Linking Ridder iQ and Merkato Essentials
Linking Ridder iQ and Merkato Essentials
If you really leverage the power of Merkato Essentials as a CPQ solution, then you deploy the tool to optimise the entire process from sales to production. Hans Stout, co-founder Flexproces, and Ronald Hensen, director CPQing Solutions, already told about this in an earlier blog. They explained that when you feed the CPQ solution with information from your ERP solution, such as Ridder iQ, it saves a lot of time. “With the modular structure of our link between Ridder iQ and Merkato Essentials, you have control over which data is accessed from your ERP package to Merkato Essentials. And vice versa. This way, you tailor your solution exactly to your organisation,” says Hans. In this blog, Hans and Ronald explain more about this modular structure and the possibilities the modules offer you.
The link and price that suits your organisation
The modular structure of the link allows you to control which data is shared between Ridder iQ and Merkato Essentials. In addition, you actually only pay for what you use. “For example, you can only unlock your items with prices from Ridder iQ to the configurator and nothing else. You can also choose to transfer only your customers and contacts from your ERP to Merkato Essentials. You decide what you use,” Hans explains. “Each module is focused on a particular benefit. If you tick all the components, you have a complete link that shares all the information back and forth between the two systems.” What do the six modules of the link between Ridder iQ and Merkato Essentials look like?
1. Qflex Parts: items and prices
Ronald explains: “You want to have one base where you keep information about your articles and prices. When you work in multiple systems and have to transfer data manually or via Excel imports, costly errors often creep in. Not to mention the unnecessary time it takes. With the QFlex Parts module, you keep track of your items and prices in your ERP system and these are opened up to Merkato Essentials. This way, you always configure based on the correct articles and prices.”
2. Qflex Parts+: operations, outsourced work and parts lists
“Do you want to transfer just a bit more information around items and their production from your ERP system to Merkato Essentials? Then use Qflex Parts+. Think about the operations required, outsourced work and parts lists. This way, the configurator knows which ‘pieces’ have been processed in a product: which items are in it, does something still need to be cut, does something still need to be coloured and where is it being outsourced,” explains Hans.
3. Qflex Basic: orders, order lines, parts lists with lines and selling price
“If you want to be able to create an order directly from the configurator, you need Qflex Basic. The first two modules unlock information from Ridder iQ to Merkato Essentials, but this module sends information back. When you have sent your customer a quotation from Merkato Essentials and it is approved, it can be converted directly into a sales order with sales order lines in Ridder iQ. The configuration is leading for the price and a parts list of each (sub)configuration is created in Ridder iQ. Based on all this information, production can be started immediately,” Ronald explains.
4. Qflex Basic+: quotations, quotation rules, parts lists with rules and quotation price
“If you want to make the quotations created by Merkato Essentials also visible directly in Ridder iQ, use Qflex Basic+. All quotations are synchronised including lines, prices and their status. This keeps the sales pipeline up-to-date,” says Ronald. Hans adds: “If a configuration is changed, the status of that quotation in your ERP system is also changed. And when the new quotation based on the modified configuration is ready, a revision is also made of the parts list created earlier. So you always know the current status of a quotation in Ridder iQ.”
5. Qflex Pro: order- en productiestatus, wijzigingen tijdens productieproces
Hans vertelt: “De status van zowel de offertes, verkooporders als de productiebon(nen) krijg je inzichtelijk met Qflex Pro. Niet alleen verkopers, maar ook klanten kunnen van deze status op de hoogte worden gehouden wanneer je Merkato Essentials via een portal aanbiedt. Je weet niet alleen de status van de productie, maar hebt zelfs de optie om een configuratie – die nog niet in productie is – te wijzigen. Ook dit zou jouw klant in een portal zelf kunnen doen. Op basis van die nieuwe configuratie wordt de stuklijst gereviseerd. De orderbasis en oude bonnen worden verwijderd en de nieuwe worden aangemaakt volgens deze nieuwe stuklijst. Zo kun je dus zelfs tijdens het productieproces eenvoudig en zonder fouten wijzigingen doorvoeren. Dat is in onze markt revolutionair!”
6. Qflex CRM: relationships, contacts and delivery locations
“Your ERP system often already contains relationships, contacts and locations. You can easily open up this information to Merkato Essentials so that you can use it when configuring. This allows you to calculate and store customer-specific configurations – with a possible discount,” Ronald says. “Your ERP system is the basic source here and therefore leading.”
You decide where your optimisation starts
With this modular structure, you control the extent to which you optimise the process between customer, sales and production. It also allows you to start with the greatest optimisation need in your organisation, without immediately paying the price of the full link. What are the challenges within your sales and production process? Where are the fastest efficiency gains to be made? We would be happy to talk to you about it and discuss the possibilities for your organisation without any obligation. Please contact us!
NB: CPQing Solutions B.V. is a distributor of Merkato Essentials. This standard software platform for building configurators is developed by the Merkato Group. This same software platform is also supplied by Quootz (NL) and SellItEasy (BE). The link described above can therefore also be used with these suppliers.