CPQ Salesforce solution transformed Virtana’s quoting system
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
Employees: 150+ worldwide
Virtana is a software company that provides solutions for optimizing digital infrastructure and application performance.
Virtana had previously been using Salesforce CPQ tool. However, encountered issues with inefficient processes and data calculation errors, which hindered the system’s effectiveness. As a result, most of the sales representatives used Excel-based tools to create complex quotes and later on upload them to Salesforce. This approach was inefficient and prone to errors.
Virtana needed to improve Salesforce CPQ and leverage its capabilities to speed up quote creation and make sure that the process is consistent and implements all the business rules.
Virtana’s CPQ challenges
Firstly, CPQ processes in Virtana were dependent on a team of several Excel experts who performed many operations in sheets they had prepared. Excel as a manual process required human input for data entry, calculations, and analysis. This made it prone to errors, such as typos, incorrect data, and quotes that did not meet business rules criteria (e.g. too many discounts). Similar issues appeared in the first implemented Salesforce CPQ tool.
Secondly, only a small group of employees had access to CPQ in Excel. Waiting time for a quote was increasing as customer inquiries arrived and affected their response time.
Consequently, the company needed CPQ automation to be able to conduct constructive negotiations with customers. A lack of an efficient and timely response process was impacting the length and performance of the sales cycle.
Objectives defined for the CPQ project
Think Beyond has set the overarching goal of implementing a Salesforce tool that will automate CPQ processes within Virtana’s sales team. The solution objective was to deliver functionalities that would speed up the processes, such as:
Products configuration to meet the specific needs of their customers
Setting discounts, markups, and tiered pricing structures
Sharing quotes with customers, and tracking quote activity in real-time
Creating and managing contracts within the tool
Tracking contract renewals, and managing contract terms and conditions
Bundling products together and creating product bundles
Salesforce CPQ solution
Multiple factors processes on a single platform
Virtana’s complex quote generation based on defined price books, including a set of bundling and business rules, needed a robust tool. Salesforce CPQ was able to simplify and automate Virtana’s processes.
Salesforce CPQ allowed Virtana to create accurate and customized quotes for their customers, as well as manage pricing, product configurations, and product bundles. Management could set pricing rules based on specific criteria, such as product type, customer segment, or geographical location. They could set it all up on one shared platform. Moreover, decision-makers could track KPIs such as quote-to-close ratio, sales velocity, and product performance, to gain insights into their sales processes and make data-driven decisions.
Complex CPQ transformed into the self-service tool - the story behind it
Think Beyond’s challenge was to configure the Salesforce CPQ tool so that it would be sufficiently smart and agile to support Virtana’s sales team with the right prices for the right product at the right time. This would help facilitate agile management with little involvement from the IT folks.
Think Beyond created a plan of development stages and then together with Virtana worked in a sprint-by-sprint mode.
Think Beyond’s approach helped to implement the Salesforce CPQ solution that fully responded to Virtana’s needs. A deep and thorough understanding of the Client’s challenges combined with the employment of highly effective workshop methods helped to reach Virtana’s CPQ goals.
Salesforce CPQ outcomes for Virtana
One of the key benefits of Virtana’s Salesforce CPQ is its ability to manage complex product quotations. With Salesforce CPQ, the company now easily creates and manages product bundles, kits, and options, ensuring that customers receive accurate quotes based on their specific requirements. Salesforce CPQ also has robust pricing capabilities that allow the management of complex pricing rules and discounts with ease.
All CPQ implementation objectives have been achieved.
The sales team’s influence on price generation has been limited to simple requests for an offer
The waiting period for a price offer has been reduced
The pricing policy has been unified and easily executed
Virtana has achieved many satisfactory price offers for both them and their customers
Virtana has maintained good relationships with all of its new customers, surprising them with outstanding responsiveness
This solution may be right for you if:
- You have a complex product catalogue with multiple product options and configurations.
- You have a high volume of quotes or orders that require accurate and efficient pricing and quoting processes.
- You need to streamline your sales processes and reduce the time it takes to generate quotes and proposals.
- You want to increase sales effectiveness and reduce errors and inconsistencies in pricing and quoting.
- You need a scalable solution that can grow with your business and integrate with other systems and tools.
- You want to improve visibility and reporting on sales metrics and performance.
Contact us
Marcin Pieńkowski
Salesforce Architect and Head of Salesforce
