CPQ stands for configure, price, quote. It is what your technical office does every time a made-to-measure order comes in: check that it can be made, work out what it costs and send a proposal. A CPQ configurator does it on the website, with your rules and your price list, and a 3D configurator adds seeing the product. What each one is and when each one is needed.
Three steps that today happen in three places: the sales rep configures, the technical office sets the price and admin sends the quote. A CPQ brings them together.
Sizes, materials, options and extras, with the manufacturer's rules: what combines with what, up to what size, with what weight, which accessory goes with each use. What cannot be made cannot be chosen; what goes beyond the limits is flagged with the alternative.
Per unit, metre, square metre or module; extras with their price; transport and installation by area; discounts per distributor or by volume. Every change recalculates the indicative price. You change the price list yourself from the panel.
PDF for the customer with the image, the technical data and the price; order sheet for the factory with references and quantities; request in your panel with the full configuration. In the technical ones, cutting list and cut list.
Many CPQ programs are forms with rules: they work, but the customer does not see what they are configuring. The 3D is not decoration: it is what makes the end customer, the one who does not read data sheets, decide.
A CPQ without 3D works for a sales rep or a distributor who knows the product: they pick options from a list, the system applies the rules and produces the quote. It is the norm in management software for sales networks. The end customer, on the other hand, does not know what a micro-bevel, an adjustable louvre or a five-point lock is, and from a list they choose the cheapest.
A 3D configurator with CPQ does the same, but the customer sees the product change: the window with the sash open to choose the handing, the pergola with the louvres turning, the sofa with the fabric. The rules warn on screen, the price is recalculated and at the end the PDF and the order sheet come out. And it works on the installer's phone on site and on the shop's tablet. See what a 3D configurator is.
Both is what each of the 48 demo examples carries: the 3D in front and the CPQ underneath. In the window demo, for example, the configuration (series, opening, glazing, roller shutter), the indicative price and the order sheet all come out of the same screen.
What the technical office does by hand today, with the spreadsheet. Examples from the open demos, with sample products and prices.
With the machine and the number of points, the CPQ shares outlets between distributor blocks, sizes the pump and the tubing and calculates the hours of manual greasing saved per year. The order sheet comes out with the reference and quantity of each component.
With the front, the depth and the height, it splits the panels according to the system (glass curtain, sliding, folding), with the maximum width and weight per panel, and quotes glass, tracks, corners, roof, extras and installation by area and floor.
With the warehouse dimensions, the use and the optics, it calculates how many high-bays are needed, how to lay them out, the average lux, the annual consumption and the saving compared with the old ones, and produces the order sheet.
With the list of openings in a development, it calculates units, metres of insulating tape, lead time and the cost of a rush job, and generates the order sheet with a label per opening and home.
With the pallet type and the units, it calculates how many fit per trailer, the weight and the trips, and sends the order with everything. No prices in the demo: final price after studying the case.
In the technical configurator developed for a manufacturer, the CPQ calculates the size of each profile and each glass panel, the weight per panel, the fittings kit and the bill of materials, and delivers them in PDF, DXF and CSV. See technical configurator with cutting list.
A CPQ is worth what its rules are worth. That is why the project starts with your Excel and your orders already manufactured.
Limits per system, weights, compatibilities, which accessory goes with each use, calculation formulas. They are taken from the Excel and from the foreman's head into a document you approve. See from the manufacturer's Excel to the web configurator.
Prices, extras, areas and discounts live in the panel, with versioning. A change is tested first and then goes to the website; all distributors calculate with the same version.
Real orders already manufactured, with their configuration and their result. The CPQ has to give the same in each one, and they are run again every time a rule is touched. See how a technical configurator is validated.
First at a password-protected address, with the technical office and a trusted distributor or two using it with real orders. Until it all matches, it is not published.
For any manufacturer or distributor whose price depends on sizes, options or calculation. And for their network.
There are more short answers in frequently asked questions about 3D configurators and who we are in 3D configurator company.
A program that configures a product with the manufacturer's rules (what can be combined and up to what size), calculates the price with its price list and generates the quote. The initials stand for configure, price, quote. A 3D configurator with rules and price is a CPQ in which, on top of that, the customer sees the product.
It is when it carries rules and price: it configures with the manufacturer's rules, calculates with their price list and delivers a PDF and an order sheet. A 3D viewer or a purely visual configurator is not a CPQ: it shows, but it does not calculate.
Not for a sales rep who knows the product. Yes when the end customer chooses, when the product sells on what you see or when you have to convince someone who was not there. In the 48 demo examples both go together.
No. It does the base calculation with your rules: distributor blocks and tubing, high-bays and lux, panels and weights, pallet positions. Your technician reviews a calculation that is already done, confirms on the visit whatever needs confirming and closes the price.
It is connected in the project, if you have them: it does not come ready-made; it is developed bespoke. In the meantime, every request stays in the panel with its full configuration and, with an email account set up, also reaches you by email.
Development starts from €6,500 for a visual configurator of one product family; most manufacturer projects fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on catalogue, rules and integrations, plus maintenance from €190/month. The CPQ with rules and price is at the middle level; with cutting lists and an ERP connection, at the top level. Details in the price of a 3D configurator.
The 48 demo examples carry a CPQ underneath: configuring with rules, instant price and order sheet. Open, no sign-up, with sample products and prices, at configurador.grup3d.es/demo.
With your rules in front of you? Bring a technical offer you have already done by hand and in a 20-minute video call we will configure it together to see what your CPQ would calculate. No commitment.
Would you rather talk it through? Call us on 662 061 421 or write to grup3d@grup3d.es.
Online quoting tool for manufacturers: instant price with your price list, manufacturing rules, transport and installation by area, PDF and order sheet.
Read →How to capture qualified leads with a 3D configurator: what data arrives with each request, how they are assigned by area or distributor, panel and email alert.
Read →The index with one card per configurator, filtered by sector, with their open demos.
Read →For manufacturers and for those who sell without a factory: what we do, how, and at what price.
Read →Price, code, cutting lists, online shop, mobile, AI and every sector.
Read →The three levels, what each one includes and what is priced separately.
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