Nextian product catalog is built on top of the standard Salesforce Product2 object (and related objects) with the following enhancements:
- Product Record Type — determines if a record represents a product, a product part or a service request (click here for more information)
- Product Metadata — these are additional fields on Product2 describing product characteristics:
- Is the product a widget? Or a subscription service?
- Is it location-based (like Internet access) or no?
- Is it single or multiple a quantity product (i.e., can it be quoted in multiple quantities or is it always 1)?
Product Metadata drives primarily how a product is quoted. - Product Pricing Dimensions — Nextian product catalog enables ‘pricing dimensions’ including:
- Operation type: new service or widget delivery, service cancellation, etc.
- Service term, etc.
The dimensions drive product list pricing on quotes (e.g., a service for 12-month term has a different pricing for 24 months). The additional dimensions are stored on a custom Price Book Entry object.
- Work Order Templates — when an order is created each line item has a work order defining how it is delivered. Work orders are created based on templates associated with product price book entries.
Work order templates can be thought of as delivery/provisioning plans — how is Internet Service delivered? How is it canceled? How is hardware shipped if a customer ordered five routers? - Service Templates — when a service is created, its shell elements can be built automatically based on service templates (e.g., a virtual machine, storage, etc.)
Unlike work order templates service templates apply to new subscription services only and are optional.
The relationships between product catalog objects can be visualized as follows:
