Enhancements in DriveWorks 7

(continued from yesterday’s post)

I think my favorite enhancement is that now DriveWorks Pro can be used as a sales configurator. True, true DriveWorks 6 did allow users sales groups to help produce sales quotes and approval models very quickly. However honestly, DriveWorks 6 is more of a design automation tool than something you would put in front of a customer to create a first impression. It worked best if your sales associate sat with his potential customer and they used DriveWorks together.

Now that DriveWorks Pro is more of a sales configurator, it is something you could put on your own web site [via DriveWorks Live], and allow your customers to directly interface with your product. Imagine your customer connecting to your site, he enters the parameters for your product, the approval models and a quote are sent directly to him and if he likes it, he could enter in is PO number and production drawings go right to your production facility.

If you saw DriveWorks Live in version 6, it is a child compared to what it is like in version 7. It is browser independent, allows for popup windows (the good kind, not spammy) and is significantly more customizable.

DriveWorks 6 did have a very simple workflow – Saved specifications, specifications pending release, and released specifications. As a design automation tool that pretty much did the job. Now that DriveWorks 7 can involve the customer and sales team more, DriveWorks 7 has significantly improved how specifications flow through your origization. The flow is now customizable, and has a graphical interface that is similar to how you would build a flow chart in Microsoft Visio. The workflow helps automate the entire sales approval process to ensure the customized design data gets to your production floor as quickly as possible ensuring vital steps are not missed along the way.

Eight more days until the release date…