Bleeding Big Money on Dead End Initiatives

The Problem:

In an era where design software and BIM assets can supercharge the speed and efficiency of building design, the design process remains hindered by the cumbersome, manual and error prone specification processes of manufacturers.

The traditional method of searching, comparing and specifying products has not progressed even close to the speed that design tools have.  Instead manufactures constantly chase the market and masquerade their product catalogue as being ‘digital’ or AI enable, because they have downloadable on a website and a chatbot.

CTO’s searching for an Answer

CTOs across the globe are being tasked with solving the infinite number of friction points in the configuration process. Crazy money is spent on new – cure all – solutions that are being “specially built”. But they never work, are always delayed, and become another IT behemoth than now needs yet another budget to maintain.

The rest of the C-suite can see it happening, but they do not have the tech knowledge or vocabulary to debate or challenge the approach. So, IT car crashes are being watched around the world as each company tries to solve the data mess that strangles growth.

Really, salespeople and customers should be able to specify as easily as one buys a book on amazon. And the IT infrastructure should be able to enable it.

The Customers Experience

What the customer desires is efficiency and accuracy in easily accessible data, so they can make decisions, even late into the evening, without having to call a help desk or wait months for a quote. They want to be able to search the manufacturers entire range, with advanced search criteria and, with just one click, inside their design app, drop the product into the drawing and specification. 

The Solution

In contrast, leading manufactures (such as Knauf) are revolutionising specification by fully digitalising product data and offer compelling advantages internally and to customers.

Seizo’s Configuration HUB (Digital Product Catalogue) allows for complex construction products to be organised and their relationships mapped, so that sales teams and customers can search, compare and buy products on a website or inside their preferred BIM software, with the same ease and confidence one might buy a book on Amazon.

How Is That Possible

The enabler is Seizo and its Schema Technology. Twenty years of R&D created the now Seizo Core, which hosts a manufacturers data, then converts and exports the data into any desired proprietary format. As a result, a manufacture can manage their own product data and have that accurate data consistent globally, on all websites, inside BIM applications, across the entire company, instantly. And the customer can competently buy on their own, 24 hours a day.

No longer does every application need its own maintenance. Seizo HUB controls them all. And the manufacture controls the HUB.

In just minutes, the manufacture can update how their product meets new compliance parameters, building codes, delivery timelines, or other industry requirement. For manufacturers with leading technology, the Digital Catalogue enables the promotion of innovative features such as carbon ratings, recycled materials, low environmental impact, sustainability ratings and any unique trait that your customer values.

This digitalisation of product data significantly reduces specification timelines, often by as much as 90% compared to traditional methods. In addition, sales are no longer limited to business hours or a help desk’s availability. Customer can specify entire projects, accurately, 24hours a day, essentially doubling or tripling trading hours.

The digital product catalogue takes the concept of business efficiency to another level, leveraging AI and customer analytics, to accurately forecast production loads, buying trends and customer preferences. With even further benefits, Seizo’s digitalisation technology has proven its ability to seamlessly integrate with CRMs and ERPs, giving leaders more visibility on their business than the industry has ever dreamed of. A stark contrast to the limited visibility offered by traditional specification solutions.

The economics for digitalizing an entire product catalogue and its ease of implementation are equally impressive. Where traditional solutions require significant capital outlay, large head counts to execute, with a high risk of failure and a multiyear wait to see revenue, Seizo’s SAS model has a digital catalogue installed in 24hrs with certainty it can accurately scale sales and specification. Seizo does not require a bus of consultants to get started, instead the software imports data of any quality, and organise it into a customised format for you to verify and release after QA. The catalogue is ready for internal use in one month and ready for your customer to in three months or less. Unlike the alternat approaches, Seizo’s extraordinary speed to operation means within three months your digital product catalogue is revenue generating, the key person bottle neck is removed, and the product catalogue speaks with every other part of your business.