Global Pallet Manufacturer Cuts Quote P&L Creation From Weeks to Hours
Overview
The client is a global manufacturer and distributor of pallets - wooden, plastic, and premium - operating across North America as part of a larger international group. Quoting sits at the centre of its commercial process, and every quote depends on a full profit-and-loss calculation.
For years that calculation had lived in spreadsheets. Quoting was driven entirely by Excel and email with no centralised system, and the complexity of the underlying P&L logic meant even a basic file took 30 to 60 seconds simply to open. The organisation set out to move quoting onto a governed platform and make scenario modelling possible before submission.
Key Challenges
Quoting for three distinct pallet categories on spreadsheets had left the commercial process slow, opaque, and impossible to audit. The organisation needed structure, traceability, and speed.
- Spreadsheet-driven quoting - All quoting ran through Excel and email with no centralised system, and complex P&L calculations meant even a basic file took 30 to 60 seconds to open.
- No shared visibility or governance - Sales, Pricing, and Finance had no common platform, so collaboration on every quote happened entirely offline.
- Untraceable email approvals - Approvals moved by email with no hierarchy enforcement, no audit trail, and no structured workflow across the quoting process.
- Complex multi-variable P&L - Each pallet type carried a different manufacturing process and cost structure, so calculations had to be reworked manually for every quote.
- Shelf-life-driven assumptions - Pallets cannot sustain indefinitely, so each calculation had to absorb depreciation and inflation assumptions that varied by product line and market.
- No scenario modelling - Sales representatives could not model or compare alternative pricing scenarios before submitting, leaving commercial decisions effectively made in the dark.
Industry
Pallet manufacturing and distribution (global)
Geography
North America, with separate United States and Canadian operations pricing on different bases
Scale
Three pallet categories - wooden, plastic, and premium - each carrying a distinct cost structure and P&L logic
Solution
End-to-end CPQ on a cloud pricing platform, embedded in the client's CRM and integrated with the ERP through enterprise middleware
Solution
An implementation partner deployed end-to-end configure-price-quote capability on a cloud pricing platform, replacing spreadsheet quoting and email approval with a single governed environment shared by Sales, Pricing, and Finance.
Solution Components
End-to-End CPQ - Configure-price-quote was implemented as the single quoting environment, giving commercial teams real-time P&L visualisation with dynamic modelling across depreciation, inflation, and cost variables.
- Dynamic Scenario Modelling - Multi-scenario quoting was built so several pricing scenarios could be created, compared, and submitted within a single quote before approval.
- Role-Based Access Controls - Role-based access and field-level permissions were configured so Sales, Pricing, and Finance each view and modify only what is relevant to their function.
- Multi-Level Approval Workflows - Automated workflows with hierarchy-driven triggers replaced the email chains, with support for multiple approvers in the more complex scenarios.
- CRM Embedding and Single Sign-On - The platform was embedded inside the client's CRM through single sign-on, so sales teams quote without logging into a separate application.
- In-Quote Collaboration - Messaging was enabled within each quote, bringing the commercial conversation that previously happened offline into the platform and onto the record.
- Enterprise Integration - Middleware and ERP integrations were delivered so that customer, opportunity, and cost data flow into the platform and approved rate cards flow back out.
Integration Architecture
Rather than connecting to each source system directly, the platform was integrated through the client's existing CRM, middleware, and ERP landscape:
• Inbound - Customer and opportunity data is read from the CRM through the middleware layer and loaded into the pricing platform, while cost information is drawn from the ERP.
• Outbound - Approved rate cards are generated as fixed-position files and delivered to a secure file transfer server, from which the ERP team reads and loads them into the system.
The platform itself is surfaced inside the CRM through single sign-on, so the sales team works in one interface across the full quoting lifecycle.
Major Benefits Realised
- P&L creation cut to hours - Producing a quote P&L fell from several weeks to between four and eight hours, transforming the pace of the end-to-end quoting and approval process.
- Quoting at scale - Adoption is evidenced by 662 deals closed, 212 quotes in offered status, and 483 in draft, all managed within the platform.
- Spreadsheets fully eliminated - Every quote now sits in one governed system, removing the slow-loading files that commercial teams had previously depended on.
- Complete quote traceability - Every scenario, communication, and approval decision is now tracked in-platform, giving the organisation a full audit trail it previously lacked.
- Governance across three functions - Sales, Pricing, and Finance now work to defined roles and permissions, so collaboration is structured rather than improvised over email.
- Validated for multi-geography rollout - Success in the United States led directly to expansion into the Canadian operation, which prices on a different basis and confirmed the model travels.
- Ongoing partnership - The relationship has continued past go-live into a steady stream of enhancement requests, with the platform now embedded in day-to-day commercial operations.
