#Configure-Price-Quote (or #CPQ) is a critical function in most organizations, but many businesses seek better tools to implement effective quoting strategies. New #middle-office solutions are bridging gaps between an organization’s front and back office systems that have existed for decades. Having been engaged for nearly 15 years with addressing quoting challenges through custom and packaged solutions, I have documented the most common issues faced by organizations:
- Inability to support new business scenarios (subscriptions – hardware or software)
- Complex sales experience in configuring products
- Lack of guidance for Sales on discounts to win the deal
- Discount leakage and lack of visibility to Sales & Finance
- Inadequate approval functionality with no visibility and audits
- Lack of information architecture
- Products and pricing data duplicated in multiple environments with no clear “source of truth” and increased operations overhead.
- Product / SKU & Pricelist proliferation
- BOM explosion between Quote, Order, and Manufacturing
- Manual Orders (lack of quote-to-order integration)
- Out-of-sync Quote and Order
Organizations can capture strategic opportunities by standardizing their quoting business processes based on best practices and by enhancing tools & systems.
What are some of the quoting challenges faced by your organization? Tell us!
To discuss these and other issues related to Quoting, Pricing/Discounting, Configuration, Approvals, Contracts, Order, Billing, B2B ECommerce & Revenue, join Quote to Cash group.