The situation
An engineering manufacturer wins work by quotation. Every quote means materials take-offs, machine-time estimates, supplier price checks and margin rules — currently encoded in a venerable spreadsheet that only two people fully understand, one of whom retires next year. Quotes take days, which loses time-sensitive work; discounting is inconsistent, which loses margin; and the spreadsheet’s logic is the firm’s pricing knowledge, walking out of the door on two legs.
The old options
CPQ software exists — and for configure-to-order catalogue products it’s fine. But this firm prices engineered work: geometry, tolerances, material grades, machine routing. The generic CPQ model doesn’t fit, and the implementation consultancy to bend it costs as much as the licences. The honest old answer was “keep the spreadsheet and pray”.
What we’d build
A pricing engine that encodes how this firm prices — and keeps it:
- The estimating logic — materials, machine time, routing, supplier rates — as maintained, versioned rules the firm can see and change, not formulae in hidden cells
- Live supplier pricing where feeds exist; dated price books where they don’t, with staleness flagged
- Margin guardrails: discount thresholds by customer, product family and order size, with approval routing past them
- Quote documents generated in the firm’s format, tracked from sent to won/lost, feeding a hit-rate and margin report by customer and work type
- ERP integration so a won quote becomes a works order without rekeying
The build
Discovery, scope in days, then a prototype in days: the engine pricing five of last quarter’s real quotes alongside the spreadsheet’s answers — the validation conversation that settles whether the logic is captured right, held before the firm commits. Production in weeks, with the two estimators as co-authors of the rules rather than bottlenecks for every quote.
The economics
Typically 60–80% less than a traditional build — and the return is unusually direct: quotes in minutes instead of days wins the time-sensitive work, the guardrails stop quiet margin erosion, and the pricing knowledge becomes a company asset instead of a key-person risk. No per-seat licences as the sales team grows.
Month three
Any salesperson can produce a priced, margin-safe quote before the enquiry goes cold. The retiring estimator spends their last months improving the rules rather than answering the same questions. And the spreadsheet gets a dignified archive.