Introduction

This chapter covers the following topics:

E-Business Suite Applications

Customers can share data from front-end applications (CRM) to back-end applications (ERP) in the Oracle E-Business Suite. The applications leverage Oracle's Common Application Architecture.

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications encompass:

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications include:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Companies use Oracle's CRM suite of applications to acquire, maintain, and enhance customer relationships, by assisting companies with marketing automation, sales force automation, contracts management, customer service and support in a multi-channel environment.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Companies use the ERP applications to control their back-office operations. For example:

Common Application Architecture

Oracle's Common Application Architecture includes functionality that supports both CRM and ERP applications. For example, Oracle's Trading Community Architecture (TCA) consists of a database schema and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enable the modeling of complex business community relationships and the ability to enter business community data consistently throughout the enterprise. Because TCA is not hierarchical, Oracle applications can model complex B2B2C relationships and not be limited to either a B2B or B2C implementation.

Oracle Proposals Overview

Oracle Proposals allows users to generate dynamic proposals using templates. With Oracle Proposals, businesses can:

Oracle Proposals streamlines proposal creation by automating time- and resource-consuming tasks. Users can generate proposals from templates that package recurring proposal elements such as cover letters, executive summaries, and product descriptions.

Central template administration guarantees standard and professional corporate proposals.

Oracle Proposals also allows proposal administration through:

Oracle Proposals is a part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, an integrated suite of enterprise applications designed to transform a traditional business into an e-business.

Oracle Proposals Features

Oracle Proposals includes the following features:

Proposal Creation

Users can create a proposal from a quote, opportunity, lead or for a customer. Users can also create a standalone proposal in which the user provides the customer and/or contact name. Users select a master proposal template from a list of possible templates and can specify the proposal name, description, customer, and due date. From the opportunity, lead, quote, and customer, the customer name is automatically carried over with a contact, if one is available.

Quoting Integration

Users can create a proposal based on a quote in Oracle Quoting. When a proposal is created from a quote, relevant quote information is automatically pulled into the proposal.

Leads Integration

Oracle Proposals is integrated with Leads in Oracle Sales. This integration allows a Oracle Proposals user in the Self-Service mode to create a proposal from a lead in Oracle Sales, where information from the lead is pulled into the proposal during the proposal creation process. If the lead is associated with a campaign activity, the proposal template associated to the campaign activity is automatically used.

Content Management Integration

Oracle Proposals is integrated with Oracle Content Manager (OCM). This integration allows Oracle Proposals administrators and users to store and reuse content when constructing their templates and proposals, respectively. Users can access files stored in either the OCM Folders or the OCM Library and add it to their proposal. Users can also store files from the desktop to a proposal in an OCM folder. Administrators can store and reuse files in OCM. OCM integration is determined by the setting of a profile option that allows flexibility in the level of integration.

Campaign Activity Integration

Oracle Proposals is also integrated with campaign activity in Oracle Marketing. This integration allows association of a proposal template to a campaign activity in Oracle Marketing.

Opportunity Integration

Oracle Proposals is integrated with Opportunity in Oracle Telesales and Oracle Sales. This integration allows Oracle Proposals users to create a proposal from an opportunity in Oracle Telesales or Oracle Sales, where information from the opportunity is pulled into the proposal during the proposal creation process. If the opportunity is related to a campaign activity, the proposal template associated to the campaign activity is automatically used.

Customer Integration

Oracle Proposals is integrated with Customer in Oracle Telesales and Oracle Sales. This integration allows Oracle Proposals users to create a proposal from a customer in Oracle Telesales, where information from the customer is pulled into the proposal during the proposal creation process. If the customer is related to a campaign activity, the proposal template associated to the campaign activity is automatically used. Oracle Proposals users can also view proposals from Customer Business Activities in Oracle Sales.

Guided Proposal Content Building

Oracle Proposals enables users to track their progress while building a proposal, so they can see at a glance whether proposal components are complete. Users can determine the order of proposal components, and include or exclude optional components. Dynamic fields in the components capture required information from objects specified by or entered by the user.

Administrators have the ability to specify if a proposal file created for a template can have files added to it. Users can then add external files from their desktop, the Oracle Content Manager Library or Oracle Content Manager Folders.

Proposals Page

The Proposals Page lists existing proposals and enables users to initiate proposal creation. Proposals are displayed across languages.

Proposal Update Page

The Proposal Update page enables users to update an existing proposal and displays tabs that contain overall proposal information, generated documents, correspondence related to the proposal, notes and tasks, and sales team members who can work on the proposal.

Proposal Views

Oracle Proposals enables you to save searches for future use. These saved searches, called views, control the display of data in the Proposals page. You can use the views provided with Oracle Proposals or you can create your own views. You can display the results of searching with a view by selecting a view name from the view menu and clicking Go. To create a view, click Personalize to access the Personalize Views page. On this page you can create, edit, or duplicate views by selecting the appropriate button.

Proposal Searches

Users can perform searches on criteria such as proposal name, customer data, and creation or due date and can save searches. Oracle Proposals is integrated with Oracle Trading Community Architecture (TCA). The Data Quality Management (DQM) functionality in TCA allows for expanded customer and contact search capabilities and minimizes the creation of duplicate parties. When DQM is enabled, the fields that you see in the Simple and Advanced Search: Person or Organization pages, are dynamically generated based on system settings.

Proposal Document Generation

After users have built the proposal content, they can generate a proposal document in RTF or PDF format. This document is the physical file that is shared with the customer. Users can regenerate documents as often as needed. Each regenerated document exists as a new version and is stored in the database.

Supporting Documents for Proposals

Users can add supporting documents to their proposals. These documents are optional, and can be of any file format. These optional documents can be added from the desktop, from the Oracle Content Manager library or folder, or from suggested content based on the proposal components.

E-Mail Delivery

Using Oracle Proposals, users can send proposals by e-mail, including supporting documents, to customers and other recipients. The user selects the appropriate proposal document version, specifies customer contacts, and then sends them to the contacts and other recipients. A record of the e-mail delivery is also recorded under the customer name in Interaction History.

Proposal Templates

Oracle Proposals uses proposal templates, which are predefined, standard documents from which proposals are created. Templates outline a proposal's structure. A template is made up of components such as cover letters, product descriptions, and collateral.

Administrators define template categories, create templates, create components, and determine component order. The template category and name help users select the most appropriate template for each proposal.

When an administrator uploads an updated proposal template component, users are notified that the component has been updated when they access the proposal using the updated component.

Proposal Components for Standardized Content

Proposal components are pieces of standard content that are included in templates, such as cover letters and executive summaries. Administrators can define components and create multiple documents for each component, since the style and content required can vary from one proposal to another. For example, the component Cover Letter can include the documents Simple Cover Letter and Professional Cover Letter.

The documents are RTF (Rich Text Format) files that store content such as standard text, graphs, tables, or dynamic fields. Users can create these RTF files using Microsoft Word, use them in proposal components, and store them in Oracle Content Manager for reuse.

Also, Oracle Proposals enables the user to add suggested content. The suggested content choices are based on the components associated with the proposal, or the associated quote, opportunity, or lead. For example, if a proposal contains a component pertaining to a server, suggested content might be a data sheet for that server.

Dynamic Fields

Administrators can include dynamic fields in the component documents to reference information from various sources. For example, a cover letter, where the customer name and address changes, can have dynamic fields inserted into the locations where the customer name and address would be. The user can then personalize the cover letter for a particular customer.

Specifically, values for dynamic fields can come from the user (such as proposal title), database objects (such as items and pricing), or custom Java programs, retrieving data from various objects and object sources, including images. Images can be of the types JPG, JPE, JPEG, JFIF, or PNG. Images can be uploaded from the desktop, OCM folder, or OCM library.

Dynamic fields for values from Oracle E-Business Suite Quote and Proposal objects are seeded with the application. Administrators can create user-defined and custom dynamic fields.

Sales Team Collaboration on Proposals

A large or complex opportunity might require several team members to work on a proposal for that opportunity. The Sales team tab on the Proposal Update page enables users to manage this team effort, containing a table listing the sales representatives and sales managers who are collaborating on a proposal. Sales team members can have full or read only access to the proposal.

Interface Navigation Features