How Long Does a Configurator Project Really Take?

Flat illustration of two colleagues in front of a product roadmap board, one seated taking notes, one standing with a clipboard

By Roman Perich

Table of Contents
  1. The honest answer: 12 to 18 months
  2. What happens in each phase
  3. Where the time is really lost
  4. How to stay under twelve months
  5. The decision that saves three to six months
  6. What to ask yourself — before you ask any supplier

“How long will it take?” is usually the first question in a configurator project, and the answer most suppliers give is the one the buyer wants to hear. Experience shows a clearer pattern — and it shows that the deciding factor is rarely the technology.

The honest answer: 12 to 18 months

From the decision to a configurator your sales team actually quotes with, two phases of roughly equal length follow each other:

Going live in under twelve months is realistic. It requires short decision paths — and one decision about how the system reaches sales, which is covered further down.

What happens in each phase

Preparation is not waiting time. It is where most of the value is created — and where most of the delays originate:

Preparation6–9 months

  • Product data collected, cleaned and brought into one place
  • Units, rules and part number logic agreed
  • Owners named for every series and every dataset
  • The questions of the buyer’s checklist settled

Implementation & acceptance6–9 months

  • Built series by series, not all at once
  • Tested against real configurations and real quotations
  • Released per series as soon as each one is ready
  • Accepted by use — not by a sign-off at the end

In practice the two phases overlap: the first series can already be in implementation while the data for the last one is still being cleaned. That overlap is one of the main levers for a shorter project.

A woman pinning a note to a large wall calendar while planning
Preparation is where the timeline is won or lost — long before the first line of code.

Where the time is really lost

When projects take longer, the cause is rarely the technology. It is decisions that are discussed for months instead of made:

Decisions in committee cyclesA question raised in March is answered in the June steering meeting
Waiting for data ownersNobody feels responsible for the price list of series C
Scope that keeps growingEvery meeting adds one more special case
A big acceptance phase at the endMonths of testing by people who first see the tool at go-live

Each of these is a decision someone could have made in a week. Together they easily add six months.

Option B was the right answer in March. It still is in June — the project is just three months later.

How to stay under twelve months

None of this needs a bigger budget. It needs people on your side who can decide on data, rules and responsibilities within days, not in the next committee cycle:

One decision ownerWho can say yes or no without waiting for a meeting
A fixed weekly decision slotOpen questions are closed every week, not collected
A named owner per seriesFor its data, its prices and its rules
The first series earlyIn the hands of sales while the rest is still being built

The people who can do this are usually there already. What is missing is the mandate to decide — and the expectation that they will.

A team meeting at a conference table with laptops, two senior managers listening at the head of the table
Short decision paths are not a technical requirement. They are a management decision.

The decision that saves three to six months

If the system is set up early and handed to sales from the start of implementation — working with each series as soon as it is ready — the separate acceptance phase at the end largely disappears. Sales accepts the system by using it. That alone often saves another three to six months.

It also changes the mood of the project. Instead of a big reveal at the end, there is a series of small, visible steps — and a sales team that has been part of it all along. Why that matters so much is covered in Acceptance Is Psychology, Not Technology.

What to ask yourself — before you ask any supplier

  • Who on our side can make decisions on data, rules and responsibilities — and how quickly?
  • Is there a named owner for every product series and every dataset?
  • Can sales start with the first series while the rest is still being built?
  • Which of the 28 questions in the buyer’s checklist have we already answered?
  • What would it cost us if the project took six months longer than planned?

The timeline is part of our buyer’s checklist for product configurators — together with the 28 questions that decide whether the tool is still useful in three years.

See the timeline
Open the checklist

Acceptance Is Psychology, Not Technology