Case Study
Introduction
KITO Armaturen GmbH is an established company specializing in solutions for explosion prevention and protection for OEM manufacturers. With a strong focus on quality, protection, and safety, KITO produces flame arresters, control valves, and other associated special devices for diverse customer requirements. Their products adhere to all stringent industry standards.
The company, based in Germany, has a worldwide presence. KITO has a stack of skilled sales engineers who offer specialized local service to international customers. But, even though the company fields a wide variety of products, it aims to keep things simple, precise, and quick.
Challenge
Before introducing our custom software tool, KITO faced several challenges in its sales processes. The complexity of their products required extensive pre-sales and sales interactions. These would usually occur through phone calls or emails with KITO’s sales agents. So, the company was looking to automate these processes. The idea was to provide an online product catalog with selection features based on project specifications.
KITO needed a fixed-price product selection tool to generate suitable solutions based on chosen conditions and four industry standards. In order to address these challenges, the brand needed a partner that could understand their unique requirements. A company that would help to estimate and automate their sales processes.
After learning that we specialize in designing customized software and adapting to various industry standards and technologies, KITO reached out to Right Information. In order to build the right solution, we commit to studying clients’ habits and their everyday processes.
Understanding the key client expectations is also necessary to deliver the right solution. Equipped with that knowledge, we can estimate and automate sales processes, adjusting to various industry requirements and technologies.
Solution
Right Information collaborated with KITO’s team to deliver an effective solution. During our cooperation, we worked as one company. Both teams adopted an agile approach and maintained ongoing communication throughout the linkup.
The project went through several key phases:
Approach and planning:
During the initial phase, both Right Information’s and KITO’s teams engaged in discussions to determine the best approach for building the software solution. Through collaborative sessions, they defined the project scope, goals, and requirements.
This phase involved gathering insights into KITO’s existing sales processes. In other words, we had to understand their specific needs and identify the desired functionalities of the software.
Designing a prototype of the product selection tool:
Next, we embarked on designing a prototype of the software solution. This phase involved creating a visual representation of the user interface and features. The prototype served as a basis for stakeholders to provide feedback, make adjustments, and ensure that the final product aligns with KITO’s expectations. It allowed for early validation of the concept and ensured that the solution met the desired objectives.
Input on Appearance and Features:
After developing the prototype, we collaborated with KITO’s team to provide input on the tool’s appearance and features. This phase involved two main tasks. The first task was refining the user interface design and selecting colour schemes. The second task was incorporating KITO’s branding elements to create a visually appealing, cohesive solution. Additionally, both teams discussed and finalized the functional requirements and desired features. These features would optimize the sales processes, including multilingual support, interactive graphs, and dynamic calculations.
Product selection tool development and testing:
After finalizing the design and feature specifications, our development team commenced the actual development phase. They used their expertise in custom software development to bring the solution to life. We conducted iterative testing throughout the development process to identify and resolve bugs, usability issues, or performance concerns. Above all, rigorous testing ensured that the software was stable, reliable, and met the highest quality standards.
Sizing and Selection tool
The resulting solution, named ‘KISS’, is a web application that customers can access from KITO’s website. It serves as a selection and sizing platform. Users can search for products based on project specifications and perform accessory calculations and conditions. KISS leverages data from KITO’s extensive product catalogs. It also employs cloud databases to ensure up-to-date information.
Key advantages of the KISS product selection tool include:
- Flame arresters and end and inline valve selection and sizing capabilities, helping users identify the most suitable products for their applications.
- Dimensioning tool provides dynamic calculations of solution requirements, showing real-time results based on input parameters. For instance, users input specifications, like, tank-supported multiple Standards (ISO, TRGS) or gas conditions. After that, the system instantly conducts meticulous valve calculations.
- Multilingual support, so the customers can interact with the tool in their preferred language.
- The ability to switch between units, accommodating diverse customer requirements.
- Interactive graphs aid in visualizing and understanding product characteristics.
Above all, we prioritized delivering an exceptional UX, ensuring the tool was easy to read, functional, and aligned with KITO’s corporate identity. Also, the application’s multilingual support and ease of updating make it a valuable asset for KITO’s global reach and ongoing business growth.
Business Impact
The new product selection platform certainly revolutionized KITO’s sales processes introducing self-service sales workflow automation. Our software developers harnessed the knowledge of KITO’s sales engineers and incorporated it into the KISS tool. As a result, potential customers can now browse KITO’s product catalog online. For instance, users can leverage the flame arresters and end and inline valve sizing and selection tool to find the best matches for their project needs.
The product selection tool, available in eight languages, opened up new markets for KITO. It expanded the company’s customer base beyond the previous two languages. Moreover, it can be seamlessly integrated with other software systems, ensuring a streamlined business flow.
Right Information aims to save time and drive business growth. We achieve this by customizing software that aligns with clients’ expectations and ideas. The KISS tool eliminates the need for clients to sift through hundreds of pages in a traditional product catalog. As a result, customers get a much more efficient and user-friendly experience. Users can now access data that were before only available to experienced engineers.
In addition, Right Information continues to collaborate with KITO on more automation initiatives. We’re discussing creating a custom Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool. An ERP platform is a handy tool for managing daily business activities.
There’s also a plan to develop a Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) tool. CPQ is a great help when it comes to generating accurate quotes. These systems will integrate with the KISS tool, enabling KITO to optimize operations and enhance customer satisfaction.
To sum up, our collaboration with KITO Armaturen GmbH resulted in the development of a powerful valve selection tool. Most importantly, introducing the tool automated sales processes improved customer satisfaction and expanded KITO’s reach in the global market.
