4 Questions SAP Customers Should Ask Themselves About Their Quoting Process

SAP customers, after putting in the work to get your CPQ or quoting system live, it’s tempting to move on to other priorities and leave your system to run, unfettered. This can be dangerous if you cannot 100% trust that your pricing, configurations and inventories will be accurate in the system. Further, you are in a period of high employee turnover when your institutional knowledge may be running low.

The reality is, customer (and distributor) expectations of digital engagement platforms continue to rise at a meteoric pace and with increased competition, not meeting their expectations could have direct revenue implications.

Here are 4 questions to ask of your current quoting or CPQ solution, to ensure you are maximizing efficiency, profitability, customer satisfaction, and more.

1. Can your customers/distributors generate 100% accurate quotes, or orders, 24/7?

   This may seem like a pipe dream that only the most technologically savvy manufacturers can deliver but this is now a table stakes expectation. No matter what back-end ERP or front-end CRM you are running, customers know that you have the data on their negotiated discounts, inventory levels, order tracking, etc. to give them what they need without human intervention. Does your current solution live up to that expectation?

2. Is your entire catalog available for online purchase and configuration?

   You have tens of thousands of SKUs from off-the-shelf products, to complex items with hundreds, if not thousands, of configuration options–all with varying price points. It can seem daunting to make that all available for customer/distributor-direct quoting and pricing, but it’s critical. One reason it can feel overwhelming is knowing that all the variations, pricing options, and configurations are built out in SAP but need to be replicated and maintained in a middleware solution that drives your quoting and commerce.

3. Are you leveraging automation and minimizing human involvement to reduce errors and drive efficiencies?

   Automation is only made possible when your front-end ordering and CRM systems are seamlessly connected to your back-end ERP and inventory systems. For SAP, data virtualization should be leveraged for this – ensuring real-time accuracy and a single source of truth. This type of integration also means no duplicate data sets are created or need maintenance. Your CRM portal integrated as a window into SAP can be your customers’ one-stop shop for everything from order tracking and delivery information, to accurate price quotes, SKU configuration, quote creation, order placement, and more. Accurate self-service means your sales and customer service teams can focus on the value-added, high-touch customer needs–reducing administrative, non-revenue activities.

4. Does your solution offer alternatives or similar products if a customer’s requested item is unavailable or out-of-stock?

   B2B buyers are bringing consumer-like expectations to your platforms. This includes more than just “here is what you purchased before” functionality. Are you using information you have about their purchase history and the age of their systems to offer part replenishment? Are you cross-selling them on complementary products or, if the item they want is out-of-stock, similar products? Historically B2B quoting and commerce has been seen as reordering and order taking. Savvy companies are going to leverage information in both their CRM and ERP to turn personalization into increased profits.A seamless, accurate quoting and sales experience is the expectation of all buyers – from distributors to customers to end users. Customers want to generate accurate quotes, 24/7, and turn them into actionable orders. Anything less is hampering the customer experience and your profitability.

Regardless of what SAP ERP you are running – ECC or S/4HANA – a seamless CPQ experience can be configured and live in just weeks or months – not years. Learn more about how enosix enables Salesforce CPQ to SAP integration or let’s discuss your needs.