The article "CPQ Software vs Excel: How to Simplify Quoting of Advanced Products" compares the effectiveness of CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software with traditional Excel methods for quoting complex products. It discusses the limitations of Excel, such as lack of advanced pricing models, error-proneness, and poor collaboration capabilities.

1. #Advanced Quoting
CPQ Software vs Excel. How to Simplify
Quoting of Advanced Products?

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Have you ever tried using Microsoft Excel to quote advanced manufacturing products,
only to find that it isn’t up to the task? Well, fear not! This article will introduce Configure,
Price, Quote (CPQ) software. We’ll explain why CPQ software is superior to spreadsheets
like Excel when it comes to managing the complex quoting processes involved in
advanced manufacturing.

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Can Excel be an efficient CPQ tool?
You can manage your quote creation in Excel, but in 2024, there are more effective ways
to do this.
Depending on the product information type (simple or complex), setting up a pricing
model in Excel could be challenging for a sales team. Complex products require more
pricing formulas, components, options, or accessories configuration. Very often, Sales
reps handle this process with complicated Excel sheets.
How hard is it to share updated Excel files through the whole network of internal or
external users? You probably know it.
The standard spreadsheet calculator or pricing engine might be enough to generate
simple quotations. However, more complex pricing models and large-scale industrial
systems need a more comprehensive solution.

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As a growing business, your search for sales automation solutions that make your
business processes more efficient. So why managing extensive quotes in Excel is
inefficient7
8b Advanced pricing models are unavailable. Excel only covers basic pricing formulas
and calculations. Therefore, it is hard to navigate attribute-based pricing, seasonal
offerings, quantity-based pricing, and discount calculationsB
,b Lack of external data. Excel can only manage internal data inserted manually. There
is a lack of archive of previous pricing models. That is why you can operate only in the
current pricing system and can’t track changes. Thus, you may have hundreds of Excel
sheets with different price versions and updatesB
'b Prone to mistakes. Inserting data manually leads to errors. Gathering data by one
person exceeds the probability of making a mistake. Creating complex quotes requires
manual work. This includes summarizing data from files, emails, storage, or the cloud.
Above all, even a simple typo can cost you time spent on double-checking and finding
an error.

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oS It’s not an intuitive and user-friendly tool. If a new salesperson joins the team,
operating advanced Excel sheets, finding multiple quote formulas, and navigating
complex price configurations are difficult. Onboarding takes a lot of time, after all4
0S Safety issues. Data can be easily stolen from an Excel sheet because it is
unsecured. It’s incompatible with other business systems, and you cannot control the
changes. There is no history of the previous version of the file and notification of who
edited it. As a result, anyone can change pricing models, formulas, or data4
'S Lack of collaboration capabilities. Excel doesn’t allow multiple employees to
collaborate and contribute at different stages of the quotation process without
creating conflicts. On the other hand, you can collaborate simultaneously in the online
version of Excel. However, there may be problems saving work.
Therefore, an Excel sheet cannot be a pricing tool for complex product quoting. As a
growing business, you’re looking for solutions that make your business processes more
efficient. One of them is CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software.

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What is CPQ software?
CPQ stands for Configure, Price, and Quote. It’s automation software that allows creating,
customizing, and automatically generating offers for the products offered by the
company. This sales tool supports sales departments by quickly presenting quotes and
sales offers to customers.
The main goal behind the CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) platform is to digitize the sales
process for advanced products or services. The CPQ sales platform accelerates creating
and processing orders from multiple markets and channels, minimizes manual work (e.g.,
work with spreadsheets), and eliminates human errors. Additionally, the offers
standardization allows faster delivery of the necessary information such as prices,
detailed technical documentation, or advanced calculation results.

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(C) Configure
Find or configure the right products and services based on requirements and get
comprehensive information with possible extensions. Product configuration involves
defining the various features and options that can be selected for a product and any
dependencies or constraints between those features and options.
(P) Price
Depending on the market, calculate prices based on the configured product with
extensions and accessories. Additionally, quoting systems manage pricing for
configurable products, considering discounts, promotions, or other factors affecting the
final price.
(Q) Quote
Create and seamlessly deliver accurate quotes for a customer. Once a customer has
selected the desired product configuration, the CPQ app will automatically generate a
sales quote based on configured product data and pricing rules.

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CPQ system creates an atomized process based on inserted data, such as configurations,
customizations, promotions, and other values. In other words, It enables sales operations
to automate and optimize the process of selecting or configuring the right product based
on the requirements, up to pricing and creating quotes for B2C and B2B clients.
Configure, price, and quote system can serve as an internal and external guided selling
tool. Firstly, customers can independently select the right product from the catalog.
Secondly, configure it according to their needs and immediately see the price. For
instance, read about an intuitive CPQ tool we created for Suzuki company.

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