SAP CPQ 2602: What’s New and How to Prepare

SAP CPQ 2602 is one of those releases where the “headline” features are easy to spot, but the real value shows up when you connect them to sales velocity and governance. I’m going to focus first on what sellers and sales ops will actually feel, then I’ll move into admin and integration topics in the next sections. Everything I’m calling out here comes from the official 2602 “What’s New Viewer” export, so we’re not guessing from rumors or scattered notes.

One more thing before we get into it: I always treat SAP’s official breaking changes and announcements for CPQ as the guardrail for upgrade readiness, even when the feature list looks harmless. That combination, release highlights plus breaking changes, is where most revenue-saving upgrade decisions come from. If you want a lightweight refresher while reading this, our SAP CPQ help hub for quick definitions and terminology is useful for aligning stakeholders on the same vocabulary without turning the discussion into a technical deep dive.

What’s new in SAP CPQ 2602 for sales productivity

When I look at SAP CPQ 2602 through a CEO lens, the productivity story is about two things: fewer handoffs during quoting, and fewer “small” admin constraints that force workarounds. NICE. Those two themes matter because they compound. If each quote takes 3 to 5 minutes less effort and one fewer round-trip for clarification, the pipeline impact is not subtle.

Collaboration and Quote UI changes that reduce sales friction

The most visible change is multi-user quote collaboration. In plain terms, SAP CPQ now supports multiple people working on the same quote with clearer awareness of who is in the document and what’s happening. That matters in real workflows like deal desk support, regional overrides, and product specialists jumping in to validate complex configurations. The business win is reduced waiting time and less “version ping-pong” between teams.

There’s also a practical enablement footnote: if your org relies on custom templates, you should plan to update them so the collaboration UI elements show up as intended. This is exactly the kind of small technical dependency that can quietly erase adoption if you do not plan for it. If you want a mental model for rollout impact, I often point executive sponsors to what executive sponsors should expect in the first 90 days because it frames adoption work as part of value delivery, not as “extra overhead.”

How to roll it out without confusing sellers

I recommend treating collaboration as a controlled change, not a surprise toggle. Start with one region or one product line where sales and deal desk already collaborate frequently, then expand. In that pilot, lock down a crisp “definition of done” for quoting ownership: who edits what, when a quote is considered ready for approval, and how conflicts get resolved. If you do this governance step up front, the feature feels like speed, not like chaos.

Also, communicate one simple behavioral rule: sellers should not interpret “more collaboration” as “more approvals.” Collaboration is about fewer interruptions, not more gates. If approvals are already heavy, the 2602 approval-processing performance improvements (especially when multiple approvers are involved) are a quiet but meaningful complement, because the system spends less time grinding through approval evaluation and more time moving work forward.

Quote list, standard fields, and configurator changes that improve control

Several 2602 updates are “small knobs” that make everyday quoting smoother.

First, the Quote 2.0 quote list experience gets a structural update through a new settings page that replaces the older column headings approach. The practical value is better control over how quote lists are presented, with interfaces that are optimized by user type. That’s a direct usability gain for sellers and a governance gain for sales ops, because you can reduce clutter and put attention where it belongs.

Second, quote standard fields now support more granular visibility and editability permissions. This is not glamorous, but it is one of my favorite kinds of improvements because it reduces shadow processes. If sales reps should see a field but not edit it, or if certain roles should edit only specific quote fields, you can enforce that cleanly. It’s a straightforward way to protect data quality without slowing people down.

Third, read-only configurator closes a common loophole: users can review configuration details while preventing edits when the quote reaches a state where changes should stop (for example, after conversion to an order). That’s an accuracy feature, but it also saves time by preventing late-stage rework.

Finally, Quote 2.0 adds quality-of-life upgrades around assets and pricing. Sellers can use configurable columns in the Add Asset popup, which helps when quoting from installed base, and they can see richer pricing details on items, including which pricing conditions are editable. In organizations with disciplined pricing rules, this tends to reduce back-and-forth with pricing admins and speed up approvals because the quote is “clean” earlier.

What SAP CPQ 2602 changes for admins, security, and integrations

If the first section was about seller experience, this one is about keeping the system stable while you unlock that experience. SAP CPQ 2602 introduces a couple of “admin-impacting” shifts that are easy to underestimate: one is about who can access CPQ (licensing and federation), and the other is about how integrations authenticate and behave (APIs, scripting, and error handling).

Licensing and access model shifts to support external users

SAP CPQ introduces an External User license designed for non-employee scenarios. In practice, this is about enabling controlled access for people who need to collaborate on quotes but should not have full internal user rights. The value is governance plus cost control, because you can align access with real responsibilities instead of stretching an internal license model beyond its intent.

This change also nudges most teams to revisit identity patterns and entry points. If you are already centralizing access and navigation across SAP apps, the new direction aligns well with that. For organizations that want to keep architecture clean, I often see leaders pair this with an API-first approach on SAP BTP when it makes sense, because it clarifies which experiences happen inside CPQ and which are better delivered through curated front ends.

Integration and API updates that affect quote-to-cash flow

There are a few integration-facing updates worth calling out because they reduce friction in SAP-only quote-to-order flows.

One headline feature is accessing SAP CPQ quotes from SAP S/4HANA via a central entry point. That is not just a convenience feature. It helps organizations treat CPQ as the controlled quoting engine while meeting users where they spend time operationally. If your landscape includes S/4HANA and CPQ as the commercial layer, the details matter, and the common SAP CPQ and S/4HANA integration pitfalls to avoid are usually less about technology and more about process ownership and error handling.

On the API side, the Quotes API POST method now supports processing configuration details, and SAP also improved error handling for the Quote API. I like these improvements because they reduce the “mystery failures” that slow down integrations, especially when teams automate quote creation or enrich quotes from upstream systems. The net effect is fewer manual retries and fewer support escalations.

The “read this twice” section: breaking changes and required actions

Two items in SAP CPQ 2602 are explicitly marked as breaking changes, and both are the kind that can disrupt revenue workflows if they are discovered late.

Here’s the practical way I’d package this for an upgrade readiness brief, with owners attached:

• Custom Tables API authentication changes (owner: integration developer or middleware owner): update how your integrations authenticate to Custom Table APIs, then validate with a simple smoke test that reads and writes the expected records.

• IronPython eval() deprecation (owner: CPQ admin or scripting owner): inventory scripts that rely on eval(), refactor them, and retest pricing, configuration, and document generation paths that depend on those scripts.

• Federation route migration announcement (owner: identity/admin): review your federation setup and confirm your routing aligns with the new approach, then communicate any impact to SSO flows and user onboarding.

Custom Tables API authentication change (required)

The key point is that the current JWT-based approach used for Custom Tables API authentication changes in this release, and SAP flags it as required. Even if your integrations “rarely touch” Custom Tables, I treat this as a must-check because Custom Tables often sit behind pricing rules, approvals, or eligibility logic that only shows up on certain deals.

IronPython eval deprecation (required)

IronPython eval() being deprecated is a classic example of a small technical detail with big operational impact. Teams often use eval() in legacy scripts for dynamic logic, and that logic may be embedded in quoting flows no one thinks about day to day. The safe path is to treat this as an audit exercise: find usage, replace it, and run targeted regressions on the quote lifecycle.

One extra security note I do like to see in 2602: SAP also includes a SAML 2.0 security enhancement around assertion lifetime and subject confirmation validation. It is listed as a resolved issue, but it signals continued tightening of identity and protocol hygiene, which is generally a good direction for enterprise governance.

How to prepare for SAP CPQ 2602 with a practical upgrade checklist

This is the section where I translate “release notes” into a plan you can actually run. SAP CPQ 2602 has a mix of visible improvements (collaboration, Quote 2.0 usability) and invisible dependencies (API auth changes, scripting deprecations). The goal is not to test everything. The goal is to test what can stop quoting, pricing, approvals, or order handoff.

I like to structure readiness around three streams: business validation (does quoting feel better or worse), technical validation (do integrations and scripts still work), and change management (do sellers understand what changed).

A lightweight readiness process for CEOs and project owners

If you’re a CEO, GM, or project sponsor, you do not need a 40-page technical plan. You need a one-page brief that answers: what changes, what can break, who owns it, and when you can confidently upgrade.

I recommend asking for these four deliverables:

• A short “what’s new” summary tailored to your selling motion (direct sales, channel, deal desk heavy, etc.)

• A list of breaking changes in SAP CPQ 2602 with named owners and dates

• A test scope that focuses on revenue-critical flows

• A rollback and communication plan that is realistic

This is where internal clarity helps. When stakeholders use the same terms for quote states, approvals, and scripts, coordination gets faster. It’s also where upgrades quietly fail when roles are fuzzy, because everyone assumes someone else owns the risk.

Testing and rollout approach that protects revenue

Most SAP CPQ upgrade pain comes from one of three places: scripts, integrations, or documents. SAP CPQ 2602 touches all three categories indirectly through authentication changes, scripting constraints, and Quote 2.0 experience updates. So my testing approach is intentionally boring, and that’s a compliment.

Start with a regression pack that mirrors your real quote lifecycle:

1. Create a quote from the most common entry points (manual, assets, copied quote if you use it)

2. Configure your top 3 product models end to end

3. Price and discount with your real rule set (including any “edge” conditions)

4. Run approvals with at least one multi-approver scenario

5. Generate the core outputs (proposal, quote PDF, order form)

6. Push the quote downstream (order creation or whatever your SAP-only handoff is)

7. Validate any integration that reads or writes Custom Tables, even if indirectly

Then pilot first, expand second. If you enable collaboration or Quote 2.0 list changes, do it in a controlled rollout where sales ops can collect feedback quickly and admins can adjust templates and permissions without creating chaos. When you do the pilot, pair it with a clear support path, because the first week is when users report “bugs” that are actually workflow changes.

If your organization has struggled with upgrade regressions before, the easiest operational improvement is to formalize your “definition of done” for testing. That is exactly why I like having a QA playbook to prevent quote errors during upgrades available internally, because it turns anxious testing into repeatable checks instead of hero work.

Finally, resourcing matters. In SAP CPQ 2602, you really want a named owner for scripting, a named owner for integrations/authentication, and a named owner for documents and templates. If those are spread across teams, align responsibilities early, because otherwise you discover gaps only after users feel them in production. For many organizations, this lines up with the kinds of SAP CPQ services teams typically need during upgrades, even if you handle most work in-house.

If you’re happy with this section, I’ll finish Phase B with the short “myths/traps” segment (where I call out the common upgrade mistakes I see with releases like 2602), then the 3-point summary and gentle CTA, plus your final meta description and 5 stock image queries.