Updates
The war for talent: How to protect your company from the talent gap and the great resignation?
The war for talent rages on. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are not only dealing with a talent gap, or a lack of skills in the workforce, but also with the great resignation, making people rethink their salaries, working conditions, and job satisfaction. The number of people quitting their jobs has rarely been higher. Studies have shown that the manufacturing industry in particular has been hit hard by this job market crisis. How can you protect your company from the increasing influence of the talent gap and the great resignation?
Recap of the new features on Hive CPQ in 2021
The past year has been extraordinary. 2021 was the year of vaccinations, more remote work, and the attempt to catch up on the things we had to miss out on in 2020. Today, we’re taking one final look back at the previous year to see which features we treated our customers to! We added 150.000 lines of code to Hive, what kind of features does this translate to?
The five principles of the HiveCPQ SaaS platform
There are a lot of things for us to take into consideration when we’re building Hive as a SaaS or Software as a Service platform. The main challenge is that the system must be a great fit for a very broad range of users. What do you prioritize in that case when building a SaaS? After years of experience, we have got five principles that guide us to build a powerful CPQ platform.
Raw materials shortage: What can you as a manufacturer do?
Customers that have to wait for months on their orders, empty shelves in stores and unseen increases in price: the manufacturing industry is currently struggling with a worldwide shortage of raw materials. The lack of materials such as lumber, aluminum or plastic has caused a crisis for manufacturers. But where does this sudden scarcity come from? And what is the best way for companies to handle this situation?
How to increase sales for your manufacturing business
Manufacturers are often struggling with long and complex sales processes, making it hard to increase sales. This has to do with the complex nature of the goods, but also with the fact that B2B sales requires various stakeholders to work together. On top of that, the manufacturing market has had some intrusive changes: increasingly demanding B2B buyers and global competition continue to impact companies. Increasing sales in manufacturing is therefore not as straightforward as it often is in other industries. We are bundling some tips to increase your sales again. Read along!
How Hive handled the COVID-19 pandemic
It has been over a year since the coronavirus has taken over the world. The pandemic put economic life on hold in March of 2020, and while the situation is looking a lot more promising in May of 2021, the virus still has its grip on everyday business. In this article, we would like to give you an insight into how Hive has handled the sudden recession and how our company has found a way to successfully continue to grow.
Hive CPQ is now locally available in China!
Hive CPQ simplifies international B2B e-commerce even further now: our platform is running in China! It is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, working its way up to the number 1 spot. China, known as a manufacturing hub, is therefore an interesting place for B2B players around the globe to target.
A Word from our CEO for the New Year
A new year has begun, so it is time to reflect on 2020 and look forward to the new year. The Hive team would like to thank you for your dedicated support the past year, and wish you all the best for 2021! With a new year comes a new Hive!
5G: A new challenge for manufacturers
The current situation of the manufacturing industry is very complex, as companies evolve in a very competitive environment. But competition is not the only challenge manufacturers face, as product life cycles have been growing shorter and customers are demanding customized products more and more. The arrival of 5G will ease these challenges, but it is important to be prepared, by investing in the right software today.
What if… You make your quotations using Hive CPQ?
Hive CPQ is the next generation quotation tool. Why? We take the quotation process out of your current CRM or ERP environment. Quotations can be made by any stakeholder (Sales, backoffice, engineering and your customers). The user interface is fast, clean and simple. Hive CPQ speeds up the quotation process. Hive CPQ supports complex products and pricing, but manages to hide the complexity to the users.
What is the estimated shipping time for a product?
To know when certain products will be shipped is often a challenging question, causing inefficient phone calls and back and forth emailing. Increase your customer relationship with HiveCPQ’s new feature 'Shipping Schedules', which can be activated by any manufacturer.
Automated testing with Katalon
As our software evolves rapidly, it is key to make sure everything remains stable and operational. At HiveCPQ we have setup a modern automated test environment. With over 500 automated tests we automatically test our application in development, staging and production. The number of tests grows week after week.