How to master complex sales, product, and deal

configurations with constraint-based configurator

software

CONSTRAINTS TAKE
CONFIGURATOR SOFTWARE
TO THE NEXT LEVEL
While configurator software has long been commercially available, the maturation of
constraint-based technologies has dramatically increased the accessibility and value
of configurator software for mainstream businesses. The use of constraints in
configurator software provides an invaluable tool for enterprises to manage and sell
large, complex product portfolios more efficiently.
Constraints represent overarching restrictions on potential product combinations or
choices (e.g., components, options, or attributes) that enforce policies on selling
goods and fulfilling commitments. Constraints supersede standard sequences of
rules that normally anticipate and guide the configuration of products for various
contingencies and customer needs.
Technical advances in recent times have enabled firms to more easily render and
administer comprehensive sets of constraints that are logical and intelligible to nontechnical users. Consequently, higher standards are being achieved with system
manageability, usability, and rigor in supporting sophisticated products.
Plain and simple, better prevention of invalid outcomes in sales, product, and deal
configurations reduces burdens on firms in overseeing and updating countless rules
in configurator software tool. Superior management of large, complex rule sets, in
turn, allows more attention to be given to valued activities like honing product
offerings for target markets.

This piece reviews challenges confronting configurator software initiatives and

details the value of constraints in improving configuration processes and helping
enterprises market complex product lines.

RISING CHALLENGES FOR

CONFIGURATOR SOFTWARE
DEPLOYMENTS
Volatile business climates and growing corporate ambitions are straining the utility of
legacy configurator software installations and complicating requirements for new
investments. At risk is the capacity to effectively support existing practices, new
business strategies, and growing product complexity. Challenges manifest at three
different levels:

The quest for differentiation

Firms are seeking to tailor offerings to more finely defined market segments to drive
higher sales and profits. Consistently presenting compelling products to the right
customers is essential. However, strategies like mass customization or value-based
and solution selling require greater discipline in managing underlying product
portfolios.

The ordeal of complexity

At an operational level, exponential growth in the number of potential variations and
combinations of items is common. Moreover, the circumstances under which sales,
product, and deal configurations are defined can be fluid, with greater flexibility in
sales, often leading to more digressions from valid configurations, exceptions, and
non-compliant behaviors.

The threat of hidden menaces

Problems can subtly accumulate when misalignment arises between rigid rule sets
and evolving market needs:
Inefficiencies The mechanics of auditing and evolving rules becomes
unwieldy, leaving rule patterns vulnerable to obsolescence while inhibiting
responsiveness to new selling scenarios.
Errors Conflicts between contradictory rules and gaps in coverage of
different contingencies permit non-compliant combinations and mistakes to leak
into orders.
Rising costs Outlays for subject matter experts, modelers, and IT staff to
maintain rule sets can rise and become excessive, as well as hidden labor costs
for reworking flawed orders.

5 PROBLEMS WITH RULESBASED CONFIGURATOR

SOFTWARE
Rules-based methods for configurator software describe logical progressions from
baseline configurations that anticipate all possible paths to rendering finished
products, services and deals. Sequences of conditions, options, and actions are
delineated based on prescribed selling practices. The firing of rules advances sales
people through different stages, exposing additional options that invoke further rules,
until an outcome is reached.
This approach appears straightforward, but in practice can yield five significant
drawbacks for configurator software installations over time.

1. Rule proliferation
In modeling complex configurations and sales process steps, traditional
approaches are vulnerable to being overwhelmed by rule proliferation. Efforts
by different modelers, product specialists, and others to address most
potential permutations and contingencies often result in large volumes of
rules that are very difficult to manage.

2. Overcomplicated dependencies
Sequences of rules and relationships can become very intricate very quickly
as coverage of products and business processes expands and evolves.
Dependencies between rules can become obscured or overlooked, especially
when multiple personnel collaborate on developing rules.

3. Weakened oversight
Rule proliferation combined with complex interplays between active rules
hinder transparency into the effectiveness of efforts to model and automate
configuration processes. Over time, some rules may inadvertently produce
conflicts or adverse outcomes, while others may prove irrelevant to steps
encountered in sales cycles.

4. Operational rigidity
Uncertainty with rule sets erodes proactive stewardship of configuration
models. Caution tends to prevail, with configurators increasingly treated like
custom installations due to fear of unintended consequences from
modifications. Incremental changes are then emphasized to avoid disruption,
leading to many updates trailing actual market needs.

5. Expert system perception

Significant requirements for technical and specialist expertise, unwieldy rules,
and weak usability diminish end-user enthusiasm for configurator software. If
rules patterns appear misaligned with selling practices or customer
preferences, user adoption suffers accordingly. The result is that such
systems get condemned as suitable only for experts.

6 ADVANTAGES OF
CONSTRAINTS-BASED
CONFIGURATOR SOFTWARE
The use of constraints significantly enhances the manageability of configurator
software. Constraints establish the contours of rules patterns, and guide primary
configuration activities, enabling firms to easily evolve overarching elements of
configuration models over time. At the same time, enterprises are free to invest more
effort in exception handling, trend detection, and process optimization.
A systematic approach to defining, applying, and maintaining constraints within
configurator software delivers the following advantages:

1. Simplicity
Inventories of constraints can be easily organized and maintained via
accessible interfaces and tables. The value of constraints lies in streamlining
rules bearing on principal policies for configuration procedures. With welldesigned configurator software programs and interfaces, arrangements of
constraints can be easily managed and exposed to different stakeholders.

2. Auditability
Along with simplicity, constraints also promote transparency and traceability
of rules. Fewer parameters require auditing, while the underlying purpose of
constraints can be more easily documented in comprehensible terms to
laymen.

3. Rigor
Constraints provide guardrails that police configuration processes. Blatantly
invalid actions are deterred immediately. Along with restraining actions within
the envelope of major policies, constraints permit more attention to be
directed at conflicts between traditional, linear sequences of rules.

4. Flexibility
Constraints allow major views on practices and product structures to be
quickly articulated in, modified, or retired from configuration models.
Essentially a central console for managing and evolving inventories of
constraints is possible for responses to market conditions (i.e., new
positioning of product assemblies, or new methods for cross-selling
solutions).

5. Business-friendliness
With greater intelligibility, coherence, and system usability, responsibility for
aspects of configuration models and constraints can be assumed by
personnel closer to business units. Constraints can help by simplifying
articulation of rules and procedures, and facilitate more input from product
specialists and subject matter experts in sales and marketing.

6. Cost effectiveness
Constraints directly help reduce long-term costs for technical personnel.
Further investment may shift towards product specialists and modelers in
business units. Meanwhile, better alignment of rules with common selling and
buying behaviors reduce costly errors and rework of quotes, orders, and
contracts.

LONG-TERM BUSINESS
IMPLICATIONS OF
CONSTRAINTS-BASED
CONFIGURATOR SOFTWARE
Innovations in constraint-based technologies advance the role of configurator
software as a critical resource for sales and fulfillment functions of enterprises. More
effective management of rules environments yield long-term competitive advantages

around managing internal processes, reducing overhead, and increasing business

agility.
Firstly, simplifying processes with constraints empowers enterprises with better
internal knowledge management practices. Sales and marketing best practices can
be more efficiently captured and documented, helping firms to institutionalize
excellence and execute updates based on end-user feedback. Expert staff can also
communicate the underlying logic of rules patterns to laymen more easily, facilitating
user adoption.
Secondly, the use of constraints improves chances of shifting the center of gravity
of rules management from the realm of technical staff and developers to knowledge
workers, product specialists, and subject matter experts. Expensive technical
resources can then be optimized while perspectives of end-users can be more
efficiently capturedat least on a modest, incremental basis.
Thirdly, overall business agility can be significantly elevated, particularly with
strategies on evolving product portfolios and selling practices to address market
conditions and performance of different sales channels. For direct and indirect sales
organizations, constraints can help further simplify configurator software as effective
tools for streamlining sales practices and conveying valuable sales knowledge.
Success on all three planes helps improve the feasibility of marketing and selling
complex solutions to diverse customer segments through multiple sales channels.

SCENARIO: HOW
CONSTRAINTS STREAMLINE
CONFIGURATION OF
PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND
DEALS
Lets distill this information into a real-world example. For tablet computing devices,
constraints would ease efforts to cater to different markets and lifestyles in the future.
For example, an enterprise sale of 3,000 tablets could cover multiple departments

and regions, including countries with substantially lower wages and sales quotas.
Consequently, such a sales opportunity would require differentiated models and
terms.
The sales team would want an agreement that extends to developing economies, to
further penetrate the client organization and boost the deal size. However, the sales
team still needs to win the flagship divisions operating in developed markets, with
high end models, to generate high sales and meet profitability objectives.
In this case, three constraints could help protect margins of low end models and
deter cannibalization:
1. No part costing more than $40 can be a component of low end models
2. Low end tablets costing less than $150 dollars in a bill of materials (BoMs) can
only be listed on the developing markets price lists
3. No low end tablets costing less than $150 dollars in BoMs may be sold to
corporate named accounts

Outcomes include eliminating many considerations and associated rules, simplifying

sales process steps, and avoiding wasting time checking inappropriate models,
combinations or options.
The sales team can advance rapidly to a narrower set of suitable low-end options
that satisfy the three constraints, reducing turnaround times for quoting for
developing markets. More attention can then be invested in drafting the quote for
high end models for winning the main tablet business. Either way, risks of incorrect,
expensive parts eroding the margins of low end models are eliminated.

WHAT TO DO TODAY
Any organization currently considering configurator software should understand the
significance, availability, and maturity of underlying constraints-based technologies.
In particular, functional sophistication, maturity, and administrative usability should be
explored via one or more of the following actions:

1. Review the value-add of constraint engines for a configurator software initiative in

business justification studies
2. Confirm the existence of constraint engines, solvers, associated administrative
features, and technical experience of vendors in questionnaires, surveys, or
requirements documents issued as part of an evaluation process for configurator
software
3. Require demonstrations of constraint engines, solvers, administrative features,
and interfaces, in the context of predefined scenarios, in live presentations to
project evaluation teams.
4. In negotiating statements of work, inquire on real world experience of vendors
with implementing constraints in projects with other firms, and explore how rules
development processes can be made more efficient, impactful, and manageable.

CONCLUSION:
CONSTRAINTS ARE
INVALUABLE TOOLS FOR
MANAGING SALES,
PRODUCT, AND DEAL
COMPLEXITY
Markets are becoming increasingly competitive, complicated, and demanding as
globalization intensifies and enterprises struggle to differentiate their product
portfolios. The ability to successfully automate extensive portions of sales and
marketing processes consistently represents a major competitive advantage in
business.
Sales and product configurator software significantly advance automation efforts,
particularly with multichannel sales and cross-functional communities (like product
specialists, engineering, field sales, and partners). However, proficient management
of underlying rules is essential. Failure in this responsibility leads to deployments

assuming the character of custom software projects, with configuration models costly
to maintain, inflexible, and not easy to understand and use.
Constraint-based technologies and approaches represent critical tools in establishing
superior rules environments for handling complex product sales. Significant,
pragmatic benefits are gained by underpinning configuration models and process
flows with more manageable, transparent, rigorous rule sets that are easier to
change as businesses evolve. When constraints are successfully employed, the
relevance, value, and usability of configurator software as an asset to sales will also
rise.