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Below is our recent interview with Marc Murphy, CEO at Atlatl Software:
Q: Marc, could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Atlatl Software?
A: Absolutely! At Atlatl we’re leading the charge to help manufacturers redefine their sales process. Built by and for manufacturers, we have a unique understanding of the specific challenges that exist in the complex, engineering laden sales cycles our customers face. But through our innovative, interactive, and immersive technology, we are able to alleviate many of these pains.
To do this we’ve developed a suite of cloud based software we call QuoteBooks Cloud. Amongst this offering, our most popular product is VCPQ, which stands for Visual Configuration, Pricing and Quoting. QuoteBooks VCPQ allows a manufacturer’s sales rep to sell shoulder to shoulder with their customers through the power of product visualization. The real time, visual feedback of this on-screen configuration process dramatically increases the speed and accuracy of the engagement.
In this processes, selling Configured To Order products is incredibly easy. But the real magic is in how we are able to do this for even the most complex Engineered-To-Order products. Our proprietary rules engine accounts for a product’s engineering rules, taking the complicated out of the complex, and simplifying the sales process. The efficiency gained from avoiding the back and forth between the customer, the sales rep, and the engineer amounts to days and oftentimes weeks saved.
Furthermore, this helps the manufacturer create industry leading experiences for their customers, and position themselves as partners of choice in their markets.
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Q: With your platform’s offering, what impacts are you able to drive for your customers?
A: The QuoteBooks Cloud suite’s data driven ecosystem meets the go-to-market needs of any manufacturer, regardless of channel depth or product complexity. Because of this we are able to provide a full channel ecosystem for connected dealer/distributor networks and ease sales channel management. And as highlighted above, our 3D visual configuration capabilities provide value added customer interactions, which increases sales efficiency. This leads to more accurate forecasting, planning, and higher performing sales channels as a whole.
Our customers also receive the benefits of being able to offer detailed product renderings and technical drawings. These are produced in real-time as they configure with their customer, allowing them to Instantly generate professional quotes with dynamic pricing.
All of this is backed by our Rules-driven CPQ with real-time validation during their configuration, ensuring accuracy and efficiency at each step.
Q: How is QuoteBooks Visual CPQ different from other CPQ software?
A: Most traditional CPQ software does not leverage the power of visual configuration and the efficiencies it can provide. While some have begun to offer more simplistic visual elements in their suite, such as static images or 3D representations of CTO products, we are the only solution that can handle the most complex ETO products.
This is because QuoteBooks VCPQ is a platform that captures the tribal knowledge of complex product and system design of manufacturers into an easy to use, intuitive sales tool, effectively placing an engineer in the pocket of your sales team. This creates an ability to account for spatial awareness which we uniquely accomplish with our proprietary process, involving specific calculations and 3D interpretations of the existing environments a user would like place a product in.
Essentially, you’re applying modern principles and digitizing the scratch-paper, manual sales quoting methods that exist today, creating incredible accuracy and consistency of process across channels. What CAD has become for engineering, so will Visual Selling become for Sales Pro’s.
Q: Does Augmented Reality really provide a benefit to manufacturing businesses?
A: Absolutely! Like many others, we knew AR was cool, having experimented with it for years. But it wasn’t until we developed our Config2AR™ application that we found the perfect marriage of an exciting experience with engaging impacts. This is because unlike so many AR applications that are purely for show, Config2AR™ has true innovative business value for the customer. We are able to achieve this because our application enables a user and their customer to configure their product in our Visual software. Once this configuration is complete, a unique asset is instantly is generated. Using this, the customer (through a device of their choice) can visualize their potential purchase in a real space and to scale, allowing them to make the most impactful purchase decision. Imagine being able to understand how a machining system would fit within your current production floor. Aside from the impressive wow factor of seeing your selections brought to life, there’s the benefit and savings gained in understanding the dimensional relations that exist within your environment. This understanding allows for smarter revisions, with changes happening dynamically in the software. A simple generation of a new asset is available to view instantaneously, ensuring ultimate satisfaction.
Q: You’ve recently announced a collaboration with Oracle Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Cloud; could you tell us about it?
A: As we all know, Oracle is a massive software solutions provider who was already a leading platform in the traditional CPQ space. But when they saw the capabilities of our platform, and our ability to present visual configuration to even the most complex of manufacturing products, they were excited about the opportunities we could generate together. Through this collaboration, their CPQ users are able to receive the benefits of our advances in visual presentation. Within the partnership, Oracle customers can now have the same immediate and immersive feedback that our customers enjoy. This extends the Atlatl platform in new verticals and increases our reach.
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Q: What does the future hold? Where is the company headed?
A: The increasing rates of advances in technology is making it more exciting to dream about what’s possible, even if it is becoming that much harder to predict what’s feasible. Something we’re certain of is that the future will be in a form and fashion that exists not on scratch paper and spreadsheets, but on screens and intermixed within our real world. Blended realities, and experiences that will become common expectations are just starting to emerge and gain traction. The digitization of business processes is a driving wave that we all feel the impacts of. We’re thrilled to be riding this wave rather than watching it from ashore. As from this vantage point, it’s easy to visualize all of the opportunities that exist. What that means for us specifically is that we can be a leading evangelist for embracing the true value these advances can bring to our customer’s business. Looking ahead, a future where virtual sales, with complete mixed-reality visualization, and full scale asset deployment, is not that far ahead. We’re aligning our development to meet the trends in today’s and tomorrow’s market to be the strongest partner to our clients.
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