Adding items to a quote

A quote is a document that allows a prospective buyer to see a predetermined set of items and quantities at a predetermined price, to be delivered on a specific date. A Field Sales Representative must be able to add items to a quote.

Solution

Sterling™ Field Sales enables a user to add product items from the catalog to a quote. A user can add an item as a quote line item or a recommended line item.

A user can either enter the complete Item ID of the item and add that item to the quote, or browse the catalog to search for the item and add it to the quote. The getCompleteItemList API is called to retrieve the details of the item.

Note: When searching for an item, if item entitlement has been configured for the customer for whom the quote has been created, the getCompleteItemList API returns only the items that have been configured for that customer.

Check availability of individual products

While browsing the products to add to a quote, the user can click Check Availability for each product to view its availability information. The findInventory API is called to retrieve the availability information for the products.

Note: If a certain quantity of a product is completely available at a single node, the Check Availability option shows the status as In stock/available. If the requested quantity is not available at a single node or distributed across multiple nodes, then the Check Availability option shows Out of stock/Unavailable. This is applicable for bundle components as well.

Validating items

In the Quote Details screen, Sterling Field Sales validates whether an item or the quantity of an item is valid for the corresponding quote. The validations are performed only if the item validation rules are appropriately configured in the IBM® Sterling Business Center application.

Based on the rules configured in the Sterling Business Center application, the following criteria are used for validating the items in the quote:

Minimum order quantity and maximum order quantity: The quantity ordered for the item must not be less than the minimum order quantity and not more than the maximum order quantity that is configured for the item.
Item can be sold separately: The item must be configured in such a way that it can be sold separately.
Item entitlement: The customer to whom the order belongs must have entitlements to the item.
Item status: The status of the item must be Published.
Item's effectivity date: The effective start date of the item must not be later than the current date and the effective end date of the item must not be earlier than the current date.

The validateItemForOrdering API is called to validate the items.

End-user impact

None.

Implementation

This section explains the configurations for this functionality:

You must configure the following item validation rules to enable Sterling Field Sales to validate items before they are added to a quote:
- Enable Extended Item Validation
- Validate Item
- Validate Item During Order Creation/Modification
You must configure the customer entitlements appropriately to enable a user to add an item to a quote created for a particular customer.
You must configure the quote modification rules appropriately to allow the addition of items to a quote in a particular status.