A worldwide agreement with the industrial group ABB marks a breakthrough in Europe for the Danish software company 3Dfacto. The contract also signifies that the visual configurator developed by 3Dfacto has been given a seal of approval and the company is intensifying its expansion in Europe.
The Danish software company 3Dfacto began intensive sales work in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia when the company received a capital injection of EUR 1,6 million from Vaekstfonden and from Symbion Capital in the spring of 2003.
On top of having acquired a number of Danish customers, 3Dfacto may now rejoice at having obtained their first big order from an international manufacturing enterprise outside Scandinavia. The Global 500 company ABB has just chosen 3Dfacto's software, a visual product configurator, to assist in streamlining some of its Group members´sales process. An extremely thorough selection process was carried out beforehand by ABB to ensure that they made the right choice.
A seal of approval
3Dfacto regards the selection of its software VirtuBUILD as a seal of approval of their technology. Co-founder and CEO of 3Dfacto Thomas Randrup says: "It is very important for us that a global company such as ABB has examined our software from A to Z with the target to to implement it and has assessed it to be both efficient and well qualified. This paves the way for many other visionary manufacturing enterprises and makes it clear that the market is ready for our product".
A unique product
Before choosing VirtuBUILD, the industrial giant ABB used its long experience of working with configurators to screen the world market. Esther Gelle, Group Manager at ABB's Corporate Research Center, says: "VirturBUILD was the only configurator on the market to fully meet our needs. The combination of being able to build complex products geometrically correct and view the end result in 3D is unique. In addition, the software may be used for all types of products, also ATO/ETO type of products*, and the integration with other software systems, such as CAD and ERP systems, is very strong. In my opinion there is no doubt that 3Dfacto has seen a specific need on the industrial market which only they can fulfil." VirtuBUILD is expected to be implemented for the first product line during 2005. Consequently, ABB sales force will be working with the Danish developed VirtuBUILD next year. According to ABB, the introduction of the configurator is a significant parameter for an order producing company. "We expect to be able to streamline our sales process considerably because the time used for handling a customer inquiry will be reduced using the configurator. VirtuBUILD can also be used to configure in meetings with the customer and show the result to our customers instead of the sales persons' support having to spend time drawing and making calculations", Esther Gelle states.
International breakthrough
In addition to the seal of approval of VirtuBUILD, the agreement with ABB gives 3Dfacto its international breakthrough. Francis Delafontaine, VP Sales & Operations of 3Dfacto, says: "Not only have we received our first order outside Scandinavia but the agreement has been made with a large global group which will use our product all over the world. This is very positive - also because it has happened before we expected it. Our main focus has been on the
Scandinavian market so far but the order gives us the opportunity to enter the entire European market." As a consequence of the agreement, 3Dfacto has begun intensifying its sales efforts in Europe, primarily in Germany and Scandinavia.
For further information, please contact:
Thomas Randrup, CEO of 3Dfacto, tel. +45 3330 0730 or +45 2614 9624.
Facts about 3Dfacto
3Dfacto has developed the visual configurator, VirtuBUILD, offering a unique combination of visualisation and configuration based on patented technology. The software enables automated building of complex products and viewing of their many different combinations in three dimensions. 3Dfacto's VirtuBUILD is primarily targeted at modern industrial companies wishing to offer their customers individual products as well as to cut costs related to the sales process and the order processing.