Dynaco boosts sales with Hive product configurator

Dynaco, a Belgian-based manufacturer of industrial high-speed doors, was already a pioneer years ago with their extensive e-commerce offering and a custom-built product configurator. With their ever-growing product range and increasing customer demands, the company felt a need to respond to the latest technological trends. To modernize customer service, Dynaco counted on Hive CPQ, an expert in B2B e-commerce specialized in product configurators. 

 Article written by C. Lucas and S. Audenaert from Agoria

Dynaco Door: The safest choice

Dynaco was founded in 1987 and has since built extensive expertise in high-performance roll-up and fold-up doors. Dynaco aims to provide prime product quality through its certified and dedicated partner network, which provides excellent service to customers through Europe. For its valued customers in the rest of the world, the company relies on its U.S. division and its license partners in Russia, Japan, China, Vietnam, and Brazil.

Dynaco is part of Assa Abloy Entrance Systems – home to the world’s leading suppliers of the most innovative brands in access automation. Its extensive range of product brands includes Ditec, Nergeco, Normstahl, and Albany.

Pioneer in e-commerce

Dynaco turned to e-commerce early on, making it a pioneer in the industry. Since 2006, the company has been offering the possibility of ordering their products using a product configurator tool. It allows customers to put a product together in just a few clicks and to immediately consult their result in a clear 3D model. With the tool, customers can instantly see what they order and Dynaco saves a lot of time as the process is fully automated. A win-win situation.

Challenge: staying relevant in a more complex world

However, like many other industries, the door market does not stand still. Both products and processes are becoming increasingly complex every year, with more options and adjusted prices. In addition, Dynaco wanted to extend their product configurator tool with other product lines within Assa Abloy Entrance Systems, particularly the doors from Ditec, Nergeco, and Normstahl.

The product configurator tool was not based on the newest technologies and therefore did not offer enough flexibility to withstand future evolutions. With its rapidly expanding distribution network and the ever-increasing demands of installers in mind, Dynaco decided to innovate. The company strongly believed that “if you’re going to offer your products online, the tool must be relevant and user-friendly.” Dynaco quickly understood that investing in new software was the only solution to continue scaling. They called in the help of Hive CPQ, expert in B2B e-commerce with experience in building product configurator software.

Building from scratch or using existing software?

Frederik Taleman, founder and CEO of Hive, explains: “Dynaco was faced with a very important decision: building software from scratch or using existing software. The former was quickly pushed aside, because a company like Dynaco would have to spend more than a year on just building the system and it would’ve taken a considerable number of man-hours. Additionally, the company lacked the right expertise for a project like this. Clearly, building it from scratch did not seem like a good option for them. Fortunately, there are already quite a lot of software systems available on the market, so Dynaco decided to build on existing software.”

Product configurator as full-service experience

Hive CPQ came into the picture and immediately met Dynaco’s needs perfectly. The expert in B2B e-commerce with offices in Ghent and Brussels built a product configurator tool for manufacturers with a distribution network. The configurator offers a full-service experience: the users (usually installers) receive clear guidance during the configuration based on 3D models. They are given access to interactive documentation and transparent price calculation. After configuring their desired product, users can print a personalized quote and instantly place an order.

Clear, detailed, and centralized

Hive CPQ built an all-in-one solution that supports the sales process from start to finish. Its main advantages are that everything runs on one platform, and that no crucial information can get lost in the preparation of a quote.

Dynaco chose this software system for two reasons. First is the ease of use for installers. Configuring a product and placing an order is significantly simplified. And second Dynaco is no longer wasting time on making internal quotes. With Hive CPQ, the company enjoys an automated order intake, seamlessly going into production and invoicing.

Support during transition and building integrations

Hive’s project engineers built on Dynaco’s old product configurators to make them more powerful and visual. For some product ranges, brand new interactive configurators were built by the team. To make the transition to the new software as smooth as possible, Dynaco assembled an internal project team that worked together with Hive on the migration. Each division within Dynaco got an individual migration path.

Hive also supported Dynaco with the integration of the various IT systems, such as their existing ERP, SAP and Sage software, Microsoft CRM, Qlikview and more. Once these had been set up, the back office and sales managers received training so they could optimally guide the implementation at the distributors. Dynaco’s new product configurators were live in just a few months. After a short testing period, it was soon decided to start the customer onboarding.

Improvement in every department

With Hive CPQ, both Dynaco’s employees and customers can save a lot of time, which is reflected in the online sales figures. Between 60% and 97% of all products within various divisions in the company are now ordered online. The turnaround time of the sales process has also been drastically reduced. Customers no longer have to wait on sales after requesting a quote. With a few simple clicks in Hive they can see the price in real-time and generate their own quote.

An additional advantage is that thanks to the seamless integrations with internal systems, some positions have been reallocated; employees who used to do purely administrative work now have time to focus on actively following up on and supporting their installer network.

The customer service department has also felt an improvement. Hive reduces the number of incorrect orders, leaving more time for qualitative follow-up.

The platform also offers a module for selling spare parts in a more efficient manner with exploded views and serial numbers of configured products. This reduces the time spent identifying the correct spare part and prevents that the wrong part gets sent to customers.

Having the Hive B2B e-commerce platform makes it much easier for Dynaco to train their dealers, because interactive information is available for each component.

Improving the customer experience in the future

Dynaco is reaping the benefits of this innovation. The focus for the next couple of months? Shielding their customers from internal complexity to make the customer experience even more user-friendly. In doing so, the door builder hopes to boost its growth even further.