New Features

The following features are new to CPQ in this release.

ABO and Service CPQ Enhancements

Asset-Based Ordering (ABO) and Service CPQ modules contain the following new features introduced for this release:
Note: Spring 2018 Release onwards, CPQ supports only the Asset Grid UI.

Renewable Products

CPQ provides the ability to set aside the products that are renewable at the PLI level and control them at the cart or asset level. You can define a product as non-renewable at the PLI level and cascade it to the asset. If the asset is non-renewable, you must not pull the product into any renewal quote, such as auto or on-demand. If the asset is non-renewable, CPQ disables the renew action. If the flag is set to fixed, the product is renewable. If the flag is set to fixed, you can pull the product into auto and on-demand renewal quote. If the flag is set to evergreen, you must not pull the product into auto and on-demand renewal quote. If the flag is set to evergreen, you are not allowed to renew the product manually.

ABO Support for Renewals on Services

During service renewal, you can update equipment items for the service. You can terminate the equipment line items or you can add them to additional services or extend coverage to the quote.
While renewing a service, on the cart grid you can see all related equipment in the Related Items pop-up; when you click Add or Remove, on the Installed Products page only services get selected. One current limitation of this feature is that even though the relationship between a service and an equipment item is established, you may not be able to add or remove related line items from the equipment.

Create Quotes from Opportunities that Inherit Related Line Items

You can create a draft quote with the selected service product and its related line items (asset line items) and then synchronize it with the opportunity. After clicking synchronize with opportunity, you can also cascade the related equipment lines to the opportunity and forecast the service revenue in conjunction with the opportunity.
Similarly, you can create a renewal quote that carries over the related line items to the quote or cart.

UI Improvements for Asset-Based Ordering

  • You can apply column settings to the Installed Products page. You can change coloring, formatting, and styling of the angular and the asset grid pages. This helps you customize the look and feel of the Installed Products page for better readability.
  • You can see the Search bar adjacent to the installed products header area on the right corner on both Asset and Assets Grid pages.
  • You can see a floating menu for the Asset Grid page similar to the Cart Grid page.
  • You can see pagination at the top of the Asset Grid page, which helps proper page alignment. Also notice that left side search filter section get collapsed by default.

Support for Related Line Items at the Option Level

You can view the related lines associated with the component in the cart from an icon at the option level. You can add or delete components using the Add or Remove buttons. This allows you to select and sell services at the component level and view the details in the cart.

Support for Account Hierarchy

You can view the account hierarchy on the Installed Products Asset Grid page for the selected accounts. To display the accounts in the Asset Grid page, you must set the Show Assets custom settings and the accounts for which you want to view the hierarchy.

Coverage Status of Assets

This release introduces the Boolean field Primary Service on the Asset Line Item object; it is disabled by default. You can enable it to view the coverage status of your assets:
Installed Product (Asset Grid) page shows Service Product columns if Show Coverage for Primary Service is set to true and you have added all the columns to column settings. You need to mark the service as a Primary Service in the asset line item manually or by any custom setting. CPQ does not have the provision on the UI to mark the service as Primary.
Only one primary service is associated with an item of equipment. In the case of more than one primary service associated with the equipment, CPQ shows the coverage status data for the first available service. You can see the service along with its start and end dates alongside the equipment asset without any clicks.
For Primary Service,

  • Product shows proper name of the service product.
  • Start Date shows a start date of the service product.
  • End Date shows an end date of the service product.
  • Weighted Net Price shows the Net price of weightage that is distributed among equipment.
  • You can see the dynamically generated coverage status of the asset on the page.
  • You can also search your assets by using the coverage status on the Installed Products page.

Note: You need to enable the Show Service Coverage custom setting in order to view the coverage status columns on the Installed Products (Asset Grid) page.

Configuration of Service for a Component of the Bundle

On the Installed Products page, after selecting the asset and clicking Relate, Service CPQ displays Relate Component pop-up that contains a selectable list of options. After you relate the options to the selected asset or equipment, when you click Next, CPQ takes you to the Service Catalog page.

Enabled Match in Options Support for Related Asset Lines

When you relate a bundle (bundled asset), the eligibility rule (CSCR) is triggered at the option and bundle level and based on the eligible purchases for the option of a service, you can do the following:

  • Sell services for a bundle or option
  • Select the options for which you want to add a service coverage

When a service catalog launches after relating the assets to options, eligibility rules will check the Match in Options field for related lines or assets and accordingly disable or enable valid services.

Configuration Enhancements

Config module contains the following new features introduced for this release:

Min-Max Messaging

On the product configuration page, when you make a selection of options in the desired Option Group, CPQ displays min-max messages to show you how many options can be selected. For example, if you want to select X number of options where options can be X to X+n (n=1, 2, 3), then you will see an appropriate message for selecting those options from the desired Option Group.

Inclusion Rule with Prompt

The Inclusion Prompt Rule allows you to specify the maximum products to be added to the cart. You must set minimum and maximum values in order to add products to the cart. CPQ disables all remaining option products that go beyond maximum value after the product selection is made. If you select less than maximum value, you have to manually close the prompt because the prompt closes automatically only when the maximum number is reached.

Products Disabled or Hidden on Inclusion Prompts

CPQ disables or hides the excluded products on inclusion prompts to keep the validity of the cart intact. When a product is disabled, CPQ shows an error message from the rule. However, for Warning type exclusion rule the product is not disabled in the prompt. When you enable Hide Disabled Options setting under Config System Properties, then CPQ hides the product.

Indicator for Mandatory Fields

CPQ displays a red border on the left when attributes are set to mandatory in the UI. This is useful in ensuring that all the mandatory fields are filled up before saving the page.

Horizontal Scroll for Option Groups Tab

The Product Configuration page provides a horizontal scrollbar when you have many option groups. You can see a single line of tabs for option groups and for menus with many option groups; you can also see the submenus with option groups being available for selection.

Added By and Added By Rule Information for Client-Side Constraint Rules (CSCR)

After product configuration, CPQ shows the "Added By" information on the cart at the line item level when it is added by a constraint rule or a user. When you execute a CSCR, the auto-included products contain the Added By info on the line item record, which defines it as added by "Constraint Rule". CPQ also displays the "Added By Rule info" information, which is used to trigger other rules and for reporting purposes.

Hyperlinks for Options Groups in the Summary Section

A summary section displays Option Group and child Option Groups with hyperlinks that take you to the corresponding section where the entire configuration is shown.

Mandatory Products cannot be Marked as Optional

If you have added any items by auto-inclusion rules, you cannot make them optional. When a product is added by the rule, the AddedByRuleInfo__c field on the line item is populated with a value.

Ability for Rule Messaging for Disabled Products

When an option is disabled by a constraint rule, if you hover over the option's checkbox CPQ displays the constraint rule message to make you aware why it is disabled.

Increased Threshold for Bundle Maintenance Job

You can run Bundle Maintenance Job without failure when CPQ has a large number of options validated with the following scenarios:

  • 10,000 options groups for the entire system
  • 10,000 options in a given option group
  • 2,000 option groups for a given bundle with an average of 3 to 5 options each group

Incremental Update for Criteria Maintenance Job

The Criteria Maintenance Jobs are incremental rather than being rebuilt, so that existing records are not impacted. When you execute the constraint field maintenance job, CPQ generates new constraint field records as an insert operation. When you execute the pricing fields maintenance job, CPQ generates new pricing fields records as an insert operation. When you execute the expression maintenance job, CPQ generates new expression records as an insert operation. Existing records remain as is. CPQ does not have downtime for quotes with existing records.

Client Side Constraint Rules Enhancement: Disabled Products Based on Product Option Group Min/Max on Inclusion Prompt

When you set maximum number of options for an option group, the remaining options on the prompt get disabled regardless of the Min/Max criteria. When a product is disabled by Option Group Min/Max rule, you can hover over the error message:
Error message on hover over is provides generic min/max option group: "This option has been disabled due to "xyz option group" has reached its maximum limit of selectable options.

Client Side Constraint Rules Enhancement: Parity for Action Criteria in Inclusion Rules

Using the expression builder, you can edit the expression field of an action from the Inclusion Rule. For example, you can update the Adjusted Price as 100 percent for an Auto-included Line Item. You can also update the line item field based on the rollup field that you have defined.

Pricing Enhancements

The Pricing module contains the following new features for this release:

Enabled Group Adjustment Spread

Group Adjustments are adjustments applied at the Bundle or Total level. These adjustments are allocated to the members of the group such as options in the case of bundles and are applied on top of any line level adjustment applied to the member. With this new feature, the group adjustments will replace existing line level adjustment. The benefit of such a process is twofold:

  • The sales rep can prevent any further manual adjustment from applying on the line by using the Allocate Group Adjustment Flag
  • The sales rep can override the manual adjustment of any line item even after applying a group adjustment.

You can apply group adjustments to multiple line items, where the base price is not zero and the product is not set to optional. To use this functionality, you must enable the custom setting > Config System Properties > System Properties > Enable Adjustment Spread and also set the Max Adjustment Lines to 1 or 0.
When applying a group adjustment, there should be at least one member line item that can be allocated an adjustment and that line item should have a non-zero price. Enable Auto Reprice will switch the Adjustment spread logic to be client side and allow the administrator to set Minimum and Maximum Net Adjustment % thresholds.

Conversion of Group Adjustments

Group Adjustment Spread combines the ease of applying a group adjustment with the flexibility of a line level adjustment. You can update the adjustment type and amount on a bundle or summary group line, and on when the bundle is repriced, the group adjustment gets replaced by line level adjustments on the options or standalone products.
Notes:

  • You can use the Group Adjustment Spread functionality even if the bundles have sub-bundles.
  • Group Adjustment Spread functionality works for Discount Amount, Markup Amount and Price Override as well for the conversion of amount-based bundle adjustments to option adjustments.
  • You can use the Group Adjustment Spread functionality to quickly apply adjustments, even if you have optional cart line items.
  • You can use the Group Adjustment Spread functionality to apply a percentage-based price adjustment to options within a bundle to derive an ideal price for a quote.

Enforced Min/Max Net % at the Line Item Adjustment Level

You can prevent the sales reps from applying any line level adjustments to one or more items in the cart, because these items are sold at the price that CPQ calculates. You can apply discounts up to 10% maximum. Even if you try to give a greater discount, CPQ sets it to 10% maximum.
If you have enabled the Enable Adjustment Spread custom setting and disabled the Allow Manual Adjustment on a line item, then CPQ sets the Allocate Group Adjustment as read-only for that line item. Note that the sales reps cannot use Mass Update to update the Allocate Group Adjustment flag.
This feature is based on the client-side pricing framework, so you must set Enable Auto Reprice to True.
After configuring the Min Net % and Max Net % on a price list item, you cannot apply the manual price adjustment outside of the Min/Max Net % range.
You can give percentage-based discounts for configuring a quote with a desired price by using the group adjustment spread when you have Min/Max Net % associated with the line items.

Related Pricing Setup in the New Admin UI

You can set up related pricing using a line Item field and a charge type, which in turn can be used across many products.
For related pricing:

  • You select a line item field and a charge type while creating a related price list item.
  • You can use only one line item field per definition of Related Price List Item.
  • You can use different line item fields in different related price list items.
  • For managing related pricing, go to CPQ Admin > Pricing > Manage Price Lists > PRICELIST ITEMS > Select Advanced Settings. Then select the Price Method as Related Price.

Ability to Apply Unit Level Discount Amount

In the multi-adjustment pop-up, when you apply % Discount, CPQ applies the Discount Amount to the Base Price after multiplying it with Quantity and Selling Term of the bundle product.
You must select the custom setting Enable Base Price Adjustment in the System Properties > Price Settings in order to reprice the adjustment line item.

Quoting and New Admin UI Enhancements

Quoting and New Admin modules contain the following new features introduced for this release:

Support Price Ramp on the Cart Grid UI

In line with Angular Cart, the Cart Grid UI shows a Price Ramp icon. When you click, it opens an Auto Ramp wizard if you have enabled auto-cascade ramp setting on the PLI; otherwise, you can also create a price ramp manually.

Enabled Proposal Email Editing

CPQ provides the edit capability for all text email templates in the proposal document generation email pop up.

Cart Grid UI Improvement: Three Columns in the Left Section of the Cart Grid

The left side of cart grid is limited to three line items fields. When you create a new cart view and try to drag the fourth field into the third section, it moves that field to the middle section. When you create a new cart view as an admin, you can see the same behavior as a general user creating a cart view.

Manage Visibility Rules in the New Admin UI

To configure product filtering rules, you can define new visibility rules. For creating visibility rules, go to CPQ Admin > Catalog > Manage Visibility Rules > New Visibility Rule.

Multiple Adjustments Using Favorite Configuration

When saving favorite configurations with multiple adjustments, you can see the first adjustment applied to the favorite configuration. Now you can also save multiple adjustments for a given favorite and apply as required.

Base Price for Currency Code

CPQ uses the Base Price field of Line Item to determine what Currency Code is displayed in the Angular UI. If you do not want Base Cost to be seen by specific users for various reasons but Base Price to be made available to all users. Hence, CPQ uses Base Price rather than Base Cost to determine the Currency Code to be used.