the Tacton Integration Layer.
  • Grzegorz Zebrowski (Poland) – Java Developer. Created the export of quotes and orders from Tacton back to SAP.
  • Joakim Almgren (Sweden) – Senior System Developer. Researched and developed the SAP VC translator together with Albert and Jean-Noël.
  • Jean-Noël Monette (Belgium) – Software Engineer & Tacton Configuration Engine expert and one of the brains behind the SAP VC Translator (not pictured)
  What’s been unique about developing Tacton for SAP? Johan: – Sometimes development is “only” a matter of programming and solving algorithms. However, since a lot of our work includes tying the logic of SAP ECC and Tacton CPQ together, we often find ourselves working on a very high level of logic. We could have long meetings where the topic of discussion was abstract concepts like “What is configuration, really?” or “What is a constraint?”. Grzegorz: – I think those kinds of meetings are really interesting but also crucial for the development progress. When you end up with difficult challenges, especially when it comes to logic, you have to really push yourself while also continuing to work as a team. I think there is an added benefit of us having such different backgrounds, in terms of age and nationality. We all bring a different perspective.   What does Tacton for SAP do for manufacturing companies? Esther: – The SAP VC is an excellent tool for manufacturing logic. Tacton for SAP, in addition, enables companies to leverage their SAP ECC installation in the Tacton CPQ application. Joakim: – Exactly, we are not creating a competing solution. Rather, we add value to the SAP CPQ. Our aim is to meet the demands of high-end configuration problems and address challenges mainly related to sales CPQ.   What is the difference between Tacton for SAP and the SAP ECC? Albert: – The term CPQ didn’t exist back in the 90’s when I started working at SAP. The SAP VC is a powerful configurator but it addresses a different set of configuration problems – and it solves them differently. It provides powerful “object oriented” product modeling capabilities integrated with the SAP master data maintenance, and is constructed to ensure that configurations are consistent and complete from the perspective of the manufacturing process. In interactive configuration it can be seen as a decision support system that “looks over your shoulder” and tells you about conflicting choices. Esther: – I believe we add a perfect match to the SAP ECC and give you the best of two worlds. SAP ECC for configuration during manufacturing and Tacton for complex sales configuration.   If you want to learn more about Tacton for SAP, watch this 25-minute webinar or download the product sheet here.  

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Think globally, act locally. Tacton expands in DACH region

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Germany and the rest of the DACH region is a key location for the manufacturing industry. Angela Merkel’s initiative for “Industrie 4.0” where manufacturing and connectivity go hand in hand is gaining momentum. And Tacton is, of course, aiming at being an important part of the coming years’ development towards digitalized manufacturing.   A local presence in DACH is a given for Tacton. And as of today, we’re happy to announce that we are strengthening it further.   The first is the acquisition of Ventacor GmbH, a long-standing partner and reseller of our products. Ventacor provides sales, consulting, and implementation services for Tacton CPQ solutions. The company brings many years’ experience within advanced configuration, digital transformation and CPQ. This vast experience will be very important for understanding the DACH manufacturing landscape when further expanding our reach and activities in the region.   Ventactor will be integrated to Tacton Systems GmbH, formerly known as Lumo Graphics GmbH. Lumo Graphics is now successfully integrated into Tacton following its acquisition in November ‘16. This makes for a team of 30 people in Germany. Located in both Bochum and Karlsruhe, the team is ready to support our existing and future customers in the DACH region.   Tacton Systems GmbH marks a new and important chapter in Tacton’s expansion. Additionally, new beginnings can offer both great potential but also great challenges. In other words, there’s a need for strong leadership to ensure Tacton’s continued success.   Ewa Johansson steps in as Managing Director DACH. Ewa has worked as a sales manager at Tacton in Stockholm for the past 3 years, following more than 20 years of industry leadership in global B2B sales and marketing. Her extensive experience of managing divisions of Swedish companies in Germany will add great value to this new era in Tacton’s history. She looks to Tacton’s German expanison with great optimism, saying:   “When I came to Tacton three years ago, we were just starting to gain a foothold in the DACH market. To see it all come together right now is amazing. We have taken a giant leap ahead and are progressing in the right direction, with exciting new customers like Wilo and our latest product release, Tacton for SAP. This market shows great potential, and I foresee a huge need for our products as digital transformation and the Industry 4.0 concept continue to gain momentum. I’m thrilled to take on the new role as managing director for our DACH operations and am excited about helping lead our journey going forward.”   It’s safe to say that many exciting things await. If you’re curious to know more, read the press release here

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Tacton is awarded the Frost Sullivan 2017 CPQ Product Leadership Award

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We’re very proud to announce that Tacton has received the 2017 Frost & Sullivan North America Product Leadership Award for best practice within the CPQ industry. Over the past 12 months, we’ve been working extremely hard here at Tacton to deliver the most significant developments in our 25-year history. This includes the release of our new flagship product Tacton CPQ, Tacton Extension for Salesforce, Tacton for SAP, as well as a series of high value mobile apps. We’ve expanded our footprint in North America and Europe, cemented some strategic partnerships and made several key acquisitions. To all of us here at Tacton, this award recognizes all this hard work, but more importantly, it also validates its relevance, and the value it brings to our customers.

Not just any award

Each year, global industry analyst Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality, while gaining rapid traction in the market. The award recognizes outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. What’s different about Frost & Sullivan is the way they select their winner – by thorough analysis, in-depth study and customer interviews across the industry. There was no application process. We didn’t even know we were being evaluated. We got the award based solely on our accomplishments and merits.

So, what was it about Tacton CPQ?

Frost & Sullivan opens its motivation with, “Tacton focuses on anticipating and meeting the needs of innovative manufacturing businesses, particularly those engaged in smart manufacturing (Industry 4.0) initiatives.” The key difference when compared to other CPQ vendors lies in the level of complexity that the Tacton configurator can handle, and how it synchronizes what’s being proposed by sales with downstream processes. The analysts at Frost & Sullivan picked up on this in the report, “Tacton’s CPQ applications enable and support digitization end-to-end”. The motivation also recognizes the importance of Tacton’s long term vision and leadership as well as our strong track record of delivering real value to our customers. “Tacton has, from its research beginnings, been focused on developing leading edge product configuration solutions. Tacton’s technologies and its product set have been validated by sales to over 250 businesses, which have experienced excellent results. The company is building on its innovation and success with plans to enhance its products and to expand its market. Based on this impressive background and performance, Tacton has justly earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Product Leadership Award for Configure, Price, Quote solutions.” Simply put, Tacton is leading the way towards smarter manufacturing, and this award recognizes both the strengh and relevance of our existing product portfolio as well as the validity of our direction going forward. Read the Frost & Sullivan press release here.

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Meet the People at Tacton: Pawel Dabrowski

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Pawel is one of the most senior co-workers at Tacton, having spent most of his career at the company. He started off as pre-sales engineer and later continued to work as both key account manager and project manager. He’s now in charge of Channel Sales and commercially responsible for the Design Automation products.   You have extensive experience within Tacton. What do you appreciate most with the company? I must say that 11 years at Tacton says quite a bit about how I see Tacton as an employer. I have high demands on my work environment and, to be honest, I have not been lacking alternatives in my career. I believe the most important reason I’ve stayed at Tacton is that it has always developed me professionally. I’ve always felt I’m learning new things. In addition, I feel that what I do is fun and that I really make a difference and contribute to the company’s growth every day.   I have always enjoyed doing business and navigating professionally in an international environment. I travel frequently in my role, which is another thing I enjoy – waking up in one city and falling asleep in another. The variation really makes each week different.   Another thing worth noting is that I’ve been blessed with colleagues that make coming to the office each morning fun.   Why is it important to sell through partners? “Think globally, act locally” really is the key to everything. Every country has its own conditions, customs and ways of doing business – meaning a local partner can help a customer faster and in their own language. Partners help us sell in markets where we don’t have a strong local presence, which would otherwise be a challenge. This also enables us to work with smaller businesses all around the world.   What are the most important considerations in channel sales? Just like in all types of sales it’s important to have a strategy and a long-term view of all relations.   It is also very important to keep our partners motivated and educated about the benefits of our product. It may be quite easy to understand the features of a product, but to present the value of it to a customer in any given case requires experience and product knowledge. Making our partners truly understand the value of our product is something I find extremely important in channel sales.   Having said that, this all has to be balanced with trusting our partners and their expertise. You can only educate and support so much. At the end of the day, you have to let the partners do what they are great at: knowing the customers and their needs, knowing the local market and customs, and knowing how to match our products with the customers’ needs.   What do you look for in a Design Automation partner? Our partners are great at understanding the complexity of product design in the manufacturing industry and selling CAD-related products and services. They usually have an extensive customer base and are interested in offering value-added solutions based on our products.   What do you do when you are not working? I spend almost all my free time with my wife and our two kids. We travel frequently and are currently planning a backpacking trip to the Balkan peninsula, which I’m really excited about.   Pawel Dabrowski MSc Engineering Physics, MBA | 11 years at Tacton | Channel Sales Manager Passionate about: My family and traveling

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Why 3D-configuration will help you sell more

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If you are working with sales, you have probably asked yourself one, or two, of these questions:
  • What can we do to sell more?
  • How can we help our customers make that purchase decision?
  • What can we do to upsell?
Here’s some consumer behavior theory for you: prior to purchasing a product, a consumer always struggles with whether she should follow her Desires or her Fears. The consumer typically Desires to solve a problem but also Fears that a certain product will not, in fact, work as expected or solve the problem at hand. The more the consumer desires a product, the more likely it is she will buy it – as long as the Fear of purchasing the wrong type of product is not stronger. For example, if you buy a pair of shoes in a street store you can look, touch, and try the shoes beforehand. If you buy the same type of shoes online you do not have that same benefit and this introduces a fear of buying uncomfortable or ill-fitting shoes. These are important features that could keep consumers from making the purchase even though the desire to purchase the shoes online is high (perhaps due to lower prices or a better selection). The same goes for more complex products and especially complex, configurable products. I will go with one of my favorite examples: a configurable truck. Trucks can often be customized and configured to suit every aspect of the customers’ need. Obviously, you can’t keep every configuration of the truck in the demo room so the customer typically has a couple of different configurations to look at. However, the exact product version the customer would use will rarely be on display. When the configuration of the truck is created, the final view of the product will usually be created only in the customers’ imagination. When the customer cannot be 100% sure of the end result, a certain fear of a discrepancy between her view of the end result and how the actual product will be, might surface. This fear is costing money in terms of missed out sales and missed opportunities in upselling. With 3D-configuration, the consumer will be able to see the result of every change on the product, both minor and major. This will reduce the fear of the end result not being as expected, which will push many customers to actually making that purchase decision. This benefit of 3D-configuration is quite straightforward and easy to understand. The upselling benefit of 3D-configuration is, however, an added benefit that is often overlooked. Imagine the same truck and you, as a customer, get the option to add a “Deluxe Seat”. Even if the benefit is described in words, the visualization of it takes place in the customer’s mind – which leaves it out of your control. If you are able to show the customer how the “Deluxe Seat” will look and how this, in practice, would improve the driver’s comfort you can bring the customer’s idea of its benefits much, much closer to the end result. This will, in practice, reduce any fear of buying something unnecessary. It also creates a desire to add features the customer did not even have when he started the configuration of your product.   When you raise the Desire to add features to your product and reduce the customer’s Fear of making a bad decision, the result is simple: you will sell more with 3D-configuration.

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The traveling salesman, Tacton and orienteering

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Believe it or not, traveling salesmen and product configuration go hand in hand. Here’s a story of a mathematical problem we used to stimulate the minds of our employees – the Tactonites – during our company’s spring kickoff. So, what do traveling sales consultants have to do with Tacton and the navigational sport of orienteering?  

The traveling salesman

The traveling salesman problem, or TSP, is a classic. Basically, this problem presents the challenge of finding the most optimal route between a number of nodes. If you have appointments in 10 different cities in a week, how do you travel between these appointments? If each city is connected to all other cities and each direction is counted individually, that’s 100 different possible paths. What is the most optimal path the traveling salesman should take to visit each city only once? To solve this quest, it’s often helpful to visualize it as in the map of France below. The human mind is great at solving these types of puzzles to a certain extent. We use our experience about certain paths and reuse them easily, visualizing them with maps that support us in our decision-making. But the human mind is limited and biased. We can really only understand patterns and paths of certain sizes. The TSP website offers an excellent example of how to solve visiting 24,978 towns in Sweden in the most optimal way.   The TSP has been around since the 1800’s, and ever since the 1950’s people have been trying to solve it in different and better ways. (If you’re interested in computational theory, you can read here on Wikipedia about how the TSP is a “NP-complete problem” and thus “NP-hard” to solve.) It turns out that one great way of solving such problems is using the Tacton configurator. The configurator engine is state-less and uses constraints instead of sequential rules to solve the problem. Finding the right nodes to use and understanding which paths connect them presents a similar challenge for the traveling salesman as for product configuration. Reducing the paths is the same as creating constraints. We don’t want to travel too far on some days, too little on the next, we don’t like to backtrack and revisit the same place, maybe some nodes aren’t directly connected, and so on.

Orienteering at Tacton

Quite a few of us at Tacton do sports, and we have an athletic section focused on a quirky outdoor sport that combines brains with brawn – orienteering. Originally a military exercise, orienteering has its roots in 19th-century Sweden and combines racing with navigation. Participants use a specially created map to select their route and navigate as quickly as possible through often-unfamiliar terrain (usually in a forest). We’ve participated in the world’s biggest orienteering relay, Jukola, plus local orienteering competitions. We even go out running during lunch breaks. You can follow us at https://www.instagram.com/tactonok/.   For this year’s kickoff, our team wanted to introduce more people to this fun sport. So, true to our corporate and cultural heritage, we built an orienteering course configurator and made sure that everyone at Tacton could enjoy the sport based on their own abilities, not just for the sake of competition. The organizers asked employees questions about the pace they wanted and the level of complexity of the controls (nodes) they felt they could manage. We then created a configured map based on their input. In short, we provided them with some guided selling options to create a valid, optimal solution based on their input. The “users” could even add more controls, add more minimum distance, or decide to take part in the competition if they wanted to.   In orienteering, the competitors have to visit each control in a specified order. Basically, they’ve got to execute the traveling salesman route that someone has set up. This time, we used the Tacton configurator engine (our so-called constraints solver) to help the competitors set up their individual courses, which they then got to execute.

Solving the TSP when orienteering

First, we took the map of the area where the kickoff was held and charted out 40 different nodes, thus creating 1,600 possible paths assuming that each node should connect to the other. Each path was documented with its length, bearing (direction angle compared to north), difficulty, and the From and To nodes it connected. Next, we removed all the paths that were too short (<50 meters) or too long (>600 meters), leaving us with 1,274 paths.   Then, some constraints were applied: The sum of all individual path lengths in a course must be longer than the guided selling input. The sum of all difficulty points for each node had to adhere to the user input.   Since orienteering includes changing bearings for each control, the course was designed so that no next control could be in a sector ±50° within the bearing ahead or behind the path leading up to the initial control.     In order to create a spread of the courses, we inserted a JavaScript randomizer that outputted different starting points within a given cluster of nodes. If we hadn’t done this, the people with same inputs would have received matching courses, and we wanted to create a disruption by having a wider spread.   The courses we created were integrated to an orienteering course-creating tool and then printed at the venue. Each competitor received their individual map and a compass. And when they ran their course, they helped create a great event utilizing our own IT tool!   In the end, we had 149 participants on 59 different configured courses, apart from the 28 in the competition class. Who knows what future developments at Tacton will bring?

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Meet the Team behind TactonDay

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Any given day, chances are most people at Tacton are working with our configuration engine in one way or another. But there’s also the marketing department, working day and night (well, almost) to make sure the manufacturing industry knows about Tacton CPQ. Along with executing marketing campaigns, giving the company a fresh logo (you can read about our re-branding here) and running the website, marketing arranges TactonDay, our annual customer event. This year’s event is the sixth and holds the theme “Tacton in the digital era/digitalization”. But before getting into the details of the event, let’s get to know the team a bit better.  
  • Anders Ekman, Chief Marketing Officer. Has been with Tacton for four (4) years. One thing people don’t know about you: “I am a certified soccer coach, specialized in speed training.”
  • Petra Lindgren, Marketing Communications Director. Has worked at Tacton for six (6) years. One thing people don’t know about you: “I make fantastic smoothies!”
  • Bénédicte Wipliez, Lead Generation Manager. 10 months with Tacton. One thing people don’t know about you: “I have a secret dream of becoming a TV chef someday. I will probably have Petra and her smoothies as a special guest!”
  • Paulina Tellebo, Marketing Communications Manager. 1.5 years at Tacton. One thing people don’t know about you: “I love singing and do it as often as I get the chance.”
  What’s one thing that most people don’t realize about working in marketing? Paulina: – It seems to me that some people think marketing “just happens” and that there’s no structure behind it. I’d say it’s the opposite. It requires a lot of structure and thought to make a complex product, such as Tacton’s, easily approachable. It’s a fun challenge. Bénédicte: – I agree. Since we don’t produce concrete products, people often don’t see the value of marketing. It’s usually seen as costing a lot of money. Paulina: – I do think, though, that most people can see the value of a strong brand in a long-term perspective. Marketing is bigger than a single campaign or a Facebook post. All the little things add up to a well-known and trusted brand – and that’s all marketing. Petra: – Our new branding is a good example. Every single detail in our new graphical profile is there for a reason – every color, the look of the logo – everything. Anders: – I want to add that it’s really a lot of fun! Especially when you have a team such as ours. Plus, working together with Tacton’s salesforce to make sure that all prospects get contacted makes marketing bigger than campaigns and the brand. We’re an important part of the sales eco-system at Tacton. Paulina: – Producing high-quality material as resource-efficient as possible is another challenge. I must say, though, that we’re doing pretty good in this area. Just a month ago, we redecorated the entire office with posters I designed with pictures of our employees. It didn’t cost much but made a huge difference for the office atmosphere.   What’s a challenge with marketing software products? Petra: The hi-tech market is a fast-moving market. Competitors keep popping up, but they also keep disappearing. Also, not having a physical product is both an advantage and a challenge, I would say. An advantage because we can easily realign. A challenge because our message and offer easily become abstract and hard to understand for our target group. You can’t touch and hold a CPQ solution in your hands. That’s definitely a challenge for software companies in general, not just CPQ vendors.   Bénédicte: – CPQ is also a very technical niche, which means you can’t sell it to just anyone. We’re constantly working on finding a balance between being value oriented and technical. It’s tough targeting the right people with the right content and message, especially when one message addresses CEOs and the other, engineers. Anders: – Because of the narrow niche and that our product is a software, we work a lot with activity-based marketing. This means that we analyze all activity that people do on our website, and then send the relevant material to each specific person, based on what they’ve shown interest for.   So, TactonDay! What is it and what can participants expect? Petra: – We host TactonDay every year and this is the sixth time we welcome close to 200 attendees to Stockholm in October. The day consists of breakout sessions where we share the latest within CPQ, as well as best-practices and great networking opportunities within the industry. Anders: – From our point of view, the event really is a highlight during the year since it’s our biggest event. It’s the perfect time to connect with customers, partners and analysts and get some facetime. The annual meeting of Tacton User Association is also held during TactonDay.   What’s it like arranging an event like this? Petra: – Definitely a lot of stuff to do, ranging from setting the agenda and booking speakers to making sure that we have food and drinks for everyone. It’s quite stressful at times but still so much fun. Seeing things coming together is the greatest satisfaction I get in my job.   What’s your best memory from TactonDay? Petra: – It’s hard to pick just one, there are so many! But for me, the best memory happens every year when the conference opens and you see all the participants, both new and old. It’s like seeing your extended family again. It may sound cheesy, but it’s true! Anders: – It’s a professional event but with a warm and familiar feel to it. I think we have succeeded in balancing professionalism and a relaxed setting. Petra: – The fact that we constantly develop and improve the event makes for great chances to create new memories each year. We’ll see what we bring from this year!   What will be new for this year’s TactonDay? Why will the ‘17 edition be the best one yet? Petra: – Apart from presentations and breakout-sessions, we’re adding a panel discussion on CPQ in Industry 4.0. This is a format we haven’t done before, which is exciting. Anders: – Obviously, you can expect some great speakers, like previous years! Paulina: – The overarching goal, which we always have, is of course to inspire the participants and offer some new knowledge and insight into CPQ. We want them to feel confident and comfortable with choosing Tacton as their CPQ partner.   And after TactonDay – what’s next? Bénédicte: – We’re going to Dreamforce in San Francisco, where we are a Salesforce Platinum Partner. It will be a great time to connect with the American market and learn from others in the industry. Petra: – We will also continue to expand our footprint in the DACH region, where we now have two offices and many exciting opportunities.   Want to know more about TactonDay? You will find everything you’re looking for, here.

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Is it easy for your customers to do business with you?

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This is a guest blog post from Frank Sohn, Novus CPQ Consulting, who is one of our speakers at TactonDay later this week!
Most people intuitively know that quick and efficient responses to customer requests increase the chances of satisfied customers. These satisfied customers will, in turn, come back for more business. The question is why it’s so difficult to actually deliver quick and efficient responses to customers? I think we all have different experiences of this, so let’s first look at some examples of what makes it hard to do business with a company. Customer Service
  • Asking a customer multiple times for the same information
  • Customer has to re-enter the same information in multiple places
  • Customer starts investigating and buying products online and when a question comes up that requires someone to support them, nobody is available
  • Product/Service offering is not available on mobile devices
Support
  • Contact Support
    • When a customer calls support, it either takes a long time (e.g. 5+ rings, 5+ minutes waiting time) before someone answers the phone, or the call goes straight to voicemail.
    • When a customer uses a web chat tool, they get no answer or a delayed answer (e.g. wait 5 minutes before a chat response comes up)
  • Customer Support is not available 24/7/365
  Every company should keep in mind that the ease of doing business with your company is about what the customer needs, and not what makes life easier for you!   While nowadays many businesses offer a multitude of ways for customers to connect with them, the most important differentiator is still a personal touch. Who doesn’t like to be treated like they are special? Note that a personal touch does not necessarily mean face-to-face contact: it might be a small notification about an online product training that the customer is interested in and that is now available. The objective here is to provide personalized and valuable information to a customer on a regular basis.   Now, let’s have a look at things that can help make your company easy to do business with.   Tasks
  • Review systems & processes to be able to respond faster to customer RFPs, questions, inquiries, complaints etc.
  • Reduce the number of people and/or steps involved in solving a problem for the customer (e.g. fewer touch points, fewer fields to fill out)
  • Investigate different CPQ Solutions with the help of an experienced CPQ expert
  CPQ solutions are an excellent way to make your company a company that is “easy to do business with”. Why? Because they can address many of the negative business examples that are mentioned above.   How Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solutions can help you become easier to do business with: Examples by Route-to-Market Sales Team
  • Guide Sales Reps with the least amount of questions to determine the product/service the customer needs
  • Guide Sales Reps to cross and upsell options
  • Guide Sales Reps regarding best Pricing (Profit/Margin) that they can offer to their customers
Channel Partners / Distributors
  • Offer the same user experience to your channel partners, sales team, and eCommerce customers. This simplifies communication in case something is not working as expected
  • Allow each channel partner to see “their prices”
  • Provide extensive “Help” (e.g. text, images, voice, video) to channel partners that don’t work with your CPQ tool on a daily basis
eCommerce
  • Enable product visualization to let users “see” what they select/configure
  • Provide extensive “Help” (e.g. text, images, voice, video, chat capability to contact you while they configure a product) so that a customer does not get stuck
  • Allow a named user to “save” multiple configurations for a limited time in the shopping cart. This allows you to send additional recommendations, tips & tricks and sales prices to online customers
  While the maintenance of a CPQ solution does not impact the CPQ user, it is a very important cost consideration for every CPQ customer. It simply doesn’t make financial sense, in most cases, to have a completely different user experience for every Route-to-Market because it will only cause confusion. Here’s an example: If a sales rep sees a feature “Hard Disk Drive” for a product “Laptop”, but the channel partner does not see that feature, there will be confusion regarding why the channel partner does not see that feature and what he/she must do to see that feature. This becomes very confusing when a customer buys directly from your company and via channel partners, because they may expect a certain behavior that is simply not supported in the other Route-to-Market. A key objective should be to reduce CPQ product model maintenance by having a common or at least aligned user experience, across all Routes-to-Market (as far as possible and desirable). Nevertheless, the guiding principle should be to use Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solutions and processes to make your company a company that’s “easy to do business with”. This may also mean that you have to invest more in a CPQ solution and the integration of this CPQ solution with 3rd party systems (e.g. CRM, ERP, PLM). If it is done right it can pay great dividends! To check if you reached your objectives, you should put some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in place before you move forward with any CPQ Project.   Want to know more? Contact Frank Sohn if you have any questions!

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Meet the team behind Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ

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Building your own CPQ tool is per definition extremely tricky. But building a complex CPQ tool to extend another CPQ tool is a different ball-game completely. Nevertheless, this is what the team behind Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ does each and every day. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the team to understand what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why. The Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ project was launched in March 2016 and the first version went live later that same year. This impressive feat was possible thanks to an experienced team consisting of only four people – Måns af Klercker, Tariq Asghar, Valerijs Prokudins and Pankaj Mishra.   To start with, let’s look at their experience and why they’re such a good fit for the Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ team.
  • Måns af Klercker (Sweden) – Senior Product Manager for Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ. Has worked with Tacton and CPQ in Salesforce since 2009. R&D manager and CTO at Tacton and was also a principal architect and developer of Tacton Studio and other core pieces of the Tacton software stack. Has been with the company for more than 15 years.
  • Pankaj Mishra (India) – Senior Software Developer with 8 years’ experience with Salesforce and CPQ within Salesforce. Responsible for data modeling and designing the Salesforce backend.
  • Valerijs Prokudins (Latvia) – Software Developer. Started his career building CAD-systems before moving over to consulting, designing and implementing CRM systems. 5+ years of experience within Salesforce. Designs the backend of Tacton Extension, configures the app and implements backend processes.
  • Tariq Asghar (Pakistan) – Senior Software Developer who acts as Lightning UI Lead on the team. With extensive experience in designing and developing user interfaces, he is responsible for UI/UX and has created all the Lightning components for the application.
Tell me about Tacton Extension! How come there is a need for an extension to Salesforce CPQ? Måns: The Salesforce CPQ is a great tool for simple configurations and that is really where it delivers the most value. Tacton does not replace this configurator, but rather extends its functionality and makes it more apt for complex manufacturing companies. You can say it “shakes hands” with Salesforce CPQ – hence the name “Extension”. The main difference is that Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ is used for high-end complex configuration where you have thousands of parts and/or complex rule sets or where there is a need for customized documentation.   What are the challenges of solving both complex configuration and integration with Salesforce, simultaneously? Måns: From a Product Manager’s point of view, I would say finding the right people. Although Salesforce is a really big company with thousands of users, it’s surprisingly hard to find the right competence for Salesforce integration. Throw advanced configuration into the mix and it’s clear you need to look globally when recruiting a team as specialized as ours. So that’s what we did. Valerijs was working with configurators in Latvia, Pankaj came straight from the U.K. to work for Tacton and Tariq, who is originally from Pakistan, was already in Sweden. I am glad we have found not only excellent developers, but also great co-workers, for our team.   Pankaj: From time to time it can be a challenge to work with so many different systems, like Apex and Lightning, together with Tacton CPQ. What’s more, we’re constantly working on making the end-user experience as easy and flexible as possible. And even though the result is easy to work with, it adds an extra layer of complexity from a programming point of view.   What do you like the most about developing Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ? Tariq: I can only speak for myself but as a developer I want to work with challenging projects that really test my knowledge and expand my skill set. This software, and its connection to the complex Tacton conguration engine, is high-level programming that I really enjoy.   Valerijs: Before I came to Tacton, I worked a lot as a consultant, which means you never really have time to perfect or improve the product. You just create something that solves a problem and move on to the next project. Working for a company like Tacton, with a product like this, is something I find very satisfying. Just consider the fact that we constantly go back and adjust, do performance tuning and improve the product to get better and faster. It’s a very different way of working to what I’ve done previously.   Pankaj: I enjoy working in a small team like ours and that we get to create something from scratch. Tacton has over 200 employees, but you get the feeling of working for a startup when you’re creating the “1.0 version” of a product.   What’s next for Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ and the team? Måns: We are working hard to release some new, exciting features in time for Dreamforce in November. Worth noting is deeper integration to the Salesforce CPQ, that we will work directly with the price engine and also a closer collaboration with the Salesforce community.   And there you have it – another glance behind the scenes of one of our products and the people that make it all happen. If this interview has made you interested in knowing more about Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ, download a product sheet here or watch a demo here.

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Tacton is awarded the Frost Sullivan 2017 CPQ Product Leadership Award

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We’re very proud to announce that Tacton has received the 2017 Frost & Sullivan North America Product Leadership Award for best practice within the CPQ industry. Over the past 12 months, we’ve been working extremely hard here at Tacton to deliver the most significant developments in our 25-year history. This includes the release of our new flagship product Tacton CPQ, Tacton Extension for Salesforce, Tacton for SAP, as well as a series of high value mobile apps. We’ve expanded our footprint in North America and Europe, cemented some strategic partnerships and made several key acquisitions. To all of us here at Tacton, this award recognizes all this hard work, but more importantly, it also validates its relevance, and the value it brings to our customers.

Not just any award

Each year, global industry analyst Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality, while gaining rapid traction in the market. The award recognizes outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. What’s different about Frost & Sullivan is the way they select their winner – by thorough analysis, in-depth study and customer interviews across the industry. There was no application process. We didn’t even know we were being evaluated. We got the award based solely on our accomplishments and merits.

So, what was it about Tacton CPQ?

Frost & Sullivan opens its motivation with, “Tacton focuses on anticipating and meeting the needs of innovative manufacturing businesses, particularly those engaged in smart manufacturing (Industry 4.0) initiatives.” The key difference when compared to other CPQ vendors lies in the level of complexity that the Tacton configurator can handle, and how it synchronizes what’s being proposed by sales with downstream processes. The analysts at Frost & Sullivan picked up on this in the report, “Tacton’s CPQ applications enable and support digitization end-to-end”. The motivation also recognizes the importance of Tacton’s long term vision and leadership as well as our strong track record of delivering real value to our customers. “Tacton has, from its research beginnings, been focused on developing leading edge product configuration solutions. Tacton’s technologies and its product set have been validated by sales to over 250 businesses, which have experienced excellent results. The company is building on its innovation and success with plans to enhance its products and to expand its market. Based on this impressive background and performance, Tacton has justly earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Product Leadership Award for Configure, Price, Quote solutions.” Simply put, Tacton is leading the way towards smarter manufacturing, and this award recognizes both the strengh and relevance of our existing product portfolio as well as the validity of our direction going forward. Read the Frost & Sullivan press release here.

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Is it easy for your customers to do business with you?

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This is a guest blog post from Frank Sohn, Novus CPQ Consulting, who is one of our speakers at TactonDay later this week!
Most people intuitively know that quick and efficient responses to customer requests increase the chances of satisfied customers. These satisfied customers will, in turn, come back for more business. The question is why it’s so difficult to actually deliver quick and efficient responses to customers? I think we all have different experiences of this, so let’s first look at some examples of what makes it hard to do business with a company. Customer Service
  • Asking a customer multiple times for the same information
  • Customer has to re-enter the same information in multiple places
  • Customer starts investigating and buying products online and when a question comes up that requires someone to support them, nobody is available
  • Product/Service offering is not available on mobile devices
Support
  • Contact Support
    • When a customer calls support, it either takes a long time (e.g. 5+ rings, 5+ minutes waiting time) before someone answers the phone, or the call goes straight to voicemail.
    • When a customer uses a web chat tool, they get no answer or a delayed answer (e.g. wait 5 minutes before a chat response comes up)
  • Customer Support is not available 24/7/365
  Every company should keep in mind that the ease of doing business with your company is about what the customer needs, and not what makes life easier for you!   While nowadays many businesses offer a multitude of ways for customers to connect with them, the most important differentiator is still a personal touch. Who doesn’t like to be treated like they are special? Note that a personal touch does not necessarily mean face-to-face contact: it might be a small notification about an online product training that the customer is interested in and that is now available. The objective here is to provide personalized and valuable information to a customer on a regular basis.   Now, let’s have a look at things that can help make your company easy to do business with.   Tasks
  • Review systems & processes to be able to respond faster to customer RFPs, questions, inquiries, complaints etc.
  • Reduce the number of people and/or steps involved in solving a problem for the customer (e.g. fewer touch points, fewer fields to fill out)
  • Investigate different CPQ Solutions with the help of an experienced CPQ expert
  CPQ solutions are an excellent way to make your company a company that is “easy to do business with”. Why? Because they can address many of the negative business examples that are mentioned above.   How Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solutions can help you become easier to do business with: Examples by Route-to-Market Sales Team
  • Guide Sales Reps with the least amount of questions to determine the product/service the customer needs
  • Guide Sales Reps to cross and upsell options
  • Guide Sales Reps regarding best Pricing (Profit/Margin) that they can offer to their customers
Channel Partners / Distributors
  • Offer the same user experience to your channel partners, sales team, and eCommerce customers. This simplifies communication in case something is not working as expected
  • Allow each channel partner to see “their prices”
  • Provide extensive “Help” (e.g. text, images, voice, video) to channel partners that don’t work with your CPQ tool on a daily basis
eCommerce
  • Enable product visualization to let users “see” what they select/configure
  • Provide extensive “Help” (e.g. text, images, voice, video, chat capability to contact you while they configure a product) so that a customer does not get stuck
  • Allow a named user to “save” multiple configurations for a limited time in the shopping cart. This allows you to send additional recommendations, tips & tricks and sales prices to online customers
  While the maintenance of a CPQ solution does not impact the CPQ user, it is a very important cost consideration for every CPQ customer. It simply doesn’t make financial sense, in most cases, to have a completely different user experience for every Route-to-Market because it will only cause confusion. Here’s an example: If a sales rep sees a feature “Hard Disk Drive” for a product “Laptop”, but the channel partner does not see that feature, there will be confusion regarding why the channel partner does not see that feature and what he/she must do to see that feature. This becomes very confusing when a customer buys directly from your company and via channel partners, because they may expect a certain behavior that is simply not supported in the other Route-to-Market. A key objective should be to reduce CPQ product model maintenance by having a common or at least aligned user experience, across all Routes-to-Market (as far as possible and desirable). Nevertheless, the guiding principle should be to use Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solutions and processes to make your company a company that’s “easy to do business with”. This may also mean that you have to invest more in a CPQ solution and the integration of this CPQ solution with 3rd party systems (e.g. CRM, ERP, PLM). If it is done right it can pay great dividends! To check if you reached your objectives, you should put some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in place before you move forward with any CPQ Project.   Want to know more? Contact Frank Sohn if you have any questions!

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Meet the team behind Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ

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Building your own CPQ tool is per definition extremely tricky. But building a complex CPQ tool to extend another CPQ tool is a different ball-game completely. Nevertheless, this is what the team behind Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ does each and every day. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the team to understand what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why. The Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ project was launched in March 2016 and the first version went live later that same year. This impressive feat was possible thanks to an experienced team consisting of only four people – Måns af Klercker, Tariq Asghar, Valerijs Prokudins and Pankaj Mishra.   To start with, let’s look at their experience and why they’re such a good fit for the Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ team.
  • Måns af Klercker (Sweden) – Senior Product Manager for Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ. Has worked with Tacton and CPQ in Salesforce since 2009. R&D manager and CTO at Tacton and was also a principal architect and developer of Tacton Studio and other core pieces of the Tacton software stack. Has been with the company for more than 15 years.
  • Pankaj Mishra (India) – Senior Software Developer with 8 years’ experience with Salesforce and CPQ within Salesforce. Responsible for data modeling and designing the Salesforce backend.
  • Valerijs Prokudins (Latvia) – Software Developer. Started his career building CAD-systems before moving over to consulting, designing and implementing CRM systems. 5+ years of experience within Salesforce. Designs the backend of Tacton Extension, configures the app and implements backend processes.
  • Tariq Asghar (Pakistan) – Senior Software Developer who acts as Lightning UI Lead on the team. With extensive experience in designing and developing user interfaces, he is responsible for UI/UX and has created all the Lightning components for the application.
Tell me about Tacton Extension! How come there is a need for an extension to Salesforce CPQ? Måns: The Salesforce CPQ is a great tool for simple configurations and that is really where it delivers the most value. Tacton does not replace this configurator, but rather extends its functionality and makes it more apt for complex manufacturing companies. You can say it “shakes hands” with Salesforce CPQ – hence the name “Extension”. The main difference is that Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ is used for high-end complex configuration where you have thousands of parts and/or complex rule sets or where there is a need for customized documentation.   What are the challenges of solving both complex configuration and integration with Salesforce, simultaneously? Måns: From a Product Manager’s point of view, I would say finding the right people. Although Salesforce is a really big company with thousands of users, it’s surprisingly hard to find the right competence for Salesforce integration. Throw advanced configuration into the mix and it’s clear you need to look globally when recruiting a team as specialized as ours. So that’s what we did. Valerijs was working with configurators in Latvia, Pankaj came straight from the U.K. to work for Tacton and Tariq, who is originally from Pakistan, was already in Sweden. I am glad we have found not only excellent developers, but also great co-workers, for our team.   Pankaj: From time to time it can be a challenge to work with so many different systems, like Apex and Lightning, together with Tacton CPQ. What’s more, we’re constantly working on making the end-user experience as easy and flexible as possible. And even though the result is easy to work with, it adds an extra layer of complexity from a programming point of view.   What do you like the most about developing Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ? Tariq: I can only speak for myself but as a developer I want to work with challenging projects that really test my knowledge and expand my skill set. This software, and its connection to the complex Tacton conguration engine, is high-level programming that I really enjoy.   Valerijs: Before I came to Tacton, I worked a lot as a consultant, which means you never really have time to perfect or improve the product. You just create something that solves a problem and move on to the next project. Working for a company like Tacton, with a product like this, is something I find very satisfying. Just consider the fact that we constantly go back and adjust, do performance tuning and improve the product to get better and faster. It’s a very different way of working to what I’ve done previously.   Pankaj: I enjoy working in a small team like ours and that we get to create something from scratch. Tacton has over 200 employees, but you get the feeling of working for a startup when you’re creating the “1.0 version” of a product.   What’s next for Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ and the team? Måns: We are working hard to release some new, exciting features in time for Dreamforce in November. Worth noting is deeper integration to the Salesforce CPQ, that we will work directly with the price engine and also a closer collaboration with the Salesforce community.   And there you have it – another glance behind the scenes of one of our products and the people that make it all happen. If this interview has made you interested in knowing more about Tacton Extension for Salesforce CPQ, download a product sheet here or watch a demo here.

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What a cookie-selling kid can teach us about guided selling

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It all started with the doorbell ringing in the middle of Sunday dinner. A young kid that I somewhat recognized from the neighborhood stood right outside my door. “Would you like to buy some cookies? We’re selling to go on a class trip.”
If this kid would have been someone I knew, the answer would have been yes, regardless of whether I wanted cookies or not. But since this kid didn’t know my kid, I said something like “I don’t eat cookies …” and something “yada-yada-yada-not-healthy.”
But this kid had obviously attended some advanced sales training. 
“Oh, that’s too bad. So, you’re that kind of person that only buys traditional Swedish whole grain crispbread?” I nodded my head and said something like “Yes, you’re absolutely right.”
“Well, in that case, you should really try our crispbread. Everybody loves them.”
In this situation, I didn’t really have any other option than to sign up for the crispbread. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be consistent with what I just said. So, I ended up contributing to this class trip anyhow.

What just happened?

From a very early age, we learn that it’s important to be consistent. And before we’ve mastered this, anything inconsistent we say is usually pointed out by peers and parents. In short, we learn that it’s very important that what you’re saying makes sense in relation to what you’ve said before. This urge to be consistent means that our first choice will have a big impact on the second choice.  (This works very much like priming in behavioral psychology, but we don’t need to be that academic to understand the consequences.) Yesterday’s story is just a short example of how the need for consistency helped the cookie kid seal the deal.

So, why is this important when it comes to CPQ?

Because the logic used by the cookie kid applies to CPQ, too. When we answer the guided questions in CPQ, one answer will inevitably influence the next. Let’s look at an example.
 
Say that you’re configuring a car and the first guided selling question makes you choose between “Environmental” or “Performance”. How you answer this question will influence how you answer the rest of your questions no matter what options will be available to you. If you decided to go for “Environmental”, it will not be consistent to buy the bigger motors anymore. The opposite is true if you selected “Performance”. That’s why it’s important to understand how one question will lead the customer down a certain path.
 
We must understand that when answering one question, we might make choices about the other questions as well, without us being aware of it. When you make your choices, you’re priming yourself in a certain direction – simply because we always strive to be consistent. To create a strategic sales tool, we must understand how one question influences other questions, no matter if they are limited by logic or consistency.  This is one of the challenges for my workshop tomorrow. The second challenge is that I promised to bring something for the coffee break. The only thing I have at home is whole grain crispbread, but I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

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Understanding value

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A low price is not a value

Talking to sales professionals, I often get the feeling that they don’t see that special value in the product they are selling. Compared to the competition, it seems to be more a matter of price than anything else. What does this mean? It means that the product is perceived as a commodity and that sales focus on discounts rather than promoting the unique values delivered. The fallback solution, in this case, is even higher discounts. It also means that the overall probability is reduced due to an invalid misconception. Looking back at projects I’ve been working in over the last 15 years, I’ve seen very few commodity products. The truth is that CPQ-users normally provide premium offerings targeted to specific needs. So, what can we do?

Identifying the real value

First, we must understand that the value of the delivered solutions is different for every customer. It’s necessary to understand what the product means in terms of increased revenue and reduction of both cost and risk – for that specific customer. To do this, we can utilize the information we’re collecting daily in our CPQ solution. Some information might come from our CRM or ERP system, but most valuable is the information we can extract from the actual sales situation in CPQ. By knowing the customer size, if it’s a returning customer, and, of course, what type of solution they are looking for, we can easily define what should be the primary drivers behind that specific product purchase. By making the sales reps aware of unique benefits the product delivers to this type of customer, we can create a targeted solution that resonates with the specific needs of that specific customer. This is the way to make your product stand out from the rest. We must make sure the sales reps understand that your product offering is not a commodity. Rather, it is optimized for the intended usage – and your CPQ solution can support in getting this message across. The first step to make this possible is to use your existing data to revile and understand your value drivers. We do this by analyzing won-lost, hit-rate on feature level in combination with analysis of active selections. All within the context of the segment we’re serving. Tomorrow we will discuss this topic in a Get Techy webinar. You’re very welcomed to join.   Since this blog post was written, the webinar recording has been posted on our website. Watch it here. 

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