Apttus CPQ's Breakthrough Configurator Gives Customers the Best Path to Bigger, Better Sales

CIOReview Team | Thursday, 10 March 2016, 06:21 IST

  •  No Image

Apttus solutions deliver unique strategic advantages to the most complex sales operations in the world

SAN MATEO, CA – March 8, 2016 – Apttus announced today its latest Configure Price Quote (CPQ) product advancements. Apttus, the category-defining Quote-to-Cash solution provider, provides a breakthrough product with a patent-pending configuration engine and sophisticated user interface (UI) that together are redefining what is possible with CPQ.

These unprecedented innovations allow enterprises of extraordinarily deep complexity to manage the entirety of their product configuration across their business within a single system.

•    Unlimited Attribute-based Configuration: Attributes are product characteristics that are the fundamental building blocks of configuration. Now, Apttus CPQ allows enterprises to use an unlimited number of attributes, giving customers the ability to configure in a single system no matter the depth or breadth of their product complexity.This breakthrough creates a distinct advantage for Apttus customers who can now manage product interdependencies and connect characteristics like never before. With other native cloud solutions, attribute limits can create deep challenges, often forcing customers to use multiple solutions to manage configuration.
•    Engineer-to-Order with Numeric Expressions and CAD Integration: When designing custom products, engineers often make complex calculations in spreadsheets outside of CPQ. Now, Apttus CPQ includes numeric expressions, so there is no need to leave CPQ to calculate those quantities. CAD integration for 3-D visualization dramatically improves the user experience. Apttus customers benefit exceptionally from staying on a single system for the entire configuration process, keeping essential product and customer data in one place.
•    Configurable Nested Bundles: While some CPQ providers can place static bundles within bundles, only Apttus CPQ can configure each level of a nested bundle independently while fully aligning attribute and product rules to ensure accuracy throughout. Another benefit of sophisticated attribute-based configuration, configurable nested bundles reflect Apttus’ ability to manage enterprise complexity and matrixed rule structures.
•    Configuration Lifecycle Management: In addition to product lifecycles and new product introductions (NPI), enterprises also have configurations with start and end dates that must be managed. Apttus CPQ ensures that NPI for individual products, bundles and specific configurations are integrated into existing catalogs, maximizing accuracy in configurations across channels.
•    Cost and Profitability Management: Accurately calculate and project the profitability of every product or package sold, and prioritize their presentation accordingly right in Apttus CPQ to direct sales rep to the most profitable deal. Currency fluctuations, activity-based costs, and other margin influencers can easily be incorporated and adjusted to any catalog size or circumstance. No other solution offers this degree of visibility or flexibility to manage cost and profitability factors in the same system as their configurator.
•    ERP Integration: Apttus customers who manage fulfillment with SAP and other legacy back-office systems can now leverage the existing product data to seamlessly power front-end selling processes via Apttus CPQ. Now, product data and rules from SAP Variant Configurator can be re-used and augmented by Apttus to deliver better pricing, bundling and configuration to sales, partners and customers.

With these barrier-breaking capabilities, the most complex configuration use cases in the world can be managed on a single system and synced to existing contracts to generate significantly more revenue. No other CPQ solution offers this level of complex configuration coupled with robust contract lifecycle management on the same, seamless system. As a result, Apttus customers benefit from maximum deal visibility and speed, gaining a sustainable, dynamic advantage no matter their industry.

“Apttus CPQ is now capable of transforming massive, complex revenue operations into a more profitable, scalable and more manageable process,” said Neehar Giri, Chief Solutions Architect at Apttus. “We operate in the real world, and our customers love us for it. Bringing flexibility, speed, and forecastable profitability to the entire Apttus community is our top priority. These enhancements perfectly illustrate how Apttus innovation continues to drive the Quote-to-Cash industry.”

“The applications available today and a progressive vision for the future are what makes Apttus a partner we are confident can meet our Quote-to-Cash process requirements even as our business changes and expands,” said Michael McKiernan, Vice President of IT at Citrix.

"Our partnership with Apttus enabled us to launch an innovative engineering application that reduces the cycle time of configuring custom processes from days to minutes, improving our responsiveness to customer inquiries and reducing manual mistakes," said King Ou, Director of Systems & Solutions at GLOBAL FOUNDRIES.