Pricefx Adds Extra Spark to Elektro-Material’s Pricing
Elektro-Material AG (EM) is a Swiss wholesaler of electrical installation materials such as cables and wires, lighting, communication equipment, household appliances, and e-mobility products. Headquartered in Zurich, EM operates nine retail sites throughout Switzerland and a comprehensive e-commerce store.
Legacy Pricing Systems Meant EM Needed a More Streamlined Solution
Before Pricefx’s involvement, EM carried out pricing calculations in Excel and maintained underlying pricing parametersseparately in Word. Such a manual pricing setup was time-consuming to operate and potentially prone to human error. With more than 240,000 listed items, it was a challenge to update prices and trade margins on a real-time basis. EM wanted a more reliable and transparent solution to improve data quality and agility.EM’s pricing logic combined a standardized company-wide pricing model with additional strategies devised and executed by individual category managers.EM wanted to simplify its pricing methodology by implementing a single source of truth for pricing across the whole organization. Such a solution had to integrate seamlessly with its ERP, provide real-time pricing data analysis and increase visibility through streamlined approval workflows.
EM Now Calculates, Approves und Updates Thousands of Prices Automatically
Pricefx’s solution gives EM the ability to recalculate, update and approve prices continuously. It starts with the Price Builder module (now known as Price Setting), Pricefx’s price management software, which calculates prices by combining customer and category pricing parameters, with advanced logic and a broad range of variants. This data is fed into Live Price Grids – non-static price lists that are recalculated automatically, according to a predefined pricing scheme. IntegrationManager ties it all together, integrating Pricefx seamlessly into EM’s ERP.Each night, EM’s data is automatically transferred to Pricefx, where all the necessary pricing optimization calculations are carried out. Once approved, prices are then automatically exported back to the ERP to be used across the business. It used to take EM three days to recalculate price lists – it can now be carried out in just one day. Agility has been dramatically enhanced, increasing responsiveness in the fast-paced and fiercely competitive electrical installation materials market.Pricefx’s Auto-Approve feature has supercharged EM’s price-approval process, making an otherwise time-sapping task quicker and easier to carry out for both supplier and category managers without losing track and visibility on price changes. With the majority of the company’s 240,000 items now approved automatically, managers can spend more time working on creative and strategic tasks. EM has complete control over how Auto-Approve is configured, letting them strike just the right balance between automation and centralized control.
EM Embraces the Future with a Single Sourceof Truth for Pricing
EM has traded manual pricing calculations and numerous Excel spreadsheets for a single source of truth for pricing. This new solution automatically calculates prices and creates price lists according to customer-specific pricing models, eliminating errors, enhancing decision-making and empowering salespeople on the front line.Pricefx can be used by both supplier managers and category managers, alike, bridging the gap between the business’s purchasing and sales sides, breaking down silos and stimulating collaboration.Automated approval workflows have streamlined an otherwise fragmented approval process, enhancing visibility, accountability and auditing ease. EM’s Pricefx solution calculates not only active prices but future prices too. Future pricing gives EM the ability to set up prices ahead of time, encouraging a more future-oriented approach to pricing, enhancing strategic planning, and responsiveness to change in a rapidly evolving marketplace.