Recently we recorded a webinar with Walpole Partnership, the company provides unparalleled expertise in the fields of CPQ. This webinar is about the importance of de-risking the implementation process of CPQ software. The webinar shows how important it is to have autonomy about the software you have in use. Both Andy Pieroux (Walpole) and Ingmar Hermans (Walpole) have decades of experience regarding CPQ, so expect a structured and proven approach.
Congratulations! You have determined that it is the right time to implement CPQ software to help you to simplify your processes. Before we will look into the common challenges when implementing CPQ software, first we will talk about how a CPQ implementation looks like. CPQ implementation refers to the setup and configuration of CPQ software. During a CPQ implementation, you, together with your team, will implement your product structures, pricing and quoting processes into the CPQ software.
Implementing a CPQ software will help your organisation with the managing and streamlining of your pricing and quoting processes. A CPQ implementation can be done by anyone who has a good understanding of the product structure. It’s not only the IT team but also the engineers that can implement CPQ software. CPQ vendors or a consultancy agency can help you with the CPQ implementation.
In Elfsquad, we believe that you should have full control of your CPQ software. Therefore, we have developed an easy-to-use software supported by Elfsquad Academy and documentation. That gives you everything you need to implement Elfsquad CPQ by yourself if you prefer.
Adding CPQ software to your processes is an exciting time. You will experience quite some benefits when implementing CPQ software. CPQ software will help shorten your sales cycle and make sure the company data is always up to date. But before you can experience these benefits you first have to start the implementation process. When adding CPQ software to your company, try to avoid these common pitfalls that could endanger a successful implementation.
The first thing that helps to de-risk the implementation of a CPQ software is scoping. Scoping is about making a plan and setting borders for the usage of the CPQ software. Sit-down with your team on an ongoing basis and discuss what it is that you try to achieve by implementing CPQ software. CPQ is a powerful system, when thinking about CPQ software a lot of people want to put their whole business in it. It should be done step by step. Plan the implementation and set achievable goals. A very big part of de-risking the CPQ implementation is controlling that scope.
The second part is about the integrations you want to make with CPQ. Before starting to implement CPQ software it is critical to understand the data model of your company. Start to visualise where the different data streams are in your business. With the easy-to-use software of Elfsquad your workforce can easily get the data streams of your company in the software. With CPQ software you always get the right data at the right person at the right time. The implementation of the CPQ software is a process and not a project. It is hard to do it all at once because your business and market constantly changes. So be flexible about it and take your time.
You need governance for your implementation process. Make a CPQ implementation guide for your company. When you convince your team that CPQ will help your company to optimise its processes then everyone will see the benefits of the software. At the start of the implementation process everyone will be enthusiastic about the CPQ software. Good governance will protect your team when the different daily business pressures come in. Make an implementation guide, that is what keeps you on track and protects you from all the implementation pitfalls down the line. Governance ties the whole implementation process together and gets you ready for the future phases when implementing CPQ software.
Curious about how your CPQ implementation process can look like? Check out our webinar with Walpole. During this conversation, Eelke Kramer (Elfsquad), Andy Pieroux (Walpole), and Ingmar Hermans (Walpole Partnerships) discuss the important pitfalls when implementing CPQ software.
