What's New in Campfire V40: Faster Quoting, Fewer Clicks, and Clearer Margins

Automotive supplier quoting is slow because the work is spread across disconnected systems, quotes turn around in weeks instead of days, version control breaks down across handoffs, and teams have no clear margin visibility until it is too late to act. The fix is a unified platform built around three ideas: fewer clicks, consistent workflows, and data that surfaces the story behind the numbers rather than just reporting them. That is the design principle behind Campfire's new V40 product, which we walked through in our Q2 Product Webinar.

Key Takeaways

• Suppliers consistently report the same four quoting problems: multi-week turnaround, disconnected systems and handoffs, version control chaos, and no clear margin visibility.

• These problems came directly from customer interviews conducted over roughly 18 months, not from assumptions about what suppliers want.

• Reducing clicks, standardizing screens and data, and defaulting values wherever possible removes friction that slows the quote-to-award cycle.

What suppliers actually told us about quoting

Over roughly 18 months of customer interviews, the same issues came up repeatedly. Quote turnaround was still measured in weeks. Data lived in disconnected systems that required manual handoffs between functions. Version control broke down, so teams could not always trust which numbers were current. And margin visibility was poor, meaning suppliers often could not see profitability clearly until late in the process.

What suppliers asked for was equally consistent: fewer clicks and a simpler, modern interface, the ability to reuse past data instead of re-entering it, a global data model, and faster, more frequent deployments.

The three principles behind the redesign

Every feature in V40 was built against three principles.

The first is simplify. Each capability and application aims for fewer clicks and less complexity. The guiding question is whether a step adds value; if it does not, or if the value can be defaulted, the step is removed. The goal is as few clicks as possible to get to a usable result.

The second is standardize. Screens, features, and data are consistent across the product. That consistency extends to how master data is handled and to deployment and onboarding, so teams learn the interface once and carry that knowledge everywhere.

The third is finding meaning in the data. Standard reports and visualizations are embedded throughout the product, but reports alone only show part of the picture. The aim is for the data to tell a story about the business, which is where new AI features come in.

How Opportunity Management changes the starting point

In the redesigned Opportunity Management, the system compares a loaded volume file against the existing pipeline and surfaces unengaged opportunities automatically, suggesting parts and pricing from historical data. This exposes the full volume file, including programs a team may not have known about or been tracking.

From there, engaging an opportunity is designed to minimize manual entry. The system loads as much data as it can, performs a match on the OEM name from the file, and lets the user set a take rate, parts per vehicle, target price, and target margin. It then calculates part volume, back-calculates target cost from the margin, and produces an average lifetime revenue figure for the program.

How RFQ intake and quoting speed up

V40 offers two paths for creating a quote. The first is manual, pulling forward data already entered so the OEM program and part details fill in automatically rather than being retyped. The second is automed email RFQ ingestion: Campfire connects to a mailbox, monitors it for new RFQs, reads incoming quote packages, and fills in fields automatically. Once connected, it can sync roughly every 30 minutes without manual prompting.

The broader pattern across both paths is defaulting. Where a value can be pulled from the volume file, a vendor file, or data already entered earlier in the lifecycle, the system fills it in and lets the user refine it later as the opportunity matures.

Why standardized processes replace configurable ones

A significant change in V40 is the move away from fully configurable business processes. In prior systems, customers could build their own processes, which sometimes produced long, convoluted workflows that, on inspection, boiled down to a consistent series of steps that were followed every time.

V40 instead encodes best-practice processes for how automotive suppliers typically work, based on two decades of automotive industry experience, shown as a quote lifecycle in opportunity management and as a defined workflow in CPQ. The tradeoff is less per-customer configurability in exchange for a standard, supported process that reflects what the work actually requires.

FAQ

Q: Can we still configure our own business processes like we did before?

A: No, there are no configurable business processes in V40 at this time. Campfire is standardizing on a 6-step RFQ lifecycle workflow that supports automotive-supplier best practices, along with a standard 6-step CPQ workflow. In both cases the workflow shows where you are in the 6-step process.

Q: Can we configure part categories and forecast criteria?

A: Yes, part categories and forecast criteria are configurable.

Q: Are unengaged opportunities filtered per user?

A: Yes. You can set the customers and OEMs for each sales rep. The demo just had it broadly open to show more of them.

Q: How do DOA approval rules work, and are approvals sequential or concurrent?

A: Approver groups can be set up with rules based on two parameters currently, margin and revenue/value. Approvals are concurrent to all members in a group.

Q: Can we attach supporting documents like supplier quotes and approvals?

A: Yes, this is coming soon through our document management solution, which is being embedded throughout the product.

Q: Can capital and tooling amortization be tracked through the life of a program once awarded?

A: Yes. Planned amortization is visible on the charts and trackable across the program.

Q: Is data sent by Campfire stored or used to train external AI models?

A: No, no data sent by Campfire is stored or used to train any external models.