IBM Sterling Configure, Price, Quote vs. PROS Smart 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.

Incentivized

Is my IT team ready to handle the challenges with data integration ? Are all the features offered by my current quoting tool being offered by Cameleon? Do I need a SaaS based quoting tool? Would it be easy and intuitive for my sales team (who,quite frankly, worship MS Excel) to use Cameleon ? Do I need a real-time/near-real-time quoting tool or would delays in data refreshes be acceptable

• Automating configuration, pricing and quotation of banking services.
• Via web self-service on IBM CPQ, customers and the sales team are able to streamline sales processes by getting guidance whenever needed.
• Customers are able to view price lists before making any purchase so as to make informed decisions.

Incentivized

• Salesforce.com integration via a plugin that lets end users access Cameleon CPQ systems.
• Quoting made easier with complex business rules.
• Good support from the Cameleon team with fixes and enhancements.

• Disaster recovery and backup databases are hectic to utilize without IT skills due to it’s rich in lots of features.
• Cost is slightly expensive, but it is worth the results we gain.

Incentivized

• Integration with other onsite systems such as Oracle databases require the expertise of knowledgeable developers. Manual upload of flat files are always an option , but not necessarily the cleanest.
• Better Cameleon CPQ Designer UI would go a long way. Currently UI is a stark contrast to the intuitive UI of SalesForce.com or similar SaaS based tools. Not too much to ask for , considering the fact that we work in the era of Facebook and Twitter.
• Real time data availability is a long way to go for Cameleon CPQ. Updates to data pushed over as batches to Cameleon are reflected at Salesforce.com only after a 'versioning' process is launched. Current recommended frequency for this process is once a day (an upgrade to make it twice a day is in the works).

There are a few features that we expected from the tool but Cameleon's CPQ has fallen short on these. Possible enhancements and product fixes should be made as soon as possible to change the perspective. Unexpected bugs in the tool have come up during the roll-out that has caught the implementation team off-guard

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

Incentivized

Apart from Experlogix CPQ failing yo seamlessly integrate with a lot of external applications via API, it also has weak CPQ features and is not popular than IBM CPQ. That’s why we decided to shift from Experlogix few months after I joined AT&T.

SaaS based tool. Better quoting rules.

• IBM CPQ has enabled us to gain a lot of leads, which turns to be real clients by imposing discounts on our services.
• Integration with salesforce.com makes it easy to configure products and services by creating quote-to-cash orders.
• Price lists and coupons makes it easy to customers to place orders.

Incentivized

• A salesforce.com -esque approach to CRM has a whole gamut of advantages. Cameleon CPQ complements this approach.
• Expect down times , feature problems or general disagreement about Cameleon's capabilities initially. This is true for adopting any new tool or technology. Hold on and it will tide over.
• As a person who has used Cameleon purely as a developer standpoint , I do not have anything more to add-on.