Product configurator
Configure it once, correctly, with the ERP's own parts.
An industrial pump has a frame size, a motor, a seal type and a coating, and not every motor fits every frame. Apex holds those rules, builds the bill of materials from items in your ERP, and prices the result with a lead time a planner would sign off.
What the configurator holds
The rules your engineers carry in their heads.
Configuration rules usually live in a spreadsheet one engineer maintains. Apex makes them explicit, so a rep cannot quote a combination the plant cannot build.
Options
Each choice the customer makes: size, material, finish, voltage, accessories. Defaults set where most customers land.
Dependencies
What requires what, and what excludes what. A 480V motor needs the larger frame; a food-grade seal rules out one coating.
Bills of materials
Each option adds or swaps components, using item numbers from your ERP. The finished bill is what engineering would release.
Price and cost
Price built up from the components and your price rules, with cost from the ERP beside it, so margin is visible per configuration.
Lead time
The longest component lead time and current stock decide the date quoted, rather than a standard six weeks.
Saved configurations
A configuration a customer orders often is saved and reordered as one line.
From options to order
What happens between the first choice and the sales order.
- 01
Choose
The rep, or the customer's engineer on a shared link, picks options. Choices that break a rule are disabled with the reason shown.
- 02
Build the bill
Apex assembles the bill of materials from the chosen options and checks every component exists and is active in the ERP.
- 03
Price and date
Price, cost, margin and lead time are calculated from ERP data. A margin under your floor sends the quote for approval.
- 04
Order
On signature, the sales order goes to the ERP with the configured item and its bill, ready for production planning.
An example configuration
One pump, as a planner would read it.
Illustrative. A configuration for a hypothetical industrial pump manufacturer.
- Frame
- Size 3, cast iron. Required by the 30 hp motor.
- Motor
- 30 hp, 480V, premium efficiency. Lead time 5 weeks, 2 in stock.
- Seal
- Double mechanical, food grade. Excludes the epoxy coating.
- Coating
- Stainless passivation, added by the seal choice.
- Bill of materials
- 14 components, all active items in the ERP.
- Quoted lead time
- 3 weeks, set by the motor in stock.
Agents propose, people approve
The agent drafts. A person decides.
A configuration agent reads a customer's written specification, proposes the options that meet it and explains each choice. A sales engineer reviews the configuration before it is priced and quoted.
Every agent stops at an approval gate until it has earned its way out of one. Nothing releases cash, commits spend or touches a customer without a person saying so.
Your dataModels that read your data run inside your environment, behind your firewall. No client data reaches a frontier lab.
Start here, keep the foundation
Start with product configurator. Add the rest without starting over.
Start with the configurator for one product family. Apex brings your items, costs and price lists down from the ERP into your Ferrata foundation, so the first configuration uses real parts. When you add billing later, the configured line is already the line the invoice uses.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
What is a product configurator?
A product configurator lets a seller assemble a product from options while enforcing the rules about which options work together. It produces a valid configuration, a price and usually a bill of materials. Apex's configurator uses the items, costs and stock in your ERP, so what is quoted can be built.
Do we have to rebuild our item master in Apex?
No. Components are the items already in your ERP. Apex adds the option and rule layer on top and reads item status, cost and stock from the ERP, so a discontinued part cannot be quoted.
How are configuration rules maintained?
Rules are set in Apex by the people who own them, usually product or sales engineering: requires, excludes, defaults and quantity rules. Every change is versioned, and a quote records the rule version it was built on.
How is lead time calculated?
From the components. Apex looks at the lead time and current stock of each item in the bill and quotes the longest path. If your ERP holds planned production or purchase orders, those can inform the date too, depending on how your instance is set up.
Can customers configure products themselves?
A rep can share a configuration link with a customer's engineer, who chooses options within the same rules. The rep still reviews, prices and sends the quote.
What reaches the ERP when the order is signed?
A sales order with the configured item and its bill of materials, written to SAP, NetSuite or Dynamics and read back to confirm. How configured items are represented (a new item, a variant or a kit) follows your ERP setup.
Related in Apex
- CPQConfigure, price and quote from the items and price lists already in your ERP.View
- Quote builderBlock-based quotes with templates, variables, options and a live price and margin preview.View
- RFQ and tender responseImport the buyer's line list, price it from your book, and submit on time.View
- ManufacturingConfigured products, BOM-based pricing and index-linked metal surcharges.View
- SAPQuotes, orders, invoices and journals on SAP Business One or S/4HANA.View
From Ferrata Labs
- Ferrata in manufacturingProduction, quality and procurement, on SAP, NetSuite or Dynamics.
- Quill, the quoting agentReads every inquiry, prices it against your rules, drafts the quote.
- Swift, the order agentTurns customer purchase orders into clean sales orders.
- The platformThe Brain: retrieval, models and audit inside your own environment.
Start with product configurator, or talk it through first.
Thirty minutes with Ferrata Labs on one workflow. You leave with a view of where Apex fits, and an honest answer if the sequencing is wrong and you should fix something else first.
Your pricing, approval and billing rules are your advantage, and they stay yours. Apex is configured to the way you sell and bill. You are not handing over a playbook or fitting into a template.