.png)
WKS 2 - System Architecture and Interfaces
Workshop on to cover System architecture and interfaces
Participants
Name | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|
Teemu Salonen | Valio | Pricing Analyst |
Tomi Toivonen | Valio | Pricing Manager |
Alain Becker | Pearson Ham Group | Operation Manager |
Christiaan Van Eden | Pearson Ham Group | Consultant |
Omar Bendada | Ben Consulting Services | Business Analyst |
Sofia Simaria | Ben Consulting Services | Proxy Product Owner |
Goal
This workshop is for defining the system architectures in which the Zilliant CPQ platform will be integrated, and define the technology to use for data exchange.
Workshop materials
Topic | Document | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Price Manager Data Inputs |  | We worked on this picture during the workshop, but it was overridden; we need to rebuild it. It shows on top the Data tables in Price Manager that are needed to feed the object in CPQ (bottom) |
Main results
Systems Integration
The future state architecture involves interaction between the Zilliant CPQ system and the Zilliant Price Manager system. There is also a plan to include the CRM system in the future.
Data Flow
Inbound Data to CPQ:
Product Master Data, from Price Manager
Customer Master Data, from Price Manager - requires processing to aggregate at parent customer level.
Pricing and Cost (MSP) Data, from Price Manager.
Price IQ recommendations, from Price Manager
Segment price lists, from Price Manager
Lookup Tables (e.g., product positioning), from Price Manager
Customer Segmentation Data, from Price Manager
Outbound Data from CPQ:
Contracted product net prices, to SAP via Price Manager.
Contracted product group discounts, to SAP via Price Manager.
Customer rebates, to SAP via Price Manager or manual download from CPQ
System Architecture and Integration Overview
Target architecture should analyze CPQ with potential future C4C CRM integration
SAP requires different condition type tables to track specific transaction business conditions.
System architecture will focus on interactions between Price Manager and CPQ for customer, product, pricing, and agreement data.
Standard sales process flow: CRM → CPQ → ERP with quotes created in CPQ and linked to accounts/opportunities
Pricing and Data Management
Customer master data sources: potentially from CRM, Price Manager, or directly maintained in CPQ
Key fields in output tables needed for SAP: Distribution channel, Product ID, Customer ID, Sales organization, price, unit details
Pricing workflow: Price managers define segment price lists in Price Manager, CPQ allows granular customer/quote pricing
CPQ should send quoted product information to 'Customer Agreed Prices' table for synchronization with SAP
Locally managed data includes customer segmentation hierarchy for more meaningful customer grouping
CPQ has sales rep information for accounts but lacks specific contact details
Consider populating contact fields in Price Manager customer master table for project efficiency
Pricing and conditions in Price Manager system are set at parent customer level
Price updates will be sent from CPQ to SAP via Price Manager, only updating line-item prices.
Price retrieval process: Existing customers get automatic pricing, new customers require sales rep segmentation, by selecting from existing segment list
Quotes, Agreements and Orders
Proposals (quotes) are for agreements, not direct orders
The agreement is done and then through the year the customer orders the products. There is almost never a connection between a quote to an order. The quote turns into an agreement (deal), and then customer places many orders through the year, by benefitting from that agreement in terms of conditions, payment terms, group discounts and net prices.
Sales quote proposal will include various discount terms for 7-90% of goods and net prices conditions for a smaller (but very important) set of products
Quoting process serves to contract with customer and finalize offer details.
Annual customer agreement covers pricing with potential updates every four months.
Yearly agreements will define general sales terms, rebates, contract period, and discount programs.
Each 2 or 4 months (or other frequency) the net prices are updated according to market fluctuations , but agreement structure stays the same. For system integration, just send the new product prices.
Output tables
Each output table is Price Manager corresponds to a SAP condition type; TermType_discount is the column name in the Transaction data table
Rebates needs to be a new table.
Additional Considerations
Contracts-related data might be managed locally within the CPQ system initially, with plans to integrate with a CRM system later.
Action list
- Schedule call with Zilliant Price Manager team to discuss integration: output tables and price lookup logic
Decisions
- Until the topic regarding CRM integration is discussed further, and specifically the use of CPQ CRM, any additional data regarding customers will be managed locally within the CPQ system
- Additional output tables will need to be created in Price Manager to receive new conditions.
- Additional lookup tables (Locally Managed Data) will/might need to created in Price Manager to maintain inputs to CPQ
- Sales team to be required to fill in contact information manually in CPQ
- Zilliant Price Manager project team will act as ‘internal Valio IT team’ - for collaboration on system interfaces, given their deep knowledge and unavailability of Valio IT team.
List of requirements
CPQ should receive product master data, customer master data, pricing data, price recommendations, segment price lists, lookup tables, and customer segmentation data from Price Manager
Customer master data from Price Manager needs aggregation at the parent customer level - still TBD how.
CPQ should send contracted product net prices and product group discounts to Price Manager.
CPQ should send customer rebates Price Manager or enable manual download in CPQ.
Customer contact details will be managed locally within CPQ.
Design CPQ to accommodate future integration with C4C CRM
Enable granular pricing per customer and quote in CPQ, using segment price lists defined in Price Manager.
Incorporate customer segmentation hierarchy from locally managed data into CPQ to facilitate quoting for new customers.
Enable searching for customers in CPQ by name and ID (potentially concatenated).
CPQ should create quotes that link to accounts/opportunities.
Sales quotes should include discount terms and net price conditions.
Support updating net prices in agreements periodically (e.g., every four months) to reflect market changes.
Ensure that quotes contain the fields necessary for integration with Price Manager output table (eg Distribution Channel, Product ID, Customer ID, Price, Unit)
Price Manager needs additional output tables to receive new conditions from CPQ.
Session recording
https://tldv.io/app/meetings/681da818d252d10013c7b5ee/