Let Logik help you Configure It Out
Logik.io’s advanced product configurator, or as we call it, our Commerce Logic Engine, takes even the most sophisticated products, and makes selling them simple, so every customer gets exactly what they need. By providing an easy-to-manage, flexible, centralized solution for managing how products can and should be sold, businesses can accelerate their GTM agility, reduce system administration costs, and increase selling effectiveness across channels.
Why is Logik.io's Commerce Logic Engine for Product Configuration a Game-Changer?
Flexible & Intuitive
Give your sales reps the tool they need to deliver a quote for products and services that fit exactly what your customer needs. No more picking through part numbers and product lists. Let Logik.io guide every seller to the perfect solution.
Maintain a Single Source of Data
Logik.io enhances the "C" of Salesforce CPQ, and is built directly on the Salesforce platform and within the Salesforce data structure, so you can still leverage all your product data in one central place. Logik.io works right alongside your existing system.
Lightning Fast Speeds
Logik.io adds a proprietary solving engine to Salesforce CPQ built to handle advanced product configurations with split second speed speed for sales reps to produce quotes faster for every product, for every customer, every time.
Table of Contents
Section 1 Product Configuration Management Software
For years, companies selling products that have multiple iterations, customer-guided configurations, custom designs, various feature options, and/or optional add-ons had to settle for business solutions that were limited to specific segments of the product lifecycle.
They were definitely an improvement, but they still left significant gaps that users needed to fill. Businesses often had to use two or more separate solutions that had to be integrated.
Businesses needing software that facilitates custom configuration by sales reps and/or customers needed a sales configurator, or CPQ system, to guide users through the configuration, determine the final price, and generate a quote. Businesses with complex product configuration options requiring custom manufacturing needed a manufacturing configurator to create the BOM, routing, and any other information required to correctly produce the final product.
What if a business needed both? Separate solutions existed to do either, but not both. So, they'd have to be integrated with each other if possible. This made things a real hassle. As time marched on, they both evolved and got better. Eventually, it became obvious that there was a need for one single solution that could do both. That's where product configuration management software comes in.
Product configuration management software is a more unified solution that aids every department and provides one singular, fully contained, and effortlessly smooth process throughout the entire product lifecycle. A product configuration management software like Logik.io can make the entire process seamless and easy for customers, sales reps, manufacturers, engineers, administrators, and more from start to finish.
Product configuration management software is one of many configuration management tools available. Software configuration management aids businesses that sell software instead of physical products. Software configuration is complex. A software configuration management tool tracks the different software configuration items, each final configuration, and all the changes made.
Section 2 What Are Configuration Management Tools?
There are some very important questions to answer before deciding on a solution.
The three most important of these questions are, what is configuration management, what tools exist to support it, and which of these tools best meets the needs of my business? It's best to start by asking, what is configuration management and why is it important.
Configuration management is the general process of tracking, maintaining, and controlling changes and configurations, storing relevant data, and ensuring consistent performance. This broader umbrella encompasses more narrowly defined tools with specific purposes like product configuration management, software configuration management, and application configuration management.
People will often ask, is Jenkins a configuration management tool? Yes and no. Technically, yes, it is, because it was built to allow developers to integrate changes and track and control versions. However, also no in the sense that it was built as an automation tool and doesn't have the same start-to-finish configuration management process people usually associate with the term.
Configuration management examples are a great way to contextualize this otherwise rather abstract concept. They do this by allowing you to see the different use cases for various configuration management tools, observe the configuration management process, and see them in action to witness the benefits of configuration management for yourself.
Section 3 How are Configuration Management Tools Used?
There are a wide variety of configuration management tools used for numerous different scenarios.
Various configuration management examples and use cases can be found for product configuration management, software configuration management (SCM), and application configuration management to help you find some that parallel your needs.
There are even plenty of specialized configuration management tools examples like ones to showcase the utility of SCM tools in software engineering and others to focus on the benefits of configuration management tools in DevOps specifically. This is where Jenkins examples can be found for those asking, "Is Jenkins a configuration management tool?"
Software development and configuration can be extremely delicate, precise, and complicated. The smallest mistake like changing a single character can stop the entire program from functioning properly. That's why it's so important to find the best option that matches your strategy and needs as closely as possible.
It can also take more time and effort to understand a software configuration management tool and learn the intricacies involved with using it. There are often software configuration management PDF guides to go into detail, give you a closer look at the functionality, and help you learn to use it.
Section 4 Configuration Management Tools in Software Testing
Software engineers and DevOps teams are often the biggest proponents of configuration management.
They see it as a necessity due to the importance that this kind of technology can play in their very sensitive work. Oftentimes, software engineers and developers can have a single misstep cost them days of progress.
If there's a glitch and the code becomes corrupted, gets destroyed, or is deleted somehow, having the most recent version of the program saved in their configuration management tool can save them weeks or months of time. That's why it's so important to have configuration management tools in software testing. That's also the reason that software testing is one of the most common software configuration examples.
Once you fully understand the principles of software configuration management, you should have a pretty good idea of what you'll need yours to be able to do. It helps to have a checklist of all the functionality and features you're looking for to compare to the features of each option on your SCM tools list.
It can also be beneficial to separate your list into two sections: Features you absolutely cannot go without and features that it would be nice for your software configuration management tool to have. Focusing on priorities first can narrow the list down quickly, then the extras can help you decide from there.
Section 5 Open-Source Configuration Management Tools
When considering product configuration management software, many seek the option with the lowest possible upfront cost.
They usually search for open-source configuration management tools first. This mistake often has a detrimental effect on their business. Even experienced software developers familiar with the configured assembly of open-source software shouldn't attempt to use open-source configuration management tools in DevOps over an option from a professional SCM tools list.
You may find people recommending this option when searching for, "Is Jenkins a configuration management tool?" and related terms. However, it's important to remember that professional configuration management tools have capabilities that these don't. They have integrations, features, and tools that can help your business in other ways too, like a CPQ system, for example.
Open-source options almost always lack the power, usability, and complexity of professional tools as well as many other important functions. Configuration management tools like Logik.io are purpose-built by experts with decades of experience and insight into building long-term success. There are dozens of built-in tools and methods to increase sales and save on costs. Plus, they have the best resources and people to assist you.
Section 6 Version Control and Configuration Management Tools
Version control and configuration management tools go hand-in-hand.
Version control tools in DevOps help teams track and manage changes to the software. For those still looking to find free version control software, users with a free account can get limited access to some of the version control tools Bitbucket offers. Search for Bitbucket software configuration examples to see it in action.
They also have some features you may be able to use as your source code management tools in DevOps. There are limits to the tools you can access and how much you're allowed to do with a free account though. Also, since the platform focuses solely on software configuration management, they don't have any features to facilitate a smooth sales process.
However, with a complete product configuration management tool like Logik.io, you can get a next-generation headless commerce experience with a commerce logic engine built for high-tech products. You'll also get a seamless CPQ process, the functionality to allow sales reps and customers to use guided selling features with dynamic pricing, and easily implement an omnichannel selling experience that customers love, all in one powerful, high-speed, low-maintenance platform.
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