Jewelry pricing is surprisingly complex, therefore, Efva asked Koivu Solutions to upgrade its pricing process.
“A dynamic multi-creator whose style-proof design embodies the most important moments of life,” stated Swedish ELLE at their 2018 Gala when they awarded world-known jewelry designer and manufacturer Efva Attling.
Pricing challenges
Efva’s pricing team was experiencing difficulties in their ‘Excel-only’ pricing process. While the price book creation was already rule-based, the team struggled with further process improvements due to Excel’s limitations. The challenges were related to Excel’s file size and file management, missing audit trails, as well as errors. Also, it took a long time to update prices into the SAP ERP.
Additionally, managing seasonal products, collections, and discontinued items needed to be more dynamic. Bundles of chains and necklaces added yet another dimension to price management complexity.
Increased cost volatility of raw materials, such as gold and silver, creates pressure on more frequent jewelry price updates. With Efva’s old process this would have required additional team members.
Rapid improvements
Efva’s new pricing process was set up in just ten weeks using Koivu’s Price Management template. The project started by slightly modifying Efva’s current pricing sheets and, through the functionality of the Koivu platform, enabling them to run in the Koivu Cloud. This step alone made significant improvements to the everyday pricing process.
Further enhancements
The pricing team was so pleased with the Koivu solution that they decided to continue with further process improvements. The next step was the product cost calculation process with challenges related to configurable products.
A completely new costing template was designed. As it was running in the Koivu Cloud with a familiar Excel front-end, the pricing team was able to take it into use with only a couple of hours of training. Additionally, Efva is now able to modify the pricing sequence rules by themselves.
Summary
Efva’s pricing team wanted to continue using the familiar Microsoft Excel user interface while meeting higher security and productivity standards. Cloud-based Koivu Price Management solution was the perfect match.
The new pricing process is more efficient in building price book versions and ensures price changes are executed safely and fast. Now Efva can get the right price out at the right time.
