Build vs. Buy: The Real Benefit of Third- Party Product Selectors and CPQ

“Why would we buy your Selector or CPQ software when we could just build it ourselves?”

This is a common question we hear from our customers who have spent years honing a grassroots product selector and configurator in-house. While a homegrown solution has undoubtedly saved you a lot of time and money compared to spreadsheets and other manual processes, they may have also cost you far more than they’re worth.

The Limits of In-House Solutions

Whether you’re considering building your own product selector and configurator, or you’re already using an in-house solution, there are certain limitations you need to be aware of before discounting third-party CPQ software completely.

Lack of Resources And Expertise

Building a Selector or CPQ solution may seem like a quick, easy task for your internal team, but once you consider the resources required to successfully build and maintain the solution, you may realize it doesn’t make sense for your business. Here are a few things you’ll need:
  • A team of programmers
  • Domain experts
  • Project management
  • User training
  • Integrations
  • The resources to maintain the solution into perpetuity
Skipping out on these resources isn an option, unless you want to seriously undermine your productivity and accuracy.

High Buildout and Maintenance Costs

Deciding to build vs. buy an SCPQ solution often comes down to cost. Do you want to pay a vendor or boot-strap a project yourself? Here are some things you’ll need to do if you decide to build it yourself:
  • Develop the runtime application
  • Develop the data model
  • Oversee maintenance
  • Develop the secure hosting environment
On top of all of that, you will also need maintenance teams, such as user support, development, and integration support, as long as you have the solution. And that’s just to get you started.

Loss of In-House Resources

Every team inevitably has their in-house expert — and that expert knows everything about the company’s products, processes, and how to manage their IT systems, including the homegrown selector. But eventually, the expert retires or takes another job. Without them, who at your company has the knowledge and ability to maintain the solution? In many cases, you’ll have to call a third-party CPQ software vendor to get you out of this bind.

Finding an SCPQ Partner Is Your Best Bet

As a manufacturer, you provide the best solutions to meet your customers’ needs. But when it comes to CPQ software, while you may have the ability to create your own solutions, is that where your company’s core competencies reside?

Revalize delivers a complete mechanical equipment selection and quoting solution built to handle unique challenges while connecting with front- and back-office platforms. Our platform’s out-of-the-box SCPQ capabilities surpass those of other vendors and are more cost-effective than building it yourself. These capabilities include:
  • A tightly integrated Selector to our CPQ tool, which can integrate with your existing ERP, CRM, and others
  • A mobile-responsive solution
  • Performance test tolerances
  • Performance curves, true weighted efficiency, and units of measure all built in
  • The ability to create performance data sheets and curves
  • BI reporting and analytics of products selected in the tool
  • 19 languages and international currencies built in
We set the standard for equipment selection, configuration, pricing, and quoting with built-in capabilities no homegrown or horizontal vendor’s solution can match. Just because you can build an in-house selector and CPQ doesn’t mean it will help you. Schedule a free demo to experience the impact that Revalize can have on your operation right out of the box.
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