Guide and control option selection with our product configurator
Contact us 
The Blueprint Product Configurator will help you:
- Ease product selection and increase average order value
- Prevent costly mistakes by ensuring only permissible product offerings are quoted
- Add new product options and features quickly and easily
- Empower more people to produce quotes, faster
Customers using our product configurator know that people can only select the products and product options that they have allowed. More people are able to understand their entire product range with less training needed.
Our consultants have vast experience in showing companies how a product configurator can ease the quote to order process and reduce costs. Click the 'Contact Us' button at the top of this page for more information on how a product configurator can help you.
What is a Product Configurator?
A product configurator in this case is a software tool that enables users to quickly, easily and accurately select the options or features that they require on a particular product or service. It can be used in a number of business environments although more recently its use is seen in the sales or 'front office' areas enabling sales people to 'configure' quotes and/or customers to tailor (or configure) product selections (features / attributes) to meet their needs exactly.
In a sales environment product configurators mean that users can select options that they know can be sold - so there are no longer compatibility errors. Prices are calculated automatically so it is always accurate and consistent. Documents can be produced at the touch of a button so they can be dispatched to the customer faster. The learning curve, even on the most complex products and services is shortened from years to hours.
From a customer perspective configuration means they are getting the product / service that most closely meets their needs. It has led to the term 'Mass Customisation' whereby a company no longer sells standard products. A product configurator can help an organisation make that transition to holding components and configuring or manufacturing or packing then just in time. The savings in stock can be huge.
Good product configurator software, usually available over the internet means the customer is now empowered to produce his own orders with virtually no training or expert knowledge.
Key to a great product configurator is its ease of use from both a user and administrator point of view:
- User Perspective
The interface should be intuitive; often simple list views with drop down selections or fields in which to enter data are best, using the old adage of keeping it simple. Users should be guided and informed in their selections. If items are not compatible or have an impact elsewhere the product configurator should inform the user imeediately or prevent its selection.
- Administrator Perspective
The interface should be intuitive; drag and drop type interfaces are often best. Not only is it it important to be able to manage a product configuration it is also important to do so with the minimum footprint i.e. keeping the ongoing maintenance as low as possible. For this reason it is often best to employ expert help to advise on the best way to configure a product range. Even though the consultants knowledge of your products will not be as good as the host company their guidance and expertise in this complex area will be invaluable and save many hours of time in the long run - particularly where product configurator software is emplyed. Finally it is important that rules are captured (no matter how complex) and that where possible items automated. Many systems will provide the basics but it is important that ALL the rules and calculations are capable of being stored in the product configurator and for that reason a scripting engine is almost always necessary.
In summary there are product configurators and there are Product Configurators. Do not let the system limit your configuration goals as the rewards are immense.
We offer a free Management Overview on the concept of Product Configuration or Mass Customisation and the use of configurator software.
