How to use Opportunity AND RLI with more flexibility ?

That is a great question Frédéric Rinaldi !

Unfortunately Opportunities x RLI is all or nothing, configured for the entire instance. In theory it is possible to customize Opportunities js controllers in order to let sales people to decide whether to consider Opp alone or Opp + RLI. However it wouldn't impact the Forecast, which remains wide config sensitive.

Hi André Lopes ,

thank you for your feedback.

We were rather thinking about a solution that will create a RLI automaticaly for basic opportunity (the same way Sugar create RLI when you move from OPP to OPP + RLI) ; of course, this also required to remove the mandatory behavior for the user to create at least one RLI.

Fred

Thank you for clarifying Frédéric Rinaldi , this is pretty easy to accomplish. By adding a custom checkbox/dropdown field on the Opp header we can make Opp record layout to decide whether or not to render and require a RLI, so you will be able to create a simple standalone Opportunity having a hidden RLI created as well.

Frédéric Rinaldi said:

PS : additionnal question : do you also sometimes want to split the product catalog that is used for Opportunity (more macro) and the one used for Quotes (more micro) ?

We do have multiple catalogs because the Opportunity is not defined in detail. We know the customer wants a given product but not specifically which edition. When we get to the quote we may quote different editions so that they can choose.

For example: Imagine we were selling Sugar. The Opportunity will have "Sugar" but the Quote will have "Sugar Enterprise On-Site"

Note that we added our own Opportunity Products (related to Opportunities) and Opportunity Product Catalog (for that module to pick products) back in Sugar Professional v.6.x and I am still looking at how those can be mapped and moved to RLI now that we have those in Enterprise.

We also have code in Quotes that looks up pricing in our ERP, adds a service line if applicable as a QLI, but then prints as a single line "product with service" during the quote printing process. We do this so we can report service and product revenue separately from the QLI but sell as a unit where service is not optional . A nightmare when you start adding % or $ discounts, promotional codes (more custom code with product based lookups from ERP), and the consequent rounding errors and penny differences in totals...

FrancescaS

I confess I didin't realize your latest question Frédéric Rinaldi .

We guide our customers on managing the portfolio in such way it is easy/fast to search based on criterias like Product Type, Parent Product Category, Child Produt Category etc. This way it make it possible to reach a generic item x a quite specific one, for example.

Thanks to the project enum-api it is easy to fetch runtime filtered data from a custom api. This way you can setup different se of views for Opportunity or Quote, depending on the context/requirements

Hi Frédéric Rinaldi  ,

We have suggested to one of our customer the easiest way of asking their sales team to add a custom RLI with whatever dollar value they want and create the opportunity. As you are aware the custom RLI is not linked to any product catalog item. 

And when the opportunity gets clarity on what products fit the opportunity, they create the new RLIs linked to the product catalog. This is by far the easiest.

However doing an automatic RLI creation also works.  Adding a custom RLI automatically during Lead Conversion or when you are creating a new opportunity also works well. You can add two new fields - a tick box to create a custom RLI and the Opportunity value. When User select the tick-box and keep a Dollar Value in Opportunity Value field, the customisation can create a custom RLI with that Opportunity Value.

I am not too sure if the default Auto Calculated Opportunity Value can be used for the above by making it editable. 

Good question and food for thought for us.

Best of Luck with your solution

Hey Frédéric Rinaldi ,

Normally you either want to use RLI or not, and after an initial decision, it is a bit complex to go back due to data migrations, training, user adoption, forecasting, and process changes to name a few (see one-way two-way doors decisions).

In saying that, when at Sugar, I architected and brought to market the DealHub integration for the then-called SugarIntegrate offering (a great CPQ system) and ran into this exact challenge.

When dealing with organisations that have both SDRs and AEs, (or however you want to call the flavour of the day for the sales titles ) you would have someone just understanding if there is an Opportunity or not (SDR), and then someone else doing deeper level engagement and understanding of the actual opportunity (AE).

To be able to solve this problem, you would first have a budgetary line item that the SDR would put in place, and then the AE would create a quote in the CPQ system. The integration would then replace the budgetary line item with the correct ones, based on the quote.

To allow that to be optional, there is a new hidden setting in Sugar's front-end framework that allows no RLI on an Opportunity since a recent version of Sugar. I believe the setting has been available since version 12 or so, and you should find that code that can be extended, within the create subpanel view. The setting is not (or was not) exposed to changes via the UI, only via code extensions.

Personally, I would make it part of the sales process for sellers (SDRs) to have to create a budgetary line item and not need that customisation so that the company can forecast some amount for the sale, even if with low probability. Or alternatively, create a feature request to be able to optionally disable it. SDRs normally do not create quotes but they could ballpark the value of a deal.

In my opinion, a CPQ solution is the way forward to sell with a CRM.

Use the CRM to track Opportunities and the CPQ to churn out multiple quotes and offers with different flavours.

That's how you could have also different catalogues, but rarely do those solutions come integrated out of the box.

And there, I can definitely help!

Cheers