Faster quoting in manufacturing: is there software for that?
Yes. But the answer to which software fits starts with understanding why your quotes take so long. In manufacturing, there are three classic causes. First: one technical specialist knows which combinations are deliverable, and that person has to be in the room every time. Second: prices live in separate Excel files that are not always up to date. Third: every quote is written from scratch, including the parts that never change. Depending on which cause dominates, the right approach differs.
Three approaches by scale, from light to heavy
The lightest approach is a general quoting tool with a product catalogue and fixed text blocks. Think of tools that store your services and materials with current prices, so you select from your own catalogue when creating a new quote. Costs are low and implementation takes days. This works well when your product variants are limited and the configuration logic is straightforward. The middle ground is a quoting module within your ERP or CRM. If you already work with a business system that includes quoting functionality, that is often the fastest win: one data source for prices, inventory, and customer data, with no more manual re-entry. The heaviest approach is a configurator, also known as CPQ software (Configure Price Quote). This is software that governs product configuration: impossible combinations are automatically excluded, and the price is calculated based on current purchase costs and production time. This makes sense when you have dozens or hundreds of configurable components and when an incorrect quote causes direct production damage. The entry price for full CPQ software for an SME manufacturing company typically starts at tens of thousands of euros per year, excluding implementation.
When is off-the-shelf software not the answer?
Standard tools fail when the knowledge logic cannot be captured in a fixed configurator. Many machine builders produce products that differ significantly per customer: not just different dimensions, but different technical principles. In that case, configuration software buys you little time. The bottleneck lies in translating a customer request into a technical specification, and that knowledge has not yet been documented. In this situation, the first step is not to buy software but to structure that knowledge. Only once you know which questions you always ask, which parameters determine cost, and which combinations are impossible can you put that into software. Skip that step, and you end up with an expensive configurator that nobody uses.
What does a custom-built quoting automation do differently?
A custom quoting tool, such as what we build with Bonsai Quote, makes sense when standard packages cannot handle the domain logic of your product. This applies to machine builders with exceptionally complex configurations, to companies where the quote calculation must be directly linked to purchasing and planning data, or where the transfer of knowledge from the technical specialist into the system needs to happen deliberately and step by step. The difference from a generic CPQ is that the software is built around your product logic, not the other way around. We build these kinds of tools in months, not years, and the client owns the code and data. That said: if a standard package already covers 80 percent of your quoting process, custom development is not the right choice. Buy the package.
How to start quoting faster tomorrow: a decision guide
Start with the question: where is most of the delay? If the answer is 're-entering and looking up prices', start with a lightweight quoting tool or the quoting module in your existing ERP. If the answer is 'configuration errors and dependence on one expert', evaluate a CPQ tool, but do the preparatory work first: write out the configuration logic on paper before buying software. If the answer is 'our products are too unique for a standard configurator', then a conversation about custom development is worth having. In all cases: put your fixed text blocks into a reusable library first. That takes an afternoon and delivers immediate time savings, regardless of which system you choose next.