Picture a meeting: "We'll need to get the inputs together for the configurator." Someone opens the Price lists folder, and in it are five files, two of them called "final".
What you need to prepare for a product configurator comes down to four inputs: the price list, a list of variants and sizes, the rules about what cannot be combined, and photos or drawings. Add one decision: where a finished enquiry should go. Each of them is fine in the form you have today. Tidying the inputs up is part of the implementation, not homework before it.
For each input below you will find what belongs in it, what form is enough, and what to do when it only exists in someone's head.
The price list you actually quote from
The price list is the best source of rules you have. A spreadsheet is perfectly fine, and so is a PDF or an export from your production software. What matters more than the format is that it is the price list your salespeople really use for quotes.
At the first meeting it helps if you can say:
- Which version is current. If prices differ by dealer or region, just say so; there is no need to merge them.
- What the price is made of. A base by size, surcharges for colour and extras, installation and delivery.
- Where the minimums and rounding are. For example a minimum installation charge, or a size rounded up to a whole panel.
And if your salesperson builds the price from scratch for every quote? Then the input is their three most recent quotes. We go through them together step by step, and the way they priced them becomes the price calculation. It goes faster than it sounds, and the salesperson usually finds out for the first time how many rules they actually know.
Variants and sizes from and to
This list becomes the choices the customer picks from in the configurator. It covers:
- Models or model ranges, the way you sell them.
- Sizes from and to, and the step. The smallest and largest width, height or length, and whether they can be entered to the centimetre or only in fixed sizes.
- Colours and materials under names the customer understands. Anthracite, not a code from your supplier's catalogue.
- Extras, and for each one which models it belongs to.
It does not have to be one neat table. A bit in the catalogue, a bit in the price list and the rest in emails is the usual state of things. If you have many model ranges, you start with one: the one you sell most often.
Rules: what does not go with what
This is the input that most often is not written down anywhere. It lives in notes such as "careful, over 4 m it needs a different beam" and in the head of the technician who knows them without thinking.
Every rule can be written as one sentence of the form "If…, then…". Two examples from treede's configurators:
- Veranda: If a classic glass veranda is wider than 4 m, a post is added between the corners.
- Fence: If an aluminium fence is taller than 1.5 m or has a sliding gate, the posts use an 80 mm profile instead of 60 mm.
One extra note per rule helps: is it a hard rule or a recommendation? A hard rule means it cannot be made, and the configurator never offers that combination. A recommendation means it can be made but you would rather not. Then the configurator can allow the combination and point it out to the customer.
If only the technician knows the rules, the input is a conversation with them. We ask what they most often talk customers out of, and why. Their answers make up most of the list.
Photos, drawings and colour samples
These are what the 3D model's look is tuned to. Anything on this list helps:
- Photos of finished installations from several sides, including the ones you would not put in the catalogue.
- Drawings with dimensions and profile sections, if you have them.
- Samples or exact names of colours and materials, so the colour on screen matches the one the customer gets.
You do not need a 3D model or CAD files. If they exist, they save time. If no such material exists and it cannot be derived from drawings, we quote creating it separately.
Where the finished enquiry should go
This is not an input but a decision, and it pays to make it early. You need to know:
- Who handles the enquiry. One salesperson, a team, or a dealer by region.
- What they need to see in it to prepare a quote straight away. What an enquiry should contain is covered in What a made-to-order enquiry should contain.
- Where it should arrive. A configuration can be saved to treede CRM with the specification, the contact and a link to the design. Connecting it to your own CRM, ERP or online shop is assessed separately.
What you do not need to prepare
At the first conversation we often hear "we'll tidy it up first and then get back to you". You do not need any of these to start:
- A perfect spreadsheet. The price list in the form you work with is enough. How it becomes a configurator is described in Why your Excel price list should be a 3D configurator.
- 3D models. The model is built from dimensions, rules, photos and drawings.
- Your whole range at once. One model range is enough to start, and the others follow.
- Website copy. The descriptions of the choices are written along with the configurator.
How long it takes after that
For a solution on an existing base, launch takes roughly a week from complete inputs. For a new product type, we set the date once the inputs and the brief are approved.
"Complete" does not mean perfect. It means that for every choice we know its values and what it costs, and for every rule what it does. How long collecting them takes depends mostly on how many rules are written down and how many still have to come out of the technician's head.
Frequently asked questions
Does the price list have to be in Excel?
No. A PDF, paper or an export from your production software will do. A spreadsheet is just the most common, and its formulas are the quickest to read.
What if prices change often?
How prices and product data are updated is agreed at deployment, including which changes you make yourself. For the first brief it is enough to say which parts of the price list change most often.
Do we need a 3D model of the product?
No. The construction is assembled from dimensions and rules, much like the price. Photos and drawings are there so that the model looks like your product. If there are none of those either, we quote creating them separately.
And that Price lists folder?
Feel free to send the whole thing, both "final" files included. We will work out which one is current together at the first conversation.
If you want to check what you already have in place, go through the six questions of the readiness checklist. At the end you will see what to add before a demo.
