ChannelOnline vs. IBM Sterling Configure, Price, Quote

It would be ideal for a small solution provider looking for an entry level option to handle many of the company's functions at the same time. If customer relationship management, sales reporting, having a indexed eCommerce site, or having the ability to connect to 3rd party solutions is important to you; I would not go with ChannelOnline

Were it not for the fact that IBM CPQ lacks mobile and tablet applications, I would have recommended it 100%. However, I still have that 99% recommendation rate since this solution has saved us a lot by allowing us to close more sales within a short period by creating a channel where we collaborate with customers by offering coupons, sending price lists and orders.

Incentivized

• Detailed product information
• Product reviews
• Supplier Relationships

• Firstly, IBM CPQ makes it easy for customers to make rapid products purchases through configuration, pricing and ordering processes.
• Centralizing selling procedure in one platform by communicating products pricing to clients.
• Improving ROI by attracting customers when discounts are introduced on products as well as offering coupons.

• Sales Reporting Features
• Product Documentation and Training
• Customer Relationship Management
• Account Management
• Supplier Integration
• New Release Information
• Search Engine Indexing
• Custom Solutions

• Unfortunately, IBM CPQ does not have on-premises applications to use while not connected to the internet. This is no more a challenge since we have a robust WIFI connection in our organization premises.

Incentivized

Updates aren't valuable and don't see us ever being ahead of the competition with this solution. Feature enhancements that are released are just attempts to stay relevant with other ERPs in the industry. If you're trying to take your company to the next level this isn't going to be your solution unless you're a very small company

The interface is pretty easy to use and get used to. It's the lack of account, product and customer management usability that hinders ChannelOnline

We are down for 5-20 minutes once or twice a month

Support Staff is very nice and friendly. Most are knowledgeable but other than phone support they're lacking in every category

Timely and courteous response time from IBM Support any time there was a request that needed to be made.

Incentivized

There are tons of Configure, Price and Quote software, but I have not used a lot of them. However, unlike IBM CPQ, HubSpot Sales Hub isn’t operated in compliance with any ISO standards and secured in a data center making it easy to leak customer sensitive data such as payment details.

Incentivized

New features are released twice a year. Often these releases are fixing bugs and will rarely be an enhancement that will take your company to another level of effectiveness

• It handles most business functions so the value is definitely there.
• Account Management is really inconvenient and will cost you hours of pay if you're in a business with a relatively medium-high employee turnover.
• It won't easily integrate at all with your website.
• Lead Management is pretty much non existent.
• Quotes and orders are fairly easy to manage so employee efficiency could rise.
• Training and readily available documentation on ChannelOnline is weak. This is especially true for new features.

• Reporting analytics help us to transform static data into real-time insights that enable us to determine company financial standing.
• Data recovery and backup have maintained and governed vital organization data from catastrophes.
• Pricing, configuration, and quotation procedures enables us to automate selling channel that help customers make rapid informed decisions.

Incentivized