Metal Industries, Inc.

It’s something like buying a new car, with all the options, colors, and specifications open for the buyer to decide. You can specify the model, color, and whether it has an automatic or manual transmission. You can order any number of options – including air conditioning, a CD player, an AM/FM stereo, leather seats, and automatic windows. In short, you can create a multitude of different "products" just by choosing different options for the same basic product. Multiply those kinds of choices by a million or so and you’ll get an idea of what sales representatives for Clearwater, FL-based Metal Industries, Inc. were dealing with until recently. As manufacturers and marketers of the MetalAire line of HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) products, Metal Industries grappled with the problem of how to provide their sales representatives with a complete list of products and every possible variation on the product. Before the company approached Claresco, MetalAire sales reps were required to price orders manually. Base product prices and option/accessory prices had to be computed by hand using large binders of price lists. The process was unwieldy and time-consuming, and ordering the final product required a complicated series of procedures for each different product line. "We came to Claresco wanting to develop an electronic pricing program for our customers," says David John, director of marketing for Metal Industries. Claresco designed a system that systematizes the pricing process of MetalAire products while providing sales reps with an easy-to-learn user interface. The MetalAire GRD Pricing Program can be run on a sales representative’s laptop. It utilizes a compressed file that holds the pricing and configuration options for all MetalAire products, which can be readily updated from the company’s website. The pricing program allows the company to provide its sales representatives nationwide with a simple pricing and configuration software package. The custom software allows for a virtually unlimited number of product sizes and configurations without the headache of maintaining a separate product number for every possible product configuration. The user interface allows the sales rep to create orders and efficiently put together a complete price quote for their customers. The core of the MetalAire GRD Pricing Program is a software module called the Pricing Engine. This module manages all of the pricing and configuration information for the MetalAire product line. The software module was designed to be flexible enough to be used as part of the company’s accounting software, on a sales representative’s laptop, or on a web server. As a data-driven tool, the engine can be used to price any type of merchandise. "The program has been well-received," says David John. It’s helped generate more sales and it saves our representatives time. They can spend less time pricing products and more time selling them. It’s just been a very successful relationship [with Claresco]."