Streamlining the sales process for a global automation giant with an AI-powered ROI calculator

The Brief

Our client is an international unicorn that develops robotics and advanced software to automate and orchestrate order fulfilment across the globe. We'd been actively working with them for a year on various product innovation initiatives - from designing new software platforms, to supporting new hardware product development efforts – when in late 2025, they approached us with a new challenge.

The client wanted to enable its internal sales teams to provide fast business case validation to customers, allowing them to quickly calculate how long the payback period would be before clients make their money back on technology investments. Whatever the solution was, it also needed to be simple to use and drive engagement internally.

The Challenge‍

Our client is consistently asked the same question by its prospective customers: “when will we start making money back from investing in this technology?” The core challenge that was blocking our client from being able to provide this information quickly and efficiently to customers was the fact that the process for calculating it was being done inconsistently via legacy systems. 

The sales team was using multiple different spreadsheets, each containing varying data levels, so how they calculated predicted ROI for clients was inconsistent. This meant that the business had a lack of control over what data went over to clients and how information was presented. Our client needed one cohesive way of doing this that would simplify the process and reduce the risk of error when calculating ROI. 

‍The Solution

Our solution was to create an ROI calculator that used advanced AI, integrated ROI tooling and robust documentation to enable pre-sales teams to win and progress automation deals, by swiftly turning operational data into clear, investment-ready business cases. 

The platform’s user journey starts with AI-powered onboarding, which helps bring new opportunities into the system fast, at scale, and with very little upfront information. The client’s sales teams first add their target organisation and the platform generates an AI research summary about the company. They then either upload site information manually or use AI to extract this, as well as answering a short set of site-level questions. 

From this input, the platform displays potential solutions that solve the customer’s throughput requirements - offering configurations that support average, high or peak ordering times like seasonal sales or campaigns - alongside the associated ROI  of each solution. This can be done in minutes. Alongside a 3D-generated model of their potential system, sales teams can show prospects exactly what that solution could cost, how much they could save each year, and how quickly they’d get their money back - without manual spreadsheets or guesswork.

The dashboard’s AI assistant provides additional information, speeds up exploration and helps users get to alternative solutions, if required. Users can ask the AI assistant questions in plain language, get ROI and configuration updates in context, and pull in relevant case studies and parts information so proposals feel tailored, not generic. The suggested solution can then be exported to PowerPoint to ensure all proposals are going over to clients consistently.

Key benefits of the new system include:

• Faster, more consistent business case proposals — New opportunities move from first contact to a structured business case in one simple flow, with less manual data gathering.
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• Shorter time to value — Prospects see investment, savings, and payback quickly; the client spends less time in “we’ll get back to you with numbers” and more time in decision-making conversations.
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• Increased deal efficiencies — AI research, chat-driven updates, and versioned scenarios reduce rework and duplication so the same team can handle more opportunities without proportionally more effort.

Due to us having an existing, long-standing relationship with the client and knowing the business well, we were trusted to deliver this project quickly without putting unnecessary time or resource pressures on the client. We delivered the first version within a couple of weeks and spent a few weeks after that testing and iterating. The whole project was completed and handed over in the space of three months. 

“The Parallax team have set the bar extremely high for working with external consultants” - client testimonial

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