Delivering on the Promise of a Better User Experience

Gartner's 2016 Market Guide for Configure-Price-Quote applications identified over 50 CPQ vendors and presented several key trends shaping the CPQ sector. With projections ranging from new product innovations to vendor consolidation, the prevailing topics include how CPQ technology can improve the user experience and allow manufacturers to achieve tangible financial results.

CPQ Drives a Better Experience from End to End

An urgent need for many organizations is to find a way to make it easier for their direct sales teams to sell, their distribution partners to engage and their customers to self serve. At FPX, we believe that enterprise CPQ applications are perfectly positioned to serve as the Experience Management Platform for today's businesses – creating a cohesive, omnichannel experience across all channels (direct, indirect, service & support) and user touchpoints (web portals, ecommerce, CRM, etc.).

For many businesses, their current processes and tools are disconnected – spanning the front, middle, and back offices. Too often, we hear manufacturers say, "I need a system for my distributors to log in and see my product catalogue." While another business unit within the organization may say, "I need a system that allows my sales reps to see up-to-date pricing."

Rather than looking at broader, more systemic issues inhibiting sales or other business operations, enterprises go about solving these disparate problems with siloed initiatives. They procure and implement technology systems that may deliver the desired functionality, but don't address the systemic issues. This is what we at FPX call a "technology-out" approach.