Excel as a product configurator

[Sayre]

I have created and have been maintaining an Excel based configuration tool for almost 2 years now. Am self-taught with Excel as it helps with my IT sales job quite a bit. Response from my customers is overwhelmingly positive. Its been nothing short of astonishing. Response from anyone in management on the opther hand, is either indifferent or fearful/ignorant. They seem to see only risk, not opportunity. Will not let me take my ideas any further in their org.

I think I've found a large void that needs to be filled in my industry but unsure of what to do next. Can't seem to find much in the way of existing career paths for Excel based product config tools.

Are there any? I have no formal programming background of any kind, just a lot of 'learn as I go'. But I think that's the beauty of it. Did not seem too difficult to go from zero knowledge to where I am now.

Would appreciate any ionfo, advice, etc....

Just found this site tonight and its great!

AS

 

[Smitty]

Welcome to the Board!

That's awesome that you've developed a tool that helps your business! Unfortunately, many of us deal with or have dealt with managers who don't see the benefit in some work and stifle it. You could try to shop it around on your own, but note that if you developed it on your company's time, then they most likely own the intellectual rights to it, not you. Unless you reach an agreement with them to try to sell it on your own (maybe offer to give them a cut), you're treading on thin ice with regards to any profits you may generate.

On the other hand, if you can develop a good development proposal with a cost/benefit analysis, you may get somewhere. You may even be able to get some recommendations from your customers (a lot of times an outside voice can have far more impact than an inside voice). Sometimes you have to skip-level to reach ears that are receptive, but that also means running the risk of alienating your direct manager.

Personally I've found that if I come up with a tool that helps generate revenue, I'm given the ball and told to run. But I've also been able to justify my work by consistently adding $$$ to the bottom line, which helps a great deal.

Good luck!

Smitty

 

[Bruno_x]

Personally I've found that if I come up with a tool that helps generate revenue, I'm given the ball and told to run. But I've also been able to justify my work by consistently adding $$$ to the bottom line, which helps a great deal.

Unfortunately this is the only language a manager understands

Once I had a great idea about XL based solution in our company. Answer from management : "euh, don't know if it's worth to spend hours on it"
Then I've made a time schedule witch indicated the benefit and the answer became "Go for it and start today will you.")

 

[Nimrod]

Hello Sayre:

What do you mean by a "configuration tool" ?
What exactly does your program do ??

 

[Sayre]

What does it do:
My business is largely based on putting price quotes together for IT solutions. These quotes are made up of Part Numbers and correct qty's of each part #. As you might imagine, the IT world is large and complex so there are many thousands of part numbers, many optional ways to solve for a customer's IT needs.

The simple answer to what my tool does, is to put these part #'s onto one spread sheet, then allow the user to use Plain English drop down menus to specify the solution they want to quote. When the final solution is configured, the user presses one button and the correct part #'s and qty's appear, with a price for eack line and a grand total at the bottom. Involves a lot of formulas and I have added some macros to automate some "bells and whistles".

Customers love it and quite literally clamor for it. My management has allowed me some very limited room to play in this area, but they wont let me take it nationwide. Also don't want to pay me anything extra for the value it brings.

 

[Sayre]

"Then I've made a time schedule witch indicated the benefit and the answer became "Go for it and start today will you."

Do you think you could show an example of the kind of benefit analysis you mention in this sentence?

I did put something like this topgether before but it did not get me very far. Am wondering if I am just not emphasising the right things?

 

[Smitty]

I tend to focus on things that emphasize measurable cost saving benefits, productivity gains or revenue generation.

I.E. This method will take 40 hours of development time at $xx/hour, but will save xx man-hours per week at an average of $xx/hour, will amortize development in xx man-hours and return $xx to the bottom line over th course of a year. In come cases it's pretty easy, in other cases you need to be a salesman.

Smitty

EDIT: Welcome to the Board!

 

[alispri]

Hi, I realise that this is an old post, but I stumbled across it from a Google search. I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on how to create some sort of excel configuration tool, as I am currently trying to do the same.

I have managed to do it with a load of vba if conditions, but want to make it user maintainable - possibly a tabular data entry format for the conditions and I wonder if anyone has any ideas on this?

Many thanks.

 

[petermartins]

I'v been thinking about building a product configurator (something like a CPQ and a make-to-order application) with EXCEL for a while now but haven't gained the courage to do it yet because it's very complex. I have tried to find books and articles on the subject but it just does not exist.

My data will be separated hierarchicaly in multipe sheets and books. Basicaly it needs to organize, calculate, and produce lists of the following data:
1. The first set of data holds the basic product models, that I call for example B,BG,and BB. Based on the over all dimensions of the product I need to produce data for each part to be produced (materials and production time). And to complicate things even more there will be 3 paralel sets based on diferent material quality and production methods.
2. The next set of data joins the basic product models to another set of components (each paralel set will have it's one type of components) that create a more complex product down the production line. So I'll have BxxP1, BxxP2, BxxG4, BxxG13, BBxxP1, and BBxxP2. The "xx" is the X dimension while the Z and Y dimension are previously established as standard at the begining of the production. At this level I'll need to add some more production time.
3. And as a result I'll get a 3 price quote for the sum of a list of products, for example:
BN30P1
BN40P1
BN45P1
BN90P2
BB90P2
B60G4
And I'll get a list of parts, components and production time.

Does this look feasible? Is there any literature on this kind of project?

 

[kevinsbennett]

Once upon a time I tried to create a product configurator based on excel for a semiconductor equipment manufacturing company. While it worked, it was not the right system to perform this task. There are now many sophisticated product configurator applications that are built for this exact reason. They can automate quoting, BOMs, CAD models and drawings, and even connect to your other business systems like Salesforce CRM and ERP systems.

Here's an example of such a product configurator.
Best check it out lest you waste alot of time using the wrong tool for the job.

Good luck!