Press release

January 19, 2005 - Stockholm, Sweden

Buying stacker cranes made easy with web-based sales configurator 

Swisslog AB is a leading supplier of automated material handling solutions. Their offerings to their customers are custom configured-to-order. A configuration tool from Tacton Systems enables Swisslog’s customers to generate correct product specifications and offerings without construction- or product knowledge, even though the products are very complex and require many product rules. The order process is made more efficient resulting in a shorter time-to-market as well as fewer errors in offers and orders. Timesavings enable better use of the company’s sales force.

Swisslog AB was formed by a merger between BT Industries and Swisslog, and became an independent company in December 2000 via a management buyout. Swisslog designs and produces automatic stacker cranes, pallet conveyors and PLC/PC based control systems for advanced applications within distribution and manufacturing. Close to 80% of the total production is exported across the world.

”We needed a web based, user friendly system that allows quick and easy navigation through the huge amount of choices allowed in our product offering.” – explains Göran Fredriksson, CEO. “We have found that Tacton’s configuration system does not only simplify our customers’ buying process, it also makes our sales resources more efficient and – even more important – it reduces quotation and order mistakes to a minimum. We have chosen to do the modeling ourselves and with the help of Tacton’s modeling tool, we are able to create the models used to guide the Tacton Configurator ourselves. We have also received effective help and support from Tacton’s support function.”

Swisslog’s stacker cranes are truly modular. This means that the specification can be tailored to each application’s requirements and ensures – to the customer’s advantage – lower manufacturing costs while maintaining quality and performance.

Various factors need to be taken into consideration when creating a product specification. For instance: how big a load the crane needs to handle, the amount of material handled per time unit, and the ceiling height of the warehouse where the crane will be used. This data is the base of all parameters used to decide which combination of the roughly 100 modules should be used. It is highly time-consuming to manually configure needs-based specifications and the risk for inaccuracy is very large.

Christer Wallberg, CEO – Tacton Systems is impressed: ”Swisslog shows clearly that the advantages and saving potential with using the Tacton Configurator are so extensive that even medium-sized businesses can earn back their investment. Swisslog has learned how to use our graphic modeling tool very quickly and has created the models and product rules needed to adapt the configurator to its own needs in a record time – impressive.”

Further information:
Christer Wallberg, CEO, Tacton Systems AB. tel: +46 8 690 07 50, e-mail: christer.wallberg@tacton.com.
Magnus Kjell, Tacton Systems AB. tel: +46 8 690 0750, e-mail: magnus.kjell@tacton.com

About Tacton Systems
Tacton Systems AB is a global vendor of sales configuration software and services. Customers such as Ericsson, ABB, Getinge, Cardo, Norstan and FläktWoods use Tacton Configurator Solutions to effectively sell their customized and complex products online or offline. Tacton Configurator is flexible to integrate with any surrounding systems, and has tight standard integrations with many leading eCommerce, ERP, CRM, PDM, and CAD systems.