The RCA Edge: 6 Ways Revenue Cloud Advanced Revolutionizes CPQ

Thanks to Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software solutions, the days of spreadsheets, manual SKU searches, handwritten quotes, and ad-hoc discounting are long gone. By automating and standardizing the CPQ process, these solutions have significantly accelerated the Quote to Cash (QTC) lifecycle, freeing up sellers to focus on selling more and ensuring that quotes align with approved margins. However, while the first generation of CPQ solutions provided much-needed improvements, they still fell short in many areas and often required extensive customization to support certain use cases. This article provides a brief overview of some of the common CPQ challenges businesses face and how Salesforce’s latest revenue management solution, Revenue Cloud Advanced (RCA), addresses them.

Common CPQ Challenges

• Customization and scalability: Many businesses require unique configurations to support their configure, price, quote process, making out-of-the-box CPQ solutions insufficient. Scaling CPQ across multiple regions or product lines can introduce significant complexity due to the numerous dependencies involved.
• Performance and speed: Large enterprises with extensive product catalogs commonly experience slow quote generation and diminished system performance. Poorly optimized rules can further reduce CPQ efficiency, leading to delays and customer dissatisfaction.
• Lack of extensibility: Expanding, enhancing, or adapting the functionality of existing CPQ solutions often requires significant rework and can disrupt existing operations. This creates substantial barriers when introducing new sales channels, pricing models, or integrating with off-platform systems.
• Technical debt: By customizing out-of-the-box CPQ solutions to support complex product configurations or non-traditional use cases, many businesses take on technical debt. This debt can further degrade system performance and exacerbate issues related to scalability and extensibility.

While this list is far from exhaustive, it highlights a clear business need for a CPQ solution that is scalable, extensible, and adaptable to the frenetic pace of our digital business environment. This is especially true for enterprise-scale businesses with expansive product catalogs and sales teams operating in multiple regions, as well as businesses with omnichannel sales models or unique CPQ use cases.

Introducing Revenue Cloud Advanced

Salesforce launched Revenue Cloud Advanced (RCA), formerly known as Salesforce Revenue Lifecycle Management, to address these market needs as well as several others. Salesforce RCA is a comprehensive revenue management platform designed to “scale and automate the entire quote-to-cash sales process – from quoting and contracting to fulfilling an order,” as described in Salesforce’s June 2024 press release.  While RCA is much more than just a point solution for CPQ, this article focuses specifically on its benefits as a CPQ solution.

6 Ways Salesforce Revenue Cloud Advanced Transforms Traditional CPQ

1. Fully native to Salesforce: Revenue Cloud Advanced is built on the Salesforce platform, enabling it to support high transaction volume, sizeable and complex quotes and orders, and large-volume business rule data with ease.
    
2. Extended AI capabilities: Because RCA is built entirely on the Core Salesforce Platform, the platform is AI-ready, enabling businesses to leverage Salesforce’s powerful AI capabilities – including Agentforce and Einstein – to enhance the CPQ process. With RCA and Salesforce AI, sellers can generate price-optimized quotes and offer personalized product recommendations based on past purchase history, increasing their chances of closing deals.
    
3. API-first architecture: RCA is designed as a modular, composable platform, making it highly flexible and adaptable. This API-first approach allows businesses to integrate RCA with any number of complex systems and business processes, ensuring seamless operations.
    
4. Headless architecture for omnichannel sales: RCA’s headless architecture makes it an ideal platform for powering consistent omnichannel sales motions as well as supporting seamless buying journey across all channels. Watch this short video for a demonstration of RCA’s omnichannel capabilities.
    
5. Centralized product catalog and dynamic pricing engine: RCA’s centralized product catalog and dynamic pricing engine accelerate sales cycles with advanced business rules, pricing guidance, and automated approvals. The enhanced transaction line editor functionality provides sellers with a spreadsheet-like user experience directly within CPQ, further streamlining the quoting process.
    
6. Robust out-of-the-box functionality: RCA offers robust out-of-the-box functionality meaning that extensive customization is not required to support most use cases. This is a huge value point for any business as it reduces technical debt and lowers overall cost of ownership due to easier support and maintenance.

Sticking with Salesforce CPQ or Upgrading to CPQ Powered by Revenue Cloud Advanced?

As you can see, Revenue Cloud Advanced (RCA) enhances traditional Salesforce CPQ in numerous ways. However, this does not mean that Salesforce CPQ is becoming obsolete. Many companies still use the tool, and for most small- to medium-sized businesses or organizations with a direct B2B sales flow that requires minimal downstream amendments, Salesforce CPQ remains a solid choice. Where RCA truly excels is in its ability to support enterprise-scale operations, handle high transaction volumes, manage large orders and quotes, accommodate complex use cases and business rules, and deliver personalized omnichannel buying journeys. 

If you are considering whether your business should take the next step on its quote-to-cash (QTC) journey with RCA, you’re in luck. Argano has helped companies across various industries assess and validate the platform for their unique business needs. While every business is different, our Revenue Cloud advisors use the following questions to start building a business case for RCA:

• Do your revenue operations currently rely on complex revenue processes and business rules spanning multiple systems, technologies, and tools?
• Is your current CPQ solution hampering your scalability and/or capability to capitalize on growth opportunities?
• Has your CPQ solution been extensively customized to support current business requirements?
• Is revenue transformation an organizational priority?
• Do you have plans to integrate AI-driven selling motions into your revenue operations process?
• Are you looking to introduce self-service selling or buying journeys by exposing CPQ capabilities to partners or customers?

A “yes” to several of these questions might mean the time is right to begin exploring an upgrade to Salesforce RCA. You can streamline this complex process and mitigate the inherent risk of the enterprise software purchase process by working with Argano’s Revenue Cloud advisors. We leverage proven frameworks and methodologies to ensure a smooth transition. Click here to learn more or contact us today to schedule a complimentary discovery session.