October 5, 2011

A+B Solutions and WICE win CRM Best Practice Award

Through its partnership with WICE, A+B Solutions scores successes in sales and service, raising revenue by 25 per cent.

Schwäbisch Gmünd. A+B Solutions, provider of solutions for logging and controlling production, and integrated production solutions for use in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) was honoured at the CRM-expo in Nuremberg with the CRM Best Practice Award by the provider of cloud-based CRM software, WICE of Hamburg, crossing the finishing line in an outstanding third place. “This award means a great deal to us. It shows us that we are on the right path in Customer Relationship Management,” says Ralf Stetter, MD of A+B Solutions. “That we as a small enterprise could win this prize against more than 50 contestants is witness to our great success in partnership with WICE.” The numbers speak for themselves. Through the introduction of WICE Cloud Based CRM, A+B Solutions was able to raise both revenue and customer activation rates by 25 per cent, and make savings in payroll and IT costs, too. Stetter adds: “The big benefit for us is that we are now far more effective in our internal and external processes, with a level of transparency we’ve never known before.” A+B Solutions has used the CRM solution from WICE since 2007. The award honours its course of further development in which A+B was supported by aspiring scientists at Aalen University. As part of their term coursework, students analysed A+B’s marketing and sales performance and devised metrics to check its achievement of objectives. The company’s goal was to integrate sales, project management, administration, and service and support in one system. Hansjörg Schmidt, Head of Marketing at WICE, comments: “Without this sort of integration there is too much wasted cover. Companies work far less effectively if customer service does not know what sales is doing.” All sales processes are mapped in WICE Cloud Based CRM – from the first successful contact right up until the invoice. Stetter: “Now we have a tool to manage all employees. Thanks to the standard documentation for customer meetings and service and support requests, we know precisely what the sales situation is at all times and have a good idea of what customers want.” Stetter sees another advantage in the constant support provided by the service of WICE, who are always ready to give advice and develop new tools such as an FAQ database. “This has made our support more professional and shortened our response times.” With WICE Cloud Based CRM the customer is the focus of attention at A+B – and this view was shared by the jury of the CRM Best Practice Awards and led to the Bronze medal in recognition of the company’s success.

May 20, 2011

Siemens PLM Software - PLM Perspective

Siemens Supports DMG / Mori Seiki at "Innovation Days 2011" Event

As a part of the recent Innovation Days event run by the machine tool builder DMG/Mori Seiki at their Technology Center in Chicago, Siemens PLM Software was invited to set up and present a full part manufacturing solution within a new digital manufacturing display area.

Over the three days of the event a large number of visitors from many different industries attended to see the latest DMG/Mori Seiki machine tools and to see a wide range of formal presentations on key manufacturing topics.

Within the new digital manufacturing area, immediately adjacent to the main machine tool display halls, visitors were able to see one of the most complete part manufacturing solutions including NX™ CAD software for part preparation and fixture design, NX CAM for NC programming, post processing and machine tool simulation, NX CMM for inspection programming and Teamcenter manufacturing for data and process management. The ease of use and dependability offered by having everything in one complete solution was commented on as a key advantage by many of the visitors.

Siemens’ software and equipment on display within the new digital manufacturing solutions area at the DMG/Mori Seiki Technology Center in Chicago, May 3rd-5th.

One of the highlights of the display was a live demonstration showing an iPad® portable electronic device showing Shop Floor Connect for Teamcenter. Operating via a web browser, the user can control direct connection from Teamcenter to an example machine tool and to other shop floor equipment while accessing any part of the manufacturing plan released for shop floor use.

As a part of the overall set up, a Siemens SINUMERIK 840D controller demo panel was connected to Teamcenter. The Siemens Motion Control Information System (MCIS) DNC and tool data software (TDI) were also on display to address shop floor based data management and enhanced support for the SINUMERIK controller.

Many of the machines on display at the DMG/Mori Seiki Technical Center can be purchased with Siemens SINUMERIK controllers. Major Siemens PLM customers using NX CAM and Teamcenter software are also using or selecting DMG/Mori Seiki machine tools and specifying a preference for Siemens SINUMERIK controllers. The close cooperation between Siemens PLM Software and DMG/Mori Seiki includes extensive work on post processor development being carried out at the DMG headquarters in Pfronten, Germany. In the USA, Siemens is looking forward to ongoing activities with DMG/Mori Seiki utilizing the new display area for joint customer presentations, post processor testing and related events.