Beckman Coulter's CPQ Journey

Beckman Coulter’s CPQ Journey

Minh Diep CRM IT Applications Architect and CPQ Developer

MDiep@Beckman.com

April 3, 2015

Agenda

Intro

Beckman Coulter before CPQ

Life with CPQ

• The Good

• The Bad

Re-Architecting CPQ for performance, flexibility,

and metrics

Q& A

Who Am I?

Minh Diep

Beckman Coulter

Applications Architect and CPQ Developer for IT

7+ years working with BigMachines CPQ platform

Simplify, automate, and integrate systems and

process

Who are We?

Beckman Coulter is a global company specialized in

manufacturing biomedical hardware, software, and tests

for clinical diagnostics and life science research.

Over 130 countries with 11,000+ employees

What Do We Do?

We produce equipment and tests to analyze bodily

fluids for abnormalities

We also produce automated solutions to increase

both speed and accuracy of laboratory testing.

Examples

A vial of blood and/or sample of urine can be utilized

to test for various diseases, monitor hormone level,

check for drugs, and etc.

The same sample can be automated through a

series of analyzers and stored for retesting.

Complexities of our Products

The equipment and tests we produce is often viewed

as complex.

What tests are required?

How many tests does the lab require?

Specs of each test?

Are all the selected tests and parts compatible?

What quantities do we recommended?

When do we recommend one product over another?

When do we recommend a specific test size over

another

Based on selected products, what other products

are required (services, accessories, software, etc)

Can the product integrate with other products?

Complexities of our Pricing

Price by tier and membership

ATV vs ATD

Volumes vs Test vs Qty

Cost per usage programs

Lease, Surcharge, All inclusive programs

Additional membership discounts

Promos

One off discounts

Approval triggers

How did we handle quoting in the past?

Over 20 product lines each with its own home grown

quoting tool

MS Word

MS Excel

MS Access

Lotus Notes

Pen/Paper

Phone

Manual entry

How were the tools managed?

All managed by various groups (Marketing, Sales,

Finance, IT)

No standardization

No integration

No automation

Resulted in a lot of manual work and validation

Were the tools integrated?

Push and replace version to users

Product - New versions, manual sync....

Accounts - New versions, manual sync....

Quotes/Contracts - MANUAL ENTRY

Approval workflow?

Unmanaged approval emails

Manual check to verify email approvals

Validate pricing?

Nation Accounts had over 170 pricing

agreements stored in non-standardized

formats and structure (excel, pdf, word, with

various structures)

Manual look up and entry

Manual checks and validation

Manual email approval

Built in logic for each applications

Quote output?

Created differently through each applications

ie: WORD docs with fields to populate

Lots of manual edits

CPQ to the Rescue!

Standardize / Centralize quoting

Integrate systems and process

Improve maintenance

Reduce manual entry

Improve accuracy

Improve quote turn around time

Implementing BigMachines CPQ

Launched in Q4 2009

23 Unique Configurators created

Database created to house over 170 pricing

agreements for Nation Accounts

Commerce logic created to pull account affiliated

pricing and calculate pricing (surcharge, lease,

rental, cost per)

Automate approval workflow based on defined

triggers

Integration with SFDC and ERP

Integration for products and accounts

The Good

Standardized configurations

Standardized commerce

Standardized documents

Automated workflow

Maintainable tables

Fully integrated system

The BAD

Rushed implementation

Poor architecture

Was too easy to create configs and add code,

therefore multiple developers were creating configs

and functions in a wasteful manner

Spaghetti code (exceeded max…)

External calls

Custom custom custom

Was difficult to maintain

SLOW

Environment became unstable and un-upgradable

What we learned

CPQ is a flexible application

Needed more leadership to streamline the process and

requirements

Provide clean architecture throughout the entire

application

Reduce / Eliminate Custom Custom Custom Code

Reduce the use of delimited strings

Manage code better

Direct feedback from end users

Starting Over

Why?

• Need a stable instance that is upgradable

• Better performance

• Flexibility for changes, enhancements, acquisitions

• Remove old / bad process implemented into the

system

• Leverage new features

• Minimize code

• Make it easier to maintain

• Metrics and Reporting

What did we do differently

Improve Architecture

Reduce / eliminate delimited strings

Reduce code and modularize functions

Redesign tables

Localize pricing data

Control queries

Pass by reference

Standardize and simply documents output

Most maintenance done via data tables

Reduce middleware

Include end users feedback

Enhancements

User Data import functionality

Pricing selection

Data maintenance

Weekly meeting with users and business

Releases every 2 weeks

Benefits

Utilize standard features

• Approvals

• Email templates

• Formulas

• Function to Function

Performance

Data mining, reporting, and metrics

Simplified UI

Maintenance

Enhancements and acquisitions

Debug and Remedy

Happy Users and Admins

Improve by Understanding Details

Profitability

Pricing variance

Approval analysis

Quote analysis

Product trends

Promo usage

Transitioning from Old to New

We were able to run dual BigMachines on a single

SFDC instance

Communicate support and cutoff dates

Communicate reasons and benefits for the re-

architecture

Data cube extract of old site

Summary

Putting it all together

• EBS Item Master and Account

• CRM (SFDC)

• Leads and Opportunities

• Quote Configuration, Pricing, Workflow

• Proposal/Quote Output

• Quote Product integration to SFDC

• SFDC report and dashbaords

• ERP Contract / Order Creation

Future

Mobile layout

Multi currency and languages

Additional regions

CPQ for other Danaher OpCo