Sales configurator of the future

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 13:15

Wapice has participated in the development of a sales configurator of the future. Together with European and Asian automotive companies and research institutes the research project called the CATER found out how sales configurators can help manufacturing companies and their customers.

Wapice’s sales configurator, Summium, was used in the project. Wapice also developed additional tools for managing the network of factories, warehouses, sales and customers, as well as provided consultation on mass customization.

The following videos illustrate some of the results.

Video 1: Buying a fleet of trucks (business-to-business)
Video 2: Buying a car (consumer business)

For more information, please contact
Sami Kyllönen, Wapice +358 6 319 4000 sami.kyllonen[at]wapice.com

Wapice provided a sales configurator for ABB Oy, Substation Automation Products

Monday, 21 December 2009 11:37

ABB Oy, Substation Automation Products faced an urgent need for a new way of ordering and handling the orders, as a next generation product was introduced in the product family.

The ABB unit chose Summium sales configurator, developed by Wapice, to manage the ordering process better. Summium was customized to meet the specific needs of ABB. Summium has now been succesfully rolled out globally at ABB Substation Automation Products and their customers.

Requirements met by Summium sales configurator

The ABB unit had specific requirements for the sales configurator: it should benefit both the unit and its customers. For the unit, the system had to provide possibilities for maintenance in managing the different product models and adding of selectable options to the MicroSCADA Pro products. Moreover, it had to offer one place for the product prices and easy management of changes and discounts to different customers.

For the customer, there were the many requirements: First, different persons at the customer need to access the same up-to-date information.  Second, there had to be a way to contact sales support for guidance directly from the configurator. Third, customer’s time would be saved if old orders were available and they could be used as a template for the next order. Fourth, upgrades of the product had to be handled easily from the configurator. Fifth, customers should see the status of their orders any time. And finally, the configurator should be available globally for everyone that has an account.

Description of ABB Oy, Substation Automation Products

ABB Oy, Substation Automation Products is within ABB responsible for sales, marketing and development of software products used by electrical utilities and industries for monitoring, controlling and automating the electrical process. The product family is known as MicroSCADA Pro, and it has thousands of users around the world. MicroSCADA Pro is typically installed and used as a communication gateway and control system in electrical substations, but also as the network control system for supervising and controlling large distribution networks. Globally, there are close to 100 projecting units that are engineering and delivering such types of systems based on MicroSCADA Pro. In the recent years major R&D work on MicroSCADA Pro has been done and the volumes delivered have increased rapidly.

More information: www.summium.com

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tuesday, 15 December 2009 10:44

Wapice wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Successful Year 2010! We would like to thank our customers and everybody we cooperated with this year. We hope that the cooperation will continue next year and in the future.

This year’s money for Christmas presents was donated to poor children through the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare.

Wapice in programme for developing combustion engine technology

Monday, 23 November 2009 16:51

Together with leading Finnish technology companies and research institutes, Wapice will participate in the Future Combustion Engine Power Plant (FCEP) research programme that aims at developing new combustion engine technology. Amongst the high-tech companies are Wärtsilä Finland Oy, Agco Sisu Power Oy and ABB Oy. The program aims at developing reciprocating engine and related power plant technologies. The goal is to help Finnish industry maintain its leading position in global markets and meet the requirements of environmental legistlation.

Read more in a press release published in Kauppalehti.

CAN-based platform from Wapice

Thursday, 19 November 2009 17:01

Wapice has introduced a CAN-based multi-purpose platform. This hardware running on ARM9 CPU integrates e.g. machines or devices to back-end information systems using wireless 3G/EDGE network. The platform supports CANOpen (CiA DS 301 and 401), J1939 protocol or custom specific CAN protocols. Moreover, there are interfaces for RS-232 and RS-485, 2 USB ports, 1-wire, 3 digital outputs (relay), 8 analog inputs (24 bit ADC) and 8 digital multipurpose inputs.

The platform is available both in metal and plastic case. Physical dimensions are 17x12x5 cm. The standard configuration of the device is based on Linux operating system, and RTLinux is available based on request. The operational temperature ranges between -35°C and +85°C and operational voltage 10 – 96 V (DC).

The platform can be used with Wapice’s CAN remote diagnostic tools and Wapice Remote Management web portal. With the platform presented, the customer can also program solutions of their own using open source (GCC) development tools. Development tools and environments are available on request. For more information, do not hesitate to contact us.

Remote management research

Tuesday, 10 November 2009 10:09

Wapice conducted a survey research on remote management. Altogether 208 organizations took part in the survey in August-September 2009. The respondents were mostly development managers in industrial manufacturing companies, real estate service companies, municipalities, power plants and waterworks. Finnish organizations were asked, for example, if they used remote management systems, how the systems benefited them and how they would like to develop their systems. Over a half of the organizations participating in the survey used a remote management system, and 85 per cent of the users considered the systems important or very important for their business. The system was used for different purposes, in most cases for timely service/maintenance, to make the use of machines and devices more effectively and efficiently and monitoring real estate. A single biggest benefit of the remote management systems was the development of the service business. The prizes were mailed to the fastest respondents as well as 5 random respondents drawn from the hat. We would like to thank those who participated in the survey!

Automaatioväylä magazine published a summary of the results. You can read the article (in Finnish) here.

Wapice in User experience conference 10.-12.11.2009

Tuesday, 10 November 2009 06:59

Wapice takes part in an user experience conference 10.-12.11.2009. The EYES ON UX 2009 conference is aimed at bringing together professionals, academics and companies interested in human factors of media experiences.

Usability, and a easy-to-use user interface and user experience is a key issue in Wapice’s products. For example, our Summium sales configurator is tested to ensure a good usability.

Wapice is the 17th fastest growing high-tech company in Finland

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 06:53

According to the Deloitte Technology Fast 50/500 listing 2009, Wapice is the 17th fastest growing high technology company in Finland and the 453rd fastest growing in Europe. The profitable growth has been 396% over five years. Wapice is one of the largest Finnish software companies focusing solely on the needs of industrial companies. More information about the listing can be found on the Deloitte website.