Product comparison and quote-request tools

Turning spreadsheets into decisions

Enterprise hardware ranges are hard to choose from: dozens of models, overlapping specifications, and buyers who know their requirements but not the product line. For several technology manufacturers I built web tools that sit in that gap: comparison tools that narrow a large catalogue down to the right product, and quote-request flows that route the resulting lead to the right place. The source of truth in every case was the client's spreadsheets, so the tools had to be built to be fed by them, not fight them.

Cascading filters over messy catalogues

The tools are built with Laravel and Vue. The heart of each one is the filtering: cascading filters where each selection constrains the next, backed by a hardware categorisation model that turns a flat product list into something navigable. Getting that right is a data modelling problem before it is an interface problem. Product data is seeded from client-supplied Excel files, imported through a structured pipeline rather than hand-entered, which keeps catalogue updates a data task instead of a development task. Real client spreadsheets are never as tidy as the first sample, so the import layer is written to surface problems loudly rather than seed bad data quietly.

Routing the lead to the right distributor

These clients sell through channel partners, so a quote request is not one inbox. I built distributor routing logic that sends each request to the correct partner based on the enquiry, which is where most of the business complexity lived: the rules encode how the client's channel actually works, and getting them wrong sends real leads to the wrong company. The request flows support file uploads and are protected with reCAPTCHA, keeping automated noise out of pipelines that sales teams treat as real. One of the tools also integrated the Ecologi API, planting trees against activity as part of the client's sustainability push.

Business logic as the deliverable

Nothing about these tools is flashy, and that is rather the point. The visible interface is a small fraction of the work; the value is in correctly encoded business rules, an import pipeline that tolerates real-world spreadsheets, and lead routing the client can trust. Several of these tools shipped for different manufacturers, each one mine from data model to deployment, adapted to a different catalogue and channel structure, and together they are a fair sample of what handing me unglamorous, detail-heavy commercial work looks like.