Table of Contents:
Salesforce and Conga (formerly Apttus) in 2022
What is Conga CPQ?
Conga (formerly Apttus) is a software provider whose portfolio includes groundbreaking Quote-to-Cash software tools like E-commerce, Contract Management, and the Conga CPQ. Let’s focus on the latter. Quote-to-cash (QTC) software is an end-to-end solution that manages all business processes throughout the entire sales lifecycle from purchase through service delivery to billing.
Conga CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) utilizes an AI platform with smart features related to products, prices, and service offerings. It provides enterprises with reliable and precise real-time quotes and enables sales teams to cross-sell while reducing the time needed to provide pricing, and minimizing erroneous quotes. This way, Conga CPQ improves deal quality, which inevitably improves the overall customer experience and positively impacts sales.
Conga (formerly Apttus) is an industry trailblazer, and its award-winning solution is easily the leading Quote-to-Cash software in business. The quality of its product offerings and the range of its CPQ functionalities are the reasons why it has put its stamp on the market. So, how does the competition fare?
What is Salesforce CPQ?
Salesforce CPQ is a Configure Price Quote tool by Salesforce and is also among the CRM cloud software leaders. This solution is another good example of a quote-to-cash platform and provides enterprises with agile and precise price quotes in accordance with specific product features, customizations, discounts, etc.
The Salesforce CPQ applications can manage any business process as it is designed to manage business relationships with customers. The mainly cloud-based software is easy to use and accessible from anywhere, anytime.
Conga CPQ vs Salesforce CPQ
Scalefocus CPQ is native to the Salesforce platform and automates the quote generation, order management, and contract processes. While powered by Artificial Intelligence, Conga CPQ is also native to the Salesforce platform, which makes it similar to Salesforce CPQ in terms of product capabilities. What are the differences, then?
For starters, Conga CPQ supports the Windows app platform, whereas Salesforce CPQ has additional iPhone app support. The companies Conga partners with are mainly medium and large-sized, while Salesforce also has customers of smaller caliber. Unlike Conga CPQ, Salesforce CPQ comes with a free trial period, its customer support quality is better, and it is easier to use and set up.
On the other hand, Conga (formerly Apttus) has a more flexible pricing strategy, gives more discounts, and provides live customer support and online training in addition to the standard support over the phone. The Salesforce price model is based on annual subscription versus the quote-based model of Conga.
Feature-wise, Salesforce CPQ boasts lead management, proposal generation, and revenue recognition. Some of the biggest pros of Conga CPQ are the cross-sell, upsell, and discount recommendations, as well as the guided quote creation. Therefore, it is ideal for configuring prices and vendor quotes, as well as tracking and improving sales metrics.
Available features
Both Conga and Salesforce CPQ boast a number of useful features, check the table for full details.
Conga CPQ | Salesforce CPQ |
Multiple quoting | Set a price and give a quote |
Guided quote creation | Proposal generator |
Quote scoring | Keep track of orders and renewals |
Necessary approval workflow | Manage contracts |
Upsell and cross-sell recommendations | Product configurator |
Change price | Subscription billing and other payments |
Price or discount recommendations | Guided selling assistance |
Commission calculation | Revenue recognition and sales tax management |
Conga CPQ Objects vs Salesforce CPQ Objects
Salesforce CPQ does not utilize custom objects. It only uses standard objects such as price books, orders, order products, and assets and maps to standard and custom fields. Copying and pasting sales deals is eliminated altogether.
Unlike Salesforce CPQ, Conga CPQ does not utilize standard articles, price books, or price entries. It does, however, use custom order objects, order products, and contacts, to name a few. The Conga tool also gives more flexibility to its users as they can quickly test and deploy new pricing models.
Conga Integration with Salesforce
You can upgrade Salesforce with Conga Omni as the Salesforce cloud platform’s scalability and security are second to none. This way, the Conga tool can leverage the vast majority of the Salesforce features like multiple currencies and languages, mobile access, or analytics.
Top 5 Benefits of CPQ Platforms
CPQ tools empower sales executives to base price quotes on up-to-date pricing structures. This enables them to see the big picture, explore different aspects of a project, and increase their efficiency and flexibility, which benefits the entire company’s sales strategy.
CPQ facilitates automation of the price quote process and closes CRM gaps. This minimizes delays and the number of errors during the quote creation process.
An accelerated and error-proof price quote process increases win rates and minimizes the challenges to overcome while turning a potential lead into a customer. This inevitably boosts the sales team’s performance and increases the company’s revenue.
Real-time updates of product-related information and pricing structures within the company optimize sales processes and visibility to grow the sales channel. It is not the data size, but the data accuracy that matters, and the CPQ software improves data quality to a great extent.
Conga CPQ features facilitate upsells and cross-sells with its timely and precise recommendations. Increasing the size of the deals is among the significant factors that make the platform a wise investment.
Conga and Salesforce CPQ at Scalefocus
The Salesforce team at Scalefocus has vast experience in both Salesforce and Conga (formerly Apttus) implementation projects. It consists of software developers, consultants, and technical and solution architects.
The Solution Architect is responsible for creating the solution design and the overall implementation. The consultants are the link between our customers and the dev team.
After the SA and Consultants have handled the initial phase, it is the Technical Architect and developers’ turn to come up with a detailed solution, using configuration, process automation, Apex programming language, etc.
At the moment, the team is focused on the Salesforce modules like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Community Cloud.
Conclusion
When it comes to CPQ platforms, Conga and Salesforce are undoubtedly the cream of the crop. Even better, Conga CPQ can be integrated with Salesforce and inherit its functionalities while upgrading it with its own unique features like upsell, cross-sell, and discount recommendations. CPQ solutions successfully automate the price quote process which increases agility, accuracy, and ultimately – revenue.
Scalefocus’s expertise in both Salesforce and Conga (formerly Apttus) CPQ has made us a go-to service provider for numerous companies of all nationalities and sizes. It really comes as no surprise – enterprises need tech-savvy, problem-solving, process-minded people to tackle their Salesforce and Conga projects and take their sales processes to the next level.
Do not hesitate to contact us, we can’t wait to hear from you and discuss your latest projects and how we can contribute to their solution!
Krasimir Kunchev
Senior Content Writer
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