By
Jyoti Tejpal
Free quotation, proposal management Invoices software Free CRM with unlimited quotes and invoices Fully customizable Powerful tools of multiple currency Support taxes Automatic numbering Product catalog Email marketing
Fully integrated Customizable Open-source suite of business applications Sales CRM Project Management Manufacturing, Inventory Accounting and other business All in one software Designed for companies of various sizes and budgets
Ideal tool Cost-effectively displaying Product Configurators Product with technology Parametric design can enable new possibilities for the company Good for needs of companies of all sizes and budgets
Build, track, and eSign your docs all in one place using legally binding online signatures
Online quoting tool Allows to accept quotes instantly, Integrates with Xero and QuickBooks Online
Easy-to-use quoting Proposal solution enabling companies of all sizes to streamline sales process
It is a fantastic tool for building and managing sales opportunities and quotes. The quote visibility and access to online sync resources is super helpful in our quoting process. The sales team couldn’t operate without Quotewerks any longer. It has become integral to operations.
Pros: QuoteWerks can see if and when the customer sees the quote. When users look into the product, they had received a quote from QuoteWerks sales rep, and it had been ignored and was expired. They opened the quote a few weeks later to take a quick look at it, and 15 minutes later, they got a phone call from their sales rep. “We see you opened this expired quote. We wanted to answer any questions for you and get an updated quote if you are still interested.” That sealed the deal for the user. Then users found out all of the other amazing things they could do and loved it every day. It has quickly paid for itself many times over.
Cons: Quotewerks must run locally. There is a web version in development, but it is still pretty green. If the user needs to use it remotely, they will need either Terminal Services or VPN to access it. The Quote Valet add-on gives it some web connectivity features which help view existing quotes and respond to customers, but not necessarily for building new quotes. Once they get the web version finished, that should help with this a lot. The product can also be a little bit kludgy to learn at first. It’s been around for a long time, so some of the interfaces is a bit old-fashioned.
It is suitable for SM businesses, very effective where you have your development team. Mostly every business/ERP aspect is available. Odoo is just incredible; the overall experience users had with Odoo during the last nine years is very positive.
Pros: The most exciting and brilliant thing about Odoo is its framework and how easy we can to develop it. Apps are just easy to study and well documented. Easy to install, every module functionalities available, comprehensive support on google, its good for SMEs, an excellent feature to track and control finance, inventory, sale and purchase. Strategic, tactic and operation roles are added in parts, and user can formulate the business needs accordingly. Odoo hosted is incredible. Its features are robust and straightforward. It’s easy to start experimenting with new integrated technologies and then turn them on in production as it makes sense economically as they scale the business. It’s high-quality open-source software written in Python and leveraging PostgreSQL for the database. Also, they have friendly and very knowledgeable support staff that are there to help succeed without any high-pressure tactics. They are in it with the user for the long term.
Cons: – Luck of technical and functional documentation ( functional is getting better faster than technological). – Luck of automated migrations tools ( a pain for customers too ). – Odoo still making significant changes to its core apps, making all the modules obsolete very quickly. – Partnership model is tough to keep the same label (e.g. silver or gold) after a year or so if you can’t get more users. Customization is not easy, even less active on GitHub. It’s not so speedy, and modules are integrated mixed with local and internet. It should be either local or internet, the price is higher, and customization is also costly to limited support/development documentation.
This is an excellent piece of software. Optimistic, to say the least. It has served users to grow their business from basic configuration to complete branding projects of five figures. Service people are friendly and responsive. But this product should not be a released product for a reason cited above. They say they will put the product improvement idea “read a last name merge field”? in as a suggested feature for some future release, but if they have made any improvements to their product over the last two years, which users have not seen. Some of them are currently looking for a new program. Very limited, extremely basic quoting program without many features others have had for 15 years.
Pros: Customer support responds quickly, but users can’t do that often with the answer—an integral piece of software in the tech stack for job management. Quotient feeds seamlessly into Xero, matching quote numbers, job numbers and invoice numbers and making client management (at least in this area!) completely painless. One of the best investments some of the existing customers has made in their business is undoubtedly one of the best investments.
Cons: It does not have many of the most basic features: Like a last name merge field. Very limited on how users can format their quotes, fonts, and colour of everything. Putting in hyperlinking is little, and many of the things users can do, users have to do with code. Again really? Do you have to enter a code to change the colour of a font? What is this the early 80s? Not too many – the team is very responsive to issues and feedback. Some more integrations could be done, but honestly, it’s not a bad thing to keep quoting separate. In various users’ experience, it’s better to have four pieces of software that are good at what they do rather than have one element that is ordinary at four things. The quotient is good.
CPQ software is practised by sales professionals to offer cost evaluations and estimates for custom orders, in the context of a built-to-order manufacturing process. With a CPQ solution, a sales associate can use provisions, order volume, and other details from the client to estimate the spot. It is critical to streamline the sales process and guarantee that sales presumptions do not fall through the cracks because they did not receive a prompt evaluation.
CPQ software frequently combines with a manufacturer’s customer connection management (CRM) system, and in some cases with their material necessities planning (MRP) system, further streamlining the sales-to-manufacturing method. The CPQ solution might be one module within a more comprehensive CRM or MRP suite in other circumstances.
Although each system is likely to have the unique characteristics that may make it a better or worse fit for your business, there are many core features common to most CPQ solutions.
Analytics: Provides comprehensive reports and data, typically in a dashboard setup, sales KPIs, and other market metrics of how the CPQ system has been used in the past. Some programs can do forecasting or other imminent analytics to gauge prospective sales and configurations.
Guided selling: Sales professionals can automatically find fitting products based on their needs and requirements.
Price and quote: The core feature of a CPQ system, price and selection initiates the price based on a client’s requirements and addresses the section.
Renewal management: Helps sales professionals in maintaining needed orders or renewed orders with the clients.
Product configuration: Permits businesses to set logic rules for how products can be configured and what quality of customization a client can choose.
Mobile compatibility: Many CPQ programs allow mobile compatible apps for sales specialists that are on the go. These apps are regularly just as completely featured as their desktop equivalents.
Most modern CPQ practices are cloud-based and typically priced as monthly dues, based on the size of the buyer’s market or the number of named users.
Easier deployment is accessed online, rather than established on the users’ local servers.
Shorter implementation time for the same reason as above.
Automatic updates pushed out by the businessperson rather than the user having to connect updates themselves manually.
However, some CPQ software sellers might contribute to CPQ software hosted on-premise and priced as a perpetual license. Typically with perpetual licenses, regardless, annual fees for support and maintenance still apply.
Nevertheless, be aware that the total cost of ownership (TCO) of subscription-based products tends to converge with persistent license-based products over time. While you’ll pay less upfront for a subscription, the subscription fee reappears monthly. With a perpetual license, recurring payments are much more inexpensive and tend to be less frequent (e.g. annual fees for support or upgrades). Check out our TCO computer tool to learn more or compare costs of specific products.
