XPlam

Zoppas Industries Heating Element Technologies is a manufacturer of heating elements and heating systems equipped with electronic controls for domestic and industrial applications: from large to small appliances, from space heating and air conditioning to the industrial market, ensuring solid expertise and constant innovation in the development of heating systems.

Zoppas' commercial area manages on a daily basis the configuration of a variety of products, with different components and multiple mandatory and optional elements, and the subsequent technical validation, necessary for each individual unit. A complex flow that, before culminating in the finalization of a purchase, involves extra time, steps and work for the divisions involved.

In this context, it becomes a high priority to find a tool capable of reducing product setup time, lowering the probability of design and quotation errors, and eliminating manual control processes. All while waiting for important requirements:

• automatic evaluation of selected components suitable for a product configuration;

• realization of technical screenings and product sizing calculations, in real time;

• generation of commercial offers including visual rendering and data sheets of each product;

• finalization of commercial offers and integration with the company's SAP system.

Development process

Once the company's needs were shared and opportunities for action were identified, we proposed to Zoppas the development of a customized CPQ (Configure Price Quote) software capable of aggregating endless components and technical specifications, thus allowing the creation of products with complex configuration levels.

An initial stage of dedicated meetings between the work team and the company (specifically the sales and technical department), was for us preliminary to the creation of a database capable of containing all the different product lines and combinations. This activity laid the groundwork for the development of a series of custom features:

• hierarchical structure between products and possible product variables;

• ad hoc insertion system of product variables;

• dependency exclusion system between variables;

• implementation of an image library for visual rendering of products in real time;

• list and logic integration system to monitor quantity, variable combination and discounting of each unit;

• list price historicization;

• product template configuration;

• automation of offer submission to the customer and to the SAP system;

• SSO authentication process using Google Workspace and related access and security policies.

At the same time, the design team oversaw the creation of a responsive user interface, also optimized for tablets, since most users interact directly from this type of device. The interface design was executed in detail, in order to make the appearance of the web app pleasing to the eye but also and above all functional and usable for the user.

With the development of XPLAM, we have simplified the activities of the Zoppas sales area, which now proceeds with the autonomous and highly personalized configuration of its products. Each user is able to browse, filter and select the desired products, then proceed to a request for more information, a quote or directly initiate the order of the configured product, all in real time and from a single device. The result is a drastic reduction in the time taken by the technical department to validate quotes, with a significant reduction in costs.