CRM CASE STUDY

How MakeItQuick Cut Quoting Costs by 95% with DigiFabster

 

Intro

For a growing 3D printing service bureau, every customer enquiry represents an opportunity. But when generating quotes, processing orders and managing customer information takes too much time, growth can quickly become expensive.

That was the challenge facing MakeItQuick, an additive manufacturing business based in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.

MakeItQuick provides 3D printing services using materials including ABS, nylon and flexible polymers, alongside post-processing services such as sanding, bead blasting, painting and assembly. Its customers range from start-ups to established businesses across industries including automotive, aerospace, architecture and education.

The company wanted to make additive manufacturing more accessible while building a business capable of handling increasing demand.

The answer was to automate some of the repetitive work involved in quoting and order management with DigiFabster.

The results were striking: MakeItQuick reduced its quoting costs by as much as 95%, cut the cost of processing each order by up to £18, and reported 25% monthly revenue growth within its first year using the platform.

The Challenge: Too Much Time Spent on Manual Work

Like many young businesses, MakeItQuick initially relied on familiar tools to manage its operations.

Phone calls, emails and Excel spreadsheets handled much of the work.

That was manageable in the early days. But as the company grew, the manual processes began to consume valuable time.

As MakeItQuick owner Marco Massi explained:

“In the first weeks of our business, we managed everything with phone calls, emails and clunky Excel spreadsheets. We needed an all-in-one, organized system that would allow us to manage clients, quotes, and orders, so we could focus on turning jobs and growing our business.”

The company decided to measure exactly how much these manual processes were costing.

The results highlighted the problem.

A single quote could take anywhere from 10 minutes to more than an hour, with the average cost of producing a quote estimated at around £15.

Processing an order through the facility added another £15 to £20 in costs.

For a growing 3D printing service bureau, that is a significant amount of time and money to spend on administration rather than serving customers and winning new business.

Looking for a Better Way to Quote

MakeItQuick needed more than another spreadsheet.

The company wanted a system that could automate repetitive front-end processes while still giving customers a straightforward way to request quotes and place orders.

It also needed something that could be implemented quickly.

After seeing a demonstration of DigiFabster, MakeItQuick saw an opportunity to put automated quoting directly into its website.

The platform allowed the company to configure its pricing and create an iFrame widget that could be embedded into its order page. According to the case study, MakeItQuick was able to configure and implement the system on its website within just a few hours.

For a growing business, that speed of implementation mattered.

There was no need to wait months for a complicated technology project before seeing a return.

DigiFabster: Automating the Quoting Process

MakeItQuick adopted DigiFabster shortly after opening its business.

The platform provided the automated quoting and customer-management capabilities the company was looking for.

Massi described the decision this way:

“DigiFabster is the go-to solution when it comes to quoting and CRM for 3D printing service bureaus. We adopted their software shortly after opening our business, and leveraged it to immediately automate much of the redundant, front-end work in our shop.”

The important point here is that automation wasn’t introduced simply for the sake of using new technology.

It addressed a very specific business problem: too much employee time was being spent on repetitive quoting and order administration.

Once DigiFabster was operational, customers could submit their requirements through the company’s website, while the software handled much of the work that previously required manual intervention.

The Results: 95% Lower Quoting Costs

This is where the MakeItQuick story becomes particularly interesting.

The company found that DigiFabster could handle approximately 90% of its quotes without requiring someone to manually review every submitted part.

Massi said:

“The software handles 90% of our quotes without the need to manually review every part that is submitted. The time savings were immediately evident.”

That automation dramatically changed the economics of producing a quote.

Instead of spending around £15 on each quote, MakeItQuick found that automated quotes cost only a few pence to process.

The company reported savings of up to 95% per quote.

The numbers at a glance

• 95% Reduction in quoting costs
• 90% Of quotes handled without manual review
• £12–£18 Saved on each order transaction
• 25% Monthly revenue growth reported within less than a year

These aren’t theoretical benefits. They represent the results reported by MakeItQuick in its DigiFabster case study.

Lower Order-Processing Costs

The savings didn’t stop once a quote had been accepted.

MakeItQuick also found that managing an order and moving it through the manufacturing process became considerably less expensive.

The cost fell from approximately £15–£20 per order to just a couple of pounds.

That represented savings of approximately £12 to £18 on each transaction.

Massi also highlighted the value of having the order information readily available:

“We save even more once a quote is confirmed. All the order details are at hand, giving us the opportunity to analyze the data and decide on the best way forward.”

This is an important part of the story.

The benefit wasn’t simply faster quoting. By bringing information into a more organised workflow, MakeItQuick could spend less time chasing information and more time acting on it.

From Saving Time to Growing Revenue

Perhaps the most impressive result was what MakeItQuick did with the time and money it saved.

The company didn’t simply pocket the savings.

It was able to handle more customers without increasing labour costs at the same rate and redirect resources towards higher-value activities.

And that contributed to growth.

Massi reported:

“In less than a year with DigiFabster, our revenue has grown steadily. We’re now experiencing a 25% monthly revenue increase, paving the way for our future success.”

That makes this more than a story about automated quoting.

It is a story about using automation to create capacity for growth.

Giving the Owner More Time to Build the Business

For small businesses, there is another benefit to automation that doesn’t always appear in a spreadsheet.

Time.

Business owners often find themselves trapped in day-to-day administration when they should be working on sales, strategy and business development.

MakeItQuick’s experience illustrates this particularly well.

Massi explained:

“As the owner and director here at MakeItQuick, my time is split between managing production and taking care of business development. Less time spent managing orders means I can spend more time cultivating new business.”

That may be the most valuable result of all.

DigiFabster wasn’t simply helping MakeItQuick process quotes faster. It was giving the business owner more time to concentrate on activities that could actually move the company forward.

What Other 3D Printing Businesses Can Learn

The MakeItQuick experience offers a useful lesson for any growing 3D printing service bureau.

Manual processes can seem inexpensive when a business is small. But as order volumes increase, the cost of repeatedly answering enquiries, preparing quotes, entering orders and moving information between systems can become substantial.

Automation can change that equation.

For MakeItQuick, the combination of automated quoting, order management and customer information helped reduce administrative costs while creating more capacity to serve customers.

The result was not simply a more efficient workflow.

It was a business with more room to grow.

The Bottom Line

MakeItQuick set out to make additive manufacturing more accessible while building a scalable business.

DigiFabster helped the company automate a significant portion of its quoting and order-management processes.

The reported results included:

• Up to 95% savings on quoting costs
• Around 90% of quotes handled without manual review
• £12–£18 saved per order transaction
• The ability to serve more customers without proportionately increasing labour costs
• 25% monthly revenue growth reported within less than a year
• More time for the owner to concentrate on business development.

For businesses still relying heavily on email, spreadsheets and manual quoting, the case raises an important question:

How much is your current quoting process really costing you?

MakeItQuick’s experience suggests that the answer may be considerably more than the price of the software you use to manage it.

Interested in DigiFabster?

If your business is looking for a way to automate quoting, streamline order management and create a more efficient customer experience, DigiFabster is designed for manufacturing businesses and service bureaus that want to scale their operations.

Visit DigiFabster to learn more about its quoting, CRM and workflow solutions.