Apttus
AI-Powered Quote-To-Cash Processing

Kirk Krappe, Chairman and CEO of Apttus, recalls the time when his company got its first customer on board. The client purchased a solution and paid Apttus by cheque which Krappe never encashed. Nonetheless, it gave Apttus the beginning it required to get into the business. Very soon, several organizations across the Atlantic started buying the company’s comprehensive cloud contract lifecycle management software which over time evolved into a configure price quote (CPQ) solution. Prior to establishing Apttus, Krappe worked as a senior executive in an organization where he was curious about the way that organization was controlled and managed. He realized that no matter what he did, he was not in control. This led Krappe to start Apttus, a profitable company. For the initial eight years, Apttus did not raise any capital from outside, as Krappe wanted his company to be in control. “During my pre-Apttus life, I had no control, and when you have no control, it comes down to subjective perspective. So, we decided to not to make it subjective and form our own company and run it from our perspective,” recalls Krappe.

In one of his previous companies, Krappe was handling the go-to-market engine where he would spend half of his time apologizing to customers and another half in selling the products. Learning well from these experiences, he started Apttus. “The reasons we began Apttus were, we wanted to be in control and work towards client success because one of the most terrible things you can do in life is sell something that does not function properly,” points out Krappe.

The CPQ available in the Apptus cloud checks on discounts from cutting into margins by ensuring that each deal abides by the business and pricing rules, apart from providing visibility into revenue generation at each phase of the sales cycle.

The company allows its customers to interact with Apttus’ QTC applications via Max—a QTC virtual assistant developed by Apttus. Designed to help companies create the most advantageous deal proposals, build solutions, and create price quotes, Max provides a conversational user experience that simplifies customer interactions in the social, mobile, and virtual environment.

Another component of the Apttus intelligent cloud is the X-Author solution. The X-Author solution converts Microsoft Excel to a user interface for the customer relationship management (CRM) system, thereby improving the adoption rate of QTC. It easily automates processes throughout the organization, augments the speed and efficiency of input data, and amplifies Excel productivity saving several administrative hours. X-Author simplifies data management by enabling users to sort, filter, and perform calculations apart from having to save the results on the CRM system. Utilizing Excel in X-Author, companies can design and install scalable applications to accommodate users around the globe.

Recently, in Series E, the fifth round of funding, several companies have funded Apttus including IBM. Apttus envisions utilizing these investments to promote its AI-powered business solutions for enterprises processes like revenue generation and commercial relationship management. With IBM in the list of Tier 1 investors, Apttus looks forward to take the affiliation between the two companies to a completely new level. In addition, it intends to offer its AI-enabled QTC and contract management solutions to the customer base of IBM worldwide. Apttus intelligent cloud and Apttus Max will soon integrate with IBM Cloud and Watson and also other IBM technologies and services. Reaping the benefits of this association, Apttus looks forward to exploiting the IBM technologies to multiply its implementation of AI for its customers.