In case you missed it, Tacton was recognized in the Leaders Quadrant in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Configure, Price and Quote Applications. This is the second consecutive year we have been named a Leader, and the sixth year in a row we have made the quadrant.  

With back-to-back acknowledgments as a leader, we have demonstrated our commitment to innovation and customer-centricity in delivering our cutting-edge CPQ solution. With 31% of manufacturers dealing with quality issues when quoting their products, many businesses are looking into how CPQ can revolutionize their quoting process. Let’s delve into the reasons behind Tacton’s consistent recognition and explore how we continue to redefine the CPQ landscape. 

The #1 CPQ for manufacturing 

Tacton CPQ is the top choice for manufacturers due to its unmatched configurability, seamless engineering integration, and guided selling capabilities. By providing real-time visibility into supply chain operations and personalized customer experiences, Tacton CPQ empowers manufacturers to optimize sales performance, drive operational efficiency, and foster stronger customer relationships. Tacton CPQ enables manufacturers to adapt to changing market dynamics and achieve long-term success in today’s competitive landscape. 

Being #1 for manufacturing isn’t something we take lightly; we are helping manufacturers achieve improvements in quoting, sales and profit based on a Tacton customer value study:  

Unparalleled product architecture  

Tacton’s unparalleled product architecture stems from its modularized design, which offers both vertical and horizontal scaling capabilities. This architecture allows businesses to seamlessly adapt Tacton CPQ to their evolving needs without disruptions to ongoing sales operations. The flexibility of Tacton CPQ’s architecture ensures that changes can be made swiftly and seamlessly, ensuring that no sales deal is ever interrupted due to IT-related tasks.  

Tacton CPQ architecture minimizes the burden on IT departments, as maintenance tasks are predominantly managed by the business users themselves. This empowerment of the business side not only reduces dependency on IT resources but also accelerates the implementation of changes, updates, and enhancements to the CPQ environment.  

As a result of the product architecture, Tacton CPQ boasts exceptional performance, effortlessly handling large system configurations, intricate pricing models, and generating quotes with remarkable efficiency. Its robust design ensures swift processing and optimization, empowering businesses to streamline their sales processes while maintaining accuracy and reliability even in the face of complex configurations and pricing scenarios. 

The product architecture of Tacton CPQ stands out as a solution where the agility and efficiency of the business are prioritized, ensuring uninterrupted sales processes and maximizing overall productivity. 

Continuous, and timely product features 

At Tacton we’ve unveiled several updates to our flagship product, Tacton CPQ, solidifying our position as the most comprehensive CPQ software tailored for manufacturers. Among the notable releases were Tacton CPQ Data Import Automation and Tacton Product Validations, which streamline processes and ensure accuracy in configuration.  

Additionally, Tacton introduced an enhanced version of its Salesforce integration, enhancing seamless data flow and collaboration. 

We’ve also made strides in Environmental Footprint Configuration and System Configuration, aligning with the growing focus on sustainability and operational efficiency. As sustainability becomes a larger focus for manufacturers, Environmental Footprint Configuration will help companies deal with conscious buyers and adhere to impending climate legislations.  

Proven track record of customer success across industries

Our proven track record, expertise in complex configurable manufacturing, and strong industry fit in sectors like food processing, industrial machinery, and specialty vehicles bolster confidence in our customers. We’re able to work with leading companies because of our ability to address the unique challenges and complexities faced by manufacturers.  

With our robust configurability and scalability, Tacton CPQ empowers manufacturers to efficiently manage intricate product configurations and streamline sales processes, resulting in faster quoting cycles and improved customer satisfaction. Moreover, our platform agnostic integrations to CAD, CRM, and ERP systems ensure seamless data flow and collaboration across departments, enhancing operational efficiency and accuracy.  

Additionally, our focus on innovation, coupled with our commitment to customer-centricity, enables us to continually adapt to evolving industry trends and customer needs, solidifying our position as the preferred CPQ solution for manufacturers seeking to drive growth and competitiveness in today’s dynamic market landscape. 

In closing 

Customer demand is at an all-time high, and manufacturers are taking notice and adding new solutions to help them quote and create better customer experiences. We couldn’t be happier to be the trusted configuration partner of manufacturers such as TCP Wire, HMF Crane, Swift Lifts and more. Find out how CPQ can take your operation to the next level by reading our free eBook, “CPQ – A Mandatory Enterprise Solution for Sales Quoting” or schedule a quick chat with our experts!  

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What is CPQ for Renewable Energy Manufacturing?

The demand for energy has never been higher in human history, this demand is driving countries across the globe to find new ways to produce energy. While the energy sector has historically been dominated by natural gas and coal there has been a sharp increase in renewable energy sources. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power will on average meet more than 90% of the increase in global demand by 2025. 

What are some common quoting challenges for renewable energy equipment manufacturers?

With a new emphasis on renewable energy sources, manufacturers who produce these products, such as wind turbines, will need to find solutions that help them easily sell their products. This isn’t an easy task, manufacturers face a multitude of challenges, from intricate product configurations to dynamic pricing models. Amidst these complexities, efficiency and accuracy are paramount.

How can CPQ help renewable energy equipment manufacturers sell faster?

Enter Tacton Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) – a game-changer for renewable energy manufacturers seeking to streamline their operations and accelerate growth in this burgeoning industry.  At its core, Tacton CPQ is a robust software solution designed to simplify the complexities of configuring, pricing, and quoting renewable energy systems. Whether it’s solar panels, wind turbines, or energy storage solutions, Tacton CPQ empowers manufacturers to navigate the intricacies of product customization with ease and precision. 

Dynamic pricing models

Tacton CPQ offers unparalleled flexibility in pricing models. In the dynamic renewable energy market, pricing structures can vary based on factors such as geographic location, government incentives, and project specifications.

One example of government incentives is the European Union’s “carbon tariff” – the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).  This incentive is designed to level the playing field between EU companies that have strict environmental rules and foreign businesses that can sell cheaper exports partially thanks to lower sustainability regulatory requirements. When CBAM enters into force in January 2026, carbon-intensive EU importers of some materials or components will be mandated to purchase carbon certificates.  

Management consulting firm BCG estimates the EU tax could increase the cost of materials made by more carbon-intensive producers, such as China, Russia, and India by 15% to 30% overnight. This potential is causing manufacturers to reevaluate their supplier management strategy based on the location of select vendors. 

These incentives highlight how Tacton CPQ can adapt to different constraints (in this case, local regulations) seamlessly, enabling manufacturers to create tailored pricing models that align with their business goals and market dynamics. 

Accurate quotes with CPQ for Renewable Energy Manufacturing

Perhaps most importantly, Tacton CPQ revolutionizes the quoting process for renewable energy manufacturers. Generating accurate quotes in a timely manner is essential for securing sales and maintaining customer satisfaction. Tacton CPQ streamlines this process, allowing manufacturers to generate comprehensive quotes with just a few clicks. By automating manual tasks and eliminating errors, Tacton CPQ accelerates the sales cycle and enables manufacturers to capitalize on opportunities more effectively. 

Integrations

Tacton CPQ integrates seamlessly with existing enterprise systems, providing a unified platform for managing sales, production, and customer data. This integration enhances collaboration across departments, streamlines communication, and ensures consistency throughout the manufacturing process. 

Enhanced customer experience with visual configuration

An additional advantage of Tacton CPQ is its advanced visualization capabilities. The software allows manufacturers to create interactive 3D models and visualizations of renewable energy systems, providing customers with a clear understanding of the final product. These visualizations not only enhance the customer experience but also facilitate better communication between manufacturers and clients, leading to faster decision-making and increased sales. Check out how we visualize a windmill here!

In an industry driven by innovation and sustainability, Tacton CPQ emerges as a catalyst for growth and success. By empowering manufacturers to streamline operations, enhance accuracy, and accelerate sales, Tacton CPQ enables renewable energy manufacturers to thrive in a competitive market. As the demand for renewable energy solutions continues to soar, embracing technology-driven solutions like Tacton CPQ is essential for driving progress and shaping the future of energy. 

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The future of AI and CPQ is playing out rapidly

Manufacturers are always looking for new and innovative ways to sell their products. With tough competition and changing customer profile it’s important to find ways to stay competitive. One solution many are turning to is Configure, Price, Quote software.  

CPQ solutions have long been instrumental in simplifying complex sales processes. By automating the configuration, pricing, and quoting tasks, CPQ empowers sales teams to create accurate quotes quickly, ensuring consistency and reducing errors. As an industry leader, Tacton has been helping manufacturers transform their sales process for over 25 years. We are always looking for ways to grow to our customer demands. That said, we, like many, have seen the explosion of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the last year.  

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, Artificial Intelligence and the emergence of AI are reshaping the sales landscape, promising unprecedented levels of efficiency, personalization, and innovation.  

In a recent Tacton survey, 59% of manufacturers showed some level of excitement for new tools that can help streamline their process. But with that excitement 20% of respondents are also very cautious about the future. This nuanced spectrum of sentiments underscores the importance of responsibly navigating the integration of AI in manufacturing, ensuring that its potential benefits are harnessed ethically for the industry’s continued advancement. 

While Tacton acknowledges the potential of AI and Gen AI trends, it recognizes the importance of looking beyond the hype and adopting a thoughtful approach to innovation. This symbiotic relationship between AI and CPQ is not just a trend; it’s a fundamental shift that promises to revolutionize sales processes and enhance overall business performance. Let’s take a deeper look at the future of AI and CPQ. 

AI: Empowering Intelligent Decision-Making 

Artificial Intelligence, with its ability to analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns, is becoming the cornerstone of modern business operations. In the realm of sales, AI-driven insights are invaluable for understanding customer behavior, predicting market trends, and optimizing pricing strategies. By leveraging AI algorithms, businesses can uncover hidden opportunities, personalize offerings, and streamline sales processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness. 

CPQ: Streamlining Sales Operations 

Tacton CPQ streamlines the sales process by offering an intuitive platform for quick and accurate product configuration, automated pricing optimization, and efficient generation of customized quotes and proposals. Its seamless integration with other business systems ensures data consistency and real-time access to information, while collaborative features enable cross-departmental communication and visibility into the sales pipeline. By providing superior customer experience through personalized solutions and timely responses, Tacton CPQ empowers sales teams to drive revenue growth, exceed customer expectations, and build lasting relationships. 

The Future Integration: AI-Powered CPQ

The marriage of AI and CPQ represents the next frontier in sales technology. By embedding AI capabilities into CPQ solutions, businesses can unlock unprecedented levels of efficiency, agility, and intelligence across the entire sales cycle.

Here are some potential capabilities of CPQ and AI:

Enhanced Product Configuration:

AI algorithms can analyze customer preferences, past purchases, and market trends to recommend the most relevant product configurations in real-time. This not only accelerates the configuration process but also ensures that offerings are tailored to individual customer needs, driving higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction. 

Dynamic Pricing Optimization: 

AI-powered CPQ solutions can analyze a myriad of factors, including market demand, competitor pricing, and customer behavior, to dynamically adjust pricing strategies in real-time. By optimizing prices based on current market conditions and individual customer profiles, businesses can maximize profitability while remaining competitive. 

Intelligent Quoting and Proposal Generation:

With AI-driven predictive analytics, CPQ systems can generate personalized quotes and proposals that resonate with each customer’s unique preferences and buying behavior. By automating the creation of compelling sales collateral, sales teams can focus their efforts on building relationships and closing deals, rather than getting bogged down by administrative tasks. 

Predictive Sales Analytics:

By analyzing historical sales data and customer interactions, AI-powered CPQ solutions can provide valuable insights into future sales opportunities, allowing businesses to anticipate customer needs, identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and proactively address potential challenges. 

 The Road Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities for AI and CPQ 

While the future of AI-powered CPQ holds immense promise, businesses must also navigate potential challenges such as data privacy concerns, algorithm bias, and user adoption barriers. As AI technologies continue to evolve, there is a constant need for ongoing innovation, education, and collaboration to harness their full potential effectively. 

In closing

As businesses strive to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive marketplace, the integration of AI and CPQ emerges as a game-changer for sales and beyond. By leveraging the power of AI to augment CPQ capabilities, businesses can unlock new levels of efficiency, agility, and intelligence, driving sustainable growth and delivering superior customer experiences. As we journey into the future, embracing this transformative synergy will be essential for businesses looking to thrive in the digital age. 

In manufacturing to beat out the competition it’s important to enhance the customer experience in every way possible. One place that customers want to see change is how they get support for their unique issues. With inefficient processes leading the charge for customer issues, it’s important to nail how you support individuals who need help. It is essential to support your customers, so they keep coming back for more purchases.

Customers also want a place where they can configure the products they want to purchase. One way to eliminate these inefficiencies is to offer self-service where customers can find answers while also building their orders.  67% of people prefer self-service over speaking to sales reps, making it important to offer the people what they want.

What is self-service?

Customer self-service is a place where customers can get instant answers and fixes for their issues with your product. Offering self-service can help take the pressure off your support team by offering an alternative to calling or emailing. Self-service can also offer a place to showcase and purchase. Having a great self-service gives your customers a sense of control over the process instead of feeling helpless. Offering a mobile-enabled self-service app will also allow your customers to work out their problems from anywhere, at any time.

Self-service can also be used to sell your products, something that used to be difficult with complex product configuration. Now it’s possible to allow your customers to build their own quote for your custom products. Allowing your customers to build what they want on their own time will keep them engaged with your product.

Online self-service can also be a powerful marketing tool. Having a great self-service will keep customers engaged with your company by enabling a place for support and also products and customer success stories.

What is the problem without Self-Service?

Customers are more online than they’ve ever been and they want products and answers fast. Having a helpline with limited hours doesn’t help because everyone’s been on hold, leading to frustration. The B2B buyers want convenience, they don’t want to wait on the phone for answers.

Without a self-service option, it makes customers more likely to tie up your sales team with questions. With self-service, it’s possible to send customers somewhere that your product portfolio is easily and readily available.

Emailing has made it easier to communicate quickly with users, but it takes time that the customer may not have or be willing to sacrifice. Email may also get lost in the shuffle of hundreds of other issues your support team is working on.

If your business only offers the old ways of doing this, you may lose business to the competition that offers an online self-service. Consumers don’t want to rely on someone else, they want to be able to quickly address their issues. Offering an efficient way of supporting your customers without them getting on the phone or sending an email will go a long way in keeping them with your company. This impatience makes it integral to your customer experience to provide a service that allows them to get answers fast.

It’s clear that not having a self-service can cause headaches for your sales support team and customers. But what goes in the self-service is equally as important as actually having one. Without good information, your self-service will fail to help anyone. Also without a self-service shopping cart, your customers won’t be able to interact with your products.

 

What things should come with self-service?

Having the right type of features and applications on your self-service can change your customer experience.

• An online store: A place where your customers can configure, price and quote their own products.
• Knowledge articles: FAQs, product sheets, how-to articles, blogs and even customer stories can go a long way to helping your customer find a solution on their own, while also showing your additional features quickly and effectively.
• Demo videos: Offering a visual of common problems can help customers who are more likely to watch a short how-to video instead of reading a long-form problem-solving article.
• Community forums: This may not be essential to all good self-service, but it’s something worth discussing. Offering a place where your different customers can interact with each other to crowdsource answers to problems can go a long way to solving different issues. These forums may require moderation which may make having this feature be more of a headache.
• Somewhere to submit a ticket: This would be the last option, allowing your customers to submit an issue that they weren’t able to solve in the self-service. This can help streamline your processes by having one place for all tickets to go through instead of having a long phone call or an email chain.

For many years now, Tacton has been offering omnichannel sales to B2b Manufacturing companies, empowering them to bring the power of Configure-Price-Quote technologies not only to Direct Sales, but also to their partners and end-customers.

If you want to learn more on how Tacton CPQ Omnichannel makes self-service sales achievable – even for highly individualized industrial products – head over to our web page or schedule your personal demo today!