bpm.pro: Case study "Offer management and calculation for silicone profiles"

The price calculations for silicone profiles are complex and dependant on a number of factors.
One of our customers had created Excel maps for this calculation procedure which helped them precisely establish calculations for their production scenarios. Furthermore one was able to make adjustments any time to the calculation logic and parameters. One of the problems was to locate already made calculations and their use in customer offers. In addition to this a database orientated solution was missing where offer and calculation data could be found in a structured and retrievable manner as well as be used for the creation of offers. Another issue for this process was that it did not support control and release of calculations based on a four eye principle.
The customer instructed us to develop such a solution based on bpm.pro. Precondition was the retention of the Excel based price calculation so that the customer could continue making alterations to the calculation logic by themselves.
With the business object module bpm.pro-objectdesigner it was possible to simply generate and module the required data objects such as customers, requests, products and calculations.
In order to conduct the calculation the client could open their developed Excel maps directly in bpm.pro. The calculation parameters(such as measurements, required quality, material or calculation item numbers) are automatically passed onto Excel maps. The determined calculation results in the map are returned to the application when closed and saved with the business objects.
This ensures that existing calculations can be presented clearly for each individual product without having to open all Excel maps.
After one or more calculations have been made to a request then they can be integrated into the offer. In order to generate the offer document the bpm.pro-easydoc-Module is utilized which enables to automatically generate documents similar to Word form letters. The layout and structure of the offers can be adjusted by the user if they so wish.
Both the generated calculation maps as well as the offer documents are versioned in an "electronic file" to each procedure so that they can be viewed at any later date. For this the bpm.pro-Module myArchiv is used.

Resume

Particularly with the help of easydoc-document automation it was possible to establish a modern calculation solution with integrated spreadsheet logic. Thanks to the simple retrieval new calculations are not required as one can access those already available. Due to the generation of offers as MS-Word documents alterations are easy to implement – the filing in an "electronic file" enables a simple traceability of individual versions of calculations and sent offers.