This chapter covers the following topics:
The Update Proposal page enables you to manipulate proposal content, generate the proposal, view the e-mail correspondence associated with the proposal, manage the sales team working on the proposal, and track proposal notes and tasks.
You access the Update Proposal page when you click Apply on the Create Proposal page, or click the name of a proposal on the Proposal Views page or Proposals page.
The Update Proposals page shows basic information about the proposal. You can modify this information and then click Save. Show More Details is available through personalization.
To delete a proposal, click Delete. You can delete proposals only if you have full access to the proposal.
The page also features these tabs:
This tab enables you to further personalize your proposal by adding, removing, or reordering proposal components, attaching supporting documents, and generating the proposal. It contains two tables:
Components: This table lists the components of your proposal. These might be the components that are included in the proposal template you selected, or components that you add as content.
Supporting Documents: This table lists the supporting documents attached to your proposal. These documents are optional, and in any valid file format.
Components that require personalization are indicated with a red X in the Complete column. This means you must provide information to complete that component. You cannot generate your proposal until all components are complete.
Click the proposal component name to display the details for that component. This page enables you to complete the personalization of a particular component by selecting an alternate template for that component (if there are several choices available), personalizing text for use in dynamic fields upon proposal generation, or adding an image, such as a logo. Enter your changes and click Apply.
Click Add File to add an image. This enables you to add an image file from your desktop, or from the Oracle Content Manager library or folder. Click View Image to preview the image. The ability to add an image file is made available through personalization by your system administrator. You can add images in these formats:
JPG
JPE
JPEG
JFIF
PNG
Click the Preview icon to preview the individual proposal components. You cannot see the complete proposal until you generate it.
You can add external documents to use as proposal components. These documents might be files from your desktop, excluded components, or suggested content.
Click Add Content to add content to your proposal.
The suggested content choices presented are based on the components associated with your proposal, or the associated quote, opportunity, or lead. For example, if your proposal contains a component pertaining to a server, suggested content might be a data sheet for that server.
This functionality is available through personalization by your system administrator.
To remove content from a proposal, select the content by clicking the Select check box and then click Exclude. This does not delete the content, but simply removes it from the proposal that you give to the customer. Excluded components are not listed in the table.
You can add excluded components back into the proposal by clicking Add Content and adding the component. You cannot exclude mandatory components.
If you are excluding documents from a generated proposal, you must regenerate the proposal to see the new version with the component excluded.
You can change the order of the included components. By rearranging the components, you can choose the component structure of your proposal. Click Change Order to change the order of proposal components.
This is especially useful after you add a component, as newly added components are displayed at the end of the proposal.
You must generate the proposal to update it with the changed order.
The Proposal Components tab lists quotes associated with the proposal, if there are any quotes. You can add a quote, remove a quote, or change the order of the listed quotes. If the generated proposal needs information from only a single quote, the first quote listed is the one used for the proposal. If you want a different quote to be used, change the order of the listed quotes.
It is possible that an eligible quote might become ineligible after it has been added. If this happens, you receive an error message when attempting to generate the proposal.
Oracle Contracts is a conditional dependency for Oracle Proposals if being pulled in as a part of a quote through Oracle Quoting. If Oracle Contracts is enabled, Oracle Proposals does not support table tokens in Contracts templates.
The following types of quotes cannot be added to proposals:
Earlier version quotes
Quotes in Order Submitted status
Expired quotes
Quotes with incomplete pricing
Quotes with incomplete tax
Quotes submitted for batch pricing
Quotes that are inaccessible to the user
Quotes for other customers
Quotes that have converted into Oracle iStore Shopping carts
Quote templates
The Supporting Documents table lists the additional documents attached to your proposal. These documents are optional, and can be in any valid file format.
Click Add Document to add a supporting document to your proposal. This enables you to add a file from your desktop, from the Oracle Content Manager library or folder, or suggested content based on the proposal components.
To delete a supporting document from a proposal, select the document by clicking the Select check box and then click Delete.
Click the Preview icon to preview the supporting document.
When you have completed your proposal personalization by manipulating the content and adding supporting documents, click Generate Proposal Document to generate your proposal. Proposal generation combines the various proposal components, any added quotes, and the content of dynamic fields into one RTF format document.
During generation, the parts of the proposal are validated and checked for completeness, and a message displays if there are any corrections to be made. After it is generated, your proposal is stored in the Generated Documents tab.
If all proposal elements are valid, another check is made to decide whether to generate the document online or offline. This determination is made based on your system settings for specifying the maximum size of a document generated online. You cannot work on a proposal while it is generating offline. If you choose to generate it online, the process begins immediately and the confirmation page is displayed when the generation is complete. From this page, you can:
Preview the RTF version of the proposal
Convert the RTF document into a PDF file
E-mail the proposal to a customer or someone outside the customer's contact list
Upload a proposal from your desktop. Uploaded proposals are stored in the generated proposals table on the Generated Documents tab.
This tab enables you to manage the generated versions of your proposal. The Generated Documents table lists the various versions of your generated proposal.
Each time you generate a proposal, a new version of it is created and listed in the table. You can generate a proposal repeatedly if its components are complete. After a proposal is generated, you can view it, download it, or send it to a customer.
You cannot change or delete a proposal that is being generated online. You must wait until the generation process completes to effect any change.
Click Show to display the supporting documents associated with a proposal version.
Select a proposal version and click Generate PDF File to create a PDF version of the RTF proposal document.
You can change the status of a proposal version from Draft to Final as work on the proposal progresses.
Click Upload New Version to upload a proposal from your desktop.
Note: Problems might occur with customized styles when using some word processing programs/editors to create your RTF file content. When the proposal is generated, the parser reads the customized document style definition for the latest document, and then applies it to all components if the customized style names are the same. For example, if you use a customized style named Internal Use when creating your RTF file content for the first component with the specification that it use the Font face Times New Roman and Size 12, and your second file also contains a customized style called Internal Use but with a different specification of Font face Arial and Size 10, when the proposal is generated it converts the style Internal Use for the first component using the specifications of Font face Arial and Size 10, and override the definition in the first component.
Also, if an "out of memory" error message displays when generating proposal versions either online or offline or when previewing proposal versions, this might be due to a large number of styles used in a document. Try reducing the number of styles in the component documents.
You can send the completed proposal to the customer using e-mail. You can send either RTF or PDF format documents, and supporting documents attached to the proposal.
To send a proposal by e-mail to a customer contact, select the proposal by clicking the Select check box and then clicking Email Proposal. The e-mail page enables you to navigate to the Manage Attachments page (to select documents to send to the customer with the proposal), edit the recipients and the copy recipients of the e-mail. Enter subject and body text and click Send.
Depending on the value you have set for the profile option, PRP: Email Proposals to External Parties, you have the option of sending the proposal to someone outside the customer’s contact list. The default value of this profile option is No. Please see 'Oracle Proposals Profile Options' in Oracle Proposals Implementation Guide for details.
Note: The Edit To Recipients and Edit Cc Recipients are available only if the customer in the proposal is an Organization. If the customer is a Person, both these buttons are disabled because you can edit To and Cc recipients only for business contacts.
After you send the proposal e-mail, a record of it displays on the Correspondence tab.
Note: If you e-mail the proposal to someone outside the customer’s contact list, then the application will not save a record of it in customer interactions. The application will, however, capture this activity in the e-mail history section, for the given proposal, within the Correspondence tab.
Click the Details icon to view the Generated Version Details page. On this page, you can view the details of a proposal, add or delete supporting documents, or add remarks about a proposal.
You can also send the proposal by e-mail to a customer or generate a PDF file of the proposal from this page.
You can delete a proposal if it has not been sent to a customer or is being generated offline. To delete a generated proposal version, select the proposal by clicking the Select check box and then clicking the Delete icon.
This tab enables you to access a log of your e-mail communications with customers regarding all versions of a proposal. In the Email History table, click the e-mail subject to display details about the e-mail and a list of attachments. Click the version number to see details on the version of the proposal that was sent in the e-mail.
Note: If you e-mail the proposal to someone outside the customer’s contact list, then the application will not save a record of it in customer interactions. The application will, however, capture this activity in the e-mail history section, for the given proposal, within the Correspondence tab.
If you are working on a large or complex opportunity, you might require several team members to work on a proposal for that opportunity. The Sales team tab enables you to manage this team effort, containing a table listing the sales representatives and sales managers who are collaborating on a proposal.
If a proposal is created from an outside application like Oracle Sales, a proposal team can be derived from a quote, opportunity, or a lead. If a proposal is created from a quote, opportunity, or lead, then the sales team is copied from the territory assignments in the originating application.
Click Add Person to search for a team member to add to the proposal sales team. You can optionally select a sales group for the new team member.
The Full Access check box indicates the proposal access level for a team member. Full access indicates that a team member can update the sales team, and update, delete, preview, or e-mail the proposal. If this box is not selected, the team member has read only access to the proposal and can view the sales team. Team members with full access can add or remove other team members. Managers can access proposals belonging to their subordinates. The manager inherits the highest access level of the subordinates.
The Owner check box indicates the proposal owner, which by default is the proposal creator. A proposal must have an owner, and owners cannot be removed from the proposal sales team. Only a team member with full access can be the owner, and there is always only one owner for a proposal. Also, owners must have the Do Not Reassign check box selected. Proposal owners can be changed by any team member with full access. An owner who is changed to be simply a team member automatically retains full access.
The Do Not Reassign check box indicates whether a team member can be reassigned using the Territory Assignment Program (TAP). If the proposal is created from a lead, opportunity or campaign, the team members assignment status is copied over into the Sales Team tab.
This tab enables you to add notes and tasks pertaining to your proposal. The notes region enables you to add notes and view notes added by yourself and other team members.
The tasks region enables you to view and add tasks associated with the proposal. Click Add Another Row to add a new task. If you have full access to the proposal, you can update tasks associated with it.