CPQ Platform for Complex Industrial Sales
The Innovation Story: Transforming chaotic Excel-based sales processes into an intelligent, centralized pricing engine
Architecting and building a comprehensive Configure-Price-Quote platform to replace massive, error-prone Excel spreadsheet systems. Features dynamic product configuration, centralized pricing engine, and custom JavaScript formula interpreter for complex industrial boiler sales processes.
The Problem: Complex Industrial Sales Running on Spreadsheet Chaos
Industrial boiler sales relied on massive Excel spreadsheets that had grown unmanageable over years. Multiple versions, manual formulas, and error-prone processes created chaos for the sales team, inconsistent pricing for customers, and significant compliance risks for complex product configurations.
For Sales Teams (The Users)
Sales representatives struggled with complex boiler configurations in Excel, often requiring engineering support for custom quotes. Version control issues led to pricing inconsistencies and delayed quote delivery, hampering the sales process and customer experience.
For Management (The Stakeholders)
Leadership lacked visibility into pricing logic and quote accuracy. The distributed spreadsheet system made it impossible to maintain consistent pricing strategies, analyze sales trends, or ensure compliance with corporate pricing policies across the organization.
My Role: Requirements Analysis to Platform Development
Leading the complete transformation from Excel-based chaos to a modern, scalable CPQ platform. Handling everything from business requirements analysis to full-stack development and custom formula engine implementation.
Business Requirements & Process Analysis
Conducted extensive discovery sessions with sales teams, engineers, and management to understand current Excel-based workflows. Documented complex pricing formulas, business rules, and configuration dependencies to define comprehensive platform requirements.
Platform Architecture & System Design
Designed a modular, scalable architecture separating product configuration from pricing calculations. Created a flexible framework supporting complex business rules while maintaining performance and enabling future extensibility for additional product lines.
Custom Formula Engine Development
Built a JavaScript-based formula interpreter allowing business users to define pricing calculations using familiar syntax. Implemented validation, error handling, and real-time calculation capabilities with sub-second response times for complex configurations.
Full-Stack Platform Implementation
Developed the complete CPQ platform using Next.js, TypeScript, and modern React patterns. Created intuitive configuration interfaces, centralized pricing management, role-based access controls, and comprehensive quote generation workflows.
Testing & User Acceptance
Implementing comprehensive testing strategies including unit tests for formula engine, integration tests for configuration workflows, and user acceptance testing with sales team members to ensure platform meets real-world usage requirements.
The Solution: Intelligent CPQ Platform in Action
A Comprehensive Platform for Complex Industrial Sales Configuration
Quote – Header & Technical Summary
Complete quote overview with client details, engineering parameters, MIN/MAX scenario calculations, and commercial totals with export capabilities
Quote – Bill of Materials (BOM)
Interactive BOM with component status, configuration options, and real-time pricing calculations organized by sections with toggle controls
Pricing Formulas – Component Editor
Formula authoring workspace with component tree, compilation status, and formula editor supporting real-time testing and JavaScript optimization
Interpolation Tables – Visualization
Price table visualization comparing linear interpolation curves against data points to validate pricing logic and spot outliers across engineering inputs
Pricing Logic: From Excel Chaos to Engineered Precision
The core innovation lies in transforming complex, error-prone Excel formulas into a high-performance, JavaScript-based calculation engine with sub-millisecond execution and intelligent dependency management.
How the Pricing Engine Works
Price Sheets & Versions
Version-controlled pricing logic (e.g., “2024-Q1”) with historical preservation and one-click activation
Formula Compilation
Business formulas compiled to optimized JavaScript functions with dependency tracking and smart caching
Real-Time Execution
Sub-millisecond calculations with intelligent cache invalidation when inputs change
Interpolation Tables
Multi-dimensional pricing tables with automatic interpolation between data points. Used for complex scenarios like power-to-price curves and component sizing calculations.
Formula Engine V3
Custom JavaScript compilation with smart dependency analysis. Only affected formulas recalculate when inputs change, ensuring optimal performance.
Formula Example: Industrial Boiler Burner Pricing
Access calculated engineering parameters
Interpolate from pricing tables
Check component inclusion status
Performance Achievements
Technical Architecture
A modern, component-based architecture built for complex business logic management and scalable enterprise deployment.
Configuration Engine
Dynamic product configuration system with real-time validation, compatibility checking, and guided workflows for complex industrial boiler specifications and customizations.
Custom Formula Interpreter
JavaScript-based calculation engine allowing business users to define complex pricing formulas, validation rules, and configuration dependencies without code deployments.
Centralized Business Logic
Single source of truth for pricing rules, product catalogs, and configuration constraints, eliminating spreadsheet versioning issues and ensuring organizational consistency.
Role-Based Security
Granular permission system enabling sales teams to create configurations while restricting pricing formula modifications to authorized administrators and business analysts.
View Technical Implementation
Platform Source Code • Architecture Documentation
Complete source code and technical documentation available demonstrating CPQ architecture, custom formula engine implementation, and enterprise-grade configuration management.
Live Platform Demo
Interactive Platform • On-Demand Access
Contact me to schedule a demo and experience the full CPQ workflow from configuration to quote generation in a live environment.
Interested in this Implementation?
Check out other projects or reach out directly to me to discuss this comprehensive Configure-Price-Quote solution and similar enterprise-grade implementations.