Merkato Essentials: create your own configurator
On our website, we regularly talk about Merkato Essentials, but also about the CPQing configurator or simply product configurator. Many different terms to describe the same software. CPQing Solutions uses Merkato Group’s rules engine and allows you to pay only for the functionalities you want to use. You define the functionalities you want and do not pay for all the functions the Merkato Group can provide. You only pay for the essentials.
Why Merkato?
Merkato’s product configurator is the powerful and fastest in the market. The proven backend consists of a rules engine in which – without any programming knowledge – knowledge rules (configuration and calculation rules) are defined that ensure that your products are correctly configured. It is precisely because Merkato Group’s rules engine (the engine of the product configurator) is so good that we chose it as the basis for CPQing Solutions’ configurator software.
The software development of the Merkato product configurator started in 2004, currently working on the fifth generation of the software. Thanks to continuous developments, Merkato is the most modern configurator in the market, with an extensive range of functionalities. Not surprisingly, we have the following motto; “We already have solutions to problems you have never thought about”. In short, Merkato (and therefore also Merkato Essentials) can handle all your complexity of product and pricing rules.
“The biggest difference is that Merkato Essentials is positioned to help companies with a less complex configurator. You only pay for the functionalities you use.”
Merkato vs Merkato Essentials
Now that you know why we use Merkato as our base, you may be wondering where is the difference? The biggest difference is that Merkato Essentials is positioned to help companies with a less complex configurator. You only pay for the features you use. We have gone back to basics and only the most important features are included in our software. But the pricing is also different. Whereas with Merkato you buy a licence with a quarterly M&S fee, CPQing provides you with Merkato Essentials on a SaaS (Software-as-a-Sevices) basis and you only pay for your monthly usage. Merkato Essentials is therefore terminable on a monthly basis.
There are more differences but are not mentioned in this blog because you need to have more knowledge of the rule engine to do so. These include number of Custom Columns, use of Stylegroups, limitation of Settings, limitation of number of Statuses, etc.
A brief overview of the functional differences
| Mekato Essentials | Merkato | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic functionalitiy | Yes | Yes |
| All functionalities | No | Yes |
| Pay per functionality | Yes | No |
| No investment costs | Yes | No |
| Monthly terminable | Yes | No |
| Basic project functionality | Yes | Yes |
| Full project functionality | No | Yes |
| Maximum number of user interface languages | 4 | Oneindig |
| Database analyse | No | Yes |
Pay only for the features you use
It seems like a small difference, paying only for the features you actually use. But in practice, it is a world of difference. The biggest ones are in:
- The daily usage and annual costs. Having only the desired functionalities available in the dashboard makes using the product configurator even more convenient and easy.
- The other advantage of Merkato Essentials is that it is on average 75% cheaper than its big brother with all possible functionalities. This (in our opinion) suddenly makes a product configurator relevant to a much larger group of organisations. This is because the monthly investment can be recouped faster.
The basic functionalities of Merkato Essentials (including 2 simultaneous users) can already be used from €230,- p.m. Because each customer has extended the basic functionality with functionality relevant to him/her, users pay an average of €400,- p.m. which makes them 75% cheaper compared to big brother Merkato. Should you require more features over time, this is of course no problem. You can always upgrade to a more extensive set of functions or eventually to Merkato. Implementation technically has no consequences. You can reuse the templates with knowledge rules 100%. That is a guarantee. It is exclusively a commercial switch.
Merkato Essentials can be deployed as
Thanks to its own API and links for almost all modern sales and production systems, Merkato Essentials can be deployed as more than just a product configurator. For example, it easily composes beautiful quotation documents, making it also deployable as quotation software. But even if you have very complex products where the customer often needs to be taken by the hand, Merkato Essentials can be used for Guided Selling or as sales configurator. It is even possible to allow your customers to configure products online on your website. Within half an hour, you can easily integrate the configurator into your website. It doesn’t matter which platform you use.
Have you become enthusiastic about Merkato Essentials’ customised capabilities? We will gladly discuss the possibilities for your organisation without any obligation, but you can also first request a demo to see the software in action.
Our CPQ software is linked to
CPQing Solutions has its own API (Application Programming Interface) and links with almost all modern sales and production systems. Start the sales process in your CRM system by selecting the customer you want to create the quote for. Configure the solution in CPQing Configurator and send the quotation document to your customer by email or upload it directly to your system. To maintain an overview, you can link the quotation document to the customer data in your CRM system. Automatically create a production order with the correct BOM in your ERP system when the customer orders. But links with ordering systems, customer portals and many others are also possible.
The CPQing Software can be used in (almost) every industry. See for yourself.
