Continuous vs. IBM Sterling Configure, Price, Quote vs. Oracle CPQ

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.

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I think CPQ had worked so well for our company because of the widespread nature of our associates and tracking orders that were being placed in multiple time zones. My team specifically needed a way of analyzing these orders to track our progress in real time and sort out any supply orders before they became an issue. If you are in a centralized location with a smaller team then this may not yield much use to you.

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• 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.

• Leveraged automation to minimize headcount costs despite 10% year-over-year business growth, and enabled staff to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Established a flexible CPQ system that scales on demand to easily accommodate the company’s multiple global locations.
• Improved customer relations by reducing configuration time and allowing sales more time to meet with customers and close orders.

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• 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.

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• Significant setup time, cost, and maintenance. We have to use an implementation partner
• Does not always play well with other software, even Oracle software. While this is improved and being further improved, that it was a third party acquisition means things sometimes require a little extra care
• Additional setup documentation and first walkthroughs would be helpful, especially if it was all in one place

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Invited by TrustRadius (TR) on Vendor's Behalf

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So far it is all good with BigMachines, looking for new features since Oracle acquisition has created a lot of expectations. We have outlined our limitations (out of box functionality) in our periodic customer successor advice meetings for a while, hope we get a resolution soon. Also, the BigMachines user license fee has increased a lot in the last three years.

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The software UI can be as complex or as simple as you need it to be (depending on the business). It does require training others on quote configuration and the order in which to build out order positions prior to configuring a quote. Once users are trained;however, it is fairly straight-forward. The UI is still more static than other new wizard/drag-and-drop models, but it get's the job done

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Other than one day two years ago and an hour or two a few times since then due to data center outages, it has been very reliable

It depends upon the day however there are so many failure points with online services, including our internet service, that this is probably closer to 9 with the latest version

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

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Some specific support personal was good and fixed some problems fast using proper solutions. But when one of them went to sleep when we had critical issues and they do unreported commits to our production environment which caused issues and they were hiding it?? you can not give more than a two (maybe even that is too much). They also failed to add a feature for us which also bring the grade down.

They have pretty good training. Our business analysts have been able to go to entry and advanced level training. They have a train the trainer model. Our business analyst attended training, then trained the rest of our staff.

It was a much more technical implementation than we thought. It involved much more code.

Future releases have made and will make administering the tool easier.

EDL consulting had one good developer, but when he was moved off, they were horrible to work with.

The BMI sales team does a “BOA” or a “Business Operation Assessment” which is extremely valuable, not only for them to scope an implementation and get more reach within the organization, but it is also a documentation of business process that most organizations don’t have. It highlights inefficiencies and allows for correction during implementation.

Having a dedicated team (in-house) for implementation is key

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.

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Oracle engagement is ahead. They are active in the development of the tool and provide great support after implementation. They also listen to their customers and offer opportunities to feedback and provide input through activities like the customer advisory board forum.

• 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

Independently Invited by TrustRadius

A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info

• Increased Sales Rep efficiency. Being able to create multiple quotes ACCURATELY and quickly was a game changer.
• Large implementation time. It's a little difficult to fit BMI into a SCRUM style build, with multiple working models and prototypes of all 3 simultaneously.
• A larger fee for licensing and implementation cost. ROI wouldn't be realized in the first year.