If anyone is using CA PPM for quotation support, would like to know how you are using CA PPM for this. We develop and sell some very complex systems, where often we go through 20+ product solutions (different combinations of content, requiring different WBS content/resource demand and non-labor (prototype part, tooling, testing costs) before winning the business. Speed is important; also, ability to compare the various product solutions.
Toying with idea of using Product object - where one could create a product representing each possible solution, where each would then have its own cost plan. Would be great if there was a 'create product from template' - where one could then create say 10 products real quickly, using copied data, then edit each as necessary. Also, need a quick means to populate cost plan. This would be a top-down approach, unless a projects were created for each solution and attached as children to their corresponding parent products.
Gets messy, very quickly when compared to Excel. Of course, managing this in Excel has its own unique problems, besides being disconnected from the Capacity/Demand/Pipeline management in CA PPM.
Or, perhaps, do everything in Excel and have means to push data into CA PPM, where it can be managed/controlled in a DB environment?
Interested to hear if others are facing same situation, and if/how others have approached solution.