The Nextian Product Management app provides product catalog functionality along with additional features that support cloud and communications service product management.
The product catalog is built on Salesforce’s standard Product2 object and related objects such as Pricebooks and Pricebook Entries, with custom objects introduced only when necessary.
Key enhancements to the standard Salesforce product catalog include:
- Product Record Types. Indicate whether a record represents a standalone product, a product part (add-on), or a one-time service request.
- Product Metadata. Describes key product characteristics, such as:
- Is the product a term-based, subscription service or a “widget” item (e.g., a router or handheld device)?
- Does the product require a specific service location (e.g., fiber internet access), or is it location-independent (e.g., a software license)?
- Is the product always quoted as a single unit (single-quantity) or in varying amounts (multi-quantity)?
- Is it a usage-based product?
- Is the product price fixed or dynamically sourced from third-party providers?
- Price Book Entries. Capture additional product parameters, such as:
- Operation type (e.g., new, change, move).
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- Contract term (for term-based products).
- Associations with:
- Work Order Templates that define workflows for how specific operations on a product are delivered.
- Service Templates that define how services are physically constructed (e.g., WAN ports, routers, firewalls), enabling automated creation of service elements during order processing and supporting service profitability analysis.
- Vendor Price Book Entries. Define vendor-specific configurations for resold products.
The relationships between Nextian Product Catalog objects can be visualized as follows:
