In today’s competitive industrial equipment and machinery manufacturing landscape, business process automation allows you to deliver the right product at the right time. Customers demand precision, speed, and customization—not just product variety. To stay competitive, success hinges on accurate product configurations, efficient estimating, and seamless coordination with engineering.

Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software solutions empower manufacturers and their dealers, streamlining the path from RFQ (Request for Quote) to order fulfillment. This allows manufacturers to meet customer expectations quickly and accurately, making the entire process—from quote to production—more efficient, scalable and error-free.

This blog explores how CPQ software supports critical business processes such as estimating, engineering, proposals, and order automation, ultimately driving greater efficiency and accuracy.

1. Eliminate Manual Errors and Speed Up Estimating with CPQ Software

The estimating process is often one of the most cumbersome tasks in industrial equipment manufacturing. Traditionally, sales & estimating teams rely on spreadsheets to manage takeoffs and estimates, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and delays. Manual data entry and lack of automated workflows often result in incorrect pricing or miscommunications that affect customer satisfaction and project timelines.

With Configure, Price Quote software, you can eliminate these manual processes by centralizing estimating in a user-friendly platform. Sales and customer service teams can quickly and accurately respond to RFQs, replacing Excel-based estimates with real-time, precise calculations. This modernization ensures accurate cost and time estimates right from the start, setting up every project for success.

Here’s how CPQ transforms estimating:

• Eliminates Data Entry Errors: Automating the process reduces the risk of mistakes, ensuring that data flows smoothly from one stage to the next.
• Centralized Data Access: CPQ consolidates all estimating information to a single system, giving sales teams access to the latest product configurations and pricing in real time.
• Increased Speed: With a CPQ solution, you can generate a quote within seconds, enabling your team to respond to customer needs more quickly.

By modernizing the estimating process, your business can eliminate errors and reduce time-to-quote, making the entire workflow more efficient.

2. Streamline Engineering with 2D/3D Product Configuration and Automated Workflows

After estimating, the next challenge is ensuring that the product design aligns with the quote and customer specifications. Engineering teams often rely on manual input, reworking configurations and drawing models based on sales estimates. This process is slow and prone to error, impacting efficiency and product timelines.

With Infor CPQ, manufacturers can automate product configurations and integrate them directly with 2D and 3D CAD systems. This integration ensures that engineers have precise, real-time data from the sales phase, enabling them to generate accurate designs without manual rework.

Key benefits of CPQ for engineering include:

• Automated Configurations: CPQ automates complex product configurations, reducing the need for manual data entry and ensuring accuracy.
• Real-Time Data Synchronization: Engineers can access up-to-date information directly from the CPQ system, ensuring everyone is working with the same, most current data.
• Faster Design Process: By eliminating redundant work, engineers can focus on refining designs rather than recreating data from spreadsheets, speeding up time-to-market.

Integrating CPQ with CAD systems and engineering workflows accelerates the design phase, enabling engineers to focus on creativity and innovation while reducing the risk of errors in configuration and CAD drawings.

3.  Create Professional Proposals Quickly and Accurately

A well-crafted proposal is crucial for winning business, especially in industries with highly customizable products. The challenge is to ensure that every proposal is accurate, professional, and reflects the latest pricing and product options. Manually creating proposals is time-consuming and error-prone, leading to delays in response and a negative customer experience.

With Infor CPQ, sales teams can automate and streamline the proposal process. The system ensures that proposals are not only accurate but also visually appealing, with real-time pricing and 3D product visuals included. This helps build trust with customers and improves the chances of securing orders.

How CPQ enhances proposals:

• Real-Time Pricing and Configurations: CPQ automatically updates proposals with the latest pricing and product details, ensuring they’re always accurate.
• Product Visuals: Including 3D models or detailed product photosin proposals helps customers visualize their purchase, improving the buying experience.
• Faster Response Time: By automating proposal creation, sales teams can respond to customers faster, improving lead times and increasing competitiveness.

With CPQ, your sales team can deliver polished, accurate proposals quickly, making it easier to close deals and build stronger customer relationships.

4. Automate Order and BOM Entry for Faster Fulfillment

Once a proposal is accepted, the next critical step is to ensure that the order data flows seamlessly into production. Traditionally, this process involves manually entering order details, including the Bill of Materials (BOM) and routing configurations, into the ERP system. This approach is time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to delays and inaccuracies in production.

With Infor CPQ, this process is automated, ensuring that once an order is confirmed, all relevant information flows directly into the ERP system. CPQ automatically transfers BOM details and routing configurations, eliminating manual entry and ensuring accuracy, so production can begin immediately.

Here’s how CPQ benefits order and BOM entry:

• Reduced Manual Data Entry: By automating the entry of BOM and routing data into the ERP, CPQ eliminates the need for manual input, saving time and reducing errors.
• Improved Accuracy: CPQ ensures that the BOM and routing details are accurate and aligned with the latest product offerings, preventing discrepancies.
• Faster Production Start: Automated integration ensures that manufacturing teams have accurate information to start production immediately, avoiding delays.

By automating the transfer of data from sales to production, CPQ enables powerful manufacturing workflows that enhance business process and reduce the likelihood of errors, ensuring timely delivery of orders.

Conclusion

Incorporating CPQ software into your business process transforms your ability to estimate, configure, quote, and fulfill orders accurately and efficiently. From modernizing estimating and empowering engineering with precise configuration data, to creating winning proposals and automating order processing, CPQ enhances every stage of the process. By streamlining critical workflows, CPQ helps your business become more agile, responsive, and competitive. With faster turnaround times, and greater accuracy, CPQ ensures your business can consistently deliver on customer expectation while improving operational efficiency.