The Challenge: A slow, manual quote process kept sales reps—and customers—waiting

Fortress creates custom outdoor structures for any project a homeowner can imagine—from steel deck frames with rounded edges to designs with cutouts for trees. These highly-customized products are difficult to configure and price accurately due to their unique shapes and measurements.

As homeowners increasingly prefer durable, low-maintenance steel framing over traditional wood, Fortress needed to improve both their customer-facing and internal quoting processes to meet growing demand.

The problem for the Fortress team was two-fold. First, internal quoting bottlenecks slowed the quote-to-cash cycle down. Estimators relied on manual Excel spreadsheets and disparate product knowledge to build quotes, which led to delays averaging weeks between quote requests and delivery. This elongated sales cycles and delayed revenue. Second, the self-service experience for customers was lacking. The website’s estimation tool was slow, couldn’t handle complex configurations, and lacked real-time visualization. As a result, customers often designed products that couldn’t be built, leading to frustration and more work for the sales team.

After evaluating multiple solutions, Fortress found most CPQs couldn't handle their complex visualization needs, calculation requirements, and approval processes.

The Solution: CPQ reduces configuration errors and guides customers to the right solutions

With CPQ by ServiceNow (formerly Logik.ai), Fortress transformed their quote process:

• Real-time visualization: Both customers and sales teams now see renderings of  exact configurations instantly. Changes made in either CPQ or CAD software automatically update in both systems, saving significant time during design revisions.
• Accurate complex calculations: The system handles all rules and measurements regardless of design complexity, eliminating delays and configuration errors.
• Fast internal configuration: Sales teams now create quotes without waiting for specialized knowledge from senior estimators. All product expertise is built into the system, so every seller performs at the level of their top performers.
• Simplified approvals: What used to require lengthy back-and-forth now happens with a few clicks. Approved orders automatically generate customized documentation for all relevant teams.
• AI-guided customer experience: Customers are automatically guided to feasible solutions based on their requirements, quickly determining if their ideas can be built before submitting a request.

The Results: Fortress delivers quotes in minutes, not weeks

Fortress now delivers the accurate, visual quoting experience customers expect while dramatically reducing their internal quoting time and improving sales team productivity.