Innovaré Systems won the Product Marketing award at the Structural Timber Awards. Dev Moves had built a custom tool that helped support the win. The tool let buyers choose the materials and finish for their building.
It is a good example of software doing more than admin. The finished system helped customers understand a complex product. It also gave Innovaré a clearer way to present its range.
The brief
Innovaré makes structural insulated panels and offsite building systems. Each project needs a mix of linked choices. Materials, finishes and brick types are only part of it.
The company wanted customers to take an active part in those choices. A static brochure could explain the options, but it could not guide someone through a specification. Innovaré asked Dev Moves to build a tool for that job.
What the specification software did
The tool turned a long list of product choices into clear steps. Customers could pick the right options for their project. The tool kept those choices in one place.
- Customers could choose the materials they wanted to use.
- They could select details such as brick types.
- The choices stayed together as one building specification.
- Innovaré could present technical options in a more useful form.
The hard part was not the form itself. It was turning product knowledge into a sequence that made sense to a customer. That is where bespoke software earns its place.
Why this needed a custom build
A normal contact form can collect a name and a message. It cannot hold all the rules behind a specialist building system.
The tool had to match Innovaré's own range and the rules that link each part. It also had to stay clear for people who did not know the trade terms.
A custom build gave the project room for both sides. Innovaré kept its product logic. Its customers got a simpler path through it.
The award result
Innovaré made the final of the Product Marketing award. On 19 October 2016, it won at the Structural Timber Awards.
The award was for the way Innovaré took its product to market. The new tool was part of that work. It let buyers explore the offer without reading a technical brochure.
The award belonged to Innovaré. For us, it showed that good software can help sales as well as the daily work.
What this project shows
Bespoke software does not have to replace every system. One focused tool can fix an awkward step for the customer.
Product selectors, quote builders and client portals follow the same idea. They take the facts held by your team and make them easy for buyers to use.
The best versions can also connect to the systems behind them. A finished specification can feed a sales team, quote or project record through an API. No one has to type the same choices twice.
Could a product tool help your customers?
A custom product tool is a focused piece of bespoke software. It is worth considering when customers face too many choices for a normal product page. It can also help when every quote starts with the same long set of questions.
Start with the decision the customer is trying to make. List the information they need at each step. Then map what your team needs once the choices arrive.
That short exercise will show whether you need a product selector, a quote builder, customer portal software or a smaller web tool. If the process is still unclear, show us how it works now.
