Strategic Goal

To replace the company's outdated Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) system with a modern, automated system capable of handling complex pricing scenarios and improving overall efficiency.

Challenges

The company encountered several obstacles with its existing pricing tool:

  • Technological Obsolescence: The aging system was nearing its license expiration, prompting an urgent need for a modern replacement.

  • Functional Limitations: The tool couldn’t manage multiple quoting processes with varying conditions, rules, and outcomes, hindering flexibility.

  • Manual Processes: Extensive reliance on manual data entry and approvals led to bottlenecks, increased error rates, and delayed order fulfillment.

  • Complex Pricing Calculations: The existing system struggled with automating intricate pricing formulas, especially those involving multiple data sources and required adjustments.

  • Inadequate Pricing Analysis: The lack of advanced analytical tools impeded swift evaluation of different pricing scenarios, affecting data-driven decision-making.

  • Inefficient Data Management: The absence of features for simplified price book uploads made it challenging to maintain accurate and current pricing information.

  • Manual Document Generation: Generating proposals and contracts manually consumed significant time and was prone to errors.

Solution

To address these challenges, the company implemented an integrated suite of SAP solutions, including:

  • SAP CPQ: Provided a platform for configuring complex products, generating accurate quotes, and managing the entire order-to-cash process. It supported multiple quoting processes with diverse layouts, conditions, pricing, and approval workflows tailored to specific quote and deal types. This helped to arrange upsell and cross-sell activities, and incorporate partner offerings (logistics, delivery) into the company’s line item list.

  • SAP CPI: Enabled seamless integration between SAP CPQ and other enterprise systems, ensuring smooth data flow and reducing manual interventions. This helped steel sheet and amature salesmen configure quotes with more precision.

  • SAP S/4HANA, SAP CPS, and SAP AVC: These systems collectively automated complex pricing calculations, optimized quoting processes, and improved data accuracy. This helped create quotes and offers faster, keeping track of what options were available in the company’s warehouses and what options were available to produce the requested amount in time. 

Results

The deployment of these solutions led to significant improvements:

  • Armed and Ready Pricing Team: The user-friendly interface allowed the pricing team to manage price lists efficiently within SAP CPQ, improving data accuracy and simplifying pricing maintenance.

  • Automated Pricing Calculations: Integration with SAP S/4HANA helped the retrieval of accurate pricing data and the application of advanced adjustments, ensuring consistency across all transactions. This automation eliminated manual calculations, reduced errors, and expedited quote generation.

  • Optimized Quoting Processes: The new system supported multiple quoting workflows, enhancing flexibility and responsiveness to various customer requirements.

  • Improved Data Management: Simplified price book uploads and automated document generation reduced manual efforts, minimized errors, and accelerated the sales cycle.