Gartner defines communications service provider (CSP) customer management and experience (CM&X) solutions as commercial off-the-shelf software solutions that address all customer-facing operational requirements of CSPs. These include managing customer channels, customer information, incidents, products, pricing, quotes and offers, orders, customer care and partner relationships. CM&X solutions are part of business support system (BSS) solutions for CSPs and often work together with revenue management and monetization solutions as part of a complete BSS stack. Delivery options may include license and SaaS-based models.
Gartner defines configure, price and quote (CPQ) applications as software that enables sales organizations to automate and optimize the creation of quotes and capture of orders. A CPQ application is a sales tool that captures the new goods and services a customer wants to buy or the changes a customer wants to make to existing goods and services. While generally focused on assisted sales channels, CPQ capabilities such as product configuration and pricing must be shared with the self-service commerce channel. The new purchases and changes must be priced, and a binding contract must be formed with the customer before sending an order to downstream fulfillment systems.