The purpose of this document is to outline the most common connectivity principles in case Quotation Factory is or should be connected with an ERP system. The guidelines are defined from various viewpoints such as separation of responsibilities, information interchange, connectivity, etc.
ERP systems in general have functionality for sales processes (Request for Quotation, Quotation, Order Confirmation, Order). In addition, ERP systems have CRM functionality to manage a customers database and categorize customers in various segments.
Quotation Factory is a specialized sales platform that fully digitalizes the sales process and heavily applies Artificial Intelligence to minimize cumbersome manual work. As such, Quotation Factory replaces (part of) the sales process as implemented in ERP systems.
This results in the following separation of responsibilities between Quotation Factory and the ERP system:
Business Process Quotation Factory ERP CAM
Receive Request for
Quotation
Determine Geometric
Cost Drivers
Estimate production
times
Estimate material
needs
Determine margins &
surcharges
Determine Orchestrate
manufacturability
Determine possible
delivery date(s)
Create Quotation Sync
Send Quotation Or Or
Adjust Quotation
Receive Order
Confirmation
Create/Cancel Order Sync
Create BoM & BoL Sync
Program machine(s) Orchestrate
Manage customer Sync
information
Manage (raw) Sync
materials and
prices
Manage resources & Sync
rates
Manage margins & Sync
surcharges
Purchase (raw)
materials
Production planning
Production progress Sync
monitoring
Measure Sales KPIs
The following table shows the suggested/preferred interchange of information between Quotation Factory and ERP as well as the direction of the information flow.
Information From To
Bill of Materials Quotation Factory ERP (hierarchy)
Bill of Labor and Quotation Factory ERP routing
CAD Files Quotation Factory ERP / CAM
Estimated material Quotation Factory ERP needs
Estimated production Quotation Factory ERP times
Calculated cost prices Quotation Factory ERP
Calculated sales prices Quotation Factory ERP
Thumbnails (3D & 2D) Quotation Factory ERP
Customer information ERP / CRM Quotation Factory
Customer segmentation, ERP / CRM Quotation Factory margins & surcharges
Articles & Materials ERP Quotation Factory incl. prices
Resources & rates ERP Quotation Factory
Project status/progress ERP Quotation Factory
Post-production ERP Quotation Factory
information (cycle
times, material usage)
The design philosophy behind Quotation Factory is that the platform should be open, extensible, and integrable. Therefore the platform supports several technologies for interoperability.
Technology Information Format Applicability
Webhooks Quotation Factory proprietary JSON format<br>{=html}All Integrate with 3rd
CAM files<br>{=html}All UBL 2.1 documents party tools using cloud
services such as Zapier
and IFTTT. This is
not fault tolerant.
Rh24 Agent Quotation Factory proprietary JSON format<br>{=html}All Integrate directly with
CAM files<br>{=html}All UBL 2.1 documents on-premise systems such
as ERP, MES and CAM.
Real-time and fault
tolerant
communication.
SCSN UBL 2.1<br>{=html}Request for Integrate indirectly
Quotation<br>{=html}Quotation<br>{=html}Order and transparently with
Confirmation<br>{=html}Order registered SCSN
parties. Not
real-time. Fault
tolerant.
Basic Web API (REST) All above mentioned documents For simple custom integrations
Full Web API (REST) All above mentioned documents as well as all For custom applications Quotation Factory functionalities using Quotation Factory services
Quotation Factory is an event-driven platform and can notify the outside world of specific events. These events are the basis for both the Webhook-based integration and the Quotation Factory Agent-based integration.
Currently Quotation Factory supports the following events:
Event Type When Triggered
Document Created CAD file created<br>{=html}CAD file converted<br>{=html}UBL RfQ
created<br>{=html}UBL Quotation created<br>{=html}UBL Order created
Project Status Changed When project has
status:<br>{=html}defined<br>{=html}quoted<br>{=html}ordered<br>{=html}cancelled
The project status events follow the same order/sequence as indicated by the Quotation Factory User Interface.