Revolutionizing Sales with Sustainable Choices: The Power of Automated LCA in CPQ Systems"

In today's rapidly evolving manufacturing space, sustainability has transitioned from a buzzword to a non-negotiable benchmark for businesses worldwide. However, the integration of sustainable practices often presents unique challenges, particularly in industries like HVAC, Automotive, Industrial Equipment & Machinery, where products are tailor-made to customer specifications. Enter the world of B2B manufacturing, where Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) tools used to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and Configure Price and Quote (CPQs) are facing an exciting paradigm shift. As we navigate this intersection of product customization and sustainability, a powerful solution emerges, promising to redefine the sales process and empower informed choices.

LCA

For standard products and commodities, the LCA has traditionally been done in the product development departments. Many B2B manufacturing products however, are deeply individualised, and the usage of the product is unique for every customer. This makes it difficult to create accurate and complete LCA calculations in product design since those factors are determined in the sales process not during the product development.

CPQ

Many manufacturers are using smart configuration technologies to empower sales reps to configure complex and individualised industrial equipment based on customer requirements and usage estimates. These tools known as Configure Price and Quote systems, translate customer requirements into a valid and buildable technical solution, create sales BoM, pricing, quote documents, visualisations, CAD files & more. Once the deal is closed these data be sent to downstream fulfilment systems (like ERP) for error free order execution.

So can we move LCA to the sales process and automate it, without having to involve sales engineers or LCA experts in every sales case, and quote?

Combining LCA & CPQ

As leaders in lifecycle assessment - PRé-Sustainability, and in Configure Price and Quote - Tacton CPQ, have now partnered up to enable automated and dynamic Footprint Calculations in the Tacton CPQ sales tool. The full footprint calculation is instantly available in the sales after every configurator selection, empowering the sales rep and end customers to reduce the footprint through product selections. If the customer would like the most sustainable solution, it’s possible to optimise the whole solution on lowest footprint. Together with instant price calculations, the buyer is thus able to balance, sustainability, with other investment consideration in the buying journey. Footprint assessments can be inserted to quote documents but also be used in the E.S.G. reporting, radically reducing compliance costs. Through integration between SimaPro and Tacton CPQ you can  automate and scale climate impact calculations of sold manufacturing products, creating carbon transparency to customers your company, as well as legislators, and investors. This will decrease your compliance costs drive more deals, and revenue.