All the criteria you need to make an informed decision on the next generation of CPQ solutions.

2015 EDITION

Flexibility and Ease of Use 03

Price & Implementation Time 06

Cross-platform Mobility 02

Customer Experience 04

Solution Comparison 07

Go-to-Market Cycles 05

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is CPQ? 01

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CPQ BUYERS GUIDE

CPQ Buyers Guide

WHAT IS CPQ?Ready to add another software acronym to your lexicon? This one is easy, we promise.

CPQ stands for Configure-Price-Quote, the process that makes up sales quoting and ordering. Even if your sales team isnt using CPQ software, youre familiar with the process: sales reps configure the order with products and services, then source the pricing and deliver their quote.

CPQ software simply automates the configure-price-quote process, allowing reps to create 100% accurate quotes in a fraction of the time.

Early entrants into CPQ software were designed for businesses selling complex catalogs with thousands of variables, requiring the guidance of multiple full-time IT employees.

Cloud technology has turned that model on its head. With an emphasis on mobility and streamlining excessive admin, the next generation of CPQ has made cost-effective sales automation accessible to every type of sales organization.

Where legacy CPQ is on-premise, resource and cost-prohibitive, and infinitely configurable, the next-generation of CPQ is cloud-based, mobile, user-friendly and affordable.

Throughout this buyers guide, we will explore the features that make the next level of CPQ an attractive option for companies of all shapes and sizes, then rate the CPQ markets key players against that criteria.

01 WHAT IS CPQ?

433040 %%%

CPQ BY THE PERCENTAGES

Over 40% of sales organizations take up to three days to generate a quote.

Sales teams with CPQ software close on 30% more of their quotes.

For your sales team, a 30% better close rate on a modest 10% increase in

quotes delivered raises deal revenue by 43%.

02 MOBILITY

CPQ Buyers Guide

CROSS-PLATFORM MOBILITY A fully mobile CPQ will ensure that your salespeople never have to disengage with their prospects during their sales process.

Modern sales professionals do not live within the inside/outside paradigm.

Tech advances have forced the traditional lines of inside/outside salesperson to blur. Those that were once considered inside find themselves building relationships away from the office and conducting business on the go. Outside salespeople are finding more opportunity to connect with prospects apart from in-person contact.

Todays sales reps demand the ability to seamlessly work across multiple platforms, tapping into their work on whatever device they happen to hold at that moment.

Legacy CPQ applications are tethered to the desktop by virtue of their CRM-based interfaces. Busy, complicated user experiences make most legacy CPQs impractical for use on a tablet or phone.

The next level of CPQ, however, offers a unified sales ordering experience across all

devices. With mobile CPQ, a salesperson can quickly build a quote at the office based off a phone conversation, then present the proposal to the prospect in person and close the deal on the spot through e-signature.

A fully mobile CPQ will ensure that your salespeople never have to disengage with their prospects during the sales process, delivering the instant gratification modern customers expect.

When vetting CPQ applications, be sure to demonstrate that the software not only works across all platforms, but performs the full suite of functions on all devices through a unified experience. Your sales team should be able to move fluidly between desktop, phone and tablet, without having to utilize different processes for each.

CPQ Buyers Guide

FLEXIBILITY & EASE OF USEIs this software your team will actually want to use?

The first factor in judging a CPQs usability is to figure out whether your business can even use the software in the first place. Some CPQ solutions are completely native to a CRM platform, like Steelbrick and Apttus to Salesforce.com, and cannot be used unless youre currently utilizing that CRM. Others are integrated into CRMs to varying degrees, mostly with the ability to jump directly into an order configuration straight from the opportunity tab of a CRM.

The leading crop of next-generation CPQs, however, offer the flexibility to integrate directly into leading CRMs or stand alone as

independent quoting and ordering solutions for industries where CRMs are uneccessary.

Once youve settled on options that fit your particular CRM or non-CRM needs, the simple question becomes: Is this software my team will actually want to use?

Modern salespeople expect simple interfaces and mobile-capability. While legacy CPQ suffers from crowded screens, dated UX, extended learning curves for sales reps and a lack of mobility, the next generation of CPQ can offer user experiences on par with best-of-breed consumer software.

03 FLEXIBILITY

QUESTIONS TO ASK OF YOUR POTENTIAL CPQ Does this application make my employees day-to-day easier or more complicated?

Does this application have Guided Selling features, so I can always be confident that my reps are making the right offer, no matter their level of experience?

Does this solution meet the needs of my current or future CRM needs?

Does this application function seamlessly across all devices?

How quickly could I get my team up and selling with this software?

04 CUSTOMER EXP.

CPQ Buyers Guide

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCENext-level CPQ applications can help sales teams close on 30 percent more of their quotes.

Modern customers expect a modern, seamless sales process.

Most legacy CPQs can help the sales rep deliver a quicker sales experience to their customer, but stop short of serving as a presentation tool that can engage prospects through the sales process and help close deals. A new development among leading mobile CPQs is the ability to engage face-to-face customers during the sale with interactive catalogs and live pricing and discounting.

With their CPQ opened on a tablet or phone, a sales rep can walk a prospect through the configuration process with rich product images and click-to-read descriptions as they build their order.

With pricing reflected live on-screen and the ability to send an instant proposal or e-sign approval on the spot, delays are eliminated and a sales rep never has to disengage from the prospect.

The benefits of improving the customer experience through CPQ go a long way towards improving close rates. Evidence shows that next-level CPQ applications help sales teams close on 30% more of their quotes.

With the next generation of CPQ, expect that number to increase as deals can be closed on the spot through e-signature, and quotes and proposals can be sent instantly from any device.

With many companies facing a drought of IT resources, business leaders have displayed a preference for flexible simplicity over exhaustive customization. When choosing a CPQ solution, buyers are faced with a choice between two options: unlimited functionality that demands a large sacrifice of resources, or agile flexibility with streamlined admin.

The benefits of the latter option often impacts how sucessfully a company can differentiate in the market, as sales teams can move into gaps twice as fast as competitors due to their go-to-market flexibility.

CPQ Buyers Guide

The quality of your products and services go a long way towards determining how competitive your company is, but so does your speed to market. Simply put, if you can bring new products, services and prices to market before your competition, you will gain the edge.

Its the promise of vastly reduced go-to-market cycles that makes the next level of CPQ attractive to a wider variety of companies.

Whereas it could take months to introduce new products and services with some CPQ solutions due to a profusion of rules and workflows, new CPQ applications have simplified the process of implementing changes in real-time.

The new class of CPQ applications have completely streamlined the excessive admin that defines most traditional CPQs. New products can be added in a matter of hours, with easy drag-and-place category and package configurations replacing complex algorithms and code writing.

GO-TO-MARKET CYCLESIn business, as in life, timing is everything.

05 MARKET CYCLES

CPQ Buyers Guide

PRICING & START-UP TIME The most straightforward section of our Buyers Guide.

There are three factors to consider when evaluating the actual cost of any CPQ solution:

What is the actual per-seat license fee? (Why do so many CPQ providers keep their licensing fees hidden from public view?)

How many full-time employees are required to administer the application for the sales team?

What percentage of customers contract implmentation through a third-party consulting firm?

The next generation of CPQs have drastically varied the amount of time and resources required to implement and manage solutions.

Whereas most legacy applications require at least two full-time admins and are implemented by third parties at a rate of 70%, the streamlined nature of the latest CPQs have reduced most of those barriers to entry.

06 IMPLEMENTATION

LEGACY CPQ

Majority of legacy CPQ solutions require at least two full-time

admin employees

Legacy CPQ applications are implemented by

third-party consultants at a rate of 70%

Can be implemented and managed out of the box by a sales or sales operations manager

2 7/10NEXT GEN CPQ

The days of manual configure-price-quote are over. Build sales orders and send proposals from any device, anywhere.

Swarm is transforming configure-price-quote software by making it ... easy. With an award-winning user experience, out-of-the-box implementation and streamlined admin, Swarm breaks new ground by making CPQ uncomplicated and affordable.

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OUT-OF-THE-BOX CPQ