In a fast moving industry such as laser cutting, no-one can afford to be complacent. Laser shops have to ensure they are up to date with the best technologies available to them. Suppliers, in turn, have to ensure they are very closely attuned to the rapidly changing needs of customers large and small.
You have to have an ear to the group continuously. This is a dynamic business. The global laser cutting machine market size is current more than a staggering USD 5.59 billion and predicted to a phenomenal growth trajectory. By 2030, the market is expected to reach a monumental USD 11.32 billion, exhibiting a remarkable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.6%. With that amount of money out on the shop floor, no businesses can afford not to be at the head of the field.
So, is our industry evolving and automating as fast as our customers? In the 50 years I’ve worked in the laser cutting industry, customers and vendors alike have been racing to out-compete each other with faster and superior technologies.
Laser cutting vendors are now automating throughout their operations, from manufacturing to invoicing, and everything in between.
So it comes as no surprise that these highly automated organisations are seeking an automated quoting experience when they need to request a laser cutting job. Getting an instant online quote is far more efficient than having to request information, which comes back hours, or days later. By that point, the end customer may have gone elsewhere.
Customers want faster times
A trend that’s ubiquitous across all industries is the demand for faster service, faster deliveries, and faster turnaround times. As technology has improved, services have become faster, and the consumer has developed a taste for “instant” service – and they want more. This has been a major driver for companies to invest in automation to keep up with demand.
This is just as true in the laser cutting industry as may be for groceries or retail products. A vendor that can return a quote faster, and subsequently deliver a laser cutting job faster, is more likely to win the work, because this gets the final product to the end customer faster. And with the end customer wanting the product increasingly quickly, faster quoting is going to go from being desirable, to being necessary for business growth.
Instant laser cutting quotes with Web Store
With the trends towards automation and faster service in mind, Tempus Tools has introduced its Web Store feature to ToolBox, its cloud-based laser cutting quoting software.
Web Store is an online quoting portal that ToolBox subscribers can use on their own website, with their own branding, to allow customers to receive instant online quotes and instant pricing 24/7.
This is a game-changer for laser cutting companies. A customer working different hours might put a request in on a Sunday afternoon. Previously, this would have to wait until normal business hours on Monday, but now that customer gets an instant quote and can choose whether they are ready to proceed to an order.
It’s a win-win scenario. The customer gets information quicker, and the laser cutting business can win more orders with quoting available around the clock. It even frees up staff who would previously have been preparing quotes to work in other vital areas of the business to further add to growth and expansion.
Fast setup
A major barrier to entry for new automated technologies has been long or complicated setups, where the business has to suffer while the transition occurs.
But with ToolBox, the setup takes minutes, not weeks or months, so laser cutting job shops can get back to doing what they do best. And the Tempus Tools team can assist right through the setup process (at no extra charge), using their decades of experience from the job shop floor, through to management of large laser cutting enterprises.
With a low monthly subscription fee and fast setup, ToolBox has been designed to give even the smallest job shops the same advantages as the major players in boosting efficiency and responsiveness to customer quotes.
About the author
Bruce Thomas is Product Executive at Tempus Tools. He began his career in the laser industry in 1971, and has worked for a major laser machine manufacturer, then helped set up and run new job shops, before becoming CEO of a major Laser job shop with multiple sites throughout Australia, a company with 11 laser cutting machines. Bruce’s practical, hands-on experience in the industry has helped guide his contributions to Tempus Tools, as he steers product development to ensure the laser cutting quoting software provides features that job shops will gain the most benefit from
