SAP was honored this week to again be positioned as a Leader in Gartner’s 2019 Magic Quadrant for Configure, Price and Quote Application Suites.*
From our perspective, this recognition in the Gartner 2019 CPQ Magic Quadrant acknowledges SAP’s vision and comprehensive approach to helping customers achieve their sales goals.
Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), the SAP CPQ solution is designed for the modern world of B2B sales, where customer demands for speed and convenience are higher than ever. We believe SAP’s deep understanding of what sellers need in this environment is what fuels our competitive edge.
SAP CPQ: Our View on the Gartner 2019 CPQ Magic Quadrant
By improving the day-to-day work experience of the sales rep, we enable organizations to improve the customer experience and accelerate the buying process for maximum results. This involves giving sales reps tools that streamline their work and empower them to provide the efficient, personalized experience customers demand.
With SAP CPQ, sales reps are guided to sell the right solution at the right price. The AI-powered CPQ puts optimal product configuration and price recommendations at a sales rep’s fingertips to speed sales and increase win rates.
Our customers can easily adopt this cutting-edge technology because it’s pre-built into the solution; there’s no need to hire a data scientist to build models and keep them continuously trained.
AI-driven pricing optimization eliminates guesswork for the sales rep and enables organizations to meet their strategic goals. Pre-approved discount “guardrails” safeguard margins. Channel partners are supported with customer- and channel-specific pricing.
SAP CPQ also provides the flexibility to support the most complex of configurations. This is particularly critical in industries such as manufacturing where made-to-order and highly componentized product configurations are the norm.
We believe CPQ provides the most value when it’s integrated into a broader ecosystem of enterprise applications, and we view our ability to do this as a key differentiator. SAP CPQ provides seamless connectivity to any CRM platform and to back-office ERP, providing organizations with the single, unified customer view they need to deliver superior customer experiences.
We also provide unique integration of CPQ with SAP Variant Configuration. With SAP CPQ, edition for variant configuration, organizations can extend the deep functionality of Variant Configuration from the back office to their front-line sales reps, channel partners, and e-commerce operations.
With SAP CPQ, customers can take advantage of a holistic quote-to-cash process that includes automated contract lifecycle management and subscription billing. We believe this holistic approach to quote to cash, built on a strong cloud foundation, is essential for building trusted relationships with customers for the long term.
As part of SAP Sales Cloud, SAP CPQ is integrated with other sales tools, including incentives management. With this centralized platform that harnesses the power of automation, analytics, and AI, organizations improve efficiency and boost sales performance.
All the rapid changes in B2B sales can make it a challenging environment, but we see a bright future. Armed with the right tools, enterprises can build high-performance sales teams that drive growth for years to come.
Jennifer Kling is head of Product Marketing for SAP Sales Cloud.
*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Configure, Price and Quote Application Suites, October 28, 2019, Christina Klock, Mark Lewis.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
