How Soch3D uses Phasio to manage and automate their RFQs and orders to increase revenue

Customer: Harsha Madalam

Company: Soch3D

Industry: Precision manufacturing

Buyer Persona:  Service Bureau providing CAD Design, 3D printing, CNC cutting, and Vacuum Casting

Introduction

Harsha Madalam is the co-founder and CEO of Soch3D (https://soch3d.com/). Harsha is a Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineer by training and graduated from the esteemed IIT Kharagpur in India. During his time at IIT, Harsha came across metal 3D printing or Additive manufacturing (AM) and has been fascinated by the potential and capabilities of the technology. His interest and learnings of AM led him to create Soch3D in 2018.

As Soch3D was gaining traction and growing, Harsha saw a need for software to help streamline responding to Requests for Quotes (RFQs) and managing all their orders in a single source of truth. Harsha tried to build a solution internally, but that shifted their focus from their manufacturing orders. They were looking for a partner to work with, and when Phasio reached out to them, Harsha immediately saw that it was the ideal platform that suited their requirements, allowing them to focus on their customers.

Harsha’s team reduced the time to respond to their customers from 3 hours to just 3 minutes by using Phasio’s instant quotation engine. This enabled them to respond to potential customers faster, increasing their revenue! As an end-to-end manufacturing solution provider, they immediately realized Phasio’s capability to integrate all their different requirements from lead generation, design project management, instant quotation generation, and payment automation with a Razorpay connection.

About Soch3D

Soch3D is one of the leading turnkey manufacturing service bureaus in Bangalore, India. They help companies conceptualize their ideas into 3D designs, convert those 3D designs into prototypes, and turn them into large production orders. The complete end-to-end process can be performed with the team at Soch3D due to their wide variety of in-house technologies, such as 3D printing, Injection Moulding, Vacuum Casting, and CNC milling. They have a large client base, from Fortune 500 companies and FMCG giants to hardware startups across Bangalore and India.

The Challenge of Responding to Requests for Quotes

In the early days, Soch3D created a process around responding to RFQs, but over the years, as they started growing, there was a need for a better way to respond to RFQs. Before leveraging Phasio, Soch3D  inspected 3D files received via email or Whatsapp, using CAD software like Fusion 360 to check for manufacturability, and then calculated the resources required to manufacture the part. Taking this data and placing it into Excel, they would determine the manufacturing cost and, finally, the production cost for the end customer. After accounting for margins, they would send their customer an estimate via accounting software like Zoho.

If the customer accepted the estimate, they would start producing the part and use another project management software like Trello to handle the production workflow. If the customer did not accept the estimate or requested changes, they would have to repeat the entire process

To quote Harsha,” It takes us at least an average of 3 hours and five different software packages to respond to every RFQ we receive”. This was a severe limiting factor to the efficiency & growth of Soch3D. Harsha and Soch3D could not scale while maintaining the same customer care by addressing their needs personally.

Why did Soch3D choose Phasio?

When Phasio reached out to Harsha, he was looking for a tool to help address the problem of his current workflow around RFQs. When we jumped on a call with him, Harsha said,” We had tried to build a similar tool when we started but realized that it was deterring us from our actual business.” Harsha knew what he wanted in a tool to help him significantly reduce the time spent managing RFQs and orders to help him scale his facility.

Phasio’s adaptable software immediately resonated with Harsha. The key decision-making factors for Harsha were that first, he could streamline his RFQ process by reducing the number of different software he required from 5 to 1, and second the flexible pricing algorithm offered by Phasio.

On top of the immediate need for automating the RFQ process, Harsha saw the ability to work with a fast-moving team aligned with him to help him grow his business and the potential in the software to help him streamline all his operational needs to increase his facility.

How Phasio Responded

Phasio worked with Harsha to set up his backend pricing logic. Phasio ensured that all Soch3D’s pricing worked within the correct margins for different 3D printing technologies.

Phasio also set up Soch3D’s digital storefront, making placing orders for smaller customers frictionless. This e-commerce checkout flow helped Soch3D get more orders without talking to customers directly.

Finally, Phasio worked with Soch3D to set up custom pricing logic for all B2B clients, enabling them to respond to RFQs from their large B2B customers without worrying about misquoting them.

Phasio worked with Soch3D to seamlessly transition from their old manual operations to a fully digitized platform so that Harsha and his team could focus on growing their capabilities and addressing a more significant market segment. 

The Results

With Phasio in place on their website, Harsha and Soch3D started focussing on firstly expanding their customer base. With the ability to send quotes within minutes of uploading the part, Soch3D responded better to their customer needs. This, coupled with the flexibility to provide individual customer pricing, has made it much faster for Harsha and his team to focus on solving their customer's needs.

According to Harsha, “Phasio’s biggest strength is the ability for us to customize the pricing for each of our customers; this feature helps us to produce parts for our customers without having to worry about inaccurately quoting them.”

With the digital storefront, Soch3D can further increase their online presence to create more deal flow. Prospective customers can use the simple and powerful e-commerce checkout portal Phasio provided to upload a part, get a price, place an order, and pay for it without even talking to a salesperson.

With automated shipping label generation and order management features, Phasio can further streamline Soch3D’s backlog of orders and helps them manage and prioritize the production process. With automatic updates to customers when their order status has changed, Soch3D can keep their customers informed without needing to contact them continuously, creating more trust and insight into the production process.

Soch3D is very happy with Phasio's ability to automate the RFQ process. Along with the RFQ process, Phasio has helped Soch3D better manage their customers efficiently and allowed them to focus on what was important, growing their business and managing their customers and orders in a much more streamlined and personalized way.

You can learn more about Soch3D from their Website. You can also reach out to us for any inquiries at hello@phas.io