From 3 day quotation turnaround to instant - transforming how a global engineering business sells

The problem

CDE's sales team operates globally - meeting customers on sites across multiple continents, selling highly complex and bespoke wet processing equipment. Each sale requires a detailed quotation covering machinery, labour, shipping, travel and custom configurations.

The process behind it couldn't match the complexity of what was being sold. Quotations were built manually from spreadsheets, taking upwards of three days to produce. Product information lived in biannual printed catalogues and the sales team had no reliable way to access the latest specifications, pricing or technical documentation when meeting customers on site.

The challenge wasn't just simplifying the process. It was building a product that could handle the full complexity of what CDE sells and work reliably for a global team operating anywhere in the world.

What we built

We engineered two connected products - a centralised web-based admin platform and a dedicated sales app for CDE’s global sales team.

The admin platform acts as the single source of truth for the business, replacing spreadsheets with a central system for managing product details, pricing, specifications and sales material.

The sales app gives the team everything they need in one place: a digital product catalogue, a dynamic quotation generator that handles complex configurations and currency adjustments automatically, as well as an automated tool to send completed quotes directly to customers onsite.

Critically, the app works offline, allowing the team to access information and generate quotes without internet connectivity, syncing automatically when connection is restored.

Every part of the product is designed to simplify complexity, improve consistency and dramatically reduce the time required to produce a quotation and close a sale.

Why it worked

The product worked because it was built around how a complex global sales process actually operates, not how it ideally should.

The offline capability wasn't an afterthought. The currency handling wasn't a bolt on. The read only customer view wasn't a ‘nice to have’. Each one reflected a real constraint the sales team faced every day - selling highly technical equipment, in multiple markets, often without reliable connectivity.

That shift changed the sales process entirely. What had taken three days of manual work now happens onsite, in the room, in real time. Printed catalogues have been replaced by a live, always up to date digital experience. And a globally distributed sales team now operates from a single, consistent product.

The result wasn't just efficiency. It fundamentally changed how CDE sells, enabling faster decisions, more accurate quotations and a process that scales with the business globally.