Integrating Oracle CPQ and E-Business Suite (EBS)

An Oracle CPQ integration to Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) solution that enabled a global manufacturer to retain all existing make-to-stock capabilities.

One of the biggest challenges that enterprises face today is providing accurate price and product availability information to customers. Oracle's Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Cloud platform helps businesses accurately configure and quote their services and products, and effectively engage with customers. In many cases, producing a quote can require an extended amount of time (days) and multiple teams, but these efforts can be reduced to less than an hour when leveraging a platform like Oracle CPQ.

BigMachines, a cloud-based Configure, Price & Quote solution provider, was acquired by Oracle in 2013, and became known as Oracle's Configure, Price, and Quote (CPQ) Cloud. Oracle CPQ automates the sales order process and allows sales personnel to configure and price complex products and promotions, and include upsell and renewals, all using automated workflows.

For Oracle EBS customers who have implemented Oracle CPQ, it is imperative that both systems are integrated correctly to minimize duplicate data and manual re-entry. The CPQ to EBS integration process can be confusing when determining which integration tool to use and what data can and cannot be synchronized between both systems.

In this use case, we'll explore how ennVee helped a manufacturer of physical network infrastructure components integrate Oracle CPQ with Oracle E-Business Suite using SOA.

Background

A significant portion of the manufacturer's business was transitioning to Configure-to-Order (CTO) and Assemble-to-Order (ATO), while the remainder needed to retain existing make-to-stock capabilities. ennVee needed to design a solution based on Oracle CPQ that integrates with the manufacturer's back-office Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) ERP system. The solution would leverage Oracle Fusion Middleware to build the integration.

Oracle CPQ to EBS Integration Approach

ennVee designed and executed a single solution for the entire inquiry-to-order process to reduce duplicate data, improve the accuracy of all sales reports generated, and enable the client’s customers to easily submit online orders and convert quotes to orders and approve orders via customized workflow.

Steps to build the integration between Oracle CPQ and EBS:

1. Implement Oracle CPQ Quote to Oracle E-Business Suite Order Import Process within the client's application architecture framework.
2. Use the existing architecture to enable Configure-to-Order (CTO) and Assemble-to-Order (ATO) capabilities.
3. Enable the client to utilize a single set of master product data between Oracle CPQ and EBS.
4. Provide the ability to automatically transfer data between both systems, including header-level quote totals and metadata, product line items, opportunity values, contact data, etc.

Technical Information

The following tools and technologies were utilized in the integration project:

• Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12
• Oracle Configure, Price, Quote Cloud (CPQ)
• Oracle Fusion Middleware (SOA)
• Oracle Forms
• Oracle Reports
• Oracle SQL Developer

Business Benefits

Integrating Oracle CPQ with E-Business Suite helped the company reduce average quote processing time from 3-7 days to less than one hour. Additionally, the number of quotes increased 10-fold, leading to a 120% increase in revenue. This was accomplished by:

• Streamlining multiple hand-offs for approval via an automated workflow
• Eliminating redundant data re-entry into multiple systems (EBS and CPQ)
• Minimizing manual and time-intensive proposal generation
• Maintaining consistent formats for quotes and proposals
• Automatically updating the CRM system with quote and order information
• Tracking quote success rates and improving forecasts and sales reporting