Digitalization of the Quotation Management Process reduces the Workload on Specialists and increases Efficiency

Hekatron is one of the leading suppliers in technical fire protection systems and combines numerous products, systems, and solutions under one roof—from fire alarm systems and hold-open systems to special fire alarm technology. With over 60 years of experience and a high level of innovation, Hekatron stands for reliable fire protection technology.

Thousands of requests for quotations each year with hundreds of items presented Hekatron’s quotation management department with considerable capacity and time problems.

• Every year, Hekatron receives several thousand inquiries with extensive bills of quantities (BQs) – often with hundreds of items that each have to be checked, calculated, and assigned.

• Manually entering the items and searching for suitable products caused considerable effort for the planning and project management department and kept valuable specialists busy for hours.

• The fact that tenders and inquiries not only specified Hekatron’s own products but also regularly included third-party products made the process even more difficult.

Hekatron wanted to digitalize the process in a sustainable manner and, above all, to relieve the specialists of this workload in a specific way.

Hekatron wanted to digitize the process sustainably and, above all, to relieve skilled workers in a targeted manner.

With kinisto, Hekatron focused on automating repetitive tasks and providing AI-supported assistance to skilled workers. The clear focus was on optimizing bill of quantities processing and improving process structure.

1. Automatic inquiry management: kinisto immediately recognizes all relevant details of an inquiry upon receipt—items in the bills of quantities, named manufacturers, delivery dates, and customer and project data. Manual data entry is completely eliminated.

2. Strategic prioritization: The software assists in evaluating and prioritizing inquiries based on project size, scope, and deadlines.

3. AI product suggestions: When processing the specifications, kinisto automatically suggests suitable products, which significantly speeds up the work. Employees only check and correct as necessary. Typing in items or manually searching for products is no longer necessary.

4. Seamless collaboration: The team works on a shared platform with a clear distribution of tasks and no duplication of work when preparing quotations.

5. Transparent process control: Each processing step is documented in a traceable manner, and bottlenecks become immediately visible.

The introduction of kinisto went smoothly: After just a few days, the first service specifications were being processed via the platform.

With kinisto, Hekatron has found a sustainable way to meet the increasing demands of the quotation management process. The combination of AI-supported product suggestions, automated data collection, and a central collaboration platform not only creates immediate efficiency gains but also establishes a process that is constantly evolving. Hekatron is making targeted use of the capacity freed up by automation to further train the AI and continuously improve the quality of its quotations.

The high level of acceptance within the team and the quickly measurable results show that digitalization works best when it relieves people rather than replacing them. Hekatron can now process more inquiries in less time without compromising quality, positioning itself for the future in a highly competitive market.

The result is a more efficient team, more satisfied employees, and a stronger market position thanks to faster, more accurate offer submission.