CRM, CPQ & E-Commerce for Manufacturers of Steel & Metal Products

CRM, CPQ & E-Commerce for Manufacturers of Steel & Metal Products

Build next-generation operating models to compete in the post-industrial era

How to profitably sell products has become a defining challenge in the Steel & Metal industry. Why? Stiff market conditions, a general oversupply of steel and metal products, and a highly diverse customer base with evenly diverse requirements are the reasons businesses in this sector are looking for transformation strategies.

 

‚How can we improve margins and deliver better service to our customers to remain competitive?‘ is one of the top concerns for industry leaders in Steel & Metal. Build an agile and future-proof enterprise while mastering the pricing-wars of the industry with ‚Manufacturing X‘!

Reduce turnaround times to lower entry barriers and excel in ease of consumption

Standardize offering and introduce end-to-end digital processes

Gain business agility to enter new up-market business application areas

Our Top 5 Features for Manufacturers in the Steel & Metals industry

 

Our Manufacturing X Sales Platform has features uniquely built for producers of steel and metal products:

All-in-One: CRM, Quote-to-Cash & Customer Portal for steel & metal industries
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All-in-One: CRM, Quote-to-Cash & Customer Portal

Traditional operational improvement methods are at their limit for Steel and Metal industries. Sales Digitalization promises more speed and efficiency with direct impact on top and bottom line. Increase your competitiveness with an all-in-one platform for various distribution channels including Account, Opportunity and Quote Management for Direct Sales and a Portal for Partners and Customers.

 

 

  • Give your customers and partners Self-Service Access in addition to your Product Catalogue and inquiry functions via our Sales Portal. Lower barriers of doing business with you equals in higher revenue!
  • Manufacturing X comes with a standalone CRM including Activity, Lead and Opportunity Management and Outlook Integration. Alternatively, it can be used with SAP C/4 Sales Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce.
  • Sales Guidance supports global teams with Guided Selling and Cross and Up-selling offers to make sure you are offering complete and feasible solutions to your customers.
  • Unify your Proposal Generation and Document Management to create an excellent customer experience with any document you are sending out. Having all required information at hand helps your customer to buy from you faster.
  • Ensure an up to 97% correct price calculation with standard list prices and cost-plus methods. With a strong manufacturing backend integration you can ensure smooth order processing and fulfillment.
  • Use our E-Commerce API or User Interface Integration to embed ‘Manufacturing X’ into your website, marketing or e-commerce system and act on every lead across your go-to-market channels.

Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) for Steel & Metal Manufacturer

Customers of Steel & Metal products have varying service and quality requirements and distribution channels are often complicates with different margin implications. A Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) that can support both, commoditized and non-standard products as well as project calculations is key to achieve a cross-department business forecast.

 

 

  • Leverage Configure-Price-Quote using In Mind Cloud’s Configuration and Pricing Engine or our Out-of-the-box ERP Integration. Alternatively, any 3rd party Calculation and Pricing Services can be connected via API.
  • Easily quote Special Requests and Non-Standard Products using In Mind Cloud’s or ERP’s Costing Engine directly from a frontend system. Leverage sophisticated cost estimation methods to ensure a tight, always accurate margin control, which is especially important in constantly changing environments.
  • Sell Service Offers and Projects as easily as your standard products. Build solutions and service price and business models to configure-price-quote  in minutes instead of hours or days.
  • SAP Variant Configuration users can enjoy Simplified Product Configuration by reorganizing backend models indirectly via our Simplification Layer. Re-invent your quoting process with standard products requiring only 30 inputs instead of 300 parameters.

Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) for Steel & Metal
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Business & Production Forecasting for Steel & Metal
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Business & Production Forecasting

Little access to real-time information can have a huge impact on Manufacturers of Steel & Metal Products. Production planning, inventory and margins will suffer. True business and production forecasts need to be based on an end-to-end connected quote-to-order process.  Achieve true operational excellence with ‘Manufacturing X’ Business & Production Forecasting!

 

 

  • Pipeline Management, Forecasting and Productivity Analytics empower you to dynamically optimize your tactical planning and make better strategic decisions for the long term. Reduce inventory and improve margins while delivering better service!
  • Succeed in Pipeline & Production Capacity Management to identify pipeline gaps easily on both ends – sales and production – to ensure a balanced production backlog and avoid over- or under-utilization of the production capacities.
  • Focus on what matters most to your business and break down demand into component drivers. Enable independent forecasts for each driver with Built-in Analytics to enable informed decision making in real-time.

Collaboration & Approval Workflows

Collaborate efficiently for non-standard or project offers across departments and ensure 100% margin compliance with Collaboration & Approval Workflows.

 

 

  • Highly flexible Approval Workflows and task-based Collaboration Features ensure that any quote that reaches the customer has approved special discounts, maximised margins, and correct technical specifications.
  • Manufacturing X supports Multi-level and Matrix Approvals. Further On-demand Workflows cater to specifications for sales regions, channels, or departments on any datapoint relevant for your sales processes.
  • Operate your business from Outlook and push and pull all relevant information from and to your email conversations to gain a complete overview of your collaboration.

Collaboration & Approval Workflows for steel & metal
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End-to-End Back-end Integration (ERP) for Steel & Metal
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End-to-End Back-end Integration (ERP) for Steel & Metal Manufacturers

Power your sales with an end-to-end flow to and from your backend system throughout the entire lifecycle. From product and account data, through key quoting information such as costs and prices, to production data like Bill-of-Material (BOM). Leverage THE single source of truth with End-to-End Backend (ERP) Integration in ‘Manufacturing X’.

 

 

  • Provide a Single Source of Truth for Product, Price and Cost Data available 24/7 on any device for all involved parties like customers, distributors and your own sales teams.
  • SAP users can directly use SAP ERP’s Variant Configuration for Configure-to-Order scenarios with a Simplified Sales View reducing the backend model to the amount required for Sales
  • Match existing Product Variants or create new ones on the fly, to speed up deliveries in a Make-to-Stock fashion now and in the future using Demand Planning.
  • Create and Manage ERP Inquiries, Quotes and Orders via one platform to facilitate consistent and auditable configure-to-order processes.

Don’t just take it from us. Hear what our customer from the Steel & Metals industry has to say:

„Previously it required a lot of templates, diagrams and spreadsheets, combined with a high manpower effort to consolidate details for any kind of sales reporting and forecasting. But in our industry, accurate on-the-spot reports are vital to make fast and informed decisions.

We are excited about ‚Manufacturing X‘ as the system is supporting our plans for fast and agile business development.”

Project Manager of Metal Products Manufacturer

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Learn More

Read our Blog

How Sales Digitalization Disrupts the Steel & Milling Industry

Watch our Webinar

Connect X Industry Talk on Sales Solutions for Steel and Milling