Make sure you read the first part of this Blog Post here before you read on.

5. Establish a CPQ tool selection committee 

  • Should consist of members from Business and IT. Keep the team size as small as possible and practical (ideally 3, 5 or 7 members*.)
  • These selection committee members will make the final decision about the CPQ tool

Bottom Line: Make sure the CPQ tool decision makers are announced before the evaluation criteria are agreed upon

6. Propose and agree on CPQ tool evaluation criteria

  • This is a key area and should always be addressed before you meet with any CPQ vendors. Ensure that the CPQ tool selection committee members and other Business and IT stakeholders are actively involved in establishing these criteria (e.g. product configurator needs 3D capabilities, CPQ tool needs to be live in x months)

Bottom Line: CPQ selection committee members agree what criteria need to be met to decide about a CPQ tool.

7. Suggest potential CPQ vendors  

  • To limit the number of CPQ vendors you meet with is the task of your consultant. They should know various CPQ vendors, have regular meetings with them and can talk about their strengths’ and weaknesses. Hence they will be able to pre-select the best suited CPQ vendors for your business requirements. Suggestion: Limit the number of CPQ vendors to a max of 4 vendors.
  • Check Research & Analyst Reports like Gartner, Forrester, Aberdeen etc. to see how the CPQ vendors are rated and to verify what your consultant tells you

Bottom Line: Pre-select the CPQ vendors you want to meet with and tell them what you are interested to see (which includes the CPQ Tool evaluation criteria from step 6).

8. CPQ vendors demo their solution

  • Ensure all Business and IT stakeholders are in these meetings – at least all CPQ selection committee members
  • Provide the CPQ vendor a script that they should follow to ensure all your evaluation criteria are considered

Bottom Line: YOU need to control this meeting to ensure your questions are answered.

9. Score CPQ vendors

  • This should be done by Business and IT stakeholders (at least all CPQ selection committee members) directly after the demo to ensure they don’t forget anything.
  • Let every stakeholder score the demo for themselves before you communicate a group scoring result

Bottom Line: Do a scoring of the CPQ vendor Demo directly after the Demo and make sure Business and IT stakeholders are present.

10. Compare CPQ vendor scorings and make a decision 

  • This is the task of the CPQ selection committee. The CPQ selection committee needs to be comfortable with the proposed tool and ready to provide the resources to maintain it.

Concerning IT stakeholders mentioned in the above steps. While I recognize that some CPQ vendors suggest not to involve IT stakeholders, I consider it a better business practice to work with, or at least inform, the IT stakeholders. This way they are at least aware of your activities and you behave like ONE Team and not like opponents.

While there is no set time for the CPQ tool selection process I would advise you to get all the above steps done within approx. 4-6 weeks. A number of these steps (1, 2, 9) can be done by the customers team and no consulting company needs to be involved! Note that the duration of the selection process needs to be determined on a case by case basis. In general you should target to do as much work as possible internally and only involve a consultant as needed. Note that the 4-6 weeks stated above refers to the duration of the process NOT necessarily the billable hours from a consulting company and/or your team.

Just keep in mind that the CPQ tool is very important to your business and so you should take the time you need to make the right decision and not rush to a decision.

*check these links to see why 3,5 or 7 team members are proposed

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-your-team-too-big-too-small-whats-the-right-number-2/

http://sheilamargolis.com/2011/01/24/what-is-the-optimal-group-size-for-decision-making/