Getting Started

VariSuite Overview – Welcome to the VariSuite Offering Management

In this article you will get an overview of the benefits and features of VariSuite, welcome aboard!

VariSuite is a unique offering management suite that combines product development, configure-price-quote (CPQ), order-to-manufacture and installed base (maintenance and service) processes and functionalities. In other words, VariSuite helps you to manage your company’s data, solutions, and processes, all in one system.

VariSuite utilizes a single source of data to improve your products and offerings in all the process phases: sales, engineering, production, and maintenance. VariSuite enables collaboration and data usage between people and processes, inside and outside the company.

One of the main benefits of VariSuite is that you can generate a smooth product data flow across your processes, enabling your people to collaborate and boost your business.

With VariSuite’s user management and access management capabilities you ensure that your company’s data is secured, also when you provide access to your product data to external collaborators, customers, suppliers, and partners.

VariSuite supports different business processes seamlessly

VariSuite adapts to the needs of any business with dynamic data and a product model which supports maintainability. VariSuite supports all the processes involved in the configurable product offering lifecycle and optimizes idea-to-product and offer-order-manufacture-deliver service processes.

VariSuite consists of a flexible, modular design which supports your company’s exact needs. You can work with just one module independently, or take advantage of all the modules, using them together in the same database and sharing a common Framework and open Application Programming Interface (API).

The VariSuite Framework is a common platform for all VariSuite modules: VariSales, VariPDM, VariProd and VariTrace. It allows you to maintain your data model, access management and product model definitions, and contains generic features and functions with a dynamic data model.

VariSuite’s Modular Design

VariSuite supports different business processes which work seamlessly together thanks to its modular design, which allows you to work in one unified database. This common platform is called the VariSuite Framework. The VariSuite Framework refers to the main platform which is made up of four main modules:

• VariSales – Sales
  • VariSales is a Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solution, which provides the most extensive product and pricing rule capabilities on the market. With VariSales you’ll be able to create more offers with better quality with the same sales resources.
• VariPDM – Engineering
  • VariPDM is a scalable Product Data Management solution designed to shorten the lead time for product development, especially for configurable products with a flexible user interface and data model.
• VariProd – Manufacturing
  • VariProd is a configurator for automated production configuration purposes. It’s designed to speed up and automate individual product structures to ERP/MRP from customer specific orders.
• VariTrace – Services
  • VariTrace is an installed base management database solution designed to manage individual product technical information during the whole product lifecycle.

Benefits of a unified VariSuite framework

There are several benefits of having a unified VariSuite framework, for example:

• Centralizing Scattered Data
  VariSuite is the glue that ties a company’s existing systems together with a configurable product across organizations. With VariSuite you can ensure your typically isolated and scattered departments – Sales, Engineering, Production and Maintenance – share the same product model and all required information.
• Consistency
  VariSuite helps companies to use up-to-date, accurate product data and the same product language throughout the whole organization and with external partners and suppliers.
• Maintainability
  Changes are made within the system only once and they are then updated for all the needed modules. This reduces the chances for errors and inconsistencies.
  
  

 

Let’s take a look at the different modules of VariSuite next!

 

VariSales – Configure-Price-Quote

VariSales is an easy-to-use and easy-to-manage sales configurator and quoting tool. It’s a Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) tool that speeds up sales and the quoting process while providing the most recent information to the customer. There’s no sales configuration model that you can’t model or create with VariSales.

You can track quotes easily, it’s fast to implement in your business and it makes communication easy. VariSales provides guided selling, which helps salespeople by improving their everyday work. The system handles the widest needs for advanced sales configuration and offering tasks. VariSales can be used as a sales configurator on your company’s website to increase inbound offer requests.

You can manage even complex product or pricing rules yourself and easily create and manage customer information, assign tasks, and synchronize data with your Outlook calendar.

By using VariSales to create your offers you will ensure that the offer templates, visual design, and company branding are presented in a unified way. VariSales also supports visualized quotes, multilingual and multi-currency offer letters and product specifications.

Some great features of VariSales include:

• Fast implementation
  • VariSales offers an easy-to-use user interface, which adjusts to your product model.
  • You can define your product’s sales configuration in MS Excel and create your offer letter in PDF format or in an editable document in MS Word.
  • VariSales can be integrated to any CRM system that your company is using in only a few days.
• Comprehensive
  • VariSales has a comprehensive rule engine to manage the product rules during configuration.
• Easy Modeling
  • VariSales is easy to use and does not require coding skills.
  • All configuration rules and user interfaces are defined together with the product model that can be managed by companies themselves.
    
    

VariPDM – Product Data Management

VariPDM is the Product Data Management system in the VariSuite framework. It is designed as a modular and flexible PDM backbone, the underlying software on which Variantum has built its solutions.

VariPDM supports product modeling during the product design phase, and you can easily share product data inside and outside of your organization. With VariPDM you can turn your product architecture into a configurable product model.

VariPDM includes version-controlled items, variant management, item structures and multilingual document management. It also offers change management processes and a user interface for advanced and admin users. The data model is changeable with the dynamic modeler.

Below you can see some key features of VariPDM:

• Accessible
  • VariPDM can be used inside and outside the company. It has a flexible user access management mechanism.
• Customizable
  • VariPDM can be personalized by the user or key user. For example, the users can choose for themselves what they want to see on their homepage and in the user interface.
• Flexible
  • VariPDM’s web user interface (VariWeb) settings, product modeling, and access rights are managed with data. It offers flexible user management and access control. The data model changes can be done online with the admin tool (VariClient).
• Integrable
  • With open APIs, VariPDM can be integrated into any system, like ERP systems (e.g., SAP, MS Dynamics AX, and IFS). VariPDM has an integration over open API to MS Office and most CAD systems as well.
  • VariPDM also has a custom programming layer for special operations. Additional custom integrations can be created using API. A separate configuration team is not needed.
• Scalable
  • VariPDM’s development roots are well established in the complex mechanical machinery industry, where is supports small companies with 10 users to large global companies with over 10,000 users in functions from R&D to maintenance and aftersales.
  • If your company already has a PDM, VariPDM then works as a product model management solution with your company’s existing PDM tool (bi-modal solution).
• Simple
  • VariPDM’s basic system is designed to handle core PDM functionalities from engineering to production. Its built-in agile and comprehensive configurator makes it easy to use.
    
    

VariProd – Production Configurator

VariProd is a production configurator designed to speed up and automate individual product structures to ERP/MRP from customer-specific configurable product orders. VariProd helps companies to manage order-to-manufacture automation and product configurations for manufacturing purposes.

With VariProd you can automate the creation of your production documentation and production configurations (for production CTO and ETO processes), and it helps you to manage test results.

VariProd can be used to generate a variant of a configurable product according to pre-defined parameter values, which can come from VariSales or a third-party sales configurator. If your product is simple and you are familiar with the parameters, you can also enter parameter values directly into VariProd.

VariProd can also improve the way you manage your manufacturing BOM configurations for production and how you share manufacturing information with your suppliers. Manufacturing information can be shared with suppliers flexibly, allowing access only to needed information.

Some of the key benefits of VariProd include the following:

• Unique Product Generation
  • VariProd generates a variant of a configurable product after the order is launched (e.g., in VariSuite, CRM or ERP).
  • It runs individual product configuration based on order parameters and creates unique products and product structures with Bill of Materials (BOMs), as well as documents for manufacturing.
• Manufacturing Management
  • Product configurations are created based on predefined value combinations, rules, and constraints. VariProd can manage rules for new items, divide items to different factories, or re-arrange BOM known as manufacturing BOM (MBOM).
• Orchestration
  • VariProd orchestration automates the order-to-manufacture data creation process in VariSuite and other manufacturing systems (ERP/MRP).

VariTrace – Service Lifecycle Management

VariTrace is an installed base that manages product individuals after delivery. It’s a solution designed to manage individual product technical information during the whole product’s lifetime. Thanks to VariTrace’s state-of-the-art product traceability, your company can increase profitability and customer retention through maintenance. Your after-sales and maintenance operations will work more smoothly and cohesively.

VariTrace collects complete information of product individuals from design to delivery and during their entire lifecycle. Individual products and components with identification are generated to support service information: service structures, active spare-parts with categories, field letters and any product updates or changes. VariTrace is also extendable with analytics API to provide product information to enterprise analytics tools.

Some of VariTrace’s key benefits and features include:

• Simplistic UI
• • VariTrace offers state-of-the-art functionality and a simplified user interface to make service and after-sales easier to manage.
• Streamlined Data Maintenance
  • A single configuration can be managed in VariTrace as a source for multiple individual product instances. This is useful if, for example, a customer orders a set of identical variants of a configurable product. In this case, VariTrace does not make a complete copy of the entire source structure, but rather copies only those components that have been marked in the source structure as recording individual data.
  • This significantly streamlines data maintenance, as well as an organization’s product change process since there is only one master of each component, no matter how many times it is referenced.
• Accurate & Up-To-Date Data
  • With VariTrace you can manage delivered product individuals (digital twin) with correct technical product information from design, sales, and production.
  • To keep a product’s configuration up to date, all maintenance actions can be updated in VariTrace. Additionally, VariTrace can be used to trace product recalls, as well as IoT sensor gathered information for analysis.
• Product Traceability
  • VariTrace allows you to manage the configuration of an individual product throughout its entire lifecycle, starting from its offering.
  • VariTrace makes it possible to create an individual product structure for each physical product. These structures are needed for recording individual data about components in a product structure. This data can include serial numbers, selected measured properties etc. of the product.
    
    

Congratulations, now you have learned the basics about the VariSuite Framework!

 

Get back to the Getting Started knowledge area to learn more…!