Service-aware quoting – benefits of integrating subscription service information with CPQ

Many CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) products are available on the market. They can quickly create complicated quotes with multiple products, add-ons, quantities, discounts and great looking paperwork.

However, most CPQ products are “horizontal” (i.e., not dedicated for specific vertical markets) and geared towards new products sales.

This is a challenge for cloud and communications service providers.

Services such as Internet, virtual server usually have lifespan of years and start with new sales, followed by changes (upgrades, add-ons, moves, etc.), all the way to service cancellations. At best, each of these events should start with a quote and customer signature and flow seamlessly through fulfillment.

This is only possible when CPQ engine has access to the current subscription service inventory, in other words it must be (subscription) service aware.

Nextian CPQ & Sales is an example of service-aware quoting engine, built specifically for cloud and communications providers.

Service-aware quoting can bring many benefits both internally and for customers, described below.

Consistent sales experience

When quotes include line items such as Change, Move, Cancel, Re-Term/Re-Rate (along with existing target services), all customer requests can start with CRM opportunity/quote.

This enables a consistent flow of operation: prepare a quote, generate paperwork, approve internally and request customer signature.

Also, since line items can be mixed, larger transactions can be grouped into single quotes, reducing paperwork/signature hassle and improving customer experience. This is especially beneficial for large-volume wholesale businesses.

Accurate sales forecasts

When quotes include line items such as Change, Move, Cancel and Re-Term/Re-Rate it is easy to forecast net numbers of each quote and obtain accurate overall forecast. For example, a service replacement is a composite operation consisting of new and cancel, involving two distinct services. The net impact of a replace quote can be determined as follows:

Individual quotes can then be aggregated into a more holistic funnel:

Seamless flow into orders

When CPQ is integrated with order management supporting Change, Move, Cancel and Re-Term/Re-Rate (in addition to New), the following flow is enabled:

Opportunity/Quote → Customer Signature → Order

For each quote item an order item can be created, ensuring 100% quote-to-order accuracy. The process can be also automated with:

• Order creation upon receiving a digital signature (e.g., DocuSign)
• Creation and starting delivery workflows for each order item

Easier financial reporting

When the following flow is captured end-to-end in a single system:

Quotes → Orders → Subscription Services

Financial reporting is simplified because:

• Net numbers are available at the beginning of the process (in the sales funnel)
• It is easy to compare what was sold (quote), delivered (order) and billed (service)
• Numbers are updated and available in real time
• Revenue realization can be easily determined based on individual workflows progress

Online purchases

Creating opportunities for online purchases is superfluous (there is no paperwork and online transactions are excluded from the sales funnel). Therefore, for e-commerce portals and APIs it is best to begin the process with order creation.

The financial reporting will still work, and the order-to-service will flow the same way as for CPQ-originated orders.

Conclusions

Implementing service aware, integrated CPQ and ordering supporting operations like service upgrades, add-ons, moves and others, helps cloud and communications providers:

1. Provide best internal and customer experience with a consistent, uniform and error-free process for all operation types
2. Ensure 100% quote-to-order accuracy and seamless, automated flow to order delivery
3. Easy to obtain, accurate sales forecast and financial reports

Nextian is a vendor of Quote-to-Cash (QTC) software for cloud and communications helping providers accelerate growth and increase customer lifetime value. Our CPQ & Sales module enables providers to:

• Quote subscription services, traditional ‘widget’ products and add-ons with recurring, one-time and usage-based charges
• Create quotes and generate paperwork for service changes, replacements, re-terms, re-rates, cancellations and other line items
• Determine pricing automatically based on contract term lengths, renewal types and other criteria
• Automatically obtain pricing from third party vendors & marketplaces
• Easily apply and approve markups and discounts
• Create multiple quote variants and generate paperwork with a single click and more

Contact us today to find out how we can help you!