5 CPQ Solutions to Solve Packaging Machinery Headaches

by RenaissanceTech | Nov 18, 2024 | Distribution

Packaging Machinery and CPQ Software

Man stands in front of a packaging machine

Manufacturing

After attending the PACK EXPO Trade Show in Chicago and connecting with a variety of companies in the packaging industry, I gained valuable insights into the key challenges and priorities shaping the field right now.

Companies are grappling with workforce management, the push for automation, and the need to optimize productivity—issues that demand innovative solutions to remain competitive in this market.

One such solution is CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software. A CPQ solution can help companies overcome many of these obstacles by simplifying complex quoting and estimating processes and improving the customer experience from order to delivery

Key Challenges in the Packaging Machinery Industry

According to PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, the packaging industry is dealing with several critical issues:

Productivity and Asset Optimization: Companies must streamline operations to meet deadlines, improve equipment effectiveness, and make the most of limited resources.
Complex Packaging Formats and Rapid Changeovers: Packaging machinery must be adaptable to new materials and quick changeovers, requiring better collaboration and communication across the supply chain.
Labor Shortages: Companies struggle to find and retain skilled and unskilled workers, prompting a need for more user-friendly equipment and career development support.
Need for Enhanced Automation: The demand for automation and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) is growing, but challenges remain around system flexibility, scalability, and ROI.

How CPQ Solutions Address These Challenges

CPQ technology offers powerful tools to overcome these hurdles, improving the quoting and estimating process, workforce efficiency, and production flexibility:

Improving Productivity and Time-to-Market: By speeding up complex quoting and integrating with ERP and CRM systems, CPQ reduces lead times and improves resource management, helping companies meet deadlines and on-time delivery performance.
Facilitating Rapid Changeovers: CPQ enables quick configuration adjustments and instant price recalculations, allowing companies to stay agile in response to new materials and unique customer needs, without extensive manual intervention.
Guided Selling for Workforce Efficiency: CPQ platforms include guided, user-friendly selling tools, helping less experienced staff configure products accurately and reducing dependency on specialized knowledge.
Automating Complex Configurations: CPQ streamlines the process by automating configurations, drawings, and routings, ensuring that only compatible features and components are selected. This reduces the time sales and engineering teams spend on estimates and allows customers to receive accurate quotes faster, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and trust.
Supporting Flexibility and Scalability in Automation Efforts: CPQ technology enables easy customization of equipment configurations, allowing companies to adapt quickly to markets that are demanding more automation and optimize production.

CPQ technology is a game-changer for the packaging industry. It simplifies complex configurations, boosts workforce efficiency, supports automation, and expedites time-to-market—helping companies stay competitive in an increasingly demanding environment.

Ready to tackle the challenges facing the packaging industry head-on? Learn how RenaissanceTech can transform your operations. Visit our website today to discover how our CPQ solutions can drive efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and support your automation goals. Chat with one of our experts to explore how we can help you optimize your workflow and accelerate growth.

7 Innovative Ways to Use CPQ Software

by RenaissanceTech | Aug 5, 2024 | Dealer Network, Order Accuracy & Error Reduction, Sales Quoting Process

Aside from CRM and ERP integration, what can CPQ do?

Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) systems are powerful tools typically used in sales to streamline the process of configuring complex products, pricing them accurately, and generating quotes. While CPQ is often integrated with CRM and ERP systems, it can also be used effectively as a standalone solution. Here are seven unique ways to utilize CPQ on its own:

E-commerce Customization Engine:

Application: CPQ can power an e-commerce in business by allowing customers to configure and customize products in real-time. This is particularly useful for businesses selling customizable products, such as furniture, computers, or personalized products.
Benefit: Enhances the customer experience by providing a visual and interactive configuration process, leading to higher engagement and increased sales.

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software, E-commerce, Product customization, Subscription management, Sales enablement, Dealer portal, Spare parts selling, Product visualizations, Business optimization, Sales automation, Customer experience

Dealer Partner Portal:

Application: CPQ can be used to create a self-service portal for channel partners and resellers. This enables partners to configure products, access up-to-date pricing, and generate quotes independently.
Benefit: Reduces the dependency on the internal sales team, speeds up the sales process, and ensures consistent pricing and product information across all channels.

Subscription and Service Management:

Application: CPQ can manage subscription-based products or services, allowing businesses to configure different subscription plans, calculate pricing based on usage or tiered models, and generate quotes or invoices.
Benefit: Simplifies the management of recurring revenue models and ensures accurate billing and quoting for complex service offerings.

Product Options Rollouts & New Additions:

Application: In industries with rapidly changing product configurations (e.g., technology or automotive), CPQ can be used to manage and update product configurations and pricing throughout the product lifecycle.
Benefit: Ensures that sales teams and customers always have access to the latest product options and pricing, reducing errors and improving market responsiveness.
By leveraging CPQ in these ways, businesses can enhance their sales processes, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize their overall operations.

Internal Sales Enablement Tool:

Application: Sales teams can use a standalone CPQ system to streamline their workflow by quickly configuring products, calculating prices based on complex discount structures, and generating professional quotes.
Benefit: Improves efficiency and accuracy in the sales process, allowing sales representatives to focus more on customer interactions and closing deals.

Spare Parts Selling:

Application: Businesses can use CPQ standalone to access a quality catalog of all their available spare parts and price them for ordering.

Benefit: Enables dealers and sales reps to easily quote and sell spare parts. Customers and representatives can receive on the spot feedback on part availability.

Visualizations:

Application: CPQ enables manufacturers to show 2D, 3D visual models, and augmented reality versions of their products configured to their customers' requirements.

Benefit: Captures interest for highly visual products and builds product trust. Seeing is believing and believing is buying. Allowing the customer to see their future product increases the chance that they will make a purchase.

What Is CPQ and What Does It Stand For?

by RenaissanceTech | Mar 7, 2022 | CPQ Software, Order Accuracy & Error Reduction, Sales Quoting Process

When people investigate guided selling, they often ask, “What is CPQ software?” and wonder how it will impact their operations. The experts at RenaissanceTech are here to give you a better understanding of the platform and how it can help your manufacturing business reach its goals. Check out our full guide below.

What Does CPQ Mean? – Configure, Price, Quote

The abbreviation “CPQ” stands for “Configure, Price, Quote.” CPQ allows you to create a structured, scalable sales process through guided selling and configuration. This tool is used by manufacturers to quickly and accurately turn complex products into quotes and orders, streamlining their operations. In order to truly understand what CPQ is, however, each aspect needs to be examined.

Configure

Your complex products will be easier to design with a real-time product configurator. Perhaps there are a lot of moving pieces and parts on your product, or there are a million combinations, or your customers require customization and special pricing, or maybe all those things are true for your business!

With customized products like yours, your first step should be to configure your product by asking a series of logic-based questions. Because the configure price quote pricing tool uses logic, it will remove noncompatible options as you select answers. This eliminates the chance for errors and unsupported combinations

Pricing

Manufacturers and service businesses rarely stick to a rigid pricing structure. Perhaps you offer bundles and volume pricing, or any other type of special pricing. CPQ guided selling gives you the ability to keep pricing clearly defined for everyone inside and outside of your organization, while still having the ability to customize pricing for certain dealers and customers.

It’s important to your bottom line that discounts are applied correctly and consistently throughout your business. With a CPQ system, prices are automatically calculated while you are configuring the product. Any special deals, discounts, promotional codes, and product bundles can be added at any time.

Quote

Once you’ve configured your product and you have an accurate price for it, you can finally turn it into a formal document. The quote can be emailed immediately or created as a PDF document, and this document can include product specifications, warranty information, drawings, detailed pricing, and terms.

Sales representatives can generate a quote, send it in an email, and send a follow up, with just a few clicks. Configure price quote guided selling software streamlines the quoting process for both manufacturers and dealers.

Integration

Lastly, there’s one more key feature of CPQ that’s not in the acronym, but it is equally as important – integration with ERP and CRM.

The same CPQ solution that services your dealers and outside sales reps is also the same configurator that runs within your ERP and CRM. This alleviates having to maintain more than one CPQ pricing tool and your product changes will take place across the whole system.

After you create your quote it is quickly turned into an order when integrated with your ERP system. Starting with the quote, your order can be completely fulfilled by passing BOMs and routings to the shop floor. This is why it is important that ERP integration is an option with the CPQ system you choose.

So Why Is CPQ Important? Here Are Just 4 Examples

By incorporating CPQ guided selling into your processes, you will be able to accomplish the following:

Efficiency – Help your sales reps and dealer network quote and close deals faster by eliminating disparate systems and removing siloed information. Automate approvals and create or maintain your workflows. Even the most complex quotes are easily managed with CPQ guided selling.
Control – Use a guided sales CPQ pricing tool to control what’s being offered and what’s being sold, while eliminating pricing, costing, and inventory errors. Your sales reps can become product experts in minutes by capitalizing on guided selling tools that only allow for approved configurations.
Innovation – Using our guided sales CPQ means that you can create product specs with a simple click. This allows your engineers, dealers, and sales teams to get creative and innovative, producing new product lines that differ from what is already available on the market. You can also use a configure price quote pricing tool to wow your customers with precisely customized deliverables, ensuring they are produced exactly as they were ordered.
Competitive edge – Companies learning what CPQ is and how it will benefit them should know they can get to market faster than competitors while launching new revenue models and upsell opportunities quickly. Today’s customers demand more flexibility in what they buy and how they buy it. Enabling a scalable technology platform will support your company now and in the future with advanced guided sales CPQ platforms available via Infor CPQ.

Further Configure Price Quote Guided Selling Advantages

With an advanced CPQ guided selling platform, your dealers and sales network can configure the right product offerings and generate an appropriate pricing and discount structure to meet the goals of your company. You can also fully customize quotes quickly while seamlessly integrating with your existing enterprise software, resulting in more sales and satisfied customers.

Using a guided sales CPQ can also provide you with the following:

Higher customer satisfaction

A central data catalog

Insights from reporting

Lower costs and fewer errors

Shorter sales cycles

Brand consistency

Better sales pipeline visibility

Best yet, the benefits don’t stop there. There is an abundance of featured add-ons that can be used to create an even better user experience. Below, you will find our most in-demand product extensions for CPQ products:

Stitch images for CPQ configurator

Requested ship date blocking for sales portal

Order status for sales portal

Multi-line configuration for Infor sales portal/Infor CPQ

CPQ Designed for You

Your products and systems are unique and complex, so you need a provider who is willing to customize the software to fit the needs of your organization. That’s what our CPQ company stands for, a tailored solution designed for each client.

RenaissanceTech has over 200 successful CPQ implementations across a wide variety of industries, and the founders of RenaissanceTech worked on the initial development of the Infor CPQ solution. Let our CPQ team boost your operations with our expertise.

Want to Know More About Our Guided Sales CPQ?

Now that you understand what CPQ is, let us help to create a streamlined vision for your sales team, giving them the resources they need to secure more orders.

We can use our expertise to help your company grow with our customizable CPQ software that is tailored to your unique needs. Request more information today!

Contact The Experts At RenaissanceTech Today!

How to Open a Virtual Showroom Floor

by RenaissanceTech | Dec 20, 2021 | CPQ Software, Sales Quoting Process

Using 3D Modeling To Meet New Consumer Habits & Demands

Recent events have caused a significant upward trend of consumers buying items online. Whether it be for common convenience or health and safety, more people are switching their shopping bags for slippers. With more consumers turning to online shopping, manufacturers are finding it difficult to change along with these trends. Those that sell more on display - through large distributors & retail stores - particularly struggle with this online shift.

Questions You'll Likely Face When Transitioning To Virtual Sales:

How do you transition products that are mainly sold in stores to online?

How can you capture everyone who’s interested, like you would on the show room floor?

How do you open a virtual display room for potential customers to truly see your products?

3D vizualizations of model bed for virtual show room floor

CPQ Software Will Be Vital To Your New Online Operation

Although this may take some time, transitioning your sales strategy and ordering process to incorporate eCommerce online, is simple. First, start with establishing a product configurator or Configure Price Quote (CPQ) application that quickly incorporates pricing and all product specifications for creating your item. A CPQ system with a fully optimized ERP integration is the best combination for a solid foundation of organizing and allowing customers to view and even order your products online. Once you have an organized configurator and pricing structure established, you want to start thinking about how to accurately show your products on your personal and dealers websites.

3D Product Visualization: Seeing Is Believing - & Believing Is Buying

The next best thing to seeing something in person is a stunning 3D model of what you plan to buy. 3D visuals are no longer a new/innovative feature and a standard need for any manufacturer that typically displays their products in-store. These visuals are shown online and do not limit or take away from sales in person. These models expand the capability of sales to occur confidently between customers who prefer to shop online. There are several different virtual image shops available like Threekit or Cylindo.

You do not need to partner with a 3D model shop immediately when transitioning to online sales, your choice may vary depending on suggested integrations from your configurator software. Some manufacturers may not require a 3D product rendering for their customers, this is an optional feature. It’s best to decide if an eye-catching visual would be helpful for your sales team and talk to your configuration consultant.

Harnessing The Benefits of A Virtual Showroom

Based on the stage of your company’s digital transformation, starting online sales will be a massive transition. Once you have an internal configurator for your product established, create an external shop for eCommerce that is integrated with these elements. SWIFTSELL is a high-quality shop front with a standard integration for the solutions listed above. These virtual shop displays can show pricing to potential customers on your site and present accurate 3D models based on preferred displays. Having a virtual display room and shop floor available for customers increases buyers’ trust and interest in your products. When the internal configurator, optional 3D models, and virtual shop floor application are established, they create a simple way to gauge interest from customers and close more deals or sell your products straight from your website.

Looking For More Information On How To Open Up A Virtual Shop Floor?

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