IST Institute
The Institute for Strategic Innovation and Technology Management is the competence center for innovation and strategy. Research focuses on Strategic Transformation, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Startups, Ambidextrie, Agility and Digitalization.
itechSales is a completed, publicly funded research project in the field of strategic sales management, in particular sales automation. The aim of the project is to strengthen the expansion capability of SMEs through new, more efficient sales channels. Together with the sales department, an adapted software version of a sales configurator and reference models for product modeling as well as optimized sales processes will be developed. The "Sales Configurator" sees itself as a customer- and application-oriented model of relevant products, illustrated in a "sales software". This program enables the sales department to record requirements directly at the customer's - without detailed technical knowledge - and to create offers based on a suitable product configuration. This method offers companies the following advantages: organic growth with less financing / time expenditure, higher sales responsiveness and risk reduction with sales expansion abroad.
The scientific goal of the project is to gain engineering knowledge for the construction of sales configurators for medium-sized companies by transferring experiences and technologies from industry. The project should make a focused scientific contribution to a better understanding of coordination mechanisms at the interface between marketing and sales on the one hand and the technical areas of research, development and work planning on the other.
As part of the iTechSales project, the Community of Practice for Strategic Management Architectures (CoPS) of the University of Applied Sciences Konstanz in cooperation with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Mertins of the Fraunhofer IPK and the German Forum for Interoperability e.V. - DFI 2009 organized the industry workshop "Productivity in the sales process through interoperability" in Konstanz. The workshop focused on the answers to the following questions:
- How can you increase sales productivity through interoperability?
- How can you improve the ability to respond efficiently to sales through interoperability?
The term "interoperability" refers to the ability to have information and knowledge available throughout through integral processes and IT systems, from product management through development and production to sales.
The workshop builds a bridge between science and practice and brings together specialists and managers from the capital goods sector with renowned experts from science and practice. The interdisciplinary programme addresses specialist topics from the areas of sales and value creation management as well as innovation and development. In addition convertible and innovative concepts were put to discussion and industrial enterprises pointed experiences out, conditions and results of successful conversions. The participants were shown relevant, implementable scientific concepts and concrete practical cases from industry. ACATEC Software GmbH and camos Software und Beratung GmbH, as IT companies with software for product configuration in sales and order processing, presented more efficient ways of sales control from the point of view of an industrial company.
Veröffentlichungen
- Mertins, K., Baltes, G. (ed.) (2009): Productivity in Sales based on interoperability. International Journal of Interoperability in Business Information Systems, 4(2)
- Baltes, G., Gard, J., Mogck, A. (2011): Vertriebskonfiguratoren erfolgreich Implementieren – Steigerung der Vertriebseffizienz durch den Einsatz von Produktkonfiguratoren. In: horizonte, Nr. 37 (03/2011), S. 38-41
- Baltes, G., Schäfer, T. (2010): Vertriebskonfiguratoren als strategische Werkzeuge im Innovationswettbewerb. Productivity Management, Nr. 3(10/2010), 58-61
- Baltes, G., Schäfer, T., Sticksel, P. (2010): Vertriebskonfiguratoren: Strategische Werkzeuge im technologieorientierten Mittelstand. Information Management & Consulting, Nr. 3 (08/2010), 80-85
- Baltes, G., Schäfer, T., Sticksel, P. (2010): Steigerung der Vertriebseffizienz durch den Einsatz von Produktkonfiguratoren. Industrie Management, Nr. 3(06/2010), 51-55