Today Vendavo announced its acquisition of Endeavor Commerce. This move brings together Vendavo’s price management and price optimization capabilities with the configuration and quoting capabilities of Endeavor Commerce.

You’re probably ready to ask me “John, there have been a lot of acquisitions in the CPQ space in recent years. What makes this one so different?” Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s not that it’s different per se, but rather the CPQ market is different. An acquisition like this highlights one of the key trends that I’ve been seeing in the market for quite some time. CPQ is evolving beyond product configuration. Thanks to an increased focused on the buyer experience, including an increased focus on speed and personalization, CPQ is gravitating towards a sales and commerce enablement tool and away from a hardcore configurator.

WIM: If you’re interested in improving the buyer-seller experience for your organization, take a close look at CPQ. CPQ is no longer simply for manufacturing, industrial machinery, medical devices, or other complex product driven verticals. Forget the nomenclature around CPQ and focus on the business results of selling complete solutions, supporting end-to-end sales and commerce processes, and providing personalization with regards to solution selling and pricing optimization.