A CPQ configurator allows sales reps and their customers to configure complex products visually and witness as their creations come alive on the screen.

A CPQ configurator is an amazing sales tool, both for personal as well as self-serve transactions. But employing one doesn’t just benefit sales; it makes an impact on all aspects of a manufacturing business, which also includes engineering and the shop floor.

CPQ configurators are completely changing the way manufacturers go about with their business. They provide fantastic buying experiences, quick sales cycles, and unmatchable efficiency. So, should you go ahead and implement a 3D configurator in your business? Certainly, yes.

Read on to find out why.

CPQ Configurator

A CPQ or 3D configurator is a sales tool that allows sales reps and their customers to configure complex and customizable products on the screen. It’s a basic feature of every robust CPQ (configure, price, quote) solution, allowing manufacturers to create dynamic pricing, create customized quotes, and also send elaborate technical specifications to the engineering department as well as the shop floor.

A typical configurator works like this:

  • The user is presented with an interactive menu of products.
  • Then they point and click to select their desired colors, sizes, add-ons, materials, parts, features, and more.
  • Their product is displayed on-screen like a lifelike 3D rendering which can be viewed from absolutely any angle.
  • The rendering gets updated in real-time as the customer makes changes to their product.
  • The user then sees what they’re building when they design it – no need to depend on basic photos or wait days for bespoke drawings.

A 3D configurator involves product configuration, but the CPQ system handles the rest of the engineer-to-order process. The system calculates prices and also generates custom quotes for configurable products in real-time. It then delivers pretty accurate technical specs to the company’s CAD platform, engineering staff, and even the shop floor.

A 3D configurator and CPQ in such a manner shave days, albeit not weeks – off particular sales cycles. It dramatically reduces the involvement of sales staff, reduces opportunities to generate a human error, and then provides accurate communication. It makes sales, engineering, as well as production jobs easier, bringing more customer satisfaction.

How a CPQ Configurator Supercharges Sales

Allows Complex Configurations

Configurator solutions make it simple for sales reps and their customers to create complex custom products. Instead of a sales rep trying to match customer requests with all available options, the 3D configurator allows customers to select only the options that are available and workable. It’s the tool you need to enable genuine made-to-order manufacturing.

Automatically Generates Custom Proposals

With a 3D configurator, your CPQ platform can auto-generate custom price quotes, BOMs, and detailed proposals based on what your customers select at the configuration stage.

Sales reps don’t have to go back to the office to figure out pricing on custom configurations or contact engineering to check on product feasibility – product and pricing rules guarantee every design is optimized.

Improves Order Accuracy

Manual product configuration is rife with errors, and the more complex the product, the more inaccuracies begin to creep in. Integrating CPQ with a 3D configurator removes the human element and improves order accuracy dramatically. It makes it next to impossible for customers and sales reps to dream up product configurations that look good on paper but won’t function in the real world.

Reduces Sales Process

By automating both configuration and ordering, a CPQ solution with a 3D configurator drastically reduces the sales-to-manufacturing schedule. According to the Aberdeen Group, CPQ takes down the length of typical sales cycles by 13%.

Better Customer Satisfaction

By allowing self-serve configuration, reducing the purchasing process, error reduction, and speeding up delivery times, 3D configuration as well as CPQ drastically enhance customer satisfaction. Your customers get to have the exact products they are looking for faster – even with low-volume runs.

How a CPQ Configurator Changes eCommerce Journeys

Until the development of configurator software, it was just impossible for the manufacturers to offer custom products online. Now they can.

With visual CPQ solutions like KBMax, manufacturers can easily embed a 3D product configurator in their website to allow customers to self-serve the most complex, configurable products. All it needs is just a few lines of code to completely change your online customer experience.

Visitors to your site get to configure products to their exact specifications without any kind of input from your sales and manufacturing teams. They can make use of your configurator to educate themselves about all your product offerings, upselling themselves, and then connect with your brand on a more immersive level.

Through an embedded configurator, you can easily offer your products to customers all over the world. Whether working in an office or even from home, they can easily configure, price, and quote products at any time, and through any device.

How CPQ Configurators Impact Engineering

Interfaces that have CAD Systems

KBMax’s CPQ platform has CAD and Design Automation that interacts with your existing CAD platform. Engineers don’t need to create technical drawings as well as specifications manually – it all gets handled within the system automatically.

Fewer Design Errors

Using a CPQ configurator brings highly accurate design specs because every product choice gets validated up-front. Only the valid configurations make their way downstream to the engineers. There are no more hassles or napkin sketches; engineers just need to approve or tweak auto-generated outputs.

Boosts Engineering Productivity

By removing most of the time-consuming “busy work” from the process, CPQ configurator software frees up your engineering staff’s valuable time, allowing them to focus on R&D and innovation.

How CPQ Configurators Boost Manufacturing Efficiency

Even though the CPQ configurator sits at the very front of the sales cycle, it can have a huge impact on your production operations.

It streamlines the entire sales-to-manufacturing process and contributes to a more efficient schedule. By factoring in the availability of parts right from the configuration stage, you can more efficiently balance complete manufacturing workloads.

A visual CPQ solution like KBMax will deliver assembly guidance to kickstart production. This guidance may include the lengths of timber to cut or the workstation that’s to be used. It can also generate CNC cut sheets and added manufacturing files, feeding them directly into machines on factory floors.

Do You Really Need a 3D Configurator?

If your company creates complex configurable products, you should embrace 3D configuration. Using a CPQ configurator from KBMax will streamline your processes, reduce errors, and improve your overall efficiency. It will also result in more satisfied customers whether you interface with them face-to-face through a sales rep or indirectly online.