From product complexity to a guided digital buying experience

A hi-tech manufacturer sells configurable networking, edge-computing and support products through direct and channel routes. ASE turns configuration rules, commercial policies and integration constraints into a production-ready commerce experience.

Example project. The company, systems and figures are made up.

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The situation

Most orders still require an assisted quote because compatibility and entitlement rules live in spreadsheets and expert heads. Regional catalogs diverge, account-specific pricing is applied manually, and partners work in a separate process from direct buyers.

The request

Enable customers and partners to discover, configure, price and buy compatible technology solutions online while preserving account rules and human help for genuine exceptions.

Systems involved

18,000 active SKUs
Hardware, software licenses and support services
Compatibility and bundle rules
Regional catalogs
Account-specific pricing
Direct and channel experiences
Salesforce
SAP
Product information management
Multiple inventory feeds

How it runs

Step by step

What ASE does at each stage and who approves it.

Discover

Inputs

Catalog exports and product hierarchy
Compatibility and bundle rules
Pricing policy, customer segments and quote history
Storefront analytics

Agent activity

Analyze catalog, hierarchy, compatibility rules and pricing
Reconstruct buyer journeys from analytics and quote processes
Build a product ontology, rule inventory and conversion-friction map

Human authority

Product and sales operations confirm the pilot product family and rule sources.

Approval criteria: Pilot family, rule sources and channel scope confirmed.

Outputs

Buyer journeys
Product ontology
Rule inventory
Conversion-friction map

Traceability created

Each rule links to its source sheet or system of record

Hand-off: Ontology and friction map scope the journey requirements.

Output

What ASE produced

Sample outputs from this project. All data is made up.

Buyer journey

Reconstructed direct and channel buying paths with friction points.

DISCOVER → CONFIGURE → VALIDATE COMPATIBILITY → PRICE → AVAILABILITY → QUOTE → CHECKOUT
direct cohort: 7 steps · channel cohort: 9 steps (adds partner entitlement, deal reg)
friction: compatibility uncertainty at step 3 (synthetic analytics)
friction: account pricing requires assisted quote at step 4

Approvals

Where people decide

Define
Approve journeys and commercial rules
Approved by: Product, sales operations and channel leadership
Validate
Approve configuration, pricing and checkout evidence
Approved by: Commercial and product owners
Deploy
Authorize the controlled buyer cohort
Approved by: Commercial owner

Solution

What got built

Target architecture

EXPERIENCE product discovery · guided configurator · quote · checkout · partner workspace
SERVICES compatibility · account pricing · availability · entitlement · analytics
DOMAIN product ontology · configuration model · commercial rule set
INTEGRATION Salesforce · SAP · PIM · inventory feeds · tax and payment
GOVERNANCE pricing authority · channel entitlement · rule change approval

How it traces back

Commercial policy → journey step → story CMS-084 → rule CFG-118 → TC-HTC-402 → cohort release

Targets

What a pilot would test

Goals to prove in a pilot, not client results.

Orders requiring assisted quoting
Illustrative baseline 55%
Modeled pilot target 35–40%
Potential outcome to validate
Configuration-related cart failures
Illustrative baseline 12%
Modeled pilot target 5–7%
Potential outcome to validate
Time to introduce a product-family journey
Illustrative baseline 10–14 weeks
Modeled pilot target 4–7 weeks
Target range depends on system and process complexity
Commercial-rule traceability
Modeled pilot target 100% for the pilot product family
Target range depends on system and process complexity