Life. Anybody that says it’s easy is obviously not trying hard enough. And for most, work is a big part of it. People spend as much as one-third of their lives working. So, anytime you can make life easier at work, you’re ahead of the game. 

In this article, we’ll look at how CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) saves time and makes your work life easier for all departments: HR, Finance, Operations, IT, and Sales. Because the easier it is to coordinate your front-office (customer-facing) processes with your back-office (administration) processes, the easier life will be for all of your departments—and CPQ is positioned to do just that. 

Human Resources

Human Resources is the lifeblood of any successful business. If you’re not managing your employees effectively, efficiently, and effusively, you’ll lose the best ones to a company that does. Not only does HR deal with personnel–they deal with personalities. And everybody likes to be recognized and rewarded for the work they do. So, when it comes to recognizing and rewarding your personnel for a job well done–you need to know who they are and what they’ve done. 

Salesforce CPQ, in conjunction with Salesforce HR, provides that link between your sales and the people that make them. In effect, it lets your disparate departments share the information that benefits both your employees and the interdepartmental coordination it takes to manage and reward them for a job well done. 

Finance 

In business, Finance literally pays the bills. Your Finance department is responsible for managing the money that’s linked to invoicing, AR, collections, returns, discounts, promotions, and commissions.

When Salesforce Billing combines with Salesforce CPQ, your Sales and Finance departments analyze and share information between your Front Office and Back Office in a symbiotic relationship. So Sales can focus on pleasing the customer, and Finance can meet the bottom line by maximizing profits.  

Operations

If Sales generates income and finance pays the bills, what does Operations do? Basically, Operations functions as the roadmap for the entire business from point A to point B via the planning and scheduling of your entire operation. It also takes on the role of order placement and fulfillment management in the Back Office, as well as the physical inventory and warehouse management processes. 

To make life easier for your Sales teams, your Operations department needs to coordinate the end-to-end process for your entire business. That requires full integration between your Front Office and Back Office. Salesforce CPQ uses Salesforce CRM to effectively integrate your Front Office with your Back Office by automating many of the Back Office tasks that take up so much of a salesman’s time. 

By implementing Salesforce CRM, a one-third increase in productivity could be achieved. In Operations, it’s all about streamlining the process, and Salesforce has the solutions your business needs to save both time and effort in the Back Office, which frees up time for your Salespeople to concentrate on their customers.

IT

When it comes to providing the software solutions for both the Front Office and Back Office, you can either choose one software solution or multiple software solutions. The IT department manages these systems, whether they are one or multiple software platforms

Salesforce CRM provides the platform that all the business data resides on, and Salesforce CPQ is considered a native application because it accesses the CRM platforms’ data. So, from an IT perspective, there are considerable benefits to a native CPQ application. 

First of all, data security is better because the business data is stored on the CRM platform and not an external server. And the performance is better as well due to the business data and logic is all residing on the CRM platform as well. Finally, integration with other applications like Salesforce Billing becomes easier for IT as well. 

Sales

Because Salesforce CPQ is a Front Office Sales solution while HR, Finance, Operations, and IT are essentially Back Office solutions, having all of these departments’ business data residing on the Salesforce CRM platform makes life easier for everyone A single solution like Salesforce CPQ running on the Salesforce CRM platform is essentially more secure, compatible and efficient for all departments. And since Sales drives the business, why not implement Salesforce to sell your products and services?

CPQ isn’t just about bolstering your sales department. CPQ is part of a larger quote-to-cash transformation that benefits all departments. Reach out to Simplus today and find out how we make life just a little bit easier for each of your business departments.