THE IMPACT OF CPQ

While terms such as ERP, CRM, CAD, PDM and BI are already fairly embedded in the lexicon, the same cannot yet be said of CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote). Remarkable, because CPQ can have an enormous positive impact on your entire organization. “CPQ, Configure, Price, Quote” seems to refer to a small part of the het business process: compiling a product, calculating a selling price, making the quotation. Nevertheless this small part of the business process partly determines whether you win or lose the order, make a profit or loss on the order, and whether you have a satisfied or unsatisfied customer.

CRM focuses on the customer contact and monitoring the customer relationship. ERP is mainly intended for processing orders through to invoicing. CPQ is about the question of what solution you offer the customer, for what price, with what delivery time and under what other conditions. Therefore, those are precisely the things that are truly important! At the time of the quotation, you determine what risks you take, what margin you are going to make, and what risks you are going to accept.

Many organizations find it acceptable that sales personnel assume these important responsibilities without serious supervision. Their main tools are a word processor and spreadsheets. This is not only risky and poorly organized for your organization, but also time consuming and frustrating for your sales personnel.

Do you recognize your own organization from the above? Find out more about what CPQ can do for your organization. That might be more than you expect.