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"The Fan Selection System that Waterstone Consulting developed for us generated $750,000 in sales leads in one day." - William Howarth, President, Illinois Blower, Inc.

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William Howarth, President of Illinois Blower, Inc., explains how Waterstone Consulting's Order Configuration and Pricing system improved his company's bottom line.

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IBI is a job-shop manufacturer of industrial fans and related equipment. IBI's make-to-order business supplies highly specialized fans.
Executive Summary

Business Strategy

With competition heating-up and lead times growing, IBI began price cutting to avoid being blown away by their competitors. Shrinking profits, however, told them they needed to do more.

IBI selected Waterstone Consulting to help "cool down" the competition. By analyzing the company's existing business processes, Waterstone Consulting helped IBI to identify opportunities for productivity and profitability gains in the order cycle.

Technology Strategy

Waterstone Consulting built a Sales Order Configuration system to capitalize on IBI's opportunities, and

• reduce errors in the order cycle
• shorten lead times
• increase revenue
  

With their engineering and business rules built into the system, they could prevent errors in the sales process, and avert the costly task of correcting errors during manufacturing. The rules-based system would also guide less experienced salespeople through the complex quotes. This would reduce training time and eliminate the need to bring an engineer on the sales call.

Project Approach

Waterstone Consulting worked closely IBI experts to understand the complex requirements. "Ours is a difficult business that takes many people a long time to understand," said William Howarth, President. "Waterstone came up to speed very quickly." The consulting firm then developed the order configurator in less than five months.

Project Success

The sales order configurator has led to a 400% increase in the number of quotes that IBI processes. Coupled with an increase in order accuracy, the manufacturer's lead times have decreased significantly.

The system's impact on revenue became apparent when IBI showcased the order configurator at a national trade show. The advanced capabilities of configurator impressed customers to the tune of $750,000 in sales leads in one day.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Industry: Benefits: Manufacturing Highly-engineered products $750,000 in sales leads Shortened lead times Fewer errors in the order cycle Improved customer satisfaction Solution: Technology: Sales Order Configurator Windows NT Server Microsoft SQL Server Visual C++, Visual Basic