The four success factors for a good roll-out of your CPQ solution

Realising the benefits of a CPQ solution for your organisation is step one to being able to optimise the entire process from sales to production. We previously wrote a blog about these benefits. But then… if you really want to get going with it, you need to get to work. At various levels in the organisation. Ronald Hensen, director of CPQing Solutions, provides insight into the factors that ensure that the implementation of the solution succeeds. What are the successes and where do things go wrong? What do you have to do to really get started successfully with a configurator?

1. A person with vision

Ronald says: “We need someone at the customer who has vision. Who understands that quality and efficiency can be improved with a CPQ solution like Merkato Essentials and preferably someone in the management. A person with support, who decides how it will be done and gets the rest of the organisation on board. And who can also monitor progress within the organisation. Otherwise, it is sometimes very hard pushing against a square wheel.”

2. Make employees with knowledge available

“It happens regularly: organisations that want to get started with a configurator and see the benefits of it, but do not make those specific employees with the most knowledge available to help set up the solution. While that is exactly what is important, because that is the basis on which you build the solution. The whole organisation is going to benefit from that,” Ronald says. “Of course, it can be explained why that happens, because that best salesperson or product manager with the most knowledge is often also the busiest. The pitfall is that daily concerns always take precedence. So the implementation takes longer than it should.”

3. Don’t go innovating during an implementation

A well-known pitfall is that organisations want to transfer current processes and simultaneously implement all kinds of major process optimisations. Ronald explains: “Transfer the rules and processes as much as possible as you are already used to them. From Excel, for example, to a professional configurator is often already a real improvement. You shouldn’t change your processes and set up your software at the same time. It sometimes happens that people think: ‘we now have the software, so let’s turn the whole thing upside down’. So don’t do that, because you are now working that way for a reason. Design the software accordingly and only then look at how you can optimise. Also, start with a best practice and don’t try to have everything covered in the solution from A to Z at once.”

4. Integrate and optimise the right way

“The real value of Merkato Essentials is not only in configuring and rolling out error-free quotations using a standalone configurator solution, but also precisely in the integrations,” says Ronald. “We go next level to achieve maximum efficiency and quality improvement. So integrate the software and optimise this at the back end, so that you don’t still end up doing manual work. Prevent, for example, a quotation and parts list from being made, converted into an order and then having to manually put it back into your ERP, such as Ridder iQ or Exact Online. You shouldn’t want that anymore. It is also best to put all master data in your ERP first, then you can open this up to your configurator and build on it.”

The implementation of CPQ software is not always optimal in practice

Of course, this blog discussed the ideal situation. Situations that are not ideal are always resolved again in consultation with the customer. Ronald explains: “When things are really busy and employees cannot be freed up to help with the implementation, our consultants are also sometimes willing to help get things back on track. They have already seen and experienced a lot with other customers. They know the bottlenecks as well as the best practices.” Even when data straightening has just not started in the right place, there is a sleeve to be found. “I told them that it is best to start with your ERP system and then unlock that data to Merkato Essentials, in which you can build further. In practice, of course, I also come across organisations that just started with that data in the configurator. It’s not ideal, but eventually an Excel import into your ERP will get you there too. But when you ask us about this ideal situation, the above four success factors really are the factors that promote a good roll-out. They ensure that your organisation quickly sees quality and efficiency improvements when implementing Merkato Essentials,” Ronald emphasises.