CRM for machine builders, organized around the machines you have shipped

Because parts, service and upgrades are all sold against machines already in the field, and a contact list cannot tell you about them. A builder needs to know that serial number so-and-so ships with a given set of change parts, was commissioned in a given year, sits in a given customer's second plant and has had its main drive rebuilt twice.

With that record in place, the obvious questions get answers. Which machines are out of warranty and lack a service contract? Which customers still run a model whose control platform is going obsolete? Who should hear about the retrofit kit engineering just released?

• Machine record: serial number, model, options, format parts, commissioning date, location
• Service history: visits, findings and parts consumed
• Commercial history: original order, contracts, upgrades and parts orders

Dealers and distributors get deal registration, territories and visibility of the machines in their region, while the end customer stays known to the builder. That ends the familiar problem of a dealer relationship walking out the door with the customer list.

Quoting a configured machine draws on the option rules engineering already uses, so sales cannot quote a filler head count that will not fit the frame. Quote revisions keep their history, and a won quote becomes the first entry in the new machine's record.

Once the installed base lives in one record, sensor data from each machine can attach to it, and service becomes something you sell by subscription instead of dispatching after a breakdown. Wear predictions create a parts quote or a planned visit for the right machine, in the right plant, before the line stops.

Our predictive maintenance systems supply the predictions, and the CRM turns each one into a commercial next step. Our guide to predictive maintenance for builders covers the business model in more depth.