Checklist configurator: Is it worth it?

Shall we set up a configurator? Is it worth it?

In another article (↗see here), I show a detailed consideration of when and whether setting up a configurator in a company is worthwhile.

That article was TL;DR? 🙃 → Here is a compact catalogue of questions to help you decide for and against a configurator.

If you answer “yes” to most questions, a configurator is likely worth considering. If your answer is "no" to most questions, a different approach or further process and product standardization may be more suitable.

Checklist

Competetive Advantage

▢ Do you offer products or services with a high number of variants or standardized options?

▢ Is receiving tailored quotes or solutions faster than from competitors a purchasing criterion for your customers?

▢ Would a sales configurator help you differentiate from competitors by providing a superior buying experience?

▢ Are there upselling or cross-selling opportunities that could be better leveraged through guided configuration?

Efficiency & automation

▢ Do you experience frequent, repetitive inquiries that could be handled automatically?

▢ Are your sales, engineering, or production teams spending significant time on manual, variant-related tasks?

▢ Would automating quotation or specification processes reduce lead times or errors in your company?

▢ Is there potential to standardize and improve the quality of customer or internal communication?

Scalability & Knowledge Management

▢ Is expert knowledge currently concentrated among a few individuals, creating bottlenecks or risks? (...think about the shortage of skilled workers or the departure of experienced employees)

▢ Would making product logic and rules centrally available benefit multiple departments?

▢ Are you planning to scale your business—e.g., more products, markets, or regions—where manual processes might not keep up?

▢ Would a configurator help you maintain consistency across different countries, languages, or currencies?

Maintenance & Change Management

▢ Do you frequently need to update product data, rules, or documentation?

▢ Would centralizing changes in one place (rather than updating multiple documents/systems) save significant effort?

Volume & Process Suitability

▢ Do you process a large number of inquiries, quotations, or orders that would benefit from automation?

▢ Are your processes already standardized enough to be mapped into a configurator?

▢ Is the expected volume of configurations high enough to justify the initial investment?

Results

How often did you answer yes?
How many checkboxes did you tick? ☑️

0

Are you sure you're on the right website?
Hard to imagine that none of these points apply to a company with a wide range of products.

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1

Could be worth it!
Even a single point could make a configurator worthwhile. Get help to evaluate the potential benefits with experts.

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5

Hell yeah! You need a configurator.
The question remains: which and how many? There is not that “one” configurator, but rather the right one for each use case.

Wow, you need a configuration orchestra!
Just a single tool won't do it. Bring in experts to avoid confusion and ensure efficiency by orchestrating your configurators.

9

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