Updates

Hive cares about protecting the data our customers and partners have trusted us with. We have received our first ISO 27001 certification! Getting awarded with ISO 27001 demonstrates that with Hive we are using best-practice information security methods. Let’s take a look at what this means.

More and more manufacturers rely on CPQ or Configure Price Quote software to sell their complex products online, causing the CPQ market to exponentially grow in the past couple of years. There is now a wide variety of CPQ solutions available, but what are the must-haves in 2022? Which options are essential and will help you get the best ROI? Whether you’re already using CPQ software or still looking into buying one, our top 7 must-haves will help you select the right tool for you.

Configure Price Quote (CPQ) software simplifies the sales process for manufacturers by making it easy to configure complex products, calculate the correct price, and generate a quote. Working with a CPQ guarantees that all information is stored in one place and that all departments within a company are linked to one another. However, there are a lot of common misconceptions about CPQ software that need debunking. Let’s take a look at the most common myths and how CPQ software handles these.

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?

“Time is money”, the famous words from Benjamin Franklin prove that time efficiency was even in 1748 a trending topic. Today, the pressure is higher than ever to not waste any time, which has in turn influenced customer behavior. Customers today are demanding a better and faster buying experience. How can you handle this growing difficulty as a company?

Over the last few years, digital technologies have had a major impact on our daily lives: we wake up reading the online newspaper on a tablet, work on our laptops throughout the day, host remote meetings, and go to bed scrolling through social media on our smartphones. These changes are forcing companies to reinvent their businesses and to make a digital leap. However, merely digitalizing the internal processes is not enough. Let’s take a look at why you should transform your sales process and how you can do so in today’s modernized world.

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?

CPQ or Configure Price Quote platforms simplify the sales process for manufacturers. A visual configurator allows users to compose products, consult accurate prices and generate a quote instantly. To implement a CPQ, you need master data about the products and the customers. This information can manually be entered, or it can seamlessly be pulled from other systems, using integrations. Integrations are therefore incredibly important in every CPQ project. Why is that and how can you connect these systems? Read on to find out!

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.

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?

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!

Attracting customers is essential for the growth of your B2B or Business-to-Business company. The best way of doing so is by meeting their needs. For years, B2B customers have been distinguished from B2C target audiences. However, in the most recent years, we have been noticing a shift, initiated by the changing behavior and needs of B2B customers.