TOKYO, Japan – 21st April 2015 – Today, Syncron International, an aftermarket optimization company, announced today that Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of construction machinery, is now using its cloud-based global price management software.
The Syncron solution selected by the Parts Business Promotion Department of Kobelco Construction Machinery automates and optimizes prices to improve revenue and margin for spare parts. The company is currently leveraging its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to set the price for parts. The new pricing solution runs out of the Syncron data center, which is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Kobelco Construction Machinery will access the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) through the internet.
Kobelco Construction Machinery is hoping to improve the end users perception of prices by tying the price to the characteristics of the product. Syncron helps companies, like Kobelco Construction Machinery, classify parts based on the properties of that part. For example, hoses are classified by length, couplings and materials used.
”We selected Syncron because the system eliminates confusion for the end user by tying price to product features. This functionality will improve ability to price parts correctly and logically,” said Akinori Iwamatsu, Director of Parts Business Promotion Department. “We aim to improve customer satisfaction and improve efficiency when pricing our parts.”
Kobelco Construction Machinery is sending data, including item numbers and characteristics, to Syncron. The Syncron implementation team classify the items based on the attributes of the parts. Then, a target price and current price recommendations will be generated by the system.
Kobelco Construction Machinery will uses this information as a foundation to adjust the company’s price lists. The Syncron software will then help Kobelco Construction Machinery slowly adapt to the new prices without disrupting the current sales volume. Kobelco Construction Machinery expects to begin rolling out the new prices by the end of May 2015.
“Syncron will provide a solution for setting the price and managing price adjustments moving forward. Our goals are to improve profitability for our customers by driving efficiency in the area of price management, as well as improve revenue and profit,” said Katsuto Ochiai, Managing Director, Syncron Japan. “Kobelco Construction Machinery will see an immediate improvement in price management. The application will allow them to analyze the results of current pricing strategies and simulate the impact of new changes before implementing the price. This business intelligence will be a tremendous help to Kobelco as they plan for the future.”
Kobelco Construction Machinery expects to improve efficiency when setting the price of new parts and more accurately set prices. The Syncron solution gives the price managers at Kobelco Construction Machinery the ability to view the target price, current price, cost and sales volume. In addition, the software enables users to simulate the impact of price changes and build price revision scenarios. This will allow Kobelco Construction Machinery to understand how lowering the price can drive additional revenue.
Kobelco Construction Machinery completed a feasibility study with Syncron to evaluate the functionality. Prior to purchasing the system, Kobelco Construction Machinery provided actual data to Syncron. The data was used to build a simulation of the pricing logic. Syncron was selected based on the results of this simulation, and because of the availability of a cloud solution, which does not require a large initial financial investment and is significantly faster to implement. Fees for the accessing the software are paid on a monthly basis, which was also important to the software selection process.