Importance of CPQ

On a chilly winter day, in North-East region of USA, sipping a hot coffee with one of our esteemed client’s business process SMEs and other colleagues in the conference room (albeit, pre-COVID era!), we were discussing the current business processes and the challenges. She was moving through number of excel sheets and word documents and couple of portals to explain their current way of working and to emphasize the hard work her sales, procurement, finance and legal teams do to manage the quotations in current CRM process. We asked her and her team a few questions to connect the missing dots towards alignment of the process pattern and alternative flows they usually take in few cases.

We observed typical business challenges like –

• many siloed team work
• over-desk-discussions
• people dependent data pointers / excel sheets
• non-centralized products/services and its prices
• many back-forth queries and responses within team and across end-customers
• delay in end customer responses
• delayed (and crazy) approval process
• abrupt and inappropriate discounts
• time consuming quotation document reviews
• delay in the deal closure process and contract milestones
• and many more

These are typical challenges we usually hear in the first session of any client workshops, few differences here and there, but the crux is similar.

Client team was expecting us to provide some solution to fix this and turn it around quickly as always!

After some introspection, we asked if they were aware of the end-to-end process of Lead-To-Revenue (L2R). Few of them were aware and few were not. So, we explained what is so important about Lead-To-Revenue process and how it fits in their current architecture framework. We further explained how Lead-To-Revenue process and related products are getting consolidated, integrated to serve clients better.

As per industry experts and analyst reports, Cloud SaaS platform based products with OpEx subscription based model will be the future for any enterprise to gain end-customer loyalty, confidence, quality delivery and revenue (off course!) and it also benefits social collaboration.

And like any game of puzzle, we should be aware of all the interlocking pieces. For example, key segments or functional modules of Lead-To-Revenue are –

• CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote),
• CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management),
• RM&M (Revenue Management and Monetization)

We explained various products categorized under each functional module and their ratings and analysis from different analysts’ reports. (I want to bring some important points to your attention hence rushing through different discussions, but definitely I will cover those in upcoming posts, so stay glued ??)

The client’s challenges being discussed were primarily from the CPQ area.

Their query was, ‘Why is it important to focus on CPQ instead of merely resolving current challenges’?

We explained the significance and benefits of CPQ in depth to answer it.

Here are those pointers:

• Reduce sales cycles and quoting errors with automated workflows for pulling accurate product info, schematics and (contract based) pricing into quotes on any device.
• Centralized and ever accessible data with Cloud SaaS platform in place, siloed team-work would be a problem of the past, due to provision of centralized and secure data which can be further integrated or migrated as per the need.
• Increase deal size & win rates by recommending products, upsells and cross sells based on purchase history.
• Quick launch of new products / services and pricing with help of no-code configuration tools, any admin member can easily deploy and launch new products/services configuration along with pricing changes without much technology support.
• Simplify order capture and fulfilment of complex products by being flexible to create bundles, options, accessories and sub-products or assembly items, manage pricing hierarchies & tiers across multiple partners & regions.
• Offer self-service options & improve multi-channel performance by keeping all channels like e-Commerce, mobile, social, or tele sales, connected and on track.
• Improve customer retention and partner loyalty by keeping customers & partners updated and notified to track contractual obligations, products and prices.
• Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness with help of intelligent insights and automated actions (in various functionalities).

And in the same discussion, we showcased couple of L2R products demos in relation to their challenges. One of the demo phase was to quickly deploy the product/service as per the client need, which was so effective due to no-code and entailed purely configuration for Cloud SaaS based L2R product range. We configured the basic product and its common attributes along with few product rules and pricing constraints on the way and poof, it was ready to deploy for production use!

As a solution architect, my role was to understand the challenges and provide the most effective and adaptable, quality solution which should be also user friendly and should involve minimal integrations (and budget-friendly too!). ?

At the end of session, it was another cup of hot coffee with same client team in the same conference room but the atmosphere was more tranquil & serene and we were thinking about the next challenge set we would like to solve.

What are your challenges in L2R process? Let's Solve.

?

?

?

?

?

?