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2005-06-15 - Chicago, IL, USA and Munich, Germany: BigMachines, Inc., a provider of web-based configuration and proposal generation software, has announced the release of Lean Front-End (LFE) version 6.0, featuring a web service API for BigMachines on-demand product configurator and a powerful new administration interface for BigMachines Commerce Process engine.
BigMachines, Inc. was founded in 1999 and provides web-based configurator and quoting software and services to help manufacturers and other sellers of complex products to streamline their selling processes from customer inquiry-to-order.
With BigMachines LFE 6.0, customers will be able to easily tie BigMachines' product configurator into other applications using the Standard Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and rapidly model and automate front-end business processes including quoting, ordering, pricing, collaboration, and approval processes.
The BigMachines' LFE is a complete lean front-end solution designed to meet the unique selling requirements for providers of complex products and services. The software's proven capabilities help manufacturers to quickly and affordably automate and integrate all customer-facing processes from inquiry to order.
The full support for Web Services, a set of programming standards used to make different types of software talk to each other over the Internet, introduced in LFE v6.0 provides BigMachines' customers fast and affordable integration of applications and systems across the enterprise. This extends the proven web service integration capabilities that BigMachines offers to applications such as its Sforce-certified integration to salesforce.com's on-demand CRM solution.
"The release of BigMachines LFE v6.0 supports our ongoing development of a flexible, easy-to-use, service-oriented architecture (SOA) that caters to organizations with complex products and sales processes," said Godard Abel, CEO of BigMachines, Inc. "We listened to our customers' needs and upgraded the offering to provide our most robust, easiest-to-implement and flexible solution to date. Current and prospective customers will benefit from the added functionality designed to improve everyday operations and yield greater business returns," added Abel.
Additional new features and functionality for BigMachines' customers include, but are not limited to:
- Configuration API with SOAP enables customers to easily call BigMachines' configurator from another application using XML and SOAP.
- Improved File and Document Manager makes it easy for admin users to manage an organization's key selling and marketing documents online and to provide them to their users at the optimal point in a guided selling process.
- Commerce Admin Navigation enables an organization's processes to rapidly adapt to a changing business environment by streamlining commerce process set-up and administration. A new deployment center allows the admin users to quickly deploy their processes at a scheduled time.
- Commerce Process Document Generation without Line Items enables users to create a commerce document such as a quote or order without having to first pick or add a line item from the catalog or configurator.
- Aftermarket Serial Number Search Enhancements enables customers to easily search for and find aftermarket parts and services by providing custom search fields and allowing wildcard search options.
- Customer Search Filters make it easy to find the right customer record when generating a quote or order, by using all single-select customer attributes to filter customer master search results.
- Improved Global Table Management enables system administrators to easily organize and sort their company's data tables. Global tables can be assigned to folders and sorting is possible on the table name, date modified and date deployed columns.
To further enhance the LFE user experience, a host of additional technical and functional improvements have also been incorporated relative to displays, navigation, image flexibility, configuration arrays, commerce functions and other features.
