Project Polem

Polem, based in Lemmer, designs, produces, and sells GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) silos and storage tanks. By constantly innovating, standardizing, yet remaining extremely flexible, the company, founded in the early ’70s, is a market leader in the industry. Polem mainly delivers throughout Europe but also frequently beyond the continent’s borders.

We speak with Michiel Evers, the application manager at Polem. Michiel is responsible for all software applications within Polem, and with 120 employees in various disciplines, that’s quite a few. Michiel and Polem’s vision is that software should fully serve the collectively determined process and the people. By making the right software connections, all business information is actually made available and kept up-to-date for and by the entire company. Software accelerates, simplifies, and centralizes the whole, thus improving the collective process.

After automating the planning in 2014-2015, 2016 began with automating the calculation and quotation process by implementing Merkato.

The initial reason, according to Michiel, was the following: “Also, Polem faced the challenge that it offers custom products to its customers, where the Bill of Material (BoM) is not yet known (because it is customer-specific) while the BoM is needed to calculate prices and drive ERP at order. ERP packages do not offer a ready-made solution for this.”

During the search for the right software for commerce, various software suppliers were spoken to and tested. The “standard” CRM packages quickly fell off because the technical side of Polem’s products could not be included. Several CPQ providers were also evaluated.

Complex products like those of Polem require a specific approach, extensive functionality, and a computing power that was only available with Merkato.

During the implementation, there were many eye-openers about the standard product that Polem carries and the options that went with it. By discussing a lot and making decisions, great strides have been made in the area of standardization. Especially the engineering department now notices that much less order-related work comes along, which gives them space to focus on developing and improving.

As mentioned, Polem is busy centralizing the whole of information. Merkato is located, looking at the process from sales to production, between CRM and ERP. To automate the process flow well, Merkato was linked to the “front end” with Polem’s CRM system; Synergy. In it, customer data and the forecast are managed. Because article information is needed for calculating, Merkato is also linked with Exact. Article information is kept in sync through a link.

Once a quote is accepted by the customer, it gets a different status in Merkato, automatically shooting the order, including the bill of materials, back to ERP. The departments of work preparation and accounting, therefore, have significantly less work.

Since Polem also includes the Merkato Gateway (additional module for standard links) in its package, building the links from Merkato’s side required little effort. This is also helped by the fact that Quootz has done several projects over the years in collaboration with AB Software and Consultancy, making the links quick to realize.

A large part of the calculation of Polem’s products consists of hours. Michiel has built the templates so that the hour calculation is particularly accurate. For 11 different function groups, the hours are calculated through, depending on the chosen silo and options.

Michiel also built a very clever planning methodology in Merkato. This helps the seller when recording the agreements.

Conclusions: Thanks to the links between Exact and Merkato, whole parts of the process at Polem now run smoothly into each other. Incorrect quotes are a thing of the past. The management and maintenance of and on the models in Merkato is simple, and Michiel has since transferred this task to others in the organization. After the summer, a new product group will be started in Merkato.

Points of attention: The user interface as currently built at Polem could still use some attention. Merkato offers ample opportunities for this, but currently, there is still a lack of time to give it more attention.

Plans for the future? In the long term, a link with 3D CAD will be made, and also the extensive possibilities of Merkato for 3D visualization during the sales process are very interesting to explore further.

A tip for those seeking software? Michiel: “When looking for software, start from your vision of the future. Try to look under the hood. Can the system really do what they all promise? And regarding the implementation: ‘There will always be resistance’ but ‘Make sure everyone realizes and continues to realize the importance of the software, even when things get tough!'”