Product Configurator & CPQ

The problem this solves

Make-to-order businesses lose money in the gap between what the salesperson promises and what the plant can actually build. Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations ships a constraint-based product configuration model that is genuinely capable — product configuration models, attributes, expression constraints, table constraints, and BOM and route generation on the sales line. In practice three things stop it carrying a real quoting process.

First, the configuration experience is a modal dialog aimed at a user who already knows the product. It is not a guided selling flow. A salesperson cannot see why an option disappeared, cannot compare two valid configurations, and cannot leave a half-finished configuration and come back to it.

Second, pricing. Configuration produces a BOM cost; it does not produce a commercial price. Option surcharges, volume breaks, margin floors, freight by configured weight or dimension, and per-customer discount logic all end up in a spreadsheet that lives on someone's laptop and disagrees with the ERP.

Third, the quote itself. What the customer receives is a standard sales quotation document that shows a configured item number and a price, with no breakdown of the choices that produced it and no way to present good-better-best alternatives.

ECOSIRE builds the layer that closes those three gaps, on top of your existing F&O configuration model rather than replacing it.

What ECOSIRE builds

Guided configuration experience

A step-driven configuration form built as an F&O form extension, sitting over your product configuration models. Options are presented in a sequence you define, with dependent choices revealed as earlier answers are given. When a rule eliminates an option, the interface says which rule did it rather than silently hiding the row.

Configurations are saved as drafts against the quotation line, so an unfinished configuration survives the salesperson closing the session. A configuration can be cloned to produce a variant for comparison.

Constraint and rule engine

Where the standard expression and table constraints on the product configuration model carry the logic, we use them. Where they cannot — cross-line rules, rules that need to read customer master data, rules driven by inventory or lead time — we add an X++ rule layer that evaluates alongside them and reports failures in business language. Rules are data-driven and maintained in F&O forms with a supporting data entity, so a product engineer changes a rule without a code deployment.

Automatic BOM and route generation

On confirmation, the configuration drives generation of the BOM and route through the standard F&O generation path, producing the configured item, BOM version and route version that production control expects. Operation times and setup can be driven from configured attributes so a longer assembly genuinely costs more minutes on the route rather than a flat figure.

Pricing and margin control

A pricing engine layered on the configuration result: option surcharges, quantity breaks, customer-specific and price-group logic through the standard trade agreement framework where it fits, and a configurable margin floor that blocks or routes for approval any quotation line below threshold. Calculated cost comes from the generated BOM so the margin figure is real rather than estimated.

Approval routing uses the standard F&O workflow framework, so escalation, delegation and the approval history behave exactly as every other workflow in your system.

Quotation output and downstream flow

A quotation document that presents the configuration as the customer chose it — the option tree, the selections, the surcharges, the total — rather than an opaque item number. Multiple variants can be presented on a single quotation for good-better-best selling. On acceptance, the standard quotation-to-sales-order conversion runs, carrying the configuration, BOM and route into the sales order and on into production.

All of it is multi-company aware: configuration models, rules and pricing are scoped per legal entity, with ledger dimension defaulting on the generated lines following your existing account structure.

Integration surface

Data entities for configuration models, rules, option pricing and saved configurations, exposed over OData so a partner portal, a Power Apps front end, or a CRM can read and write configurations. Where a customer-facing self-service configurator is wanted, we build that on the same entities — quoted as a separate scope item so you are not paying for it by default.

Delivered as extensions in a dedicated model. No overlayering.

Who this is for

Manufacturers and assemblers selling engineered or optioned products — machinery, furniture, cable assemblies, windows and doors, packaging, industrial equipment — where a quotation involves real choices and where the wrong configuration reaching production is expensive.

It assumes you have or are willing to build product configuration models in F&O. If your product variance is handled entirely through product dimensions and a finite variant list, standard F&O already covers you and we will tell you that during scoping instead of selling you a configurator.

How delivery works

Scoping call. We look at your actual products: how many models, how deep the option tree, where the rules currently live, how pricing is decided today, and who signs off a discount. We review your existing product configuration models if you have them.

Fixed quote. A written scope — models covered, rule count and complexity, pricing logic, approval routing, document output, integration points, F&O version targeted, explicit exclusions — at a fixed price. Work starts only on acceptance.

Build. Built in our F&O development environment against a copy of your configuration where available. Typical lead time is two to four weeks from accepted quote, longer where the rule set is unusually deep.

Install in test. A deployable package into your sandbox via LCS. We load your configuration models, rules and pricing with your product and sales teams, and you quote real products against it in your own acceptance testing.

Production. Promotion to production through your normal release process after sandbox sign-off, with support through the go-live window and full source handover.

Support. A defect-support window from go-live covering behaviour that does not match the agreed specification. New models, new rules beyond the scoped count, and enhancements are quoted separately.