McNeilus simplifies its truck sales process with Oracle CPQ
McNeilus, a maker of refuse trucks, uses Oracle CPQ to help buyers sort through thousands of safety features and other options available on new vehicles.
“We needed a better, stronger, more powerful tool to be able to configure the product and price it more consistently and get a faster quote turnaround to our customers.”
Business challenges
The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics rates refuse collection as the country’s fifth most dangerous job. That’s why McNeilus, a part of the Oshkosh Corporation, puts so much emphasis on developing new safety innovations, such as letting drivers stay inside a cab and use a joystick control to pick up and dump trash and recycling containers. The challenge, however, is that all these innovations leave refuse truck buyers—mostly municipalities and private trash collection companies—with an overwhelming number of choices. Buyers have some 12,000 features to consider when selecting and customizing new trucks, which McNeilus builds to order.
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Why McNeilus Chose Oracle
McNeilus ran benchmark tests, comparing the performance of the cloud-based Oracle CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) service against competing tools. The company found that Oracle CPQ slashed by 87.5% the time it takes for the sales and support team to configure and price a new truck. McNeilus also liked that Oracle CPQ integrates with its existing JD Edwards ERP system, works well on mobile devices, and scales effectively.
Results
Because Oracle CPQ cut by more than 80% the time it takes to prepare a truck quote, salespeople can focus on more important work. “The time saved allows the salesperson or account representative to focus less on the quoting process and more on what the customer really needs. The sales process is much simpler,” says Jeff Koga, McNeilus vice president and general manager. McNeilus reps sit down with customers to understand the terrain, climate, and volume of traffic where the trucks will collect refuse. Then they help customers choose between McNeilus front, side, or rear loaders and add the right features to help the “waste warriors” who operate the trucks.
Oracle CPQ also automates the parts-ordering process so that McNeilus has the right parts available when it’s time to build the custom truck. The CPQ tool operates with built-in rules that McNeilus employees find easy to use and to change when necessary. All this helps greatly improve the accuracy of McNeilus’ build process.
While benchmarking CPQ solutions, McNeilus also streamlined the number of options it offers, focusing on the features their customers find most valuable.