The sales quoting process is the most important, yet most challenging procedure, for steel service centers, metal fabricators and building manufacturers. Profit or loss begins with sales quoting and every aspect of operations, from purchasing through production, is impacted by that estimate. Getting it right the first time is critical for building profits in the steel service and product manufacturing industry.
For years, many businesses in the steel and metals industry have struggled with mainstream enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These off-the-shelf ERP systems simply can’t handle the variety of material attributes or internal and outsourced manufacturing processes for steel companies. As a result, sales representatives turn to custom systems and spreadsheets to develop quotes. While this may be better, it still isn’t enough to streamline or improve the accuracy of the quoting process. Give your sales team the tools needed to improve the accuracy of quotes and speed up the process.
Gain Unprecedented Control Over Quoting and Manufacturing Operations
Designed specifically for the complex operations of the steel service and product manufacturing industry, RealSTEEL provides unprecedented control over the quoting process, inventory management and manufacturing operations. With an intuitive user interface and user-definable, multi-attribute levels of data management, you can strengthen operations across your enterprise.
Starting with the quoting process, RealSTEEL is able to:
- Calculate nesting, costing and pricing by line item
- Input additional processing operations, then automatically calculate production time and costs
- Populate customer-centric data throughout the process from pricing to shipping
- Email quotes and sales orders directly to customers
A single order for many steel service centers, metal fabricators and building manufacturers can span hundreds of line items with a variety of inventory attributes and manufacturing operations. Nesting calculations to optimize material use is another complicated process, yet necessary to reduce waste. RealSTEEL enables your sales representatives to calculate and display margins at the line item and order level. Your salespeople can calculate reliable quotes with acceptable profit margins, and they can be held accountable for their decisions.
RealSTEEL is built on the Microsoft Dynamics ERP platform tailored with the features and functionality needed by steel service and product manufacturing companies. Data flows seamlessly in and out of the system, empowering your salespeople to develop accurate quotes that bring profits. Learn how to build profits by downloading our article, “Improve Sales Quoting to Build Profits in Steel Service and Product Manufacturing,” and contact The Wolcott Group for additional information about RealSTEEL.
By The Wolcott Group, providers of RealSTEEL, a ‘real world’ ERP solution for the steel and metals industry.
