Configure, price, quote
Explore tools that support the configuration, pricing, and quoting of sales offerings.
Use case: From spreadsheets to speed: How Boxeo transformed quoting
With qualified opportunities flowing from their new Lead and Opportunity Management system, Boxeo's sales team faced their next obstacle of getting quotes out the door.
Boxeo sells enterprise workflow automation with three core platforms, 15+ add-on modules, and tiered pricing across subscription, usage-based, and hybrid models. Each deal involves custom configurations, bundled services, and negotiated terms. The combinations are virtually endless which resulted into quoting delays.
Boxeo's quoting process had become a bottleneck that cost them deals. They faced the following challenges:
- Spreadsheets and Word docs everywhere
- Reps built quotes in Microsoft Excel, copied pricing into Word templates, and emailed PDFs for approval. Version control was nonexistent. The same quote sometimes went to customers with different prices, depending on who sent it and when.
- Configuration errors killed deals
- Without enforced product rules, reps quoted incompatible combinations such as premium support without the required enterprise license tier. Customers received quotes for configurations that couldn't be fulfilled, damaging trust and extending sales cycles while operations scrambled to fix errors.
- Pricing was a black box
- Discount logic lived in the heads of senior reps and scattered reference documents. New sellers either over-discounted (eroding margins) or under-discounted (losing competitive deals). No one knew the right price for a given deal without asking three different people.
- Approvals created delays
- Complex deals required sign-off from finance, legal, and sales leadership, but the process was random. Reps sent emails, followed up in Teams, and waited. Deals stalled for days while approvals languished in inboxes. Some quotes expired before they were even sent.
- Legacy CPQ failed them
- Boxeo's previous CPQ implementation had been abandoned after 18 months. The system was rigid. Every product change required IT involvement, rules were hard-coded and impossible to update, and the interface was so clunky that reps avoided it entirely. The project's failure pushed the team back to manual processes.
- Subscription chaos
- Managing recurring revenue was a nightmare. Renewals, co-terms, amendments, and mid-cycle changes were tracked in spreadsheets separate from the quoting system. When customers wanted to add users mid-contract or align renewal dates, reps had to manually calculate prorated pricing, often getting it wrong.
- Quote-to-fulfillment disconnect
- Even when quotes were approved, converting them to orders required manual re-entry. Sales closed the deal; operations deciphered the handwritten notes and rebuilt the configuration in the order system. Fulfillment delays and errors followed.
CPQ gave Boxeo a modern, AI-powered quoting engine built for enterprise complexity without the rigidity that killed their last implementation. Here's how:
- Build valid configurations every time using the CPQ Configurator
- Boxeo uses the CPQ Configurator to enforce product rules automatically. When AEs build configurations, the system ensures compatible selections. For example, if a customer selects premium support, the configurator requires the matching license tier. Configuration happens in a visual, guided interface where reps see valid options and invalid combinations are simply not possible. Performance never slows regardless of complexity; configurations with thousands of rules resolve in milliseconds.
- Launch products faster using Product Catalog Management
- Boxeo's revenue operations team manages the entire product catalog without code using Product Catalog Management. When they launch a new add-on module or adjust bundle pricing, changes go live immediately without needing to submit tickets, developer sprints, or waiting. The catalog supports configurable products with multiple characteristics, combined product-and-service offerings, recurring and one-time pricing, and hierarchical bundles. Commercial offers connect directly to fulfillment workflows, eliminating the silo between what's sold and what's delivered.
- Protect margins and price with confidence using Pricing Management
- Boxeo uses Pricing Management to handle every deal structure, including subscription pricing, usage-based tiers, ramped discounts for multi-year commitments, and account-specific pricing for strategic customers. All pricing calculates automatically as reps build quotes. Built-in guardrails protect margins. For example, when a rep applies a discount that exceeds their authority, the system flags it and routes for approval. Reps see exactly what's allowed at their level and what requires escalation before they submit.
- Create and manage quotes in one workspace using Quote Management
- Boxeo uses Quote Management to bring catalog, configuration, and pricing together. Reps create quotes, launch the configurator, select products, and see pricing calculate in real time, eliminating the need to toggle between spreadsheets or copy numbers into templates. Multiple quote versions track each revision through negotiation, and upon acceptance, quotes convert to sales orders with one click. Configuration, pricing, and customer details flow directly into fulfillment without re-entry.
- Manage subscriptions and renewals using Sales Agreement Management
- Boxeo uses Sales Agreement Management to handle the entire subscription life cycle. When a quote is accepted, the system generates a sales agreement capturing subscription terms, pricing, and renewal dates. Co-terming aligns renewal dates across multiple subscriptions so customers receive a single renewal quote instead of staggered requests. For mid-cycle amendments such as adding users, upgrading tiers, or extending terms, the system calculates prorated pricing automatically, eliminating manual spreadsheet work.
- Accelerate approvals using Advanced Approval Management
- Boxeo uses Advanced Approval Management to replace email-based approval chaos with structured workflows. Approval rules trigger automatically based on discount percentage, deal size, margin thresholds, or custom conditions. Quotes route automatically to the appropriate approvers based on the type of exception, such as margin thresholds to finance, non-standard terms to legal, and strategic discounts to sales leadership. Approvers act from email, mobile, or the CSM/FSM Configurable Workspace, and backup approvers with date-specific coverage ensure continuity. Smart reapproval logic skips already-approved steps when underlying conditions haven't changed.
After implementing CPQ, Boxeo measured impact across their quoting operation. The results are as shown in the following table.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Average time-to-quote | 4.5 days | 6 hours |
| Quote configuration errors | 23% | <1% |
| Approval cycle time | 3 days | 4 hours |
| Average discount rate | 28% | 20% |
| Renewal processing time | 4 hours | 45 minutes |
| Quote-to-order conversion time | 2 days | Instant |
Get started
Select a link from the following table to explore CPQ tools that simplify configuration, quoting, and sales agreement management.
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| CPQ Configurator | Browse and customize configurable products. |
| Legacy product configurator | Configure complex products or services dynamically. |
| Pricing Management | Manage price lists, discounts, and rules to support dynamic and region-specific pricing. |
| Quote Management | Manage quote creation, approval, and delivery. |
| Advanced Approval Management | Define workflows for approving sales entities, such as customer quotes, in your sales organization. |
| Customer Contracts and Entitlements | Standardize, organize, manage, and use contracts and entitlements. |
| Sales Agreement Management | Create and track contractual sales commitments. |
What to do next
Configure the CPQ applications, so your agents can use them in their sales workflows. For more information, see Configuring the configure, price, quote applications.