Excel to Web-Based Quoting System for Surveillance Solutions

Overview

A national surveillance solutions provider was relying on a heavily-modified shared Excel spreadsheet to produce customer quotes. While powerful, the spreadsheet had become fragile, slow, and impossible to scale — with complex rules embedded across formulas, hidden sheets, and manual processes. We were brought in to replace this with a robust, web-based quoting platform that preserved all of the business logic while unlocking automation, reporting, and self-service.

The Challenge

The client needed to:

• Hardware compatibility constraints — certain chassis only supported specific cameras, storage units, and physical components
• Licence dependency logic — some software licences were required based on hardware selection, free or discounted when bundled, and shared across multiple quote lines
• Interlinked quote lines — licence items could be attached to multiple hardware lines, meaning pricing and quantities had to remain synchronised across the entire quote
• Single shared file with concurrency issues
• High risk of formula breakage
• No audit trail or reporting
• No customer self-service
• Despite its complexity, the spreadsheet was business-critical and could not simply be 'simplified'

The Solution

We rebuilt the quoting system as a bespoke web application, preserving 100% of the configuration logic while significantly improving reliability and usability.

• Angular-based frontend for fast, responsive configuration
• Rule-driven product engine to enforce compatibility and licensing constraints
• User authentication & role-based access
• Centralised pricing engine with versioned price lists
• Dynamic product configuration with real-time validation
• Licence auto-inclusion, exclusion, and sharing across quote lines
• Automatic handling of free and bundled licences
• Fully itemised quotes with traceable dependencies
• Secure customer login area
• Self-service price list downloads
• Quote history and status tracking
• PDF and Word document generation for branded proposals
• Internal reporting dashboard for sales activity and quote performance

The Result

• Thousands of quotes generated since launch
• System has been running successfully for multiple years with minimal maintenance
• Elimination of spreadsheet corruption and version conflicts
• Faster quote turnaround for sales teams
• Customers able to self-serve pricing without sales intervention
• Full visibility into quoting activity and product performance
• The platform became a core revenue system, replacing a fragile spreadsheet with a scalable, auditable, and extensible web application