Configurators are a rapidly growing area of software development that are part of the sales automation process. Most companies that make build-to-order products can benefit from the use of a configurator. These are usually products that are architectural in nature or that must be configured for the area that they will be installed in. Customer’s usually require detailed architectural drawings when purchasing a configured product.

Configurators usually handle the following types of tasks:

Inputting a customer’s specific requirements for the product. These requirements might involve a building’s dimensions or the weight of a customer’s application or product.

Creating a drawing of the configured product in plan view, elevation view and 3D view.

Creating a bill of materials and a quote for the configuration.

These tasks, if done by a manual process can be quite time consuming. Each sales person in a company might do things a different way. Mistakes can be made in specifying the bill of materials or the drawing step can be skipped, because of the time involved. A configurator automatically creates the drawing in an instant. The bill of materials is prepared through the catalog business rules. Mistakes are minimized and uniformity is achieved.

Theexample is for a configurator that is used by a steel rack manufacturer. A complete warehouse can be designed in minutes, when the customer’s requirements are known. As the specifications are changed in the dialogs on the left, the drawing of the warehouse is redrawn automatically. In addition, the bill of materials is automatically updated to reflect the addition of removal of specific features and products. Configurators can be very useful in creating a visual representation for the customer; the impact of changes can be instantly seen and the visual representation of the project helps the sales process.