From manual quoting to real-time automation

KOHPA® is a manufacturing visionary and German cleantech innovator, known for producing the world's thinnest infrared heating solution, made in Germany. After appearing on Germany's version of Shark Tank, it expanded its Partner-First model across Europe and into the U.S. In its early days the business was still managing partner operations through spreadsheets and email, leaving leadership without a real-time view of partner activity, pipeline or live demand.

IntelliPaaS delivered a real-time, bi-directional integration between KOHPA®'s purpose-built partner portal and Salesforce, hosted on Azure and connected to KOHPA®'s wider infrastructure across Europe. Delivered in less than five weeks including stakeholder management, the solution now gives leadership live visibility, established Salesforce as the point of truth and onboarded 75 partners in the first month. It also absorbed several hundred thousand unexpected spike-demand requests without interruption or downtime, demonstrating resilience under real-world pressure.

• Made-in-Germany innovation: KOHPA® manufactures the world's thinnest, electrically conductive carbon-fibre heating solution in Germany, a premium cleantech manufacturer with deep engineering credibility.
• Mission-driven growth: advancing efficient, lower-impact heating for buildings through recyclable, plastic-free surface heating technology.
• Proven performance: infrared surface heating achieves up to 40% energy savings versus conventional systems, with 99.5% conversion efficiency.
• Aviation-grade engineering: supplied to Collins Aerospace and Nord-Micro, tier-one aerospace manufacturers whose components meet civil-aviation certification standards. The same material science behind cockpit-grade heating now sits behind the wall.
• As seen on Die Höhle der Löwen: on Germany’s Shark Tank, founders Peter Helfer and Walter Reichel secured a €200,000 investment on air, raising visibility for the business and its innovation story.
• Built for Partner-First expansion: growth runs through a multi-tier network of installation and distribution partners across Europe, with a growing U.S. presence led from Manhattan.

KOHPA®'s growth depends on a Partner-First model, with installation and distribution partners quoting and delivering projects for end customers. At KOHPA®, the combination of manufacturing complexity, regional expansion and growing partner volume made manual processes an immediate constraint.

• Manual quoting slowed the business down. Partners relied on a complex spreadsheet calculator and back-and-forth email, while staff spent around 35 minutes building each quote room by room, applying heating output, strip layout, linear measurements, transformer and thermostat rules and tiered pricing by hand.
• No reliable CRM visibility. Partner and deal context was spread across Outlook, spreadsheets, email and WhatsApp, leaving leadership without a structured view of active partners, open opportunities or regional demand.
• Weak forecasting and investor reporting. With pipeline data trapped in inboxes, KOHPA® lacked dependable numbers for production planning, material forecasting and investor reporting.
• Expansion increased complexity. Different voltages, currencies and units across regions made the spreadsheet workflow a barrier to scaling just as KOHPA® expanded across Europe and into the U.S.

KOHPA® selected IntelliPaaS to build the integration and infrastructure layer that converts partner activity into structured, real-time operational data. Running on Azure, the platform connects KOHPA®'s purpose-built partner portal with Salesforce and their wider systems, while supporting GDPR/DSGVO-compliant data residency in the EU and future expansion across global markets.

Using the IntelliPaaS platform and out-of-the-box connectors for Salesforce and database connections, IntelliPaaS unified KOHPA®'s partner portal and Salesforce into one continuously synchronised environment. Real-time, bi-directional data movement means records are not only created automatically but also updated continuously, keeping Salesforce the point of truth for reporting, pipeline visibility and operational decision-making.

1. Certification to portal access, automatically. Onboarding runs through Salesforce as a staged process: training, on-site assessment and final sign-off. The moment a partner reaches authorised status, the platform provisions portal access automatically, with no manual account creation and no lag between certification and go-live.
2. Quote to Opportunity, automatically. Every project created in the portal is mapped to a Salesforce Opportunity in real time, with key fields preserved for reporting and forecasting.
3. Leads to partners, automatically. Inbound leads flow from Salesforce to the right partners as soon as they arrive, rather than sitting in an inbox.
4. Partner and account sync. Records stay aligned whether data changes centrally in Salesforce or locally in the portal.
5. Continuous record updates. The integration maintains current data across both systems rather than relying on one-time creation or periodic batch updates.

• Quoting bottleneck removed. A 35-minute manual process became an automated, self-service flow completed in real time.
• Real-time pipeline visibility. Every project now enters Salesforce as structured data, giving leadership a live view of active partners, opportunities by region and demand patterns.
• Forecasting enabled. KOHPA® can now forecast material demand and report internally and to investors using reliable Salesforce data.
• Partner-First growth supported. 75 partners onboarded in the first month on a multi-region, multi-currency foundation designed for partner-led expansion across Europe and the U.S.
• System resilience validated. Several hundred thousand requests were absorbed in the first month with no service interruption.

Before and after, at a glance

• Quote creation: around 35 minutes of manual work per quote, now automated partner self-service in real time.
• Quote to CRM: manual re-entry into CRM if at all, now an automatic Salesforce Opportunity in real time.
• Record updates: fragmented, manual changes across systems, now real-time and bi-directional with Salesforce as the point of truth.
• Leads to partners: manual, ad hoc handoff, now routed automatically from Salesforce.
• Partner and account data: scattered across email, sheets and WhatsApp, now bi-directional sync between portal and Salesforce.
• Pipeline visibility: none, leadership was flying blind, now live dashboards in Salesforce.
• Time to value: manual process with no scalable path, now delivered in less than five weeks.
• First-month requests handled: no proven scale benchmark, now several hundred thousand requests with zero downtime.
• Markets supported: single-market manual process, now multi-region and multi-currency across Europe and the USA.

Our partner channel was growing, but our systems weren't. We had no clear line of sight into what partners were quoting or where demand was emerging. With IntelliPaaS connecting our portal to Salesforce, we finally see our field pipeline in real time and can plan our global expansion with data, not guesswork.

Kay Oswald, Chairman, KOHPA® Board of Directors

KOHPA®'s story shows how a manufacturing company with a breakthrough product can outgrow manual systems before it outgrows demand. It carries a broader lesson for any Partner-First organisation: when quoting, lead routing and partner data are disconnected, scale stalls because the operating backbone cannot keep pace.

IntelliPaaS helped turn a spreadsheet-driven partner model into an integrated operating backbone for quoting, pipeline management, forecasting and cross-border expansion. For CIOs, that means a platform approach delivering real-time integration, clear system ownership in Salesforce, resilient infrastructure and measurable time to value.