Companies to use proposal and quote software to streamline selling processes
Chicago, IL and Munich, Germany — February 11, 2005 — BigMachines, a provider of web-based quote and order management software for manufacturers of complex products, said today that during the fourth quarter of 2004, six additional manufacturers have selected BigMachines' Lean Front-End (LFE) software to streamline their front-end sales and service processes.
The manufacturers sell a broad range of complex products, including medical technology, email servers and security appliances, process pumps, steam turbines, air compressors, and industrial valves.
One of the customers, Mirapoint, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a provider of email-server and security appliances. Since its inception in 1997, Mirapoint has sustained a reputation for providing reliable, proven and secure message networks through easy-to-use, purpose-built appliances.
Mirapoint said it selected BigMachines LFE because of its robust sizing, configuration, pricing and quoting capabilities to manage sales through multiple sales channels. "BigMachines' LFE configurator software was a natural fit for our business," said Kevin Woods, senior director of Marketing for Mirapoint. "Mirapoint's business is growing and our sales team can benefit from an easy-to-use tool to assist them in the quoting and ordering processes."
Mirapoint's BigMachines LFE is integrated to Salesforce.com on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) using the sforce API from Salesforce.com, a provider of on-demand Internet-based CRM. The integration allows Mirapoint to add configuration, pricing and quoting capabilities to its salesforce.com on-demand CRM, and thereby streamline the front-end process.
Another customer is Tuthill Energy Systems (TES), located in Milbury, Mass., which manufactures steam turbines for power generation and mechanical drive applications. All TES brands have a long-standing history with over 300 years of combined experience in designing and manufacturing single and multi-stage steam turbines and portable ventilators.
TES said it recognized the need to streamline its quoting and ordering process and remove the bottleneck created by heavy reliance on tribal knowledge. TES' overall goal is to better support its sales channel and to differentiate TES as a preferred supplier and gain sustainable, long-term advantage leading to increased market share and revenue.
According to Chuck Oler, Tuthill Corp.'s chief information officer and senior vice president, "Applying lean thinking and Web technology to our quote and order processes is a strategic initiative for us. We will integrate BigMachines LFE with our [enterprise resource planning (ERP)] software to leverage the value of our existing IT infrastructure. Based on our experience so far we are confident that BigMachines' team will work closely with us to ensure successful delivery of our project."
In addition to businesses described above, Medtronic Navigation will implement BigMachines to streamline the configuration, pricing, and quoting of its computer-assisted surgery systems with full integration to its salesforce.com on-demand CRM solution.
Additionally, two new customers are process pump and valve manufacturers. These companies will implement BigMachines to establish lean quoting and ordering processes and to support the configuration, pricing, and quoting of its leading-edge pump and valve products.
