Any employee within an organization carries pieces of tacit knowledge about the products and solutions offered - this can be knowledge of what products features are available, prices, rules, technical- and market based possibilities and limitations, processes, structures, etc. It is often very difficult to disseminate all these pieces of knowledge in the organization to the people who need it at the right time and format. An even bigger challenge is securing the continuous maintenance of the entire product knowledge stored within the organization. Documentation of the knowledge is very often neglected.

The symptoms of low product knowledge capitalization are often characterized by:

• The full customer potential not being exploited - no up-sell and cross-sell suggestions available
• The maintenance of product knowledge delaying "time to market"
• The lack of product knowledge documentation putting the organization at "business risk"
• Revenue being lost due to incomplete and incorrect pricing
• A lack of common overview of product offering possibilities
• Customers finding it difficult to select the right products by themselves

Array Technology has developed a suite of products based on state-of-the-art and patented technology that facilitates the continuous structuring, creation, simulation, validation, maintenance, dissemination and documentation of all product knowledge throughout the organization. Product knowledge can then be updated and synchronized everywhere instantly - independent of geography, IT systems and organizational units, i.e. Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Logistics, Customer support, IT, Subsidiaries, Importers, Customers, etc.

 

Creation, validation and maintenance of product knowledge

The products from Array Technology can be used irrespective of existing product knowledge format. If the product knowledge already exists in product data sheets, catalogs, price lists, ERP/CRM/CAD systems or similar, the Array Technology products can be integrated with these multiple data sources in order to re-use existing knowledge and ensure that knowledge for the future only has to be maintained in a single place. However, if the product knowledge is not yet documented, the intuitive and powerful Array Technology product suite  can help quickly structure, create and document the product knowledge. Often product domain specialists find it very useful and easy to represent the product domains by simple tables, however a range of other possibilities also exist to describe knowledge the way best suited the domain specialists.

Example of product features and rules expressed by table relations in the modeling environment Array Studio

 

The product relations and rules can therefore be modeled in a simple and user friendly syntax mirroring the way knowledge is represented in the organization. The product modeling and maintenance requires absolutely no skills or experience with programming.

The structured product knowledge can automatically be simulated, tested and validated. Thereby, only valid and verified product knowledge is disseminated and deployed throughout the organization to all users, even for very comprehensive and complex product ranges.

Dissemination and synchronization everywhere

Array Technology ensures a flexible and efficient dissemination of product knowledge independent of IT platforms or systems - ERP, CAD, CRM, CMS, web, offline, mobile devices (PDA and cell-phones) or any other platform or system. The product knowledge is maintained in one single place, the modeling environment from Array Technology, and the verified and valid synchronized knowledge can be re-used and made accessible in numerous places and platforms with different user interfaces to various different users; i.e. Sales reps using PDAs for product specification and inventory availability, Customer Support handling customer inquiries, Marketing creating product catalogs, Product Management benchmarking products, Production manufacturing products, etc.

Unlimited possibilities for customization

The solutions from Array Technology are fully customizable to fit customer needs as the open and simple design makes customization and integration easy. The solutions can either be delivered as complete applications or as individual components to be embedded directly in or integrated to existing legacy systems in order to improve current functionality.

About Array Technology

Array Technology is the leading provider of solutions for high-end product configuration software in sales, design optimization, engineering verification & design and embedded software for manufacturing companies with ATO (Assemble to Order) and ETO (Engineer to Order) production. Worldwide companies like Electrolux, Atkins, Mitsubishi Motors, SPX and SBC use Array's configuration technology to eliminate order errors and rework, and have significantly reduced cost of sales, design and manufacturing. The headquarters is located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

If you are interested in learning more about how Array Technology can make your business more agile, please contact us at +45 3315 9807 or email us at sales@arraytechnology.com.