Process Overview: Submit Inquiry for Configurable Machine

Inquire About a Configurable Product 

To perform an inquiry and start the configuration process for a configurable product in Commerce, the user will click on the 'Add-to-Cart-&-Configure' icon:

This will add the product to the cart and open up the configurator UI for configurations to be made based on the users' requirements. As shown in the image below, errors encountered during the configuration process will be highlighted in the side panels. These side panels can be toggled on/off to view information with respect to the inquiries that are making and also view additional information relevant to the product.  Mandatory fields are also indicated as per necessary.

The Configurator UI allows users to add on additional configurations before making inquiries with respect to the chosen product. This will help customers to add consumables and spare parts to increase their deal size.

Tip: Fully configured inquiries result in fast quote creation. configuration is optional and users can submit inquiries without configuration as well.

Refer to 'The New Configurator UI - Workspace' for additional information. 

Before submitting inquiries, users can also include any further configurations that they would like by clicking on the Configure icon and also add/attach notes that they would like to include with regards to this particular inquiry as shown in the image below. 

Available Actions 

Icon	Meaning
	The Copy icon here copies the configuration and adds another line item in the inquiry tab. Products that have been copied and added to the line item list can be further configured too if necessary.
	Configure icon used in the line-item view of the inquiry section of the shopping cart. When clicked, it will launch the configuration again to view/edit.
	The Attachment icon shows the number of documents that are already attached. Clicking on it allow the user to upload more attachments if needed. The Expand View (Arrow) icon, opens up the option to write notes and attach documents in a full view popover.

Viewing Inquiries Made by Users

As shown in the image below, clicking on the My Inquiries tab in Commerce will redirect users to view the inquiries that they themselves have made. Business Administrators can also access inquiries made by others:

The inquiries are listed in a table format:

Upon clicking onto a particular inquiry, the user would be able to view an Inquired Line Item Summary as shown in the image below with respect to the product that is being shown and also has the option to click on the Configure icon to specify their configuration preference before submitting an inquiry.

Inquiry Information in CPQ

When successfully submitted, the inquiry will be created as a Quote in CPQ (refer to 'Quotes' for Pricing information). These quotes differentiate themselves from quotes originated in CPQ by having the flag 'Commerce Inquiry' set to True. 

This flag is also available as a search parameter available e.g. in the pre-delivered saved search 'Commerce Inquiries' - refer to 'Saved Search' for additional information:

A quick action "Convert to Quote" is available on Inquiry which creates a follow-up Quote, copies over all relevant data as well as creates a reference 

Sales Reps use "Convert To Quote" to copy all information from the inquiry to a follow-up quote. The same inquiry can be converted multiple times if required and a reference between inquiry and quote is automatically created for future reference: 

Configuration

Under 'Commerce Administration' -> 'Operation Settings' administrators can enable/disable the inquiry process and can also turn on / off the Aftersales process (Order & Checkout). ​

​For Example: if a customer is only interested in Aftersales they can turn of the inquiry process or if they only are interested in the inquiry they can turn off Order & Checkout.​

For the configuration screen to work in commerce please maintain the following

Under 'Administration' -> 'Master Data Management' -> 'Setting String' -> 'MX Application URL' the CPQ URL (example: https://xxxxxx.hana.ondemand.com)

Product Pre-Requisites for the Inquiry Process

The right pre-requisites need to be maintained on a Product record before they can be configured and inquired for by Commerce users in addition to the regular product master pre-requisites for Commerce (refer to 'Product Master Pre-Requisites' for additional information). These pre-requisites are:

• The product attribute 'Classification' needs to be Product
• It must be a configurable product, meaning it needs to have a valid knowledge base (refer to 'Product Rules Definition' for additional information) and the flag 'Classified' needs to be set to False

Related Documentation

• Refer to 'Submit Inquiry for Configurable Machine' for configuration related documentation
• Refer to 'Process Overview: Product Details' for available actions per product
• Refer to 'Product Master Pre-Requisites' for general product master pre-requisites
• Refer to 'Saved Search' to create saved searches in CRM / CPQ