Cincom takes configurators global – and to SAP

Both suites, which are aimed at manufacturers needing to improve the sales, quoting, configuration and production processes for complex products, also now have pre-built integration to SAP R/3 ERP systems. “This release is very important for our global customer base,” says Jim Wilson, product director for Cincom Socrates. “We’ve enhanced almost every area of the product, including new deployment options, performance improvements, and productivity enhancements.” And at least one manufacturer likes it. “This will enable us to provide our China operations with the same functionality that has been so important to our North American operations,” says Robert Flashinski at Greenheck Fan Corporation. Meanwhile, on the SAP side, the new systems share customer and quotation data with SAP and feed configured sales orders directly into the SAP Order Management and Variant Configurator modules. That will go down well with manufacturers wanting more robust guided selling, product configuration and proposal-generation. Incidentally, it’s also worth noting that these systems now have a new AJAX thin web client that improves performance and simplifies deployment for users with complex, rules-based applications over the web, an intranet, or in HTML-based application portals like the SAP Portal.