The Challenge
A service provider with three service areas had been calculating its quotes by hand, based on several Excel spreadsheets. The pricing rules are not trivial: they take into account a weighted headcount, different support models, company size thresholds and travel to the respective construction site. Above certain thresholds, no instant price should be shown and an individual quote should follow instead.
Going forward, prospects were to see their price directly on the website, receive the quote by email and accept it online. The client wanted to keep maintaining prices on its own, without commissioning programming work to do so.
Our Solution
We implemented the entire process, from the prospect's input to the binding quote, as a web application. The requirements were agreed with the client and turned into a project plan.
Pricing Logic as a Maintainable Rule Set
We analyzed the calculation documents provided and translated the pricing rules of all three service areas into a rule set. The calculation is accurate to the cent, including the special rules for weighted headcount, support models and company size thresholds, as well as the cutoff for individual quotes. Changed price parameters are imported automatically from the Excel source files, so price adjustments do not require a developer.
Website and Forms
The website consists of a home page, a service overview and, for each service area, a two-step form that updates the price continuously as the user enters data. The interface follows the client's corporate design with its colors, fonts, logos and the icons of the three service areas.
The address field checks input against a dedicated address service covering all of Germany while the user types and suggests matching addresses. From the address entered, the application automatically determines the travel to the construction site.
Quote Process
- Delivery: The quote is sent automatically by email to the prospect, with contract documents, terms and a personal acceptance link.
- Acceptance: The prospect accepts the quote via a secured link, with the postal code serving as a second proof. The time and the confirmed documents are logged in a traceable way.
- Approval: After approval by the client, the application creates the binding quote in Lexware Office and sends the finished quote document to the prospect.
- Numbering: Sequential quote numbers per client and consistent naming of quote documents.
Admin Area
An internal area with login shows all quotes with status filters, allows acceptance and rejection, and manages the documents to be sent along. A delivery log records for each quote which emails with which files were actually sent, and the exact version sent can be retrieved at any time.
Security and Operations
- Spam protection with a math challenge before submission, an invisible honeypot field, optional bot detection and rate limiting per visitor and in total
- Encrypted transmission, restrictive browser security policies, limits on the data volume per request, encrypted storage of credentials and time-limited login sessions
- Persistent data storage for quotes, attachments and accounts that sets itself up at application startup
- Central, access-protected repository for the code with full change history and an approval process
- Automated test and delivery pipeline that runs all tests on every change and builds the production-ready application
- Server operation with a separate database and a separate address service, reachable at its own web address over an encrypted connection
Quality Assurance
The price calculation was tested against to-the-cent reference values from the Excel source files. In total, 275 automated tests cover calculation, interfaces, security and data storage, complemented by an end-to-end test of the whole process from inquiry through acceptance to the generated quote document. Operations and maintenance documentation as well as archiving of the source code are part of the delivery.
The Result
- Instant price for prospects directly in the form, accurate to the cent and rule-compliant
- Price maintenance without a developer thanks to automated import from Excel
- End-to-end process from inquiry through online acceptance to the quote in Lexware Office
- Traceability through acceptance and delivery logs for each quote
- Secured operation with 275 automated tests and automated delivery