The next topic in the DriveWorks Webinar Series covers Specification Power Pack and will take place on Thursday 19th September 4pm (BST).
This Webinar will take a look at the
new Specification Power Pack introduced for DriveWorks 10. This is a DriveWorks Plugin which adds
numerous Functions and Tasks with advanced features. The Webinar will cover the
installation and use of the Specification Power Pack, and includes several of
examples.
Whether you are a User of DriveWorks Pro or a DriveWorks Reseller Applications Engineer this webinar will provide you with a wealth of useful information.
To sign up for this webinar go to:
The DriveWorks User Community – for all DriveWorks Pro customers with a valid
subscription support contract.
The DriveWorks Reseller Community – for all DriveWorks VARs.
One
of the challenges faced by any international business offering configurable products is that differences in time
zones can severely limit your opportunities in other parts of the world, after
all, if you aren’t awake how can you give a quote to a customer.
One
option would be to allow the requests to pile up and then deal with them in the
morning, but anyone who works in an office with global reach knows that you can
end up with a huge pile of work before your day has even started, and by the
time you have finished with those requests your customer may have already
decided to go with someone else.
While
visiting one of our customers last week it became apparent that DriveWorks had
completely eliminated this problem for them, allowing this small UK-based company to grow to
global proportions.
The company’s prospects can enter their details online from any location
and receive a quote, along with an accurate model of their configured product in minutes.
Conducting
business 24/7 has been an advantage of e-Commerce since the dawn of the Internet and DriveWorks
brings flexibility and responsiveness to the quotation and design part of the sales
process.
By
using DriveWorks our customers can produce instant quotes, BOM’s and Models all
while they are sleeping!
For
any business looking to sell configurable products internationally, DriveWorks
automates the entire process allowing you to rest easy knowing that your
customers are not going unheard.
To
see examples of this kind of project take a look at DriveWorks Live where we
have some fantastic online examples.
For
more information on what DriveWorks can do for your business visit
www.DriveWorks.co.uk
To learn more about what DriveWorks can do for you come to our free expert led Webinar
here :Â http://bit.ly/Xpressinar
and to download your free DriveWorks Solo Trial  go to:  http://bit.ly/TrySolo
This demo is great for Business to Consumer (B2C) companies – that make products that would go straight to the consumer. It presents how they can create a form that customers can work through themselves, configuring their ideal design of the item (in this case a sofa). The company will then be sent the various documents needed – such as Bill of Materials and Drawings. Once the project has been set up, an engineer/designer does not even have to be involved in this part of the design process, excellent for freeing up time to spend on completely bespoke projects.
This particular demo is very visual and uses as little text as possible – fantastic for international companies, as it limits any difficulty with a language barrier. Items can be easily configured, just
through the power of the images.
So, I went through this project from a consumer point of view – interested in creating my own perfect chair design, which is made completely to my taste. I do not come from a technical background, so me running through this demo is incredibly realistic, to show that any person – technical or not – can configure their own creation within minutes. These are the steps I took:
1. Visit www.driveworkslive.com demo site.
2. Click on the Shopping Cart square (with the trolley icon).
3. Click on ‘Hello.’
4. Then choose the item to configure – in this case a chair.
5. Click on the image, or the text ‘Design your NewSofa’.
6. Choose the size of the seating you require.
7. Configure the colour, shape and feet of your chair.
8. Click ‘add to basket.’
9. Click on ‘go to checkout’ – here you can choose extras also.
10. Click on ‘continue to checkout’ and enter your details. Then submit.
So, in just 10 quick steps I managed to create my perfect chair, I was then emailed all the sales and manufacturing documents. In theory, manufacturing could now begin. (If I had a spare £500).
Head on over to www.driveworkslive.com and configure yourself your very own perfect sofa.
Specification flow is a powerful feature in DriveWorks that gives the DriveWorks Administrator the ability to customize the DriveWorks specification process. (ie rules for what happens and when it happens).
When a project is first set up in DriveWorks it is created with a default specification flow which guides a specification through four basic states – Running (i.e. filling out forms in the specification), Saved, Pending, and Completed.
Each one of these states has links to other states to move from one state to another. For example, a specification in the Saved state can be moved into the Running state, and a specification in the Running state can be moved into the Pending state (by clicking Finish), or the Completed state (by clicking Release). These links between states are called transitions.
Each state also has certain operations that can be performed on it, but which do not move to another state, for example, a specification can be deleted, or copied.
The Specification Flow can be customized in DriveWorks Administrator to meet your own specification and Work flow needs.
Example Uses
There are lots of reasons why you may want to look at customizing your specification flow, here are a few examples.
You can read more about Specification Flow in the ONLINEÂ documentation file
http://docs.driveworkspro.com/?ProjectEditorSpecificationFlow.html
