New CRM Streamlines Quoting for Automotive Molder

An engineering company at heart, when Axiom Group in Aurora, Ont., needed software to manage its customer deliverables, it developed its own program. Max Preston, Axiom’s communications manager, says the program, PRISM, grew with needs of the organization over time and was uniquely tailored to Axiom’s custom automotive injection molding business, but the company’s explosive growth forced a change in strategy.

“As Axiom Group experienced more than 700% revenue growth within the last 10 years, the speed at which the organization was growing forced us to re-evaluate our internal systems and help pivot our software teams to become more focused on other areas,” Preston says.

In late 2022, Axiom’s search for an external solution lead it to Campfire Interactive, Ann Arbor, Mich., a supplier of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software made specifically for automotive product management, product tracking and B2C communication. Campfire’s platform won out on the basis of its ability to enable faster quoting processes, create monthly shipping schedules for on-time product arrival, and empower direct client communication.

Axiom also sought a CRM platform it could onboard quickly, and the fact that several members of its management team had direct experience with Campfire boosted the software’s bid. “We wanted a solution that members of our team actively recommend,” Preston says. “The sales team has experience with Campfire and spoke very highly of the solution, so that’s how we started this process.”

Of particular interest was Campfire Interactive’s quote lifecycle management tool, which Axiom says specifically addresses its desire to improve the quoting process. By eliminating the need to contact each supplier for every individual quote request, this CRM software can greatly improve the quoting process. In part, Campfire does so by automatically populating customer forms as users submit quotes, boosting efficiencies and eliminating common data-entry mistakes. It also tracks past quotes and monitors the wider industry’s history.

Founded in 2000 with a bill of materials offering to support product lifecycle management, Campfire pivoted to “profitability management” in 2008. It doubled from 5000 active users in 2016 to 10,000 by 2019, with the company stating at that time that more than 15% of the global top 80 automotive suppliers are customers.

In addition to the improved quoting time, Preston says Campfire is also providing the company with new data to analyze capacity and component availability, which has improved its forecast accuracy. At this time, Axiom’s sales engineering and quality team are directly engaging with Campfire the most, but more widespread adoption is anticipated. “Campfire will be handling all of our internal engineering compliance standards and monitoring our sales opportunities while providing analytics to the executive group,” Preston says. “Overall, we expect to introduce Campfire to all divisions of Axiom Group once the initial project has completed.”

Axiom notes that Campfire’s project-management tool stores a library of every purchased material or component by tracking quantities as orders are filled. Doing so enables the software to build up a virtual archive of the market cost of each product and automatically create a monthly shipping schedule, with the ultimate goal of every delivery arriving on time. “In addition to the improved quoting time, Campfire is also providing Axiom with new data to analyze capacity, component availability, and improving our forecast accuracy,” Preston says.