Engineering team with a tablet in a production plant

For mechanical engineering, plant engineering & specialist industry

Your design office is full, the quotation has been waiting for three weeks. Who wins the order?

ivato digitalises the order process in mid-sized mechanical and plant engineering: from the enquiry via quotation, order clarification and bill of materials to commissioning, service and spare parts. Your ERP stays, your CAD stays. We take the searching, retyping and chasing off your people.

Start the Digital check-up for €30 →View the order process ↓

Clients from this industry

Your daily work

Do these sentences from the shop floor and the office sound familiar?

In mechanical and plant engineering, money is rarely lost in production, but before and after it: in quotations that take too long, in knowledge that sits in a few individual heads, and in service jobs that are only invoiced weeks later. This is exactly where we start.

You recognise 0 of 8 statements

Tap the statements you recognise from your day-to-day work.

The pattern behind it: good engineers spend their time searching, retyping and asking.

Where exactly? To the order process ↓

Order process

At which point in your order process do you lose the most time?

Click on a stage. You see how it works in many companies today, what ivato implements there and what changes as a result. Usually it is two to four stages that offer the greatest leverage. We find them in the Digital check-up and in the strategy.

Today

Enquiries come by email, phone and trade fair

Who asked for what is in inboxes and on business cards. Follow-up happens when sales is not out on installation.

With ivato

Every enquiry in one place

  • Trade fair and web leads straight into the CRM
  • AI reads enquiry emails and attachments
  • Automatic follow-up until a reply arrives

What changes

No contact gets lost

You can see at any time which enquiries are open, how large the pipeline is and what your hit rate looks like.

Descriptions show typical processes. We calculate concrete effects in hours and euros for your company in the business case.

Practical examples

What does this look like in a company like yours?

Four examples from special-purpose machinery, plant engineering and specialist industry: each with starting point, solution, result and calculation. What they all have in common is that ERP and CAD stayed in place and the solution was running in daily operations after 8 to 12 weeks.

  • Special-purpose machinerySaxony85 staffAssembly & test systems

    Quotation for special machines in 4 instead of 15 working days

    Starting point
    Every quotation went through the head of design. Costing in Excel, building blocks copied together from old projects, hit rate unknown.
    Solution
    Modular system of standard assemblies, costing template with values from post-calculation, AI pre-reads specifications and flags deviations.
    Result
    Sales creates 70% of quotations without the design office. The head of design only checks special points.
    Investment
    €34,000
    Funding
    €13,500
    Own contribution
    €20,500
    Payback
    7 months

  • Plant engineeringBavaria140 staffConveying & storage technology

    Spare part enquiries answered in minutes instead of days

    Starting point
    Over 1,200 systems in the field, bills of materials in three systems. Every spare part enquiry ended up with a designer in the end.
    Solution
    AI assistant for the sales office: serial number or photo in, matching bill of materials item, price and lead time out. Quotation straight from the CRM.
    Result
    Design office almost completely relieved of spare part questions, after-sales revenue measurably increased.
    Investment
    €42,000
    Payback
    9 months

  • Plant engineeringThuringia60 staffProcess engineering

    Service report on the tablet, invoice on the same day

    Starting point
    Fitters wrote reports by hand, the office retyped them. Invoices went out 19 days after the job on average, hours were missing.
    Solution
    Digital service report with photos and signature at the customer's site, automatic handover to invoicing, job scheduling for technicians in the CRM.
    Result
    Invoicing on the day of the job, no more forgotten hours, fitters save the paperwork at the weekend.
    Investment
    €24,000
    Funding
    €9,600
    Own contribution
    €14,400
    Payback
    6 months

  • Specialist industryBaden-Württemberg45 staffSurface technology, contract manufacturing

    Trade fair leads become enquiries, not waste paper

    Starting point
    Two trade fairs a year, around 300 contacts. Follow-up happened when there was time. Enquiries by email, drawings as attachments, no overview.
    Solution
    Trade fair app with lead capture straight into the CRM, automatic follow-up sequence, AI reads enquiries and drawings and sets up the enquiry in prepared form.
    Result
    Every trade fair contact has a next step. Enquiries are recorded on the same day and assigned to the right contact person.
    Investment
    €21,000
    Funding
    €8,400
    Own contribution
    €12,600
    Payback
    8 months

More case studies from Mechanical & plant engineering · Funding programmes

Solutions

Which tools does ivato use in mechanical and plant engineering?

Proven building blocks that we adapt to your company instead of developing from scratch each time. You do not get a platform that you have to set up yourself, but a finished solution that your people can operate on the first day.

  • Product configurator & modular system

    Put together variants and options on a rule basis, price and bill of materials are created automatically. For sales, dealers or directly for your customers.

  • AI for specifications & enquiries

    Reads specifications, tenders and drawing attachments, summarises requirements and flags points that deviate from the standard.

    More on Scaling with AI →

  • CRM for project business

    From the trade fair to acceptance: enquiries, quotations, follow-up and milestones in one system. With a hit rate and pipeline that management actually uses.

    To Sales & CRM Automation →

  • Service app & job scheduling

    Digital service report, photos, signature, spare parts requirements. Invoicing gets everything on the same day, the technician plans his jobs from the tablet.

    To Reducing cost pressure →

  • Spare parts assistant

    Serial number, year of manufacture or a photo is enough: the assistant finds the item in the bill of materials, shows price and availability and prepares the quotation.

    To Implementation →

  • Knowledge base against knowledge monopolies

    The knowledge of your experienced designers and fitters is documented and can be retrieved by asking a question. Important for the skills shortage and for succession.

    To Securing succession →

ERP, CAD & PDM

Do we have to replace our ERP for this?

No. Your ERP remains the leading system for items, bills of materials and orders. We build the missing connections around it, so that data is no longer transferred by hand. No mammoth project, no downtime.

Your systems stay

  • Connection to common mid-market ERP systems via existing interfaces
  • CAD and PDM data are read, not changed
  • Customer data and drawings stay on servers in Germany
  • Protection of know-how: your design data does not train third-party AI models
20 Jan2027

Is your documentation ready for the new EU Machinery Regulation?

From 20 January 2027, the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies and replaces the Machinery Directive. Operating instructions may then in principle be provided digitally. Anyone who has to touch their technical documentation anyway can take the opportunity to build it up digitally and make it easy to find.

As of: 10/2026 · not legal advice, check details with your CE officer

Include in the check-up →

Process & prices

How do we start without your day-to-day business suffering?

In three steps that build on each other. You decide anew after each step. Your effort is a few appointments with management, sales, design and service. We do the rest.

  1. Step 1

    Digital check-up

    Online questionnaire with questions on sales, order processing and service. You immediately see where your company stands and which stages offer the greatest leverage.

    €30

    To the Digital check-up →

  2. Step 2

    Strategy

    We look at your order process on site, calculate the business case in euros and set a roadmap with priorities.

    Fixed price by scope · eligible for funding

    To Strategy →

  3. Step 3

    Implementation

    We implement the most effective levers, connect ERP and CAD and train your people until it runs in daily operations.

    from €20,000 net · 8–12 weeks

    To Implementation →

Estimate your funding

Funding rate
Funding
€12,000
Your contribution
€18,000

Simplified calculation. Rate and maximum amounts depend on the programme, federal state and company size. Consulting can additionally receive a grant of up to €5,600.

projects successfully supported
1,000+
projects successfully supported
years of experience with mid-sized companies
25+
years of experience with mid-sized companies
funding for implementation
up to 60%
funding for implementation
dedicated contact person in the project
1
dedicated contact person in the project

Frequently asked questions

What managing directors in mechanical engineering want to know beforehand

Your question is not here? In the initial conversation we take 30 minutes for your specific topic.

Yes, especially there. Even a special machine consists to a large extent of recurring assemblies, costing items and processes. We digitalise this recurring part so that your designers have time for what is really new.

We need one contact person on your side and one or two short appointments with the specialists for each stage. We take care of concept, implementation, testing and training. We schedule the appointments around your acceptances and commissionings.

Your data stays your data. We only read CAD and PDM data where it is necessary for the solution, and we use AI services in which your data is not used to train third-party models. We record the details in a data processing agreement.

Often particularly so, because small companies depend on a few key people. If the managing director is still calculating quotations himself or the only designer answers every spare part question, the leverage is large. Whether it pays off is shown by the business case in the strategy, before you invest in implementation.

For consulting, grants of up to €5,600 are possible, for implementation up to 60% depending on federal state and programme. We check the suitable programmes in the initial conversation and take care of the application documents. As of: 10/2026, programmes change regularly.

Yes. Many companies start with the stage that hurts most, often quotation or service. When that works, the next follows. The strategy ensures that the individual parts fit together later.

Read on

Next step

Where does your company lose the most time? In 15 minutes you will know.

The Digital check-up is tailored to machine and plant builders. You receive a report with your strongest levers in the order process and an assessment of funding.

Start the digital check-up →Book an initial consultation →

Digital check-up · Mechanical engineering

€30

  • Questions on quotation, design, service
  • Result with priorities for each stage
  • Assessment of funding
  • Credited against consulting