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Impact of DevOps on software release speeds

October 11, 2021

Forrester last year reported1:

  • The release frequency of software is slowly but consistently getting faster.
  • The most common frequencies are quarterly and semiannual.
  • DevOps is one of the most influential trends on software over the past decade.
  • DevOps is based on the principle of increasing release frequency, in part, by reducing ‘batch size’ of software changes.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a software development practice promoting collaboration between Development, Quality Assurance (QA) and Operations.  It works to automate and integrate the processes resulting in faster and more reliable software delivery.  A DevOps culture connects people, processes and technology to deliver continuous value focussed on a shared goal: the rapid delivery of stable, high-quality software from concept to customer.

Operations benefits include increased visibility across teams, more precise requirements, improved comms, repeatable process for deployment, and confidence in deployment.

Customer benefits include quicker deployment times, quality, security and stability.

channelcentral’s establishment of a DevOps function improves delivery

In creating a DevOps role, we have realised multiple benefits:

  • More focus on core functions – removing the need for developers to worry about or get involved with deployment activities.
  • Growing pains –  some scale was required to implement DevOps and would have been difficult before our teams reached a specific size.
  • Faster deployments.
  • Fewer errors once deployed.
  • Faster turnaround of important items and new features for customers.

Our DevOps Manager was selected for several reasons, which we believe are vital to the role operating successfully:

  • Previous experience as a competent developer.
  • Involvement in all aspects, from coding through to deployment.
  • An ability to identify and handle infrastructure items (certificates etc.) .
  • Naturally took on some responsibility before the role was formalised.

channelcentral’s software release frequency is generally quarterly, although more recently monthly.  Release frequency will also depend on the completion of a new feature/project and can even be weekly if/when urgent priority level fixes are needed.

1Forrester Report: Software Application Release Frequency Is Getting Faster Worldwide, 22 June 2020, Charles Betz

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How does CPQ work?

September 24, 2021

Configure Price Quote (CPQ) is the standard process of helping a customer go from approximate requirements to “ready to purchase” as efficiently as possible.

Earlier this year, Forrester stated that with the rise in omnichannel sales and proliferation or Everything as a Service (XaaS), the CPQ category is experiencing a renaissance. Forrester notes that customers use CPQ technologies to self-educate, and sales reps rely on CPQ to compress cycles and increase order value and margin growth.1

The configuration element shows users compatible products and respects the rules of the system. These validation rules could be counting slots or bays to ensure a product is a workable solution on delivery. channelcentral’s configurator includes elements of demand shaping and shows available local inventory.

A CPQ tool shows the actual buy price but also factors in local promotions and incentives. Allowing users to add margin is also very important. channelcentral helps to instigate promotional pricing through to assisting with rebate claims. 

Users can export a quote to Excel, Google Docs, CSV, custom XML, Email, HTML and co-brandable brochures. channelcentral supports a ‘buy now’ function placing the quote’s contents into a webstore shopping basket.

A CPQ tool increases sales and improves your customer experience.

1The Forrester Tech Tide™: Sales Technologies, Q1 2021, 15 Technologies That Underpin Sales, February 16th, 2021, Mary Shea, PhD, Principal Analyst, Caroline Robertson, Kate Leggett, Laura Ramos, Jennifer Zhang, Kara Hartig

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What is Configure Price Quote (CPQ)?

September 9, 2021

CPQ software allows users to efficiently configure complex products, price them, create a quotation, and build a compatible product basket for purchase.

A CPQ tool has built-in product validation rules, pricing, promotions, and stock available in real-time.

CPQ applications are used by sales teams, channel partner sales teams and eCommerce sites.

A well-designed CPQ tool achieves many benefits for sellers and buyers.

  • A better, faster and consistent CX, making transacting organisations easier to do business with.
  • Increase deal sizes by cross-selling/up-selling with auto-add and recommended options.
  • Eliminates errors, reducing costly customer returns.
  • Creates a competitive edge with the speed and accuracy at creating quotes, compared to other sellers.
  • Frees up sales staff to work on solving customer problems and on larger, more profitable deals.

A CPQ tool increases sales and improve your customer experience.

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CPQ Application B2B Marketing Opportunities with Banners The Right Tool For The Right Job

July 15, 2021

Successful marketing reaches the required target audience in their buying journey;  the right message in the right place at the right time.  From awareness to purchase,  generating sales conversion is having the right communication and requiring minimal effort from the buyer.  Utilizing banners in a Configure Price Quote (CPQ) application can significantly contribute to a holistic marketing campaign or tactical promotion.

Marketing mix

Once marketing planners have devised their strategy and campaign plan, existing and potential customers are segmented into groups, generally characterized by their needs.  Targeting the chosen group or audience with a communications message is usually achieved by a ‘marketing mix’; a carefully planned mixture of media, such as advertising, public relations, digital marketing and exhibitions.

Decision-making process

A mixture of marketing communications media is typically used to support a buyer through the buying decision-making process, commonly known as AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action).

Using social media will raise awareness of a product or brand, as will display advertising. Newsletters, paid searches and search engine optimization (SEO) will support interest and desire in a product or service.  Email marketing is used to drive decisions, often combined with promotions. Forrester states that strategically placed banner ads relating to content can bring targeted buyers to your website.1

How banners work

Banners are placed within a Host’s CPQ application to display on all or selected pages – Home, Browsing or Configuring.  An ‘impression’ for the banner is recorded each and every time it is displayed on a user’s screen.  The ‘click action’, the action generated when a user clicks on the banner, can take them to a designated URL or load a set of pre-defined SKUs into their quote basket.

Promote action where the action is required

A banner displayed in a CPQ application is in a focussed buying environment:  a user or viewer of the banner ad already has awareness, interest and desire for such products.  A CPQ application tool that integrates to an eCommerce platform is the perfect medium to convert desire to action, allowing users to seamlessly update their shopping cart with a pre-configured discount bundle by simply clicking on a banner ad.

As part of a more extensive integrated marketing campaign with the same consistent branding, a banner displayed in the application will generate a higher level of recognition and trust for the target audience.  Furthermore, a focused campaign is likely to bring down costs and increase revenue for the advertiser.

To find out more about CPQ application banner advertising email marketing@channelcentral.net

Forrester Blog, The Red Kettle Campaign: An Inspiration For Digital Changes To Demand Programs, Rani Salehi, Principal Analyst, DEC 14 2020

Watch the video summary here:

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Don’t settle for immature B2B eCommerce. Your customers won’t.

June 10, 2021

How mature is your B2B eCommerce? 

B2B buyers, especially over the last 12 months, want to self-serve at their convenience without waiting for quotations, product information, or complicated manual discounting. Forrester’s recent report concludes that being a B2B digital seller is about more than eCommerce – it is leveraging new business models for direct and channel selling and having a critical 360-degree view of the customer journey.1

Forrester concludes that B2B buyers defect to sites where the friction is lowest, search is easiest, and the selection is broadest and deepest. How can you provide the best webstore experience for your B2B customer when selling complex products, and maximize selling opportunities?

  • Make it relevant. Analyze your customer behavior and offer customers products and services that they want – consolidate your eCommerce and Configure Price Quote (CPQ) data sources to derive this information – quote and sales data can accurately drive future demand shaping.
  • Make the customer journey as simple as possible. Provide a webstore configuration experience that is user-friendly and intuitive – your CPQ should work with your webstore and can be achieved with industry-standard APIs, processing complex configuration rules overlaid with a simplified customer user interface.
  • Take the manual aspect out of complex discounting. Offer instant discounting via your sales enablement and CPQ with user prompts to optimize the buyer journey.
  • Leverage Product Management for recommendations. Allow your user to see similar products if a product they are viewing is out of stock. Additionally, suggestions should be made on other attach items ensuring they are compatible, competitively priced, in-stock and a manageable number of alternatives is displayed.
  • Ensure workflow is set up to your CRM. Route incomplete or abandoned transactions to your CRM to trigger a follow up on criteria-defined opportunities.

channelcentral CPQ services can help your webstore achieve all of the above. We can help your webstore mature to the buyer user experience your customer wants and expects.

1 Forrester, Gauge Your B2B E-Commerce Digital Maturity Assessment: The B2B E-Commerce Playbook by Joe Cicman with Allen Bonde, Brandon Shaik, Kara Wilson, and Madison Bakalar, January 8, 2021

Watch the video summary here:

Posted in Channel Business, CPQ, CPQ Software, Data Services, eCommerce, Product Management | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Channel Software Tech Stack 2021

May 19, 2021

Earlier this year, Jay McBain (Principal Analyst – Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems – Forrester) published a Forrester blog post entitled: Channel Software Tech Stack for 2021. We are delighted to be recognised under three categories for what we consider to be our successful CPQ applications. The categories in which we have been recognized are described in Jay’s blog are as follows:

Channel learning and readiness – Supports partner development through the administration, tracking, and delivery of educational training courses and enablement resources, including learning management systems, accreditation and certification management, content management systems, partner portals, communities, and sales enablement.

Channel marketplaces, financials, pricing, and inventory – Manages indirect-sales-related revenue and costs, determine the correct value of transactions, automates key financial reporting processes, and prevents errors in payment, commission, and rebates. It addresses pricing, inventory planning, gross-to-nets, discounts, compliance, tracking inventory levels, and price protection.

Channel ecosystem management – Manages the influence, transaction, and retention channels across the entire customer buying journey. It supports the recruitment, attribution, account and partner mapping, enablement, collaboration, technology/API integrations, and overall ecosystem management, covering all transacting/non-transacting and traditional/non-traditional partners.

Our key strengths are our depth of knowledge and expertise in the IT Channel, with the ability to take complex data sets and provide user-friendly CPQ tools and services, allowing sales personnel and buyers to generate accurate quotations quickly. As the B2B buyer increasingly wishes to self-serve, our CPQ tools and services support an improved customer experience for Partner webstore environments.

We fully appreciate the talent and expertise of all of the companies that appear in Jay McBain’s Channel Software Tech Stack 2021. It’s extremely rewarding to see so much work and support for Channel Businesses around the globe. Kudos to Jay and the team at Forrester for the work that goes into the Tech Stack each year.

Channel Software Tech Stack 2021

Watch the video summary here:

Posted in Channel Business, channelcentral.net, CPQ, CPQ Software, eCommerce, Marketplace, ROI, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

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What are the most advantageous opportunities available to IT Distribution? 

March 25, 2021

The last 12 months, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, have brought significant challenges and opportunities for IT Distributors. A recent Forrester report has highlighted these issues1, and we agree that, despite some difficulties, IT Distributors have access to straightforward methods to improve their offerings to customers.  We know that Configure Price Quote (CPQ) services, data services, and product management have a significant role in improving user experience and competitive edge in IT Distribution. 

The challenges: 

  • There has been a rapid shift to digital transactions.  Some Distributors were already ready for digital selling; others have tried to transform quickly. 
  • B2B buyer behaviour is increasingly becoming similar to B2C buyer behaviour, expecting an independent, self-service and digital customer journey. 
  • Vendors are investing in direct-to-customer (D2C) models, building more robust and more direct relationships with partners to influence and improve customer journeys. 
  • Revenue growth for traditional IT distributors is flat. 
  • Legacy hardware, software and services which are acquired through distribution is low performing. 

“Traditional IT distribution is not structured to offer this [subscription] consumption model across the channel, and businesses served by the indirect channel show no signs of reversing their preferences and going back to bespoke CAPEX solutions.”1 

The opportunities: 

  • Recurring revenue business models ‘–as-a-service’. Distributors need to deploy tech and form an ecosystem to facilitate a recurring-revenue business model based on customer loyalty and enabled by data. 
  • More Data available to customers and post-sale engagement will increase the value Distributors can offer. 
  • The convenience of marketplaces for B2B buyers as their behaviour emulates B2C buyers.  Distributors need to create a user-friendly marketplace strategy, ultilizing CPQ tools, as customers reach for alternatives to a vendor-specific webstore. 

It has never been a better time for Distributors to add value operating and transacting with their partners and customers. 

Find out how channelcentral supports IT Distributors with CPQ and data services to build the ecosystem for their go-to-market needs: 

As-a-service https://www.channelcentral.net/daas.asp 

Marketplaces https://www.channelcentral.net/marketplace-hosting.asp 

1 Forrester report, The Future of Distribution, Joe Cicman and Jay McBain, February 23, 2021. 

Watch the summary video here:

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Building with the Right Blocks – Understanding the Best of Software Development Processes 

February 4, 2021

If you are a Vendor working with a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, have you considered the best method to deliver new features or changes you want in your software? Your functionality requirements may be complicated and challenging, so your SaaS Development team must work well with you to ensure the best outcome.

There are many software development processes, and each software development team must adopt a practice that works well for themselves and their customer.

Two of the most common processes are Waterfall and Agile, but what are the differences?

Waterfall is a sequential process, with each stage following from the last, resulting in the entire project being delivered at the end, once all subsequent steps have completed. Forrester has reported that almost 60% of companies use Waterfall product development practices only or a blend of Waterfall and Agile practices. 1

Agile is an iterative approach with each iteration being self-encapsulated, allowing projects to be sub-divided into smaller projects each that can be delivered separately. Forrester has reported that the top metrics that Software Development teams focus on are quality-centric, followed by user stories completed.2

So, what are their benefits and restrictions to developing SaaS?


We use a combination of both methods. Why? 

By selecting specific parts of the Waterfall and Agile approaches, we can personalize how we work and be efficient for our customers. Using the Waterfall method’s front design concepts, our Development team can map the project’s requirements and measurements. Using the iterative approach from Agile allows more fluid customer input.  This hybrid strategy works exceptionally well with our customers – known upfront costs and design whilst enabling continuous deployment via the Agile processes. For us, it is easier to plan a project from start to finish and still allow deliverable chunks of work, rather than finishing a process without customer input or preference throughout the development.

We’re exceptionally proud of our ability to manage and combine our software development processes to deliver to and benefit customers. Find out more about our CPQ software: https://www.channelcentral.net/cpq.asp

1 https://go.forrester.com/blogs/waterfall-product-managers-can-be-agile/

2 Forrester Now: Prioritize The Agile Metrics That Really Matter, August 25th, 2020,  Diego Lo Giudice, Jeffrey Hammond

Posted in Channel Business, channelcentral.net, CPQ, CPQ Software, SaaS, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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How does CPQ support the three stages of bundles for manufacturers?

December 24, 2020

Last year Forrester reported on B2B pricing and promotion solutions and their application of advanced analytics to help companies manage and optimize pricing throughout the product lifecycle. The same report recommends advanced manufacturers exploit new digital capabilities and channels to bundle high-quality physical objects and services to deliver unique value to each customer.1  

We understand that manufacturers like bundles: it improves margin, drives up the Average Unit Price (AUP) and aids marketing (selling solutions versus a bunch of parts).

Configure Price Quote (CPQ) can enable bundles if it can handle all three stages of the process of delivering them:

Stage 1 – Bundle Creation

Deciding which products to group should be simple; it is not. Limiting the portfolio will reduce attractiveness, increasing flexibility increases the complexity for transactional partners (e.g., distribution).

Whether you describe this as Big Data or Artificial Intelligence: if you have quote/sales data that is fresh, relevant and dynamic, it can be leveraged to ensure market-appropriate products. Your CPQ application should be able to do this and provide a vehicle to create starter kits, which users should customize. Critically it must track product lifecycle status and, ideally, local inventory.

Historically, without CPQ, eCommerce has relied on virtual part numbers to manage bundles. This approach is problematic. A rule that says ten systems can have ten options and ten services creates 1000 virtual parts. Most of which will never be used.

Stage 2 – Bundle Customer Experience (CX)

Where the tyre meets the tarmac, a user will only choose a bundle route if the experience is flawless: Read the rest of this entry »

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The Rise of the PIM Vendor

November 16, 2020

PIM pivotal 

Hot Air Balloon

Forrester’s recent Market Snapshot announced that it is time to consider PIM as pivotal to a successful digital experience strategy and that the PIM vendor landscape is in transition to meet CX needs. Solutions to manage product data are undergoing a transformation, driven by the impact of PIM on CX, scale of products and proliferation of touchpoints.

channelcentral met with Pimberly, a UK-based Product Information Management (PIM) Vendor last year. Multi-vendor sellers have to manage huge volumes of product data in a variety of different formats, connecting to multiple, non-standard systems. PIM Vendors not only normalize the data but also offer merchandizing and demand shaping functions to help improve the Customer Experience (CX).

Product data fuels CX

Many poor B2B Customer Experiences are due to insufficient or low-quality data integrated into the buying process. The product data exists but may be spread across multiple systems or stored in non-user-friendly format. Forrester emphasizes that product data fuels CX.1 channelcentral considers a project to consolidate and automate data sources as fundamental in ensuring that capabilities can be added, and error removed. An example leading to poor CX could be displaying a different inventory level in eCommerce to the one shown in CPQ. Businesses should identify the best (Golden) data sources and real-time delivery mechanisms.

Vendors aim to offer a consistent CX, regardless of where the product or service purchase is made in the omnichannel.  For a relevant product category, well applied PIM can significantly enhance the buying journey when coupled with Digital Asset Management (DAM).  Forrester stresses the importance of DAM and PIM collaborating to form compelling content for B2B buyers, recommending the integration to improve the omnichannel experience.

Adding value

Web Services play a huge role now, turning data from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems into the dynamic data required by eCommerce and CPQ Systems. Expecting Product Managers to run reports or upload spreadsheets manually is not scalable. PIM vendors recognize this opportunity and in multi-vendor situations, where there is often more than one available data source (e.g. Vendor or Icecat), allowing eCommerce Store or CPQ stakeholders to set Golden sources per vendor or product line.

Watch the summary video here:

Posted in Channel Business, channelcentral.net, CPQ, eCommerce, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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