Is migrating from Salesforce CPQ or Vlocity CPQ to Salesforce Revenue Cloud really a migration—or an opportunity to rethink how a business sells?

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn welcomes back Manika Goyal, CEO and co-founder of Intellicloud Solutions, a Salesforce-focused system integrator. With more than 22 years of experience in telecom, Salesforce architecture, and enterprise transformation, Manika shares what has changed since her first appearance two years ago. Drawing on recent Revenue Cloud implementations in manufacturing, high-tech, and telecom, Manika explains why moving from legacy CPQ solutions should be treated as a consulting-led transformation rather than a simple lift-and-shift. She discusses what to preserve, what to simplify, and why a greenfield approach often makes sense. The conversation also explores where Salesforce Revenue Cloud has matured, particularly in product catalog management, and where challenges remain, including complex pricing, amendments, document generation, and integrations. Manika shares lessons from a manufacturing transformation that streamlined product configuration, standardized pricing, and simplified the lead-to-order process. AI is another major topic. How can AI agents accelerate CPQ implementations, product modeling, and data migration without introducing unnecessary risks? Manika discusses Intellicloud's Intellimigrate, Intelliconfig AI, and Intelliengage solutions, including the use of natural language to simplify product modeling. She also explains why human oversight remains essential, sharing an example of how insufficient review of AI-generated pricing decisions can cause revenue leakage.

Whether you're evaluating Salesforce Revenue Cloud, planning a CPQ migration, or exploring AI in quote-to-cash processes, this episode offers practical insights from real implementation experiences.

Learn more: Intellicloud Solutions | Manika on LinkedIn | Contact via email

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In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn speaks with Chris Tabigo-On, founder and CEO of Fibrin, about how revenue lifecycle management is changing the way companies handle Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), billing, and contract amendments after the deal is signed. Chris, a CPA turned systems leader, shares how early Salesforce and NetSuite projects, followed by order-to-cash automation at HubSpot and Dropbox, led her to build a system of record for revenue contracts that sits between the CRM and the ERP. She also explains how the company evolved from Tactic to Fibrin and the thinking behind the new name.

The conversation explores several topics, including:

• Why pricing outgrows a CPQ, and two warning signs that deals are moving offline
• Why hybrid pricing with prepaid credits, free allotments, and custom billing terms is so hard to manage
• Where the handoff between CPQ and billing breaks down, especially in rip-and-replace amendments
• How Fibrin integrates with Salesforce, NetSuite, DocuSign, Slack, and tax solutions
• How AI sales agents and revenue insights support quoting today, and what an MCP server could add
• How non-technical administrators can configure products and pricing after implementation

Chris also shares practical advice for buyers, including three questions to ask every CPQ vendor about ramp deals, mixed billing terms on a single order form, and mid-term contract changes. These are the hard questions that often surface only after implementation begins. If you're evaluating CPQ software, managing usage-based or hybrid pricing, or trying to understand what happens to a quote after signature, this episode offers practical insights into revenue lifecycle management and the questions worth asking before you buy.

Learn more: Fibrin | Chris Tabigo-On on LinkedIn

Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. To stay up to date with the CPQ Podcast and the latest Novus CPQ research and insights, visit novuscpq.com.

What if the biggest challenge in CPQ isn't the configuration engine itself, but getting the right product knowledge into it?

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn welcomes back Kiana Mostajabian, Senior Director of Product Management at Configure One, to explore how artificial intelligence is changing product configuration, quoting, and sales processes for manufacturers of complex products.

Kiana explains why product modeling and the dependence on a small number of technical experts remain major barriers to scaling CPQ. She introduces the Configure One Intelligence Platform and its two connected applications: AI Model Builder, which transforms product specifications, drawings, and bills of materials into draft configuration models, and AI Seller, which interprets customer requirements and RFQs to help generate accurate quotes.

They discuss how these capabilities could help manufacturers expand their configurable product catalogs, reduce their reliance on sales engineering, and enable dealers and distributors to quote complex products more independently. Kiana also shares early customer experiences with AI-assisted modeling and explains why buyers increasingly expect measurable business value from AI rather than additional features.

The conversation also covers several other important CPQ developments, including:

• CRM and ERP integration and implementation timelines

• Intelliquip Select for fluid handling manufacturers

• Headless CPQ and future PLM integration capabilities

• AI-assisted quoting and pricing optimization

Kiana also provides an update on product availability: AI Model Builder is already available, while AI Seller is currently in beta, with general availability planned for January 2027.

Whether you're evaluating CPQ software, implementing configure-price-quote solutions, or exploring AI in manufacturing, this episode offers practical insights into how CPQ technology is evolving and what these developments could mean for your business.

Learn more: ConfigureOne | Kiana on LinkedIn

Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. To stay up to date with the CPQ Podcast and the latest Novus CPQ research and insights, visit novuscpq.com.

What does AI-native CPQ actually mean, and how is it different from adding AI capabilities to traditional CPQ software?

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn speaks with Marc Uible, VP of AI at Threekit, about the company's evolution from 3D product visualization to AI-native Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software and AI-powered sales agents.

Marc explains how Threekit is addressing the challenges manufacturers face when selling complex, configurable products through direct sales teams and channel partners. He discusses how AI agents can simplify product selection, configuration, pricing, and quoting while working with existing product data and business rules.

The conversation explores several topics, including:

• What distinguishes AI-native CPQ from traditional CPQ with added AI capabilities

• How dealers can generate proposals using photos, voice commands, or competitor quotes

• How AI-powered website agents can improve product discovery and guided selling

• How Threekit combines AI with rule-based validation to check product information and reduce inaccurate recommendations

• Implementation timelines for AI-powered web agents and complete CPQ solutions

• How Threekit integrates with enterprise platforms such as Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, and Infor

Marc also discusses practical implementation challenges, including managing complex product information, defining business processes, and balancing manufacturers' requirements with the flexibility sales teams and dealers need.

We also explore how Threekit uses AI internally and Marc's perspective on how AI agents could evolve to support more of the sales process, from initial product discovery to completed quotes.

If you're evaluating CPQ software, exploring AI agents for manufacturing, or interested in how artificial intelligence is changing product configuration and B2B sales, this episode provides insights into Threekit's approach to AI-native CPQ and some of the practical considerations involved.

Learn more: Threekit | Threekit Live Demo | Marc Uible on LinkedIn

Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. To stay up to date with the CPQ Podcast and the latest Novus CPQ research and insights, visit novuscpq.com.

How much should you know about CPQ before relying on software vendors, consultants or implementation partners to guide your next steps?

In this episode, Frank Sohn discusses why CPQ buyers should first learn enough to ask good questions, challenge assumptions and look at the market from more than one perspective.

He also introduces the new Novus CPQ Advisor, an independent starting point for exploring CPQ vendors, solutions, research and next steps. The Advisor can help people who are new to CPQ as well as experienced CPQ stakeholders who want another perspective, information on a vendor, or help finding relevant Novus resources.

The Advisor is not intended to provide the final answer to every CPQ question. Instead, it gives users a place to start, learn and explore before deciding where deeper research, technical expertise or direct advisory support may be useful.

Try the Novus CPQ Advisor:
novuscpq.com/#cpq-advisor

Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. To stay up to date with the CPQ Podcast and the latest Novus CPQ research and insights, visit novuscpq.com.

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank speaks with Antonio Brkic, Chief Product Officer at Helioz Technologies, about the evolution of zipCPQ into HeliozOne and the company's broader vision for configurable product sales.

Antonio explains why Helioz is moving from a CPQ-focused solution toward a modular platform that can support product configuration, pricing, quoting, e-commerce, spare parts, document generation, production quoting, and integrations. He also discusses what this transition means for existing zipCPQ customers, noting that current solutions and support remain in place and that adoption of additional HeliozOne capabilities is customer-driven rather than mandatory.

The conversation explores several areas that are becoming increasingly important for manufacturers and other companies selling configurable products, including:

• AI-assisted product configuration and PDF-to-configurator workflows
• 2D and 3D product visualization
• CAD integration, including Onshape
• CRM, ERP, accounting, and e-commerce integrations
• API-based data exchange and modular architecture
• Production quoting and cost calculation
• Self-service CPQ for small and midsize businesses

Antonio also shares Helioz' approach to AI: using artificial intelligence to suggest, extract, and accelerate work while keeping people involved in reviewing and validating the results. He discusses growing customer interest in AI-driven configuration, sales guidance, and converting information from PDFs into structured configurator data.

Frank and Antonio also look at where 2D and 3D visualization add the most value, how Helioz integrates with systems such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, and accounting platforms, and what types of organizations are the best fit for HeliozOne.

If you are evaluating CPQ software, working with complex or configurable products, or interested in how AI, visualization, CAD, and integrations are changing Configure-Price-Quote processes, this episode provides a practical look at the evolution of a modern CPQ platform.

Learn more: Antonio Brkic on LinkedIn | HeliozOne | Helioz Technologies

Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. To stay up to date with the CPQ Podcast and the latest Novus CPQ research and insights, visit novuscpq.com.

Copilot, assistant, agent — the terms get thrown around interchangeably, but they describe three very different levels of AI autonomy. So where does agentic AI actually belong in the configure-price-quote process, and where should humans stay firmly in control? In this episode, Frank sits down with Sourabh Kukar, Director of Technical Consulting at Salesforce, where he leads a team of enterprise architects working across Revenue Cloud, Agentforce Revenue Management, CPQ, and H&A solutions for large enterprise customers. Sourabh was named Salesforce's FY24 CMT Technical Architect of the Year, holds 23 industry certifications, and is an IEEE Senior Member. Sourabh brings a rare mix of backgrounds to the conversation — starting as a Java developer, spending a decade as an integration architect, then moving deep into the Salesforce platform in 2019. That combination of coding roots, systems breadth, and platform depth shapes how he thinks about which parts of quote-to-cash are ready for real AI autonomy and which still need deterministic guardrails and human sign-off. Frank and Sourabh also dig into how to architect multiple specialized agents so one agent's bad output doesn't become another agent's bad input, why fixing your data and simplifying your processes matters more than the AI layer itself, and what changes for revenue operations teams as quoting and approvals move into conversational tools like Slack.

In this conversation we cover:

• The real difference between a copilot, an assistant, and an agent — and where Salesforce's Agentforce quoting agent fits
• Which parts of configure-price-quote are ready for high AI autonomy, and where humans need to stay in the loop
• How to architect multiple specialized agents so errors don't cascade downstream
• Why fixing your data and simplifying your processes matters more than the AI layer on top
• What changes architecturally when quoting and approvals move into Slack
• A practical framework for choosing phased coexistence over a full CPQ-to-Revenue-Cloud migration

If you're a Salesforce CPQ customer evaluating a move to Revenue Cloud, an enterprise architect thinking through agentic AI governance, or a revenue operations leader trying to separate real AI capability from hype, this episode offers grounded, practitioner-level insight from someone building these systems for enterprise customers every day.

Learn more: Sourabh Kukar on LinkedIn

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Renewals are becoming a strategic revenue priority — but why do so many companies still manage them through disconnected systems, spreadsheets, emails, and partner portals?

In this episode, Frank talks with Ram Rai, founder & CEO of Yagna iQ, and Manish Agrawal, Co-Founder & CTO, about how recurring revenue and renewal management are changing as companies move toward subscription and lifecycle-based business models. They discuss why renewals become particularly challenging in indirect sales channels, where OEMs, distributors, resellers, and end customers may all participate in the process.

Ram and Manish explain Yagna's approach to channel CPQ and renewal automation, including how renewal processes can extend beyond simple expiration reminders to customer onboarding, adoption monitoring, account health, value realization, quoting, and expansion opportunities. They also discuss how Yagna integrates with existing CRM, ERP, and CPQ environments rather than replacing them.

The conversation also explores the growing role of agentic AI in renewals and quoting—from processing supplier quotes and automating RFQs to AI-assisted customer outreach—as well as where human oversight, data readiness, integration, and governance remain important.

In this conversation we cover:

• Why renewal management is moving from a transactional process to a strategic revenue discipline
• Why indirect channels create unique CPQ and renewal challenges across OEMs, distributors, and resellers
• How Channel CPQ can complement existing vendor-side CPQ systems
• Where agentic AI, voice agents, and automated quote processing can support renewal workflows
• Why data cleansing, CRM/ERP/CPQ integration, governance, and human-in-the-loop processes remain important
• How automation can help address the "Long-tail" of lower-value, high-volume renewals that are often uneconomical to manage manually

If you work in CPQ, Revenue Operations, recurring revenue, channel sales, or partner management, this episode provides a useful look at how renewal automation is expanding beyond reminders and traditional quoting — and how AI may change the economics of managing recurring revenue at scale.

Learn more: Yagna iQ Yagna iQ AI · Ram Rai on LinkedIn · Manish Agrawal on LinkedIn · Yagna iQ Customer Pulse Report – Recurring Revenue and Renewals in 2026

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