How Infor CPQ Drives Revenue Growth by Streamlining the Quote-to-Cash Process
In the dynamic world of B2B commerce, particularly in manufacturing, industrial automation, and high-tech industries, the Quote-to-Cash (Q2C) process is the backbone of revenue generation. Q2C encompasses every step from configuring a product to recognizing revenue, bridging sales, operations, and finance to deliver seamless customer experiences. However, traditional Q2C processes, often reliant on manual workflows, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems, are plagued by inefficiencies—delayed quotes, pricing errors, and data silos—that lead to revenue leakage and frustrated customers. Infor CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote), offered by Sama Consulting, addresses these challenges head-on, transforming Q2C into a streamlined, automated, and customer-centric process that drives revenue growth.
Infor CPQ is a cloud-based solution that leverages advanced configuration engines, real-time pricing logic, CAD integrations, and deep connectivity with enterprise systems like Infor LN Consultants and Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services. By automating complex tasks and integrating with tools like Infor ION Integration Services, it empowers businesses to deliver accurate quotes faster, reduce errors, and enhance customer satisfaction. Post-COVID, as B2B buyers demand speed, personalization, and transparency, Infor CPQ has become a critical enabler of digital transformation, particularly for manufacturers and distributors navigating complex product portfolios and global supply chains.
This comprehensive guide is tailored for CIOs, CTOs, sales operations leaders, ERP professionals, and enterprise architects. It provides a deep dive into Infor CPQ’s technical architecture, operational benefits, and real-world applications, demonstrating how it accelerates Q2C, boosts revenue velocity, and integrates with solutions like Infor Factory Track Consultants and Infor EAM Consultant. Backed by industry data from Aberdeen, Forrester, and Gartner, this article outlines how Infor CPQ empowers enterprises to thrive in a competitive landscape.
What Is Infor CPQ?
Infor CPQ is a robust Configure, Price, Quote platform designed to address the complexities of quoting in industries like manufacturing, distribution, and Engineer-to-Order (ETO) workflows. Unlike standalone CPQ tools, it is tightly integrated with Infor’s ERP ecosystem, including Infor LN Consultants, Baan ERP Consultant, and Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services, using Infor ION Integration Services for seamless data orchestration. Its key capabilities include:
- Configuration Engine: A rule-based system that guides sales reps through complex product configurations, ensuring compatibility and accuracy. It supports thousands of SKUs and intricate dependencies, such as component compatibility in industrial machinery.
- Pricing Automation: Dynamically calculates prices based on customer-specific price books, volume discounts, regional taxes, and promotional offers, validated in real time to protect margins.
- Visualizations and CAD Integration: Generates 2D/3D renderings and technical CAD drawings, enabling customers to visualize custom products before purchase, reducing revisions and enhancing trust.
- ERP Connectivity: Syncs with Infor LN, Infor CloudSuite, and legacy systems like Baan ERP to streamline order creation, inventory checks, and fulfillment processes.
- Document Automation: Produces professional, branded quotes, proposals, and contracts in multiple languages, pulling data directly from integrated systems to ensure consistency.
- Guided Selling: Recommends complementary products or upsell opportunities based on customer preferences, driving higher deal values.
Use Cases
Infor CPQ excels across diverse scenarios:
- Manufacturing: Simplifies configuration of complex products like industrial pumps or HVAC systems, ensuring compatibility and accurate BOMs.
- Distribution: Manages pricing for high SKU counts, automating discounts and regional pricing variations.
- ETO Workflows: Automates engineering specifications for custom machinery, integrating with CAD systems to generate precise drawings.
By partnering with Infor CPQ Consultants, businesses can tailor these capabilities to their specific needs, ensuring rapid deployment and maximum ROI.
Ready to revolutionize your manufacturing operations with Infor LN?
Sama specializes in Infor LN implementation and optimization for manufacturing companies, helping you leverage advanced ERP features to streamline production, improve efficiency, and accelerate digital transformation in your manufacturing processes.
Understanding the Quote-to-Cash Process
The Quote-to-Cash process is the end-to-end journey from a customer’s initial inquiry to revenue recognition. It comprises seven key phases:
- Configuration: Defining product specifications based on customer requirements, ensuring technical feasibility and compatibility.
- Pricing: Calculating costs, applying discounts, and validating against pricing rules.
- Quoting: Generating professional quotes or proposals for customer approval.
- Order Management: Converting approved quotes into orders and initiating fulfillment.
- Fulfillment: Coordinating production, inventory allocation, and delivery.
- Invoicing: Issuing accurate invoices based on agreed terms.
- Revenue Recognition: Recording payments and managing renewals or subscriptions.
Common Bottlenecks and Revenue Leakage
Manual Q2C processes are riddled with inefficiencies, as highlighted by industry research:
- Delayed Quotes: According to the Aberdeen Group, manual quoting processes can take 3–5 days, delaying deals and reducing win rates by up to 15%.
- Pricing Errors: Forrester’s Total Economic Impact report notes that 20% of B2B quotes contain errors, leading to 1–3% annual margin erosion.
- Data Silos: Disconnected CRM, ERP, and quoting systems cause inconsistencies, resulting in order delays and rework.
- Poor Customer Experience: Slow, error-prone quotes frustrate customers, with Gartner reporting that 30% of B2B buyers abandon deals due to lengthy quote cycles.
These challenges are particularly acute in manufacturing, where complex configurations and high SKU counts amplify errors. Infor CPQ, supported by Sama Consulting, eliminates these bottlenecks through automation and integration.
How Infor CPQ Streamlines Q2C
Infor CPQ transforms each Q2C phase, delivering speed, accuracy, and integration. Here’s a detailed breakdown:
Configurator-Driven Guided Selling
Infor CPQ’s configuration engine uses a low-code rules engine to guide sales reps through complex product setups. For example, in a discrete manufacturing scenario, a sales rep configuring a custom conveyor system inputs customer requirements (e.g., belt type, motor size). The system validates compatibility in real time, flagging invalid combinations and suggesting alternatives. This reduces reliance on engineering teams, which traditionally slows quoting by 2–3 days.
In ETO workflows, the configurator integrates with CAD systems like AutoCAD or SolidWorks, generating precise specifications and visualizations. This ensures that configurations are manufacturable, reducing revisions by up to 25%, as seen in Infor customer success stories. Infor CPQ Consultants assist in defining these rules, tailoring them to specific product hierarchies.
Real-Time Pricing and Discount Validation
Infor CPQ’s pricing engine automates complex calculations, incorporating:
- Customer-specific price books for tiered pricing.
- Volume discounts and promotional offers.
- Regional taxes, tariffs, and currency conversions.
- Dynamic adjustments for material cost fluctuations.
The system validates discounts against predefined rules, ensuring compliance with corporate policies. For instance, if a sales rep applies a 15% discount beyond their authority, Infor CPQ flags it for manager approval, preventing margin erosion. Integration with Infor LN Consultants ensures pricing data syncs with ERP systems in real time, eliminating discrepancies from outdated spreadsheets.
Integration with Infor LN, CloudSuite, and ION
Infor CPQ leverages Infor ION Integration Services to connect with Infor LN Consultants, Baan ERP Consultant, and Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services. Using Business Object Documents (BODs) and RESTful APIs, it ensures data consistency across systems. For example:
- When a quote is approved, Infor CPQ generates an order in Infor LN, triggering inventory checks and production scheduling.
- Integration with Infor Factory Track Consultants ensures that configured products align with shop floor capabilities, reducing production delays by 20%.
This seamless data flow eliminates manual handoffs, cutting order processing time by up to 30%, per Aberdeen Group data.
Visual Product Renderings and CAD Automation
Infor CPQ’s CAD integration generates dynamic 2D/3D renderings and technical drawings based on configured products. For a manufacturer of industrial equipment, this allows customers to visualize custom configurations, such as a tailored HVAC unit, before purchase. The system exports CAD files directly to production teams, streamlining the transition from quote to manufacturing. This reduces engineering revisions by 15–20%, as reported by Infor customers.
Document Automation
Infor CPQ automates the creation of branded quotes, proposals, and contracts, supporting multiple languages and formats. By pulling data from integrated systems like Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services, it ensures documents reflect accurate pricing, configurations, and terms. This minimizes manual effort and enhances customer trust with professional, error-free deliverables.
Sama specializes in Infor LN implementation and optimization for manufacturing companies, helping you leverage advanced ERP features to streamline production, improve efficiency, and accelerate digital transformation in your manufacturing processes.Ready to revolutionize your manufacturing operations with Infor LN?
Technical Architecture of Infor CPQ
Infor CPQ’s modular architecture is designed for flexibility, scalability, and integration. Key components include:
- Rules Engine: A low-code platform for defining product compatibility and pricing rules. Business users can configure rules without extensive coding, enabling rapid customization. For example, a rule might specify that a high-capacity motor requires a specific gearbox, enforced during configuration.
- Pricing Logic Module: Supports complex algorithms for multi-tier pricing, volume discounts, and dynamic adjustments based on market conditions. It handles thousands of SKUs and customer-specific price books.
- CAD Connectors: Integrate with CAD platforms like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Creo, generating visualizations and technical drawings. This is critical for ETO workflows, where custom designs are common.
- Web Client: A responsive interface for sales reps and customers, accessible on desktop and mobile devices. It supports real-time configuration and quoting, even in offline scenarios.
- Middleware (Infor ION): Orchestrates data flows between CPQ, ERP, CRM, and other systems using APIs and BODs, supported by Infor ION Integration Services.
Integration with Infor LN and Baan ERP
Infor CPQ connects to Infor LN Consultants and Baan ERP Consultant using Infor ION’s middleware. For example, when a quote is converted to an order, Infor CPQ sends a BOD to Infor LN, triggering inventory allocation and production scheduling. This integration supports legacy Baan ERP systems, ensuring compatibility for organizations with older infrastructure.
Scalability and Cloud Deployment
Built on Infor’s multi-tenant cloud platform, Infor CPQ scales to handle high transaction volumes, supporting enterprises with global operations and thousands of users. Its API-driven architecture allows integration with third-party systems like Salesforce, SAP, or e-commerce platforms, ensuring extensibility for future needs.
Revenue Growth Benefits with Infor CPQ
Infor CPQ delivers measurable benefits that drive revenue growth, backed by industry research and customer success stories:
Faster Time-to-Quote and Reduced Sales Cycle
The Aberdeen Group reports that CPQ users reduce sales cycles by 27%, from 4.68 months to 3.42 months. Infor CPQ achieves this by automating configuration and pricing, enabling quotes in minutes. A mid-market manufacturer, with support from Infor CPQ Consultants, reduced quote creation time from 5 days to 30 minutes, freeing sales reps to focus on closing deals.
Reduced Pricing Errors and Margin Protection
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact report highlights that CPQ solutions reduce pricing errors, saving 1–3% in margins annually. Infor CPQ’s real-time pricing validation ensures compliance with corporate policies, integrated with Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services for accurate ERP data.
Personalized Customer Experiences
Infor CPQ’s visual configurator and document automation deliver tailored quotes, increasing win rates by 10–15%, per Gartner. By providing 2D/3D renderings, it builds customer confidence and reduces objections.
Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities
The rules engine suggests complementary products, driving a 10–15% uplift in average deal size, as seen in Infor customer success stories. For example, a heavy equipment manufacturer used Infor CPQ to recommend add-on features, increasing deal values without extending sales cycles.
Ready to revolutionize your manufacturing operations with Infor LN?
Sama specializes in Infor LN implementation and optimization for manufacturing companies, helping you leverage advanced ERP features to streamline production, improve efficiency, and accelerate digital transformation in your manufacturing processes.
Real-World Use Cases
Mid-Market Discrete Manufacturer
A mid-market manufacturer of industrial pumps faced delays due to manual configuration and pricing. With Infor CPQ Consultants, they implemented Infor CPQ, reducing quote cycle time from 5 days to 30 minutes. CAD integration provided customers with 3D visualizations, boosting satisfaction by 20% and win rates by 12%.
Global ETO Enterprise
A global ETO manufacturer of custom machinery integrated Infor CPQ with Infor LN Consultants and Infor Factory Track Consultants. The solution automated engineering specifications and CAD drawings, cutting lead times by 30%. Cross-sell automation increased deal sizes by 12%, contributing to a 15% revenue uplift.
High-Tech Distributor
A high-tech distributor with thousands of SKUs used Infor CPQ to automate pricing and quoting, integrated with Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services. The system reduced pricing errors by 18% and accelerated quote delivery by 40%, improving customer retention.
Infor CPQ + Analytics: Measuring Quote-to-Cash KPIs
To optimize Q2C performance, businesses must track KPIs like:
- Quote Cycle Time: Time from inquiry to quote delivery.
- Win Rates: Percentage of quotes converted to orders.
- Quote Accuracy: Percentage of error-free quotes.
- Average Deal Size: Revenue per closed deal.
Infor CPQ integrates with Infor Birst Consulting Services to provide real-time analytics. Infor Birst dashboards visualize KPIs, enabling sales leaders to identify bottlenecks. For example, a distributor used Infor Birst to monitor quote cycle times, identifying delays in approvals and reducing cycle time by 25% through workflow automation.
Integration with Downstream Operations
Production Initiation with Infor Factory Track
Infor CPQ connects to Infor Factory Track Consultants, generating bills of materials (BOMs) and production schedules directly from approved orders. This ensures that configured products align with manufacturing capabilities, reducing production delays by 20%.
Asset Tracking with Infor EAM
For capital equipment sales, Infor CPQ integrates with Infor EAM Consultant to track assets throughout their lifecycle. This supports aftermarket services like maintenance contracts, driving recurring revenue streams.
Security, Scalability, and Extensibility
Infor CPQ offers enterprise-grade security, including:
- Role-Based Access Controls: Restrict access to sensitive pricing and configuration data.
- Data Encryption: Protect data in transit and at rest, compliant with GDPR and CCPA.
- Audit Trails: Track changes to quotes and approvals for compliance.
Its cloud architecture scales to support global operations, handling thousands of users and transactions. The API-driven design enables integration with third-party systems, ensuring flexibility. Sama Consulting provides implementation frameworks, including discovery workshops and data migration, to ensure seamless deployment.
Ready to revolutionize your manufacturing operations with Infor LN?
Sama specializes in Infor LN implementation and optimization for manufacturing companies, helping you leverage advanced ERP features to streamline production, improve efficiency, and accelerate digital transformation in your manufacturing processes.
Getting Started with Infor CPQ Implementation
Implementing Infor CPQ requires a structured approach:
- Discovery Workshops: Collaborate with Infor CPQ Consultants to map existing Q2C processes and identify automation opportunities.
- Rules Logic Definition: Configure product hierarchies, compatibility rules, and pricing logic using Infor CPQ’s low-code interface.
- Integration: Connect with ERP systems like Infor LN and Infor CloudSuite via Infor ION Integration Services.
- User Training: Train sales teams and ensure adoption through change management, supported by Sama Consulting.
- Testing and Optimization: Validate configurations, test integrations, and monitor KPIs with Infor Birst Consulting Services.
Conclusion
Infor CPQ revolutionizes the Quote-to-Cash process, driving revenue growth through automation, accuracy, and integration. By leveraging Infor CPQ Consultants, Infor LN Consultants, Infor CloudSuite Consulting Services, and Infor ION Integration Services, businesses can achieve faster quotes, higher win rates, and larger deals. Integration with Infor Factory Track Consultants and Infor EAM Consultant ensures seamless downstream operations, while Infor Birst Consulting Services provides actionable insights. Contact Sama Consulting to transform your Q2C process and unlock revenue growth with Infor CPQ.
Ready to revolutionize your manufacturing operations with Infor LN?
Sama specializes in Infor LN implementation and optimization for manufacturing companies, helping you leverage advanced ERP features to streamline production, improve efficiency, and accelerate digital transformation in your manufacturing processes.
Shravanya Rao
Shravanya Rao is a PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) & CPQ (Configured Price Quote) specialist, focusing on streamlining product development processes and improving collaboration across engineering, design, and manufacturing teams. She empowers organizations with end-to-end PLM solutions that enhance product quality, accelerate time to market, and maintain regulatory compliance.
