2023 was a challenging year for Rosenberger OSI in many respects. However, the company also met the numerous challenges with creativity and new initiatives. Managing Director Thomas Schmidt tells us more about this today.
The year 2023 is characterized by numerous initiatives as part of the company's digitalization offensive. One of the central projects is the introduction of a CPQ - what exactly is planned here?
TS: CPQ stands for Configure, Price and Quote and is a software solution that builds the digital bridge between customers and production. The basic functions of the CPQ software solution are
- Product configuration
- Pricing
- Quotation generation incl. documentation
Our customers can select and assemble individual components (connectors, cables, etc.) quickly and easily themselves - all production-relevant documents are created automatically in the background and transferred to production.
In future, our customers will even be able to configure products directly online in the web store and order them immediately.
A lot has also happened in the area of web shops since we started in 2020. What developments are there in this area?
TS: We initially launched an open Rosenberger OSI Online Shop in April 2020. It is accessible to all customers and interested parties and offers standard products and components for fiber optic and copper cabling. As numerous products are in stock, the delivery time is very short - we are talking about delivery within one working day if the order is received by 3 pm.
As we also receive many requests for products with customer-specific specifications, we launched our B2B subshops (B2B portals) in January 2023. Here, customers can find products that meet their customer-specific technical specifications such as measurement methods, cable types or even their delivery form specifications such as labeling or packaging.
Products and prices can only be viewed via these "closed" web shops after logging in, and orders can only be placed with login data "approved" by Rosenberger OSI. The B2B shop offers quick and easy ordering via all user devices.
Functionalities are for example
- Quick search for products by product number
- Filter function according to various attributes
- View previously placed orders
- View and manage the billing address
- Offer function, with which you can also print the shopping cart as an offer
In addition to the Digitalization community, a lot has also happened in another community in 2023, namely New Work. What exactly is it all about?
TS: There are some very exciting topics that we are currently working on intensively to actively shape the future. The focus of New Work is on shaping our new working world in order to establish our company as an attractive employer for existing and new employees. As always, we are working on such important and overarching tasks in the spirit of participation with many colleagues from as many teams as possible and have also made a conscious decision to introduce a new OKR target management method. In several cycles, we are working on various topics in the form of objectives and key results, such as the redesign of the working environment at our locations, expanded teleworking options or the introduction of new benefits such as the lunch lottery, where colleagues from different teams can get to know each other better and exchange ideas across teams by drawing lots over lunch at the company's expense. In November, we started a new, 4th cycle of the New Work Community with further interesting topics.