Complex Quoting and product configuration… difficult?
Creating complex product configurations to your customers is a time-consuming and complex task. Taking all the possible combinations of products and options, and then calculating a correct price with all the price dependencies of packs, promotions, and so on…. An unsurmountable task, it seems. But you do want to give that level of configuration and customization to your customers, differentiating you from the competition.
We understand that solving this problem has also its difficulties and problems. But we implement THE tool that will make the creation of complex product configurations a breeze, namely SAP CPQ. SAP’s CPQ is a tool that allows you to create and offer complex product configurations with optimized pricing to your customers. In turn, your customers, receive a professional and good-looking offer that has all the necessary information printed in a structured way that is easily read and understood.
CPQ as the multi-sector quoting tool
An example here is one of our partners is a leading company in the Belgian IT-world. They offer different types of services related to software applications, data and system integrations, and managed operations. The last of with which they take care of the operational management of businesses their infrastructure: servers, network maintenance, operating systems, and so on.
For these managed operations, they create complex offers for their customers by means of quotations. Why complex? Well, the setup of the different configurations is not a fixed composition. Sometimes they need to combine product A with product B, and for another customer it can be a combination of product B with product C and a predefined extra configuration. By using CPQ, they can make those kinds of offers and create an output which reflects the different configurations.
CANGURU helped in setting up their CPQ Landscape (including CPI integration with C4C and SharePoint). We created the general design of the product setup, but we also made sure that interfacing runs smoothly. We incorporated an integration with C4C – for customer and opportunity information – and SharePoint – to publish the output documents. Also, a report is made available of all opportunities that were won or lost during a timeframe. The product setup itself was done in such a way that the user can easily create quotations with simple products, configurable products, pre-configured bundles and even third-party products, which do not belong to the customer-own product list.
We also provided a general quotation flow, which means that a quotation will go from a Draft Status to an Approved Status. Afterward, the quote can be sent to the customer to get finally – and hopefully for the business – an approval so that the quote can be set to WON. In each different status, specific behaviors, authorizations and rules are set up so that any department can play their role at the right moment.
Quoting the CPQ Way
The creation of quotes with the different configurations can now be done in a dynamic way. If necessary, quotes can be easily adapted and several versions of one quote can be created. For each version, an output can be generated and transferred to a predefined SharePoint location. From this point on, the department, who is responsible for approving the quotes, comes into the picture to approve or reject. By implementing this complete structure of integration, every user knows what he/she needs to do at what moment. By using CPQ, all created quotations are kept in a central place (CPQ-environment) with all generated documents at a centralized SharePoint location. We are sure that the integration with C4C is a plus-value. Customer and opportunity information can be interfaced without any problem and paints a more complete picture of the ongoing sales processes.
Setup and implementation of the CPQ platform, the CANGURU way
During the setup of the CPQ platform of our leading Belgian IT-Company, we had to overcome some hurdles and difficulties – let us call them CPQ imperfections. An example is the loading of complex configurable products, straight into CPQ using Excel. Due to its complex nature, not possible. But no mountain high enough or river deep enough, to quote Marvin Gaye… Together with the SAP CPQ technical team, we came with the solution. Using a newly created XML-template, we imported the complex product using CPI capability to call the correct API-service in CPQ. That is the CANGURU way of working, we don’t give up and go the extra mile for you.
We can say that the project is going smoothly with the implementation of the first department, and more will follow suit. Although the current events (Covid-19) have stretched the timeline a bit, the project is still in full swing. After this project, there also an S/4 integration in the pipeline. But this is future music.
Do you want to learn more about the setup and implementation of SAP CPQ? Sign up for our free 'Ultimate CPQ Implementation guide here': https://www.cangurusolutions.com/cpq
To find out even more about how CPQ fits in your sales process and the CANGURU way of working, don’t hesitate to contact us at cpq@canguru.be!