How can window design software improve your bottom line?
As companies around the world battle fluctuating prices and uncertainty over product availability, the importance of running an efficient operation has never been more recognized. The designer window installation industry knows the current situation all too well.
The cost of a window remake extends far beyond the price of material and labour. If you factor in the delay to other products in the manufacturing schedule, the delivery to site, the potential delay to the project and the reputational damage, then the cost of a single remake is much more than anyone would have estimated.
The right window design software
Yet, these errors can be significantly reduced if the right window design software is employed. Not only that, but further efficiencies can be realised that will only increase potential profit. According to Greg Beachim, sales manager at First Degree Systems, choosing window design software that fits the needs of your business has the potential to increase your bottom line in several different ways.
Many window fabricators will be familiar with First Degree Systems through the company’s specialist software in the fenestration industry, most notably Window Designer. The businesses that use the basic Window Designer – to design windows manufactured and delivered to customers – quickly realise a world of opportunities opened by the software.
“If you think of Window Designer as a box of Lego, the core part of Window Designer is that green plate that you start with, and then you delve into the box of Lego to grow and build products that you need,” explains Beachim. “With Window Designer, we have created a seamless suite of products to get information from the homeowner to the window installation company, through manufacturing, and back out to the end user again.”
In practice, sales teams will sit with homeowners with Fengo2 to design windows that help win the sale. This gets fed into Cloud Retailer, which allows window installation companies to create instant quotes, release jobs to manufacture, and check the status of orders in real time.
Stock Assistant, Barcode Tracking and Zandi
Once the order is with the fabricator, Production Manager offers visual planning for greater productivity, and Delivery Manager populates delivery routes. Other bolt-on software includes Stock Assistant, an integrated stock management system, which offers just-in-time stock ordering, and Barcode Tracking, which gives full visibility of the work running through a given production facility. Also available is Zandi, a CRM tool with pre-quote and pre-order facilities, which are seamlessly converted to Window Designer quotes and orders.
Reduce risk
“First and foremost, Window Designer reduces risk because you’re making a bespoke product, and you are allowing the whole process to be speeded up,” says Beachim. “Originally, this process would have been completely manual, where a product was drawn on to a sheet of paper, which was then emailed to a window company. Someone would then be employed to reprocess that order on to another system to be then sent down again to the fabricator to be re-processed again.”
Beachim emphasizes that at every stage under a manual process, businesses are creating a point of risk, a point of cost, a point where extra problems can be added in.
He continues, “A seamless integrated product enables you to take it from the end user’s perspective. So, an order is electronically sent it into the window company, who then processes it, completes a survey, which then gets then sent on to a fabricator, who checks the details and puts it into the manufacturing process, which is then ultimately delivered to site.
“Not only does it speed up the window design process, but it reduces the possibility of error and the associated costs: the window remake and delivering it to site. You also avoid potential damage to your reputation, and if installers get a bad order, or a wrong order, they will generally have to pull off site, which comes with added cost.
“It’s not just the visible cost of remaking something, it’s the reputational impact that you’re going to get by delivering something that was wrong.”
Customizable window design software
Beachim explains that the great advantage with Window Designer is that a window fabricator can start off with something quite small, which can then be expanded upon to suit the needs of a larger business; products can be bolted on according to what you need.
Or you could choose a plan that enables smaller businesses to buy the various products on a seat-by-seat basis. That way the company can expand or even reduce your software should they need it to.
Integrated window design software
“One of the key advantages is integration,” Beachim says. “We produce one end-to-end solution, whereas you would have to buy various products from other providers.
“So, if you buy into the Window Designer product suite, you can safely deliver one service to the customer, another to the homeowner, and another to the fabricator, with far less room for error and unexpected costs.
“There’s very little that we don’t do. You are filling in all the gaps with one single product and you’re able to use it to the maximum. Just like a box of Lego.”
To learn more visit www.firstdegreesystems.com, email [email protected] or give us a call at 01283 808042.