- Features > Composable CPQ
Composable CPQ
Pick the pieces you need — configurator, pricing engine, quote, checkout — and swap any of them out. Composable CPQ replaces the monolithic suites that lock manufacturers into one vendor's roadmap.
4 layers
Configurator, pricing, quote, checkout — independently swappable
Open APIs
Every component exposed — no vendor lock-in
Weeks
Replace a single layer without rebuilding the rest
The Challenge
Monolithic CPQ Suites Force You to Buy — and Keep — Everything
Traditional CPQ suites — Tacton, Configit, Salesforce CPQ, Oracle CPQ — are sold as one indivisible product. The rules engine, pricing model, quote document layer, approval workflow, and checkout are bundled together and tightly coupled internally. Choosing the vendor means committing to every layer at once, regardless of whether each one fits your business.
The cost of monolithic CPQ is paid over years. The configurator may be excellent but the pricing engine is rigid; the quote PDF is functional but the checkout cannot be embedded in your existing storefront. Manufacturers end up running expensive workarounds, custom development, and parallel systems because they cannot swap out the weakest layer without ripping out the whole platform.
Replatforming a monolithic CPQ is a multi-year project — typically taking 18 to 36 months and consuming the bulk of the IT roadmap. The lock-in is real: once thousands of product rules are encoded in a proprietary format, leaving the vendor means rewriting everything. This dynamic suits vendors and consultancies; it does not suit manufacturers.
The result is that manufacturing CPQ has, for two decades, been one of the most rigid categories in enterprise software — a category where the buyer has fewer options after signing than before, and where evolution is dictated by the vendor's product cycle rather than the manufacturer's business needs.
How It Works
How Composable CPQ Works in Mercura
Mercura is built as four independent, API-connected layers — the configuration engine, the pricing engine, the quote and document layer, and the checkout / order submission layer. Each layer exposes a clean REST API, can be deployed and scaled independently, and can be replaced without touching the others. If your organisation already runs a strong pricing engine, Mercura's configurator can plug into it. If your e-commerce checkout is already built, Mercura's configurator and pricing can power it without forcing a new checkout. If you need to migrate off another CPQ in stages, Mercura can run the new configurator alongside the legacy pricing engine until that layer is also replaced. The architecture is the deliberate opposite of monolithic CPQ — it lets manufacturers buy what they need, keep what works, and replace what doesn't.
What's Included
Key Capabilities
- Four independently deployable layers — configurator, pricing, quote, checkout
- Every layer exposes a versioned REST API — open by design, no proprietary protocols
- Stage migration from legacy CPQ — replace one layer at a time, not the whole stack
- Mix and match with existing systems — keep your pricing engine, use Mercura's configurator (or vice versa)
- Independent scaling per layer — high-traffic configurator does not need a heavier quote engine
- Standards-based integration — OpenAPI, OAuth 2.0, webhooks, JSON schema
- Zero vendor lock-in — rules and pricing exportable in open formats
- MACH-aligned architecture (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless)
The Difference
Before and After Composable CPQ
- Locked into one vendor's roadmap for every CPQ capability
- Cannot swap out the weak layer without replacing the entire platform
- Replatform projects take 18–36 months and dominate the IT roadmap
- Product rules trapped in proprietary formats — exit cost prohibitive
- New use cases blocked by limits of the bundled stack
- Each layer chosen on its merits — configurator, pricing, quote, checkout
- Replace a single layer in weeks without disturbing the rest
- Migrate from legacy CPQ in stages — no big-bang cutover
- Rules and pricing exportable — buyer's leverage preserved
- New use cases addressed by adding a service, not rebuilding the platform
Real-World Application
Example Use Case: Industrial Equipment Manufacturer Migrating Off a Legacy CPQ
An industrial equipment manufacturer was running a 12-year-old monolithic CPQ system. The rules engine was still adequate, but the quote PDF generation was painfully slow and the platform offered no path to embed CPQ into the company's modern e-commerce storefront. A traditional replatform was estimated at 24 months and €4M. Using Mercura's composable architecture, the team replaced only the quote and checkout layers in the first six months — keeping the legacy rules engine in place via an API bridge. Twelve months later, the configuration engine was migrated to Mercura with no disruption to quoting or order submission. The full migration took 18 months at less than half the originally projected cost, with no period of dual-system overhead.
Quote turnaround dropped from 3 days to under 4 hours.
Business Impact
Why Composable CPQ Matters
Composable CPQ shifts the balance of power back to the buyer. It treats CPQ not as a single product to be purchased and tolerated, but as a category of capabilities to be assembled, evolved, and replaced as the business changes. For manufacturers operating on multi-decade product lifecycles, this is the only architecture that aligns with how the business actually works — gradual, layered, evolutionary. Composability is also the architectural answer to the wave of agentic and AI-driven commerce now reshaping how products are configured and quoted: layers can be added without rewriting what came before.
See a Composable CPQ in Action
Book a demo to see how Mercura's composable architecture lets you replace, scale, and evolve each CPQ layer on your terms — not your vendor's.
Let’s build together.
We empower manufacturers to master product modeling, streamline quoting process, reduce errors, and ultimately deliver the tailored solutions that customers demand.