Productization of CPQ Deployment Services
Heikkilä, Matti (2014)
Heikkilä, Matti
2014
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software market has evolved to meet the requirements of the integrated tools which automates sales processes. Most of the solutions which respond to these needs are built on top of some particular IT system. However, they have revealed their limitations and shortcomings in handling complex situations. These limitations cause difficulties and inefficiency to different phases of the sales process.
This Master of Science thesis is a preliminary study for the actual Summium CPQ service productization project. The results are used for creating comprehensive service offering so that the information gathered can be utilized from the very beginning to the closing stages and to the maintenance phase transparently in CPQ deployment projects.
Currently Summium sales operations and actual deployment projects are varying depending on the customer. There are lots of factors that are not identified and documented so that the activities could be produced in repetitive manners. Also the result is depending on the people involved in the project.
The effort of this study leads to an internal proposition how the core services should be produced. The suggestion included process chart, service standardization, tangibilization and pricing aspects. Also duplicable services were identified. All the services were depicted so that they are as easy as possible for customer to understand. This means that both the CPQ software provider and purchaser were considered deeply to have a great balance between the aspects. Also the balance between the product and services were noticed. That means there must be a good product to be sold in addition to well-productized services to support the sales operations effectively.
Created service blueprint charts provide solid base for future actions. However, currently Summium product is evolving so rapidly that some of the charts may have to be redefined already during the productization project. That may sound disappointing but the results are nonetheless quite promising because some services revealed some idealistic characteristics compared to the current state. In practice, the balance between the services and the product will be achieved after the productization project.
This Master of Science thesis is a preliminary study for the actual Summium CPQ service productization project. The results are used for creating comprehensive service offering so that the information gathered can be utilized from the very beginning to the closing stages and to the maintenance phase transparently in CPQ deployment projects.
Currently Summium sales operations and actual deployment projects are varying depending on the customer. There are lots of factors that are not identified and documented so that the activities could be produced in repetitive manners. Also the result is depending on the people involved in the project.
The effort of this study leads to an internal proposition how the core services should be produced. The suggestion included process chart, service standardization, tangibilization and pricing aspects. Also duplicable services were identified. All the services were depicted so that they are as easy as possible for customer to understand. This means that both the CPQ software provider and purchaser were considered deeply to have a great balance between the aspects. Also the balance between the product and services were noticed. That means there must be a good product to be sold in addition to well-productized services to support the sales operations effectively.
Created service blueprint charts provide solid base for future actions. However, currently Summium product is evolving so rapidly that some of the charts may have to be redefined already during the productization project. That may sound disappointing but the results are nonetheless quite promising because some services revealed some idealistic characteristics compared to the current state. In practice, the balance between the services and the product will be achieved after the productization project.