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.
Master data management (MDM) is a technology-enabled business discipline where business and IT organizations work together for the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of enterprises’ shared master data assets. Organizations use MDM solutions as part of an MDM strategy, which should be part of a wider enterprise information management (EIM) strategy. An MDM strategy potentially encompasses management of multiple master data domains (e.g., customer, citizen, product, “thing,” asset, person/party, supplier, location, and financial master data domains). Data and analytics (D&A) leaders procure MDM tools for data engineers or less-technical users, such as data stewards.