Last month, we published Part 1 of this series with an introduction to CPQ.  We talked about what it is, identified its value proposition and asserted, “Why PLM would be the ideal foundation for CPQ.” For Part 2 of this series, we dig a bit further and talk about the workings of CPQ.  We received a question in response to our first part that serves a great lead-in to the next section entitled “CPQ and the Business of Engineering.”  The question was “why not run CPQ as a standalone application?”  STOP.  Add yet another application?  That’s what we are urging companies to reconsider.  In this section, we weave the topic of CPQ into the spirit of Business of Engineering. To help you position CPQ capabilities within the “To-Order” spectrum, Dick Bourke wrote a brief for the Best Practices section addressed, “Matching CPQ with the “To-Order” Spectrum.”  What we hope to illuminate here is that there is NOT a “one-size-fits-all” solution.