beckman coulter's cpq journey
TRANSCRIPT
Beckman Coulter’s CPQ Journey
Minh Diep CRM IT Applications Architect and CPQ Developer
April 3, 2015
Agenda
Intro
Beckman Coulter before CPQ
Life with CPQ
• The Good
• The Bad
Re-Architecting CPQ for performance, flexibility,
and metrics
Q& A
Who Am I?
Minh Diep
Beckman Coulter
Applications Architect and CPQ Developer for IT
7+ years working with BigMachines CPQ platform
Simplify, automate, and integrate systems and
process
Who are We?
Beckman Coulter is a global company specialized in
manufacturing biomedical hardware, software, and tests
for clinical diagnostics and life science research.
Over 130 countries with 11,000+ employees
What Do We Do?
We produce equipment and tests to analyze bodily
fluids for abnormalities
We also produce automated solutions to increase
both speed and accuracy of laboratory testing.
Examples
A vial of blood and/or sample of urine can be utilized
to test for various diseases, monitor hormone level,
check for drugs, and etc.
The same sample can be automated through a
series of analyzers and stored for retesting.
Complexities of our Products
The equipment and tests we produce is often viewed
as complex.
What tests are required?
How many tests does the lab require?
Specs of each test?
Are all the selected tests and parts compatible?
What quantities do we recommended?
When do we recommend one product over another?
When do we recommend a specific test size over
another
Based on selected products, what other products
are required (services, accessories, software, etc)
Can the product integrate with other products?
Complexities of our Pricing
Price by tier and membership
ATV vs ATD
Volumes vs Test vs Qty
Cost per usage programs
Lease, Surcharge, All inclusive programs
Additional membership discounts
Promos
One off discounts
Approval triggers
How did we handle quoting in the past?
Over 20 product lines each with its own home grown
quoting tool
MS Word
MS Excel
MS Access
Lotus Notes
Pen/Paper
Phone
Manual entry
How were the tools managed?
All managed by various groups (Marketing, Sales,
Finance, IT)
No standardization
No integration
No automation
Resulted in a lot of manual work and validation
Were the tools integrated?
Push and replace version to users
Product - New versions, manual sync....
Accounts - New versions, manual sync....
Quotes/Contracts - MANUAL ENTRY
Approval workflow?
Unmanaged approval emails
Manual check to verify email approvals
Validate pricing?
Nation Accounts had over 170 pricing
agreements stored in non-standardized
formats and structure (excel, pdf, word, with
various structures)
Manual look up and entry
Manual checks and validation
Manual email approval
Built in logic for each applications
Quote output?
Created differently through each applications
ie: WORD docs with fields to populate
Lots of manual edits
CPQ to the Rescue!
Standardize / Centralize quoting
Integrate systems and process
Improve maintenance
Reduce manual entry
Improve accuracy
Improve quote turn around time
Implementing BigMachines CPQ
Launched in Q4 2009
23 Unique Configurators created
Database created to house over 170 pricing
agreements for Nation Accounts
Commerce logic created to pull account affiliated
pricing and calculate pricing (surcharge, lease,
rental, cost per)
Automate approval workflow based on defined
triggers
Integration with SFDC and ERP
Integration for products and accounts
The Good
Standardized configurations
Standardized commerce
Standardized documents
Automated workflow
Maintainable tables
Fully integrated system
The BAD
Rushed implementation
Poor architecture
Was too easy to create configs and add code,
therefore multiple developers were creating configs
and functions in a wasteful manner
Spaghetti code (exceeded max…)
External calls
Custom custom custom
Was difficult to maintain
SLOW
Environment became unstable and un-upgradable
What we learned
CPQ is a flexible application
Needed more leadership to streamline the process and
requirements
Provide clean architecture throughout the entire
application
Reduce / Eliminate Custom Custom Custom Code
Reduce the use of delimited strings
Manage code better
Direct feedback from end users
Starting Over
Why?
• Need a stable instance that is upgradable
• Better performance
• Flexibility for changes, enhancements, acquisitions
• Remove old / bad process implemented into the
system
• Leverage new features
• Minimize code
• Make it easier to maintain
• Metrics and Reporting
What did we do differently
Improve Architecture
Reduce / eliminate delimited strings
Reduce code and modularize functions
Redesign tables
Localize pricing data
Control queries
Pass by reference
Standardize and simply documents output
Most maintenance done via data tables
Reduce middleware
Include end users feedback
Enhancements
User Data import functionality
Pricing selection
Data maintenance
Weekly meeting with users and business
Releases every 2 weeks
Benefits
Utilize standard features
• Approvals
• Email templates
• Formulas
• Function to Function
Performance
Data mining, reporting, and metrics
Simplified UI
Maintenance
Enhancements and acquisitions
Debug and Remedy
Happy Users and Admins
Improve by Understanding Details
Profitability
Pricing variance
Approval analysis
Quote analysis
Product trends
Promo usage
Transitioning from Old to New
We were able to run dual BigMachines on a single
SFDC instance
Communicate support and cutoff dates
Communicate reasons and benefits for the re-
architecture
Data cube extract of old site
Summary
Putting it all together
• EBS Item Master and Account
• CRM (SFDC)
• Leads and Opportunities
• Quote Configuration, Pricing, Workflow
• Proposal/Quote Output
• Quote Product integration to SFDC
• SFDC report and dashbaords
• ERP Contract / Order Creation
Future
Mobile layout
Multi currency and languages
Additional regions
CPQ for other Danaher OpCo