Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software is an essential tool in a manufacturer’s armory. It benefits both sales reps and their prospects, providing a smooth, frictionless buying experience while eliminating errors in the production process.
But despite the importance of CPQ software, it cannot—and should not—exist in isolation. To gain maximum benefits, manufacturers must integrate their CPQ with other solutions: ERP, CRM, CAD, and eCommerce tools, among others.
This article outlines why CPQ integrations are so crucial for manufacturing organizations.
Essential Points:
What is CPQ?
CPQ software is a manufacturing must-have, enabling manufacturers to provide customers with limitless customization options while avoiding manual configuration processes. Manufacturers can use advanced rules engines (like the Epicor CPQ Snap rules engine) to dictate how their products are configured, priced, and sold before building a configurator based on these requirements.
CPQ software leverages in-built product configurators, meaning critical data passes effortlessly from the shopping cart to the shop floor. Reps don’t have to worry about navigating dense spreadsheets or remembering thousands of SKUs—they can simply let automation take the reins.
Not only does this eliminate mistakes, but it also improves internal efficiency. Sales reps can dedicate themselves to selling, not poring over complex spreadsheets.
And that’s not all. Customers also benefit from increased customizability, real-time pricing updates, and a superior customer experience powered by 2D and 3D visual configurators. They can see their proposed product changes update before their eyes, alongside any price changes.
When the customer goes ahead and converts, CPQ solutions automatically generate (and send) key manufacturing documents straight from the product configuration output: BOMs, cut sheets, inventory status, shipping, assembly documentation, and more.
Why the Best CPQ Vendors Prioritize CPQ Integration
CPQ software can reinvent manufacturers’ customer experience, drive increased sales, and improve efficiency… But only if CPQ is integrated.
Manufacturing organizations rely upon a ton of tech. They likely have CRM, ERP, CAD, and eCommerce tools. And while these tools do have benefits, they’re most valuable when integrated.
For instance, your CPQ solution needs to integrate with your inventory system to ensure there’s enough inventory to support product options. Otherwise, you might accidentally confirm an order for a product you cannot build. Likewise, your CPQ has to coordinate with CRM to double-check an acceptable discount range before selling a product at a reduced rate.
By integrating your tech stack with your CPQ, you can create a single source of truth for your entire organization. You can eliminate silos, ensuring every department can instantly access essential data, enhancing cross-departmental collaboration. Your complete engineer-to-order process is connected via an automation-powered digital thread, speeding up the process while reducing the likelihood of mistakes.
Let’s look at the different types of CPQ integrations that manufacturers must be aware of and use within their operations.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
ERP tools are the heart of 21st-century organizations. They act as a one-stop-shop, managing all inventory, purchasing, sales, pricing, marketing, finance, HR, service, and supply chain data. Integrating your ERP and CPQ software unites your front and back office and is the first step towards deriving maximum value from your CPQ solution.
By integrating ERP, CPQ can instantly access all the essential data that customers need to place an order (such as inventory levels, pricing rules, and so on). If CPQ and ERP exist in isolation, reps have to reach out to other departments for information and customers can’t self-serve, making the buying journey inefficient and time-consuming.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Companies rely on CRM systems to better understand and cater to their customers. CRMs track every interaction customers have with an organization, providing a holistic view of prospects–who they are, where they came from, if/when they have previously purchased, and more. This data helps manufacturers optimize their customer journeys and provide winning customer experiences.
By integrating CPQ with CRM, manufacturers can see whether or not customers have used their product configurator before. If customers have, they can see precisely which products and options they have interacted with, which helps sales reps provide a more personalized approach if and when they reach out.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
Pen-and-paper-based drafting is time-consuming and error-prone. This is where automated CAD tools come in. However, while a considerable improvement upon manual drafting, CAD on its own still doesn’t quite cut it.
Fortunately, there’s an easier solution: integrating CAD with CPQ. By doing so, your CPQ solution can auto-generate CAD models based on configuration data before instantly sending them off to your engineering department. Engineers can then sign off on models or, if necessary, add a few adjustments.
CPQ and CAD integration keeps sales and engineering teams on the same page at all times. Once a customer has settled on a design, reps can automatically create the necessary technical drawings at the touch of a button. Nothing gets lost in the sauce, engineering bottlenecks are avoided, and there’s no endless back-and-forth while sales and engineering try to figure out precisely what a customer wants.
eCommerce
Global manufacturing organizations must provide immersive, engaging eCommerce experiences. By integrating your eCommerce platform with a visual CPQ, you can embed a visual product configurator into your website, meaning customers can configure complex products in 3D from anywhere at any time.
Product rules ensure every customer configuration is viable. Prospects no longer need to contact, collaborate, and confirm their ideal configuration with reps. Instead, they can handle the entire process themselves, which boosts customer satisfaction and unlocks sales efficiency in the process.
Why You Need a Third-Party CPQ for SAP
SAP’s CPQ software provides SAP customers with many benefits. As with other CPQ solutions, the CPQ for SAP reduces the complexity of the lead-to-quote process, does away with rogue discounting, helps prospects self-serve complex product configurations, and provides instant pricing updates.
But it’s far from perfect.
Not only does the native CPQ for SAP lack advanced product rules, but it also lacks 3D, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) product configurators. 3D visual product configurations, such as those offered by Epicor CPQ, set the best manufacturing organizations apart from the rest. Prospects can create, and interact with, their proposed products as if they were right in front of them.
So while the CPQ for SAP is a decent start, if manufacturing organizations want to reap the wide array of potential CPQ solution benefits, they must also integrate a third-party CPQ like Epicor CPQ with their SAP instance.
Integrate your way to success
You can derive maximum value from all of your SaaS and on-prem solutions by integrating your CPQ with ERP, CRM, CAD, and your eCommerce platform. Your tech stack is far more powerful when it’s united.
Find out more about standard CPQ integrations here.