After the success of Exact LIVE 2020, we along with Exact decided to put a mutual customer in the spotlight: Giesen Coffee Roasters. Davey Giesen talked together with Wessel de Haan (Elfsquad) and Edwin Weteling (YALA Canvas Lodges) during an interactive session at Exact Live. They talked about optimization during the pre-production process, distinguishing abilities in a product configurator, and the efficiency gained through Elfsquad’s chain integration.
Giesen supplies their innovative coffee roasters to baristas and industrial coffee roasting factories, over the entire world. What started in the 80’s as a metal processing company, has grown to be a specialist in producing coffee roasters. No earlier than 2006 Giesen started producing their unique coffee roasters. Not 15 years later the machines entered the global market. A good example of how fast situations can change when the focus is aimed at innovation, quality and the application of chain integration.
The employees at Giesen are described as proud Dutch manufacturers working just a bit differently. “We as Giesen Coffee Roasters combine Dutch craftsmanship with unique design. As a collective, we strive to provide customers with a coffee roaster with which they are able to roast coffee beans with more control. And it is a privilege to be able to do this.” Even after thirty years of experience they are still constantly looking for new developments and technologies to implement. This innovation drive has resulted in high-quality machines with all of the ingredients to remain presentable as the top brand in the world of coffee roasters.
“Our customers want to design their coffee roasting factory to their own tastes. A lot of time and money is invested in this. Which is why we would like to offer them the possibility to compose their coffee roasters tailored to their own wishes.” Next to the expansive customization possibilities Giesen also offers several accessories and services. Customers can choose for a Giesen Profiler subscription, to name just one extra. “Giesen Profiler has been developed to automatically record roastings, save them, and replay them. Besides, by setting up triggers smart roasting profiles can be designed. This technology allows automatic and consistent roasts.”
With these final steps we have digitized the entire pre-production process, resulting in very positive results for our competitive position.
Offering a unique design resulted in much more complexity in the order-intake and quotation trajectory. Davey explains: “Composing quotations costed us a lot of time, so we went on a search for a way to design this in a more efficient manner. Additionally, it was our goal to provide a uniform method of work for both our internal and external salespeople.”
“To remain one step ahead of our competitors and enhance our competitive position, we had to be able to compose customer-specific quotations both quickly and flawlessly, and use this to manage our production process. These were trends we observed in the manufacturing industry which we wanted to adjust to in a clever way. To realize this, we had to digitize our pre-production processes.”
In the market, a product configuration tool was desired which could optimize the internal sales processes. Additionally, this tool had to make the different departments more efficient by connecting them to one another. Through an online search, Giesen found Elfsquad. Through different channels it quickly became clear that Elfsquad is Exact Online’s preferred supplier in the area of configuration software.
50%After first contact it clicked right away: “At first glance, Elfsquad was able to quote faster and more efficiently. However, the extra possibilities to further digitize the organization is what convinced us to go on board with Elfsquad. By also automating the entire pre-production process, the desired growth can be facilitated in an efficient way.”
Because of the strong partnership between Elfsquad and Exact, the connection has been made plug & play. “It was easy to connect the product configurator to our Exact Online environment.” This connection allows products from the ERP system to be live synchronized between Elfsquad and Exact. As a result, configuring is always done according to the latest price- and product updates.
Giesen’s future CRM system, too, is being fully integrated with Elfsquad. “Because of the extensive API documentation we expect this to be realized easily and quickly.”
So the chain-integration with Elfsquad was put to work. By integrating Elfsquad in the current IT landscape we ensured that internal business processes are efficiently designed. No more faulty order intakes because salespeople compose quotations and determine BoMs through a configurator validated by engineers. Engineers are able to focus on R&D instead of supporting the sales department. And an efficient purchasing policy is realized because of the early insights into customer needs, since salespeople have determined a BOM in an early stadium. Eventually, this has led to 30% more efficiency in the internal business processes. Besides, the quotation runtime was reduced by 50%. “These are numbers that confirmed our trust in Elfquad.”, says Davey Giesen.
Sven Pardijs, responsible for Elfsquad’s integration, is very fond of the application’s user-friendliness: “We have been able to design the application ourselves, based on our way of working and tempo. As a result, changes are easily implemented, and results are visible quickly. Additionally, Elfsquad provides good support, offering solutions for the most diverse of obstacles. Now we are in the process of applying the last design steps, and can look back to a fond and successful cooperation.”
Even though Giesen has already been able to realize a big internal digitization strike with Elfsquad, they also want to take steps externally. A first step in using the product configurator externally is to allow end customers to configure for themselves, online and independently. “We want to continue developing to lift the customer experience to the next level. You choose for Giesen when you have visited our business in Ulft.”, says Davey Giesen. “But now more than ever it is important to convert this ‘physical’ customer experience to a digital customer experience.” With Elfsquad’s showroom functionality, this becomes real. Soon, end customers will be able to compose their own unique Giesen coffee roaster online, completely visual through support by 3D models.
30%Next to their own salespeople and end customers, Giesen also wants to involve their dealer network. This would give them more control in this network, and Elfsquad could be used to offer the sales process in uniformal fashion. Allowing Giesen to distinguish themselves in a competitive market. “In the ideal situation dealers are able to make their own quotations with their own prices and valuta. Through Elfsquad. As a result, they can compose a Giesen coffee roaster with more certainty and in a visual way. These last steps make for a complete digitization of the entire pre-production process, with very positive results for our competitive position.”
Elfsquad removes all worries from your pre-production process. With Elfsquad as backbone, we realize the digital factory that smart industries have been trying to find for so long. We do this through a product configurator, with integrated solutions for marketing, sales, and operations.
