The document provides an overview and comparison of legacy CPQ (configure-price-quote) solutions versus next-generation CPQ solutions. It discusses key criteria for evaluating CPQ solutions such as flexibility and ease of use, cross-platform mobility, customer experience, go-to-market cycles, pricing and implementation time. Next-generation CPQ solutions are more affordable, easy to use, mobile-enabled and have faster implementation compared to legacy CPQ solutions which require more resources and customization. The document aims to help readers understand the CPQ market and choose the right solution for their needs.

1. All the criteria you need to make an informed
decision on the next generation of CPQ solutions.
2015EDITION
Flexibility and Ease of Use 03
Price & Implementation Time 06
Cross-platform Mobility 02
Customer Experience 04
Solution Comparison 07
Go-to-Market Cycles 05
TABLE OFCONTENTS
What is CPQ? 01
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CPQ BUYER’S GUIDE

2. CPQ Buyer’s Guide
WHAT IS CPQ?
Ready to add another software acronym to your lexicon? This one is easy, we promise.
CPQ stands for Configure-Price-Quote,
the process that makes up sales quoting
and ordering. Even if your sales team isn’t
using CPQ software, you’re familiar with the
process: sales reps ‘configure’ the order
with products and services, then source the
‘pricing’ and deliver their ‘quote’.
CPQ software simply automates the
configure-price-quote process, allowing reps
to create 100% accurate quotes in a fraction
of the time.
Early entrants into CPQ software were
designed for businesses selling complex
catalogs with thousands of variables,
requiring the guidance of multiple full-time
IT employees.
Cloud technology has turned that model
on its head. With an emphasis on mobility
and streamlining excessive admin, the next
generation of CPQ has made cost-effective
sales automation accessible to every type of
sales organization.
Where legacy CPQ is on-premise, resource
and cost-prohibitive, and infinitely
configurable, the next-generation of CPQ
is cloud-based, mobile, user-friendly and
affordable.
Throughout this buyer’s guide, we will
explore the features that make the next level
of CPQ an attractive option for companies
of all shapes and sizes, then rate the CPQ
market’s key players against that criteria.
01 WHAT IS CPQ?
433040 %%%
CPQ BY THE PERCENTAGES
Over 40% of sales
organizations take
up to three days to
generate a quote.
Sales teams with CPQ
software close on 30%
more of their quotes.
For your sales team, a
30% better close rate on
a modest 10% increase in
quotes delivered raises
deal revenue by 43%.

3. 02 MOBILITY
CPQ Buyer’s Guide
CROSS-PLATFORM MOBILITY A fully mobile CPQ
will ensure that your
salespeople never
have to disengage
with their prospects
during their sales
process.
“
Modern sales professionals do not live within the inside/outside paradigm.
Tech advances have forced the traditional
lines of inside/outside salesperson to blur.
Those that were once considered inside find
themselves building relationships away from
the office and conducting business on the
go. Outside salespeople are finding more
opportunity to connect with prospects apart
from in-person contact.
Today’s sales reps demand the ability to
seamlessly work across multiple platforms,
tapping into their work on whatever device
they happen to hold at that moment.
Legacy CPQ applications are tethered
to the desktop by virtue of their CRM-
based interfaces. Busy, complicated user
experiences make most legacy CPQs
impractical for use on a tablet or phone.
The next level of CPQ, however, offers a
unified sales ordering experience across all
devices. With mobile CPQ, a salesperson
can quickly build a quote at the office based
off a phone conversation, then present
the proposal to the prospect in person
and close the deal on the spot through
e-signature.
A fully mobile CPQ will ensure that your
salespeople never have to disengage with
their prospects during the sales process,
delivering the instant gratification modern
customers expect.
When vetting CPQ applications, be sure to
demonstrate that the software not only
works across all platforms, but performs the
full suite of functions on all devices through
a unified experience. Your sales team should
be able to move fluidly between desktop,
phone and tablet, without having to utilize
different processes for each.

4. CPQ Buyer’s Guide
FLEXIBILITY&EASE OF USE
Is this software your team will actually want to use?
The first factor in judging a CPQ’s usability
is to figure out whether your business can
even use the software in the first place.
Some CPQ solutions are completely native to
a CRM platform, like Steelbrick and Apttus to
Salesforce.com, and cannot be used unless
you’re currently utilizing that CRM. Others
are integrated into CRMs to varying degrees,
mostly with the ability to jump directly into
an order configuration straight from the
opportunity tab of a CRM.
The leading crop of next-generation CPQs,
however, offer the flexibility to integrate
directly into leading CRMs or stand alone as
independent quoting and ordering solutions
for industries where CRMs are uneccessary.
Once you’ve settled on options that fit your
particular CRM or non-CRM needs, the simple
question becomes: Is this software my team
will actually want to use?
Modern salespeople expect simple interfaces
and mobile-capability. While legacy CPQ
suffers from crowded screens, dated UX,
extended learning curves for sales reps and
a lack of mobility, the next generation of CPQ
can offer user experiences on par with best-
of-breed consumer software.
03 FLEXIBILITY
QUESTIONSTOASKOF YOURPOTENTIALCPQ
ཛྷཛྷ Does this application make my
employees day-to-day easier or
more complicated?
ཛྷཛྷ Does this application have Guided
Selling features, so I can always be
confident that my reps are making
the right offer, no matter their level
of experience?
ཛྷཛྷ Does this solution meet the needs
of my current or future CRM
needs?
ཛྷཛྷ Does this application function
seamlessly across all devices?
ཛྷཛྷ How quickly could I get my team
up and selling with this software?

5. 04 CUSTOMER EXP.
CPQ Buyer’s Guide
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Next-level CPQ
applications
can help sales
teams close on
30 percent more
of their quotes.
“
Modern customers expect a modern, seamless sales process.
Most legacy CPQs can help the sales rep
deliver a quicker sales experience to their
customer, but stop short of serving as a
presentation tool that can engage prospects
through the sales process and help close
deals.
A new development among leading mobile
CPQs is the ability to engage face-to-face
customers during the sale with interactive
catalogs and live pricing and discounting.
With their CPQ opened on a tablet or phone,
a sales rep can walk a prospect through
the configuration process with rich product
images and click-to-read descriptions as they
build their order.
With pricing reflected live on-screen and the
ability to send an instant proposal or e-sign
approval on the spot, delays are eliminated
and a sales rep never has to disengage from
the prospect.
The benefits of improving the customer
experience through CPQ go a long way
towards improving close rates. Evidence
shows that next-level CPQ applications help
sales teams close on 30% more of their
quotes.
With the next generation of CPQ, expect that
number to increase as deals can be closed
on the spot through e-signature, and quotes
and proposals can be sent instantly from any
device.

6. With many companies facing a drought of IT
resources, business leaders have displayed
a preference for flexible simplicity over
exhaustive customization. When choosing a
CPQ solution, buyers are faced with a choice
between two options: unlimited functionality
that demands a large sacrifice of resources,
or agile flexibility with streamlined admin.
The benefits of the latter option often
impacts how sucessfully a company can
differentiate in the market, as sales teams can
move into gaps twice as fast as competitors
due to their go-to-market flexibility.
CPQ Buyer’s Guide
The quality of your products and services
go a long way towards determining how
competitive your company is, but so does
your speed to market. Simply put, if you can
bring new products, services and prices to
market before your competition, you will gain
the edge.
It’s the promise of vastly reduced go-to-
market cycles that makes the next level
of CPQ attractive to a wider variety of
companies.
Whereas it could take months to introduce
new products and services with some CPQ
solutions due to a profusion of rules and
workflows, new CPQ applications have
simplified the process of implementing
changes in real-time.
The new class of CPQ applications have
completely streamlined the excessive admin
that defines most traditional CPQs. New
products can be added in a matter of hours,
with easy drag-and-place category and
package configurations replacing complex
algorithms and code writing.
GO-TO-MARKET CYCLES
In business, as in life, timing is everything.
05 MARKET CYCLES

7. CPQ Buyer’s Guide
PRICING&
START-UP TIME
The most straightforward section of our Buyer’s Guide.
There are three factors to consider when
evaluating the actual cost of any CPQ solution:
ཛྷཛྷ What is the actual per-seat license fee?
(Why do so many CPQ providers keep their
licensing fees hidden from public view?)
ཛྷཛྷ How many full-time employees are required
to administer the application for the sales
team?
ཛྷཛྷ What percentage of customers contract
implmentation through a third-party
consulting firm?
The next generation of CPQs have drastically
varied the amount of time and resources
required to implement and manage solutions.
Whereas most legacy applications require
at least two full-time admins and are
implemented by third parties at a rate of 70%,
the streamlined nature of the latest CPQs have
reduced most of those barriers to entry.
06 IMPLEMENTATION
LEGACY CPQ
Majority of legacy
CPQ solutions require
at least two full-time
admin employees
Legacy CPQ applications
are implemented by
third-party consultants
at a rate of 70%
Can be implemented
and managed out of the
box by a sales or sales
operations manager
≥2 7/10
NEXT GEN CPQ

8. The days of manual configure-price-quote are over. Build sales
orders and send proposals from any device, anywhere.
Swarm is transforming configure-price-quote software
by making it ... easy. With an award-winning user experience,
out-of-the-box implementation and streamlined admin,
Swarm breaks new ground by making CPQ uncomplicated
and affordable.
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OUT-OF-THE-BOXCPQ