CUSTOMER STORIES

A Flat Glass Processing Company Multiplies Benefits with Experlogix CPQ and Dynamics AX

Benefits

Configure quotes with guided selling functions - no opportunity for errors.
Generate professional, multi-channel documentation with the click of a button.
Automate bill-of-material and routing from an ERP system.
Improve data quality and accuracy.

StarGrup Cam AŞ

Istanbul, Turkey

StarGrup is a leading active glass processing company specializing in internal an external architectural applications of flat glass, including insulated glass, tempered glass, laminated glass, edge-processed glass, cut glass. We are a global player with offices in London, Miami and Nice, supplying high performance glass products for the construction industry.

“Because we have control of the whole supply chain process and the ability to trace the operations on a real-time basis, the company can improve all KPIs – including productivity, stocks and delivery – by multiples.”

Challenge

Solution

Result

Challenge

The complexity and range of Stargrup AŞ product lines have grown steadily over the past 30 years. They needed the visibility required to define exact details for all aspects of their products—one product could include hundreds of variables, sub-products, and semi-finished goods. Before implementing CPQ in 2012, Stargrup AŞ was extremely successful, but there was a lot more sweat involved than needed. To start, the software they relied on wasn’t much more helpful than a word processing program. Sales engineering and product development required multiple workarounds to try and define properties for products and semi-finished goods. Configuration data was locked in its little universe; sales, accounting, planning, and production did not have real-time access, in large part because the software could not integrate with ERP. Lack of visibility made complete and timely order processing very difficult and extended to inadequate control across all manufacturing operations. Stargrup AŞ wanted more insight into all processes and metrics that could help them optimize how they ran their business.

Though they faced challenges, Stargrup AŞ did produce extremely high-quality goods that met complex demands. They managed to work as a connected ecosystem, thanks to a massive expenditure of effort from IT staff and dedicated teams. Stargrup AŞ wanted to relieve burdens while still increasing efficiency and performance. They needed advanced configuration capabilities, and they also knew that integration with their Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system was essential to bringing together all teams.

Their choice needed to enable them to:

Create product trees that would map out the many elements involved in a product model.
Define properties for all products, including semi-finished goods. Sales, dispatching, and production teams needed all the details, and they needed an easier way to access that information if they were to sell, order, and produce goods in a timely and organized manner.
Create technical details and technical files such as drawings, production releases, and more.
Increase speed and reliability of the order entry process—integration with back-office ERP was essential.
Enable any user to access real-time product information via friendly interfaces that aligned with Dynamics AX.
Add value to decision-making by delivering data and metrics that could be used for production planning and reports that spanned sales, customer delivery satisfaction, project costs, production efficiency, and scrap percentages—if the data was available, Stargrup AŞ wanted to transform it into meaningful intelligence.

Solution

After choosing CPQ and moving through a 6-month implementation, engineers worked with intuitive tools to customize CPQ to user requirements and make data available. IT staff began to experience the ease and flexibility of working with a configurator that’s fully integrated with Dynamics AX and that lets them:

Develop arithmetic and logical calculations, validations, and checks and balances. The CPQ rules engine automates precision—users can work to assure that every product model is accurate. The checks and balances associated with each product also ensure that salespeople can use CPQ and create flawless configurations for customers that won’t throw unwanted curves into the production process.
Create multi-level product structures (trees) and define properties with full visibility—information can be searched and filtered with the ease of working with an Excel spreadsheet.
Work effortlessly across both CPQ and AX. They can read and write to tables in either application, transfer data to and from tables using a simple drag and drop process, and rest assured that data integrity will not be harmed—it’s all centralized in the SQL server database.
Save significant time and minimize errors with the ability to duplicate, revise, and update configurations in both CPQ and AX using copy/paste and drag and drop capabilities.
Create graphical drawings, technical specifications, and more—along with CAD integration, CPQ has built-in capabilities for producing graphics and documentation.

Result

Their decision to implement CPQ has given them the ease and flexibility they need to create up to 100 product configurations daily, and that’s just the start of the benefits they’ve realized. CPQ has helped Stargrup AŞ refine and simplify the modeling and configuration work that’s the backbone for great products. It’s also helped transform the way other teams work within the organization. It’s a powerful sales configurator that reduces time spent creating quotes and orders, enables a smooth flow of information across the ecosystem, and makes a great impression on customers:

The models and configuration data that IT/product developers house in the rules engine emerge as social Guided Selling, with prompts, red alerts for options that aren’t feasible, and suggestions for alternate choices (and even cross-sells and up-sells). Even a relatively new salesperson can serve customers as a trusted advisor.
At the end of the order receiving process, a salesperson can quickly print well-organized, professional-looking documentation in the customer’s preferred format.
Sales can enter all information at once—no details are left straggling. When they complete a quote, they can push it quickly to ERP as an order that, after processing, includes production BOMs and routings. Thanks to a robust rules engine that prevents errors upfront, information is accurate and complete.

CPQ has given Stargrup AŞ what they wanted and needed most: the end to end visibility, configuration tools, and smooth sales and order processing that lead to accurate and timely data required for production planning, pro software for business intelligence that lets them monitor team efforts and operational performance. For example, managers can quickly pull out metrics and summaries—any task or operational process can be analyzed. They can set up proactive alerts that prevent order and production errors. As İlhan ULAŞAN, Project Leader and Bülent Kebapçı, IT Manager summarize, “Because we have control of the whole supply chain process and the ability to trace the operations on a real-time basis, the company can improve all KPIs—including productivity, stocks, and delivery—by multiples.”

CPQ’s automation, ERP integration, and intelligence delivered a 6-month return on investment—that’s an excellent success story in itself. That quick ROI promises to turn into significant growth and profitability. Stargrup AŞ has a sales and product configurator that will let them expand and grow without making significant additional investments.

CUSTOMER STORIES

A Flat Glass Processing Company Multiplies Benefits with Experlogix CPQ and Dynamics AX

Benefits

“Because we have control of the whole supply chain process and the ability to trace the operations on a real-time basis, the company can improve all KPIs – including productivity, stocks and delivery – by multiples.”

Challenge

Solution

Result

Challenge

Solution

Result

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