When we start a new CPQ project, the excitement is always high in our mind. CPQ brings in changes to how we work, it helps us move into new digital era, productivity gain, shorter cycle time, increased revenue, digital thread, it’s the ‘trend’ of using cloud app instead of old Excel files to get the quote out the door! I have seen CPQ vendors focus a lot on getting the project started, making sure the project gets completed and then moves on to the new project. For the business and stakeholders, the life begins after going live…they monitor if the investment in CPQ is successful and if it is delivering the promised benefits or not! Some projects manage to continue for many years after going live, providing a steady stream of revenue to the CPQ vendors and the implementation consultants; while some projects get abandoned within one or two years of going live, business leaders reluctantly writing the cost down as an unforeseen loss. Analyzing such projects in detail, we can conclude that the success of a CPQ roll-out depends not only on its ability to provide continuous benefit to the business, but also on its ability to scale and sustain.
In this paper, let us focus on a concept that sometimes even the most experienced CPQ folks forget to consider properly. It is called ‘Support & Sustainment’ or ‘S&S’ in short in our world. In almost all the project plans and cost estimation I have seen from our CPQ vendors, they always add certain cost and resource need to keep the system supported after going live. What we can do to make it a truly scalable and sustainable CPQ program then? The answer is a buzzword called ‘CPQ Eco-system’. When the CPQ Project includes all necessary cost, resources and process changes needed to make the Eco-system work, it ensures that the business leaders know what they are paying for and what they are getting out of it, it ensures IT Leaders staff their team properly while Finance leader becomes aware of a continuous cost & benefit element.
What are the main elements of a successful CPQ Eco-system, could be dependent upon the size of the program, criticality of the program and the business’s ability to fund it properly. In general, I believe these should be included, either as a whole or in part, in any CPQ post go live program:
Business Owners: Business owners, or Functional owners, are the owner of the platform in terms of its functionality, benefit and content. They are the guys who decide what to add to the system, how to design them and how to train the users. They are also responsible for ensuring the CPQ program provides continuous benefit to the business, thus ensuring it is still an ‘asset’ in finance term and not an overhead expense. Business Team generally includes Product Owner or Functional Owner, subject matter experts, Champions and Stakeholders. Without a strong Business Owner team, with clear Content Owners identified, CPQ program has less chance of success.
Solutions Architect: Even though some smaller companies may ignore this role, but this guy alone could turn a failed system into a working solution or vice versa. The SA’s role is to keep up with ever changing CPQ capabilities and help business design in a scalable & maintenance easy systems, that will help the CPQ platform to add more content, without slowing the system down. Investing in Solutions Architect role will always pay off.
Scrum Master or Project Manager: As the world turns, only the business which can change with the market has better chance of staying competitive. This actually has ensured that we never run out of changes in CPQ, including new products (NPIs), new updates and new pricing. A good scrum master/PM manages the developer team well, ensures the development is completed on time and without issues.He works as the bridge between the developers and the business folks, he or she is the coolest guy in the bunch while strong as steel while it needs to be. A good PM/SM comes with experience in this field, CPQ is unique in many ways, such project managers know how to make it work.
Developers: Yes, not much to say, we need developers. After working with hundreds of them, I have come to believe that the developers sitting near the business team, are 2-3 times more productive than the ones who are on the other side of the ocean. Of course, a business needs find a balance between two options!
Quality Team: This is a common area that gets overlooked by many organization in terms of CPQ. The reality is that, if someone wants “0” or “near-0” bugs in production, Quality Team is the answer!
Migration Team: Another team commonly overlooked by many projects, individual folk(s) assigned to migration ensures the system integrity, keeping the production free from too many fingers (including greasy fingers which make code errors!) during migrating changes from lower CPQ sites to the production. Following this procedure ensures that the product is always free of any unfinished work, unwanted bugs or hiccups.
Operations Team: Last, but not the least, Operations Team is our interface with our users. They tackle day to day issues, including enabling users, fixing minor production issues, supporting users with simple guidance etc. Again, not all developers can be successful in Operational Role, a good experience and strong sense of ‘responsibility’ and ‘customer service’ are needed here. As they are our first point of contact for users, they become a key factor in adoption and benefit realization.
Getting all parts of a CPQ eco-system doesn’t automatically guarantee CPQ success. Just like a true eco-system, roles & responsibilities need to be clearly defined, hand-off between teams need to be clear and transparent, overlapping roles need to be eliminated. Experience plays a big role in here. Most of all, CPQ eco-system needs to be a role model for team work in matrix organization, it is never an one man show in CPQ world!
(Special thanks to Kiran Yerneni and Pramod Sonawane for the review comment and content—-it’s always a team work!)
