Compact & clear: FAQs on concept projects

With enormous product landscapes and complex rules, projects for the implementation of CPQ solutions become extensive and expensive quickly.

A concept project helps you to ensure your product landscape can be modeled according to your requirements in our Merlin CPQ solution even before starting the actual project. Furthermore, you gain an overview of the required costs and get a feeling for our agile project style.

You can find more useful information on concept projects in the following FAQs.

What is a concept project?

A concept project is a project with a conceptual approach using the CAS Configurator Merlin. The project takes place before you decide to deploy the solution - so before the main project starts. Our consulting team advises you and shows you how to solve your individual challenges with our CPQ software and how to model your product landscape.

To demonstrate the modeling process, a small part of your product landscape - for example, a single product or a product group - is modeled by us in CAS Configurator Merlin. Thus, the concept project only includes an exemplary part of the entire product landscape. In the process, you gain insights into the exact architecture and the required costs of a possible main project.

Which project areas are included in a concept project?

Three aspects are examined during your concept project:

Modeling: The modeling aspect concerns modeling your product landscape in CAS Configurator Merlin. How can you structure your products to be able to best reproduce and model them in the solution?

IT: Our consulting team advises you on possible interfaces. Which third-party systems, for example, ERP or CRM systems do you want to integrate into the CPQ solution? Are there any existing interfaces or is customization required?

UX: UX adjustments include all changes to the interface. Do you have any design requirements for your interface?

What are the steps of a concept project?

The runtime of your concept project is about two to four months. We are working with an agile approach. This means that we work in two- to four-week iterations. Thereby, you are actively participating in the process from the start and can see early on whether the implementation fits your requirements. With this agile approach, you can always weigh in with feedback.

The project starts with a workshop to review your product landscape. First, you receive explanations and suggestions on how to structure your products. During the following iterations, further workshops will take place. Those workshops can include modeling, IT, and UX workshops. During the workshops, you can introduce your requirements on the one hand; and learn more about the functions and features of CAS Configurator Merlin on the other hand.

Usually, we take on the modeling tasks during concept projects. As soon as your main project starts, you will receive clear instructions on how to use CAS Configurator Merlin during various workshops. But first, your main task lies in transferring your product knowledge from your heads into ours.

Then, you receive the various documentations containing a detailed line-up of all working times of our team. The documentation is supposed to provide you with a transparent basis for decision making concerning the following main project.

What are the findings of a concept project?

The runtime of your concept project is about two to four months. We are working with an agile approach. This means that we work in two- to four-week iterations. Thereby, you are actively participating in the process and can see early on whether the implementation fits your requirements. With this agile approach, you can always weigh in with feedback.

The project starts with a workshop to review your product landscape. First, you receive explanations and suggestions on how to structure your products. During the following iterations, futher workshops will take place. Those workshops can include modeling, IT, and UX workshops. During the workshops, you can introduce your requirements on the one hand; and learn more about the functions and features of CAS Configurator Merlin on the other hand.

Usually, we take on the modeling tasks during concept projects. As soon as your main project starts, you will receive clear instructions on how to use CAS Configurator Merlin during various workshops. But first, your main task lies in transferring your product knowledge from your heads into ours.

Then, you receive the various documentations containing a detailed line-up of all working times of our team. The documentation is supposed to provide you with a transparent basis for decision making concerning the following main project.

What are the long-term benefits of a concept project for the later main project?

One great benefit of the concept project is the pre-project consultation. You bring your expectations to the project table and we check together whether we can implement your ideas as desired. We focus on understanding your requirements to be able to support and advise you anytime. Thereby, we can identify and resolve any complications even before the main project starts.

A concept project is a pre-investment. Our consulting team transfers any learnings to your future project team. Any changes, interfaces, products, and so on that have already been implemented or modeled are adopted into the main project and developed further. This adoption of data means you can avoid double the effort and will not be starting at zero with your main project.

To be able to adopt an extract of your product landscape in CAS Configurator Merlin, both you and our team take an intensive and conscious look at your products and their structure. This way, both parties can accumulate a lot of knowledge which is beneficial for both the main project as well as the future success of your company.

The human aspect is also an important factor when implementing a concept project. Meet CAS Merlin contact persons even before the main project starts and experience our working method. We are looking forward to a partnership of equals.

More information...

If you want to look for more information on your own, you can visit the service area of our website. There, you can find even more content concerning the consulting topic.

If you have any specific questions, you are welcome to contact our consulting team. Among other things, the consulting team is responsible for concept projects and will be happy to provide you with information. Click the button to access our contact form our call us at +49 721 9638-903.

Your benefits

Discover Merlin CPQ

Discover our CPQ solution and its various features.

Safeguard your company

Discover how to model your product landscape in the CPQ solution.

Helpful experiences

Gain knowledge and experience you can directly transfer to your future main project.

Customer references

Many of our customers have already utilized concept projects to visualize the potential of Merlin CPQ for their use cases by implementing a specific concept.

In the following, you can find an excerpt of customer references:

Your individual concept project

Do you have any questions?

You can find more information concerning the consulting topic in the service area of our website. You are welcome to write us a message so that we can answer your questions, or call us at +49 721 9638-903.

 

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