HSI Cranes upscaled from DriveWorks Solo to Pro and have created a customer-facing configurator
Handling Systems International Inc. (HSI) is a leading manufacturer of Jib Cranes, Gantry Cranes, Workstation Cranes, and Bridge Cranes, headquartered in McCook, IL USA. HSI remains true to the brand’s original value and vision for cranes, which is that they supply custom-built products to meet the needs of each customer’s exact specifications.
Starting Small with DriveWorks Solo
HSI has been using DriveWorks since 2017, to automate the design process of their cranes. They began their DriveWorks journey with the free DriveWorks Solo 30-day trial, creating a small project to see the capabilities DriveWorks had.
At HSI, cranes can range from 6 feet to over 300 feet, handling multiple capacities from 500 pounds to 40000 thousand pounds. Part numbers can also range from 80 for a small system to thousands for a larger system, making them extremely configurable.
HSI purchased DriveWorks Solo, and created their first project, but soon realized that a customer-facing tool would benefit them and went on to purchase DriveWorks Pro.
Building an Online Configurator Tool with DriveWorks Pro
Since purchasing DriveWorks Pro, HSI have built Quotinator™, their online tool for dealers, customers, and distributors.
Quotinator™ uses DriveWorks and SOLIDWORKS to provide scaled drawings and quotes for their ranges of cranes. Dealers can access Quotinator™ from anywhere, through the distributor login on HSI’s website.
Owing to the scalability of DriveWorks software, the data captured in the DriveWorks Solo project was not lost and was easily migrated to form the basis of their DriveWorks Pro web-enabled project. Quotinator™ was BETA tested internally for two months and then rolled out to distributors.
It also doubles as a sales tool, because they can track who is interacting with the site.
Quotinator™ is used by distributors, Customers and internal teams
Improving Customer Service
End users don’t have to sit around waiting for a quote and are returning to HSI after receiving such prompt service. HSI is also constantly improving and adapting the configurator and product options in response to customer demand. HSI believe in continuous improvement and are utilizing the form building tools in DriveWorks to enhance the look and feel of the UI to make Quotinator™ even more user friendly, particularly on mobile devices.
Improving Multiple Areas of the Business
The aspirations for the Quotinator™ and DriveWorks don’t stop there as they are looking to integrate DriveWorks with their CRM system too. To use Quotinator™, a distributor or customer must request a login from HSI. This is an extra security step to ensure HSI knows who is accessing the online configurator, which also doubles up as a sales tool. Sales teams can see who is accessing the site and generating successful leads.
See What You Can Achieve with DriveWorks
Explore our online product configurator examples to see the many different ways DriveWorks can be used for design automation and digital selling.