Configure - Price - Quote (CPQ) Solutions

Image: Apttus CPQ Suite

The Sales Cloud application by Salesforce.com provides all of the basic elements for small and medium-sized businesses to generate price books and build sales quotes.  But what about enterprise-sized organizations or even smaller companies with very complex product configurations?  For these businesses, the standard price book, product and quote tools in Salesforce.com may not be sufficient.  These companies must generally turn to a Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) solution.

What’s In a CPQ Tool?

CPQ solutions vary by vendor, but generally include the following features:

Product Catalog:  In a CPQ tool, Products and/or service offerings are loaded into a product catalog, which stores product information in a structured and consistent way: product name or service name, description, SKU, pricing information and pricing history.  Some CPQ solutions also allow product managers to upload data sheets, pictures and or video clips.  Product catalogs can become very complex tools, allowing organizations to define a nested catalog hierarchy, relationships between products, product code translations for backend billing systems, access / visibility rights, and more.  As a Salesforce.com Administrator, you’ll want to carefully review how the CPQ product catalog integrates with Salesforce.com Products and Pricebooks.  Both are critical areas if you want to take full advantage of Salesforce Opportunity and Quote management features. The best solutions advise users on related products, provide price comparison services, and integrate directly with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

Product Configurator:  You want your sales team selling, not getting mired down in the complex array of currently available product bundles and promotional offers.  Product configurators are tools that the Sales team use to customize bundles of product offerings accurately and quickly.   The best CPQ solutions feature configurators that hide the complexity of your service bundle and product offerings.  Rules management features allow product managers to define product relationships and bundling rules, which ensure deals are built and priced correctly.

Needs Analysis / Guided Selling:  Advanced CPQ solutions feature tools that guide  the ustomer, partner or sales user to see related products / offerings, see automatic discounts or promotions they may be eligible for.  It allows them to compare similar product offerings side by side, or alerts them to current promotions.

Quotes / Proposals Generator:  When you start descending into your CPQ vendor selection process, you’ll find that most CPQ vendors have a stand alone solution – which allows for all product configuration, pricing, proposals, approvals and quote management to be done in their platform – a full SFA solution.  Optionally, they may also provide some integration with the CRM platform of your choosing.  Rich quoting tools will feature extensions, like selectable cover letters, product details, a “first bill” snapshot (for subscription models), terms & conditions, electronic signature integration (DocuSign, eSign, TurboSignature).  They may also include workflow rules to automate the approval process, if needed.

When Do You Need CPQ?

If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, chances are you need a CPQ solution:

- Our current configurations and price rules are scattered across multiple documents – and finding them is slowing your sales team down

- Our Sales team submit orders with invalid configurations or incompatible products; correcting these is costly

- Orders are submitted with incorrect pricing for the selected configuration

- Our Sales team frequently submit orders using expired / discontinued promos or products

- The process of rolling out a new promotion is extremely complex, time-consuming and prone-to-error

- Our product configurations / bundles are so complex, we can’t allow customers to order products over the web

CPQ Vendors (Salesforce.com Certified)

Looking to learn more about CPQ solutions?  The following vendors have CPQ solutions that integrate to some level with Salesforce.com:

- Apttus 

- BigMachines 

- Cameleon Software

- FPX

- Sterling Commerce

- WEBCOMinc 

Other CPQ Vendors

- CRMantra

- SmartCatalog