Introduction

The transportation industry relies heavily on sound logistics and modern technology to supply the world with goods of every kind. In the United States, the trucking sector makes up the largest portion of the transportation industry, moving over 70% of the nation’s freight (by weight.) The big rigs are a common sight on our local roads and highways. We often think of truck drivers communicating on CB radios, but today’s modern trucking fleets also rely on advanced applications for communication and precise, economical operations.

This case involves a transportation technology company, an industry leader in the development and deployment of highly customized applications for truck drivers and fleet managers. Developers at the technology company work to create, update, and maintain applications that aid truck drivers in all aspects of daily work life, including communication, navigation, fuel efficiency, maintenance, driver safety, and overall driver experience. With the aid of the technology company’s sales representatives, trucking companies can view and select applications that meet their company’s specific needs and business goals. Once the applications have been selected and the deal is finalized, each driver of the trucking company receives an iPad, preloaded with the selected applications.

The transportation technology company sales reps use Salesforce to keep track of their Accounts and Opportunities, and they utilize Salesforce Configure Price Quote (CPQ) to enhance the process of producing quotes and negotiating prices. The company’s sales reps found that two of their standard business processes were causing issues when producing new quotes. This led them to search for ways to extend and customize their already robust CPQ platform, which led them to the Salesforce experts at Client Cloudcare. Like a friendly roadside assistant, Client Cloudcare promptly arrived, diagnosed the challenge, and developed a custom solution.

The Challenge

To get the transportation technology company back on the road to operational efficiency, the experts at Client Cloudcare took the time to analyze how they were currently using standard and custom Salesforce and CPQ functionality and understand the company’s strategic goals. Client Cloudcare found that the technology reps first create quote Line Item records within CPQ that go into producing their overall quote package. When finalized, it is then sent to the trucking company which completes the order.

For each account, a quote Line Item record in CPQ is created for each application selected by a trucking company. The quote Line Item record includes fields for the application name, quoted price, and quantity. CPQ then uses a standard formula field on quote Line Item records to automatically calculate the total price of an application by multiplying the price by the quantity ordered. Each quote Line Item is included on the account’s quote record, as well as the total price for the entire order. From there, rollup summary fields on the respective Account and Opportunity records are used to keep track of the company’s sales metric for reporting purposes.

Upon further investigation, Client Cloudcare learned that, in the interest of planning for future growth, trucking companies often desired a quoted price for an application, even if they were not intending to purchase the application at that time. The discovery process also revealed that sales reps can offer free trial periods for certain applications. In both situations, sales reps needed to enter a quantity of zero on the quote Line Item record to produce an accurate quote, however, the quantity field requires a value of one or more in order to save the record without an error.

Without the ability to save the pre-negotiated and free trial information on quote Line Item and quote records, sales reps had to record it elsewhere, but there was no standard procedure in place. When this information was needed in the future, sales reps often had to spend time looking for it or contact the trucking company to renegotiate prices if the information could not be found.

Solution

To extend the CPQ platform to meet the client’s needs, Client Cloudcare created a Zero Quantity checkbox field and added it to the quote Line Item page layout. A new Total Price formula field was also built in such a way that, when the Zero Quantity checkbox was ticked, the new formula would not include the pre-negotiated or free trial Line Item prices.

Another new Total Price formula field was then created on the Quote object and the appropriate rollup summary fields on the Opportunity and Account objects were adjusted to reflect the new fields. All old and unused fields were removed from the page layouts and the solution was tested and presented to the client, with overwhelming approval.

The transportation technology company now enjoys a fully automated, efficient system of producing quotes and contracts for their clients. If a trucking company decides that they would like to add a new app in which they’ve previously received a quote, sales reps no longer need to spend time looking for the prior quote or renegotiating prices. The new solution saves time and money and allows for easy and accurate reporting and analysis of company sales numbers and other important metrics.

Conclusion

By thinking outside the box, Client Cloudcare was able to devise a solution that extended the CPQ platform with respect to the client’s business processes. The transportation technology sales reps find that the entire process of producing a quote is now much easier and more organized, while the company executives appreciate the ease and accuracy of reporting and analysis.

Client Cloudcare is a mission-oriented organization, committed and passionate about supporting organizations that provide vital services to the community. We specialize in Salesforce setup and optimization, research and configuration of connected applications, and automation of manual processes. Is your organization’s Salesforce instance or connected application in need of an overhaul? Breaker, breaker 10-4, Client Cloudcare is available and ready to help. Contact us today for more information or a one-on-one consultation.