Microvision Inc Quoting Process- A Case Study


Microvision Inc. Quoting Process 


Program Objective

The program aimed to discover and optimize key aspects of the Lead-to-Revenue process of Microvision’s catalog of vision products; promoting Sales Ops Enablement through Quoting Process Optimization, Contracts and Reporting. As part of the Change Management initiative, we assessed the legacy quoting system's current state and transitioned to Salesforce CPQ (Future State) to streamline quoting processes, increase transparency, and improve customer retention.

Importance to the Business

The legacy quoting system was fragmented, required manual intervention among cost centers and needed more visibility between Sales Ops and Revenue teams. This entailed revamping and migrating to Salesforce CPQ, which promised improved selling, scalability, and heightened overall customer satisfaction.

Scope of Delivered Work

  • Selection of the enterprise level tech stack and vendor tools including Salesforce CPQ and Conga CLM for integration with existing Oracle NetSuite in the first 3 months.

  • Liaison between Sales Ops, Regional Managers, Finance and Legal teams to architect, analyze, and  communicate the Opportunity-to-Order (OtO), Quote-to-Cash (QtC) Processes.

  • Creation of process flow diagrams and user-stories to depict the interactions between system components, their states, and users, helping to define system behavior.

  • Creation of data models and relationship diagrams to ensure data integrity and governance.

  • Phased transformation of Microvision’s catalog of vision products and quoting process from legacy systems into Salesforce CPQ.

  • Mapping of products and processes into the Salesforce object relationship model, resulting in:

    • 6 quoting record types

    • 6 templates for quote documents

    • 24 Product bundles

  • Creation of Discount schedules and Pricing structures in the new CPQ.

  • Ingestion of quote product data into the Salesforce database.

  • Synchronization of order forms and Master Subscription Agreements (MSAs), SLA’s as applicable with Conga CLM for signatures.

  • Integration of DocuSign for document signatures.

  • Facilitation of integration with NetSuite for “Total Contract Value” capture and invoicing(Revenue system)

  • Comprehensive reporting capabilities.


See the Planning and Analysis step in the Program Overview for more details.

This initiative spanned across 12 months from planning to business go-live of the end application with below stages:

Overview of the Program phases - click here for more details in each phase

Teams Involved

The program involved cross-functional collaboration with Customer Success, Sales Ops, Deal Desk, Regional Managers, Finance, and Legal teams. Implementation was led by me as the TPM/SaaS Consultant, supported by a solution architect, and executed by a team of developers and Quality Assurance Analysts.

Success Criteria

Sales Operations Enablement significantly accelerated deal closures, enhanced quote transparency and efficiency, and increased customer retention. Guided selling was optimized, and revenue synchronization with opportunities simplified customer management and renewals. Success metrics included higher quote creation and  closure rates, reduced QtC cycle time by 42%, improved selling efficiency (by ~28%), higher quote accuracy, higher customizability, enhanced visibility, scalability, and an overall enhanced customer experience.

Challenges

The changes made to the sales process meant there was a huge learning curve which was not always taken positively. Scope of the work became much more than anticipated/signed. Repeated testing iterations were met with resistance because of disrupting everyday job functions. Adoption to the new process was taking longer than anticipated. 

Risks Managed

Key risks managed included change management (Sales adoption to new tools, corner cases still need manual intervention), integration challenges with legacy systems, data debt in legacy systems,  Salesforce limitations in UI customization. Continuous stakeholder engagement and proactive mitigation strategies were instrumental in addressing these risks.

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Critique of the Program/Debrief with Junior TPM

Critiquing the program, I utilize a SWOT analysis in debriefing with a Junior TPM. Strengths and Opportunities highlight what worked and can be leveraged, while Weaknesses and Threats identify risks and potential issues to mitigate proactively. I advocate for a basic SWOT or a Scrum retrospective of all projects with technical and business stakeholders involved to learn from our mistakes.


Strengths:

  • Comprehensive approach that addressed key aspects of the Lead-to-Revenue process.

  • It was a much needed operational program with strong tools and support from Salesforce and Netsuite.

  • Utilized best practices and principles available. 

Weaknesses:

  • Scope extension/creep led to increased complexity and delays in delivery.

  • Current system had limitations when taking the complex business cases into picture. Change Management came with risks of losing adoption and customer retention was a challenge if Sales was not adapting well to the change.

Opportunities:

  • Can invest in comprehensive training and support programs to facilitate smoother adoption of new tools and processes.

  • The outlined process has scope for further optimization. Data shows scope for more lead conversions, renewals and opportunities to upsell and cross-sell to various customers with new programs/initiatives. 

Threats:

  • Integration challenges with legacy systems posing risks to data integrity and system performance.

  • Data issues if Data Governance is not maintained, bad code, too complex processes that do not scale to org wide changes.


Some other lessons/best practices to always keep in mind as a TPM that I would like to pass on are:

Prioritize scoping and timelines, ensuring transparent communication and proactive risk management with a solution-oriented approach. Thorough documentation, early notifications to related systems, and frequent demos for feedback are essential. Clearly communicate user stories to Engineering, collaborate closely, and rigorously test developments. Incremental task implementation and effective collaboration ensure balanced UAT participation. Uphold standards, foster transparency, and manage workload realistically for timely delivery and project growth.


















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