Salespeople working at FinnSonic, a company specialised in ultrasonic cleaning equipment and fluorescent penetrant inspection solutions, have been using videos, brochures and PowerPoint presentations as promotional materials when visiting customers. In the autumn of 2018, FinnSonic took XR Showroom’s augmented reality application for a test run at a trade fair.
FinnSonic is a Finnish company that supplies companies all over the world with smart and safe solutions for the ultrasonic cleaning of industrial parts and equipment for aviation industry FPI inspection. Salespeople at the company have been using videos, brochures and PowerPoint presentations as promotional materials when visiting customers, but at the Subcontracting Trade Fair FinnSonic took XR Showroom’s augmented reality application for a test run.
“We need tools to help our salespeople in sales negotiations. I believe that the AR application would work on customer visits and would allow our salespeople to show customers how our equipment would look and work inside their production facilities. In a meeting room, a tablet could be connected to a larger screen, bringing a highly illustrative element to the presentation and making it easy to present our equipment to the customer,” says Sirpa Suomela, Communications Manager of FinnSonic.
According to Suomela, the AR application helps customers get a better picture of the equipment’s features and how its different lines fit inside the customer’s production facilities.
Customers’ production facilities are often challenging. On the international market in particular, there is often not a lot of space available because property is expensive. XR Showroom can be utilised in sales negotiations to present the appearance and features of even larger machines on a mobile phone, tablet or VR headset.
“Our products are quite compact. It is an advantage because our equipment usually fits into a small space. It would be easy to show this using an AR application on a tablet, which would give the customer a clearer picture of where the equipment could be placed inside their facilities,” Sirpa Suomela says.
80% of FinnSonic’s sales are international. If the company implements the AR application into broader use after the testing phase, retailers could also be trained to use the tablet application.
“The costs of implementing new technology are primarily incurred by initial expenses, but if we start using the application on a larger scale it will be considerably easier to transfer new models into the AR world. Our own designers will be able to edit and transfer our equipment’s planning models into the application,” Suomela describes.
The communications manager of Finnsonic, who are enthusiastic trade fair exhibitors, believes that the investment in the AR application could be recouped after only a few international trade fairs. A lot of savings can be made in freight costs, as heavy physical equipment does not have to be transported to fairs. FinnSonic tested the AR application for the first time at a subcontracting trade fair in autumn 2018.
“Trade fair use still has to be developed further. There is a lot of hustle and bustle at large trade fairs, and a small tablet was not enough to draw the interest of trade fair visitors. Wakeone is currently working on a solution for us, which will make it possible to connect a tablet wirelessly to a large trade fair screen. I believe that this will allow us to draw the attention of trade fair visitors and attract people to come and see our stand,” Suomela says.
According to Suomela, people at Wakeone understand FinnSonic’s needs, and the service they provide is good.
“People at Wakeone always have a very positive attitude towards the customer’s wishes and needs. Even at the trade fair, we tested the tablet, expressed our desires and got very quick responses. I can recommend Leonidas’s services. The AR application must be developed further for us to be able to utilise it fully. Our testing so far has been a good experiment and was worth doing. We are considering continuing development work in order to get the full benefits of the application in our sales work,” states Sirpa Suomela, Communications Manager of FinnSonic Oy.
