FRONT OFFICE AI FOR HARDWARE — THE COMPARISON

Compare us to anything a hardware company is offered.

Hardware companies are sold one of two models: a service console, a knowledge tool and a partner portal your support and channel teams operate, or AI agents you assemble and configure per channel and pay for by usage. No logos needed, because the same packaging habits dominate the market. Front Office was built on three different principles — and every answer to a customer, buyer or reseller comes from your approved manuals, spec sheets and price list only.

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Try it free 7 days on your own business · no credit card · per company, never per seat

REAL AI - the whole Front Office is AI, not old software with an AI button. Give it your website: it learns your company, works from your approved knowledge and gets better with every answer you approve.

Live on this site right now — the assistant in the corner is the product · Award-winning AI — CES · ISE · TMCnet

Zanus Front Office dashboard — the AI at work

One dashboard doing the jobs the others only track.

Three habits of the market — three different principles here

1 · Pricing scales per seat

Across most of the market, every hire raises the software bill — the price follows your headcount, not the work getting done.

2 · The AI is often metered on top

Credits, "AI actions", per-conversation fees, usage tiers. On many platforms the AI arrives as a second bill on top of the seats.

3 · Most AI was built to assist teams

Enrich, draft, score, summarize, coach — designed to make YOUR people faster. Newer autonomous agents go further, but are typically configured per channel and priced per usage.

Front Office was designed from the start on three different principles: one integrated product, priced by plan — not by seat-math · the AI performs complete front-office workflows, not only assists them · every answer grounded in your approved knowledge, with Protection capping the spend.

The scoreboard: how each model delivers the job

Fourteen product line jobs, three delivery models. The difference isn’t whether a capability exists somewhere — it’s what you must assemble, license and operate to get it. Descriptions reflect typical published product models, Aug 2026.

The job	Traditional CRM model	Agent & copilot platforms	Zanus Front Office
Answer the support line 24/7, in every time zone	Your agents answer, with a service console and contact-center tooling	Configure a voice agent, channels and usage separately	✓ Built in — support, sales and partner lines on your menu, 40 languages, launch week and holidays included
Answer “does it work with my router?”	A knowledge base the customer searches, or an agent looks it up	An agent you train and maintain per channel	✓ Grounded in your approved spec sheets and compatibility lists; no source, no claim
Walk the new owner through setup instead of a return	A PDF quick-start and a self-service portal	Assembled from agents and workflows you configure	✓ Narrated, interruptible walkthrough of your approved guide, with a voice and a face, at 9 PM on unboxing day
Check the warranty and file the RMA	A case form your agent fills; the repair center calls back for the serial	Support agents configured separately	✓ Filed complete in the conversation — model, serial, firmware, photos — eligibility by your rules, label sent
Tell the customer where the RMA is	Status emails a workflow sends, if someone built it	Possible if you build the workflow	✓ Automatic: status told on phone, chat and email until the replacement ships
Quote the reseller at its tier	A configure-price-quote module and approval workflows your channel manager operates	Agent invokes processes you configure	✓ Native: from your price list, bundles and partner tiers; outside the rules, one click from you
Answer the partner’s buyer question	A partner portal with articles the partner must search	A separate agent for partners, if you build one	✓ Same knowledge that answers the end customer, applied to the reseller’s buyer, any hour
Work the registration, quote request and reseller application	Forms land in a shared inbox and a queue	Enriched and scored, then handed to a person	✓ Worked in minutes: RMA opened, quote sent, partner reviewed, follow-up until closed
Offer the extended warranty before the term expires	A campaign your marketing team builds and triggers	AI drafts; sending policies vary	✓ Sequences from the registration date, in your wording and the owner’s language, stopped when a person should call
Brief the head of support every morning	Dashboards you open and read	A to-do list for your agents	✓ A did-it-for-you list: RMAs opened overnight, quotes sent, the question your manual does not answer yet
Train the new support agent	Shadowing for weeks with the service manual	Not the product’s job	✓ Role-play on your own manuals, warranty terms and RMA policy — productive in days
Route safety reports and engineering questions to a person	Depends on the agent reading the inbox	Best effort, disclaimers apply	✓ Your rules, at once: heat, smoke, batteries, injury and design questions go to a person, every time
Call your customers before they call you	Reminder calls made by staff when there is time; otherwise a text	Build an outbound flow, connect telephony, meter the minutes	✓ Auto-Call: an event, a funnel or a list triggers the call; the AI announces or converses, on your rules — Hi Alex, this is Corebyte Devices: your repair is complete and the unit ships back to you tomorrow.
The bill	Per seat; grows with every support hire and every launch	Per seat and/or per usage: credits, actions, conversations	✓ One plan, chosen by outcome — your customers and resellers are never counted or charged

Already running a big CRM suite? Read the story: the old way vs the AI way — keep the CRM, add the AI Front Office → And the chat below will compare us to any product you name, from its published pages.

Comparing something specific? Ask the Zanus AI below — it compares us to any vendor you name, point by point, from their published pages. Our plans are public: see pricing → Then do your own math →

The one question that cuts through every comparison: after you pay, who answers the customer, files the RMA and quotes the reseller? With Front Office the answer is: the AI does — from your approved manuals, spec sheets and price list — and your agents and engineers take the handshake, every safety report and every engineering question.

Questions, answered

Why don’t you name the other products?

Because the comparison is about the model, not the logo. A service console plus a partner portal your teams operate, with metered AI on top, is the norm across the market; naming brands adds nothing. If you are evaluating a specific product, ask the chat — it compares us to any vendor you name, point by point, from their published pages.

Is this comparison fair to service-management and partner-portal vendors?

Every description of other models comes from typical published product pages, read August 2026, and describes what a hardware company must assemble, license and operate to get the job done. Where a vendor differs, the chat will show you.

Do we have to replace our order, service, returns or partner systems?

No. They stay the record; the Front Office is the system of work in front of them. Tickets, RMAs, contacts, companies and bookings are written back through native CRM sync, webhooks and API; RMA status and published lead times flow in when you allow it. Many teams do retire the chatbot and the partner-portal FAQ.

Try it free on your own product line. 7 days. No credit card.

Give it your website. It learns your company. Then call it, chat with it, e-mail it — and decide. Nothing to install, nothing to cancel.

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