How Anthology Removed 170+ Days of Manual Effort in End-to-End Services Sales Process with BigTime Services CPQ 

Industry: Education Technology (EdTech)
Firm Size: 1,000-5,000 Employees
Main Use Cases: SOW Automation, Service Catalog Enablement, CRM and PSA Integration, Operational Efficiency

Overview of Anthology

Anthology is a leading global EdTech provider, offering a modern and intelligent solution suite tailored to today’s learners and institutions. With decades of innovation and a robust ecosystem of offerings, Anthology supports higher education, government, and corporate learning institutions across the world.

In 2021, Anthology entered a significant transformation phase following the merger of four separate organizations—each with its own legacy data systems, sales processes, and services catalog. The newly unified company faced a pressing need to modernize how services were scoped, quoted, and delivered.

To accelerate this modernization and scale operations efficiently, Anthology partnered with BigTime Services CPQ (formerly Workrails) to centralize and automate its services selling process—from discovery and scoping to quoting and forecasting.

Challenges Before BigTime Services CPQ

Disconnected Systems and Legacy Processes: Anthology operated across multiple non-integrated systems, creating silos between sales, delivery, and operations. Sales teams relied on outdated Statement of Work (SOW) templates, or asked delivery teams to create new ones from scratch—delaying deals and increasing dependency on billable resources.

Manual Quote and SOW Generation: Before BigTime Services CPQ, Anthology’s process for generating services quotes and SOWs was entirely manual. Sales representatives relied on informal methods and internal communication to request support from delivery teams.

Inconsistent Services Catalog: Due to the merger, Anthology inherited over 800 SKUs across four legacy companies without a unified taxonomy or centralized catalog. This fragmented setup made it difficult for sales reps to discover available services or scope opportunities with consistency and confidence.

Limited Visibility and Manual Burden: Lack of integration between CRM and PSA systems led to heavy manual data entry, rework, and confusion. Service scope information had to be transferred manually across systems, making project staffing time-consuming and resource forecasting incomplete.

Fragmented Sales Enablement: With no standardized SOW language and inconsistent access to services information, the sales team lacked the tools and resources needed to effectively sell services—often defaulting to familiar legacy offerings.

The BigTime Services CPQ Solution

Anthology launched Project FIT (Future of Information Technology) which included a workstream to unify and digitize the services sales lifecycle in three phases, all centered on BigTime Services CPQ as the linchpin technology:

Phase 1: Centralized Services Catalog
BigTime Services CPQ was deployed as a standalone catalog allowing Salesforce users to browse a standardized set of 800+ services. Approved SOW templates were created with locked boilerplate language, reducing variability and enabling sales reps to independently generate consistent, client-ready SOWs.

Phase 2: CRM Integration
BigTime Services CPQ was integrated into Anthology’s Salesforce instance, enabling automatic population of quote lines and attachment of SOWs directly to opportunities and contracts. This eliminated re-entry and streamlined the approval process, shortening the sales cycle.

Phase 3: PSA Integration
BigTime Services CPQ connected with Anthology’s PSA system to pass forecasted resource demand and assignment data, allowing delivery teams to proactively plan staffing needs. Complex custom services and standard offerings alike could now be scoped and forecasted with precision.

Key Results 

Efficiency Gains and Time Savings: Since going live in 2024, Anthology has used BigTime Services CPQ to generate over 1,365 quotes, saving approximately 1,365 hours—equal to more than 170 business days of manual effort eliminated

Consistent, Compliant SOWs: Standardized templates with locked language ensured that every SOW met legal and compliance standards, reducing risk and administrative overhead.

Improved Sales Visibility and Enablement: Sales reps now have access to a single source of truth for service offerings, sales information, and scope narratives—making it easier to position and sell the right services to the right clients.

Seamless System Integration: BigTime Services CPQ provided a smooth data handoff between Salesforce and the PSA system, enabling automated project assignments and real-time resource forecasting.

Faster Deal Cycles and Better Margins: By reducing delays in scoping and quoting, BigTime Services CPQ helped accelerate deal closure and empowered Anthology to guide customers toward higher-value services, boosting overall services revenue.

Organizational Transformation: BigTime Services CPQ helped Anthology break out of the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset. The project united cross-functional teams around a modern, intelligent sales enablement process backed by leadership buy-in and strong change management.