Print      Open PDF Version of Online Help

Life Sciences > Sample Transactions > Managing Sample Transactions > Dropping Samples During a Sales Call > Linking Product Detailed Information to Calls

Linking Product Detailed Information to Calls

You can link product detailed information to calls in one of the following ways:

• By adding products detailed information to a parent call
• By adding attendees to the parent call and then adding the products detailed information for each individual attendee record

  You add attendees to a parent account call so that the products detailed, samples dropped, sample request, and promotional item information can be tracked for each individual who attends the meeting.

For information on how to associate product detailed information with Structured Product Messaging (SPM) information, see Associating Call Objectives, Next Call Objectives, and Outcomes to Products Detailed in a Sales Call.

This procedure describes how to link product detailed information to a call record.

Considerations When Choosing to Use the Available Products for Detailing Information Section or the Products Detailed Related Information Section

This topic describes the considerations when using the Available Products for Detailing information section or the Products Detailed information section to link product detailed information to calls:

• Available Products for Detailing Related Information Section

  Available Products for Detailing provides a list of products that the sales representative can detail to customers. The list is based on the sales representative’s allocation records. Administrators can customize the Available Products for Detailing section to remove the Indication picklist, add the Product Indication record, add new fields, and use customized page layouts. In addition, administrators can include their own custom fields as with other Oracle CRM On Demand related information sections. In Release 24 and earlier releases, the Indication picklist was a required field along with the Priority field. This requirement no longer applies.

  NOTE: Messaging Plan objects that support Structured Product Messaging cannot be linked to Available Products for Detailing.

• Products Detailed Related Information Section

  If your company wants to document call objectives, next call objectives, and outcomes, then use the Products Detailed related information section instead of Available Products for Detailing.

  Products Detailed has historically provided a selection menu of all products of type Detail where the sales representatives could choose which products to include in the detailing session. It provides an administrative filter that allows a sales representative to only display the products allocated to the sales representative. The Products Detailed related information section is fully customizable because administrators can add new fields as required. Administrators can add the Product Indication record type to Products Detailed and replace the optional Indication picklist. Products Detailed also supports the Structured Product Messaging record types and information.

For more information, on customizing Oracle CRM On Demand, see Application Customization.

About Product Field Synchronization in Products Detailed, Messaging Plan Items, Messaging Plan Relations, and Message Response Records

The Product field in the Messaging Plan Item, Messaging Plan Item Relations, and Message Response related information records (related PCD records) must be associated with an available product from the parent Products Detailed record. When you associate a product in the related PCD records by using the Lookup selector, the selector lists only the products that are available in the parent Products Detailed record. However, after completing the association of the Product field in the Products Detailed record with the related PCD records, a user can subsequently change the parent product in the Products Detailed record. Consequently, the previously saved related PCD child records that have been enforced with the same product as in the Products Detailed record become out of synchronization. For this reason, do not update the Product field in a Products Detailed record after you have associated the product with the related PCD records.

About Process Administration Rules for Locking Activity Records and Call Product Detailed Records

Through Oracle CRM On Demand Process Administration, your administrator can create the following record locking rules:

• A rule to lock an Activity record along with its child records
• A rule to lock the Call Product Detailed record along with its child records

In this case, when you submit a Call Activity record, Oracle CRM On Demand synchronizes the status of the Call Product Detailed record and the status of the Call Activity record. When the Call Activity is marked as Submitted, Oracle CRM On Demand also marks the Products Detailed record as Submitted. If the Process Administration locking rule for Activity where the status is set to Submitted locks the Activity child records, then it is recommended that you also use a similar Process Administration locking rule for Call Product Detailed when its status is set to Submitted. For more information on setting up record locking rules for Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition, see Configuration Guide for Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition.

Important Consideration for Products Detailed Related Information Section Operations

Because of the unique nature of the Products Detailed functionality, always perform operations related to products detailed from the Products Detailed related information section in a Call Detail page. You can perform products detailed operations from the following locations:

• (Recommended) The Products Detailed related information section in a Call Detail page, which supports four operations: New, Edit, Inline Edit, and Delete. All four operations generate Integration Event Queue (IEQ) XML that includes the parent Activity record.
• (Not recommended) The Products Detailed Detail page, displayed by clicking Product Name in the Products Detailed related information section, supports three operations: Edit, Inline Edit, and Delete. All three operations generate IEQ XML that does not include the parent Activity record. If you perform such operations from the Products Detailed Detail page, then workflow actions that you have configured using these operations or other actions that depend on the generated IEQ XML might not behave as expected.

To link product detailed information to a call record

1. On the Call Detail or Attendee Detail page, scroll down to either the Available Products for Detailing section or the Products Detailed section, and do one of the following:

   NOTE: If the section that you want is not visible on your page, then click the Edit Layout link in the upper-right corner of the page, and add the section to your page layout. If the section is not available to add to your page layout, then contact your company administrator.

   • In the Available Products for Detailing section, enter the required information in the Indication, Priority (optional), and Issues (optional) fields.

     Only products of category type Products Detailed that are not blocked for a primary contact, that have been allocated to the sales representative, and that are active on the current date are visible in the available products list to link to the call record.

     For information on the fields, see the table at the end of this topic.

   • In the Products Detailed section, click New, and enter the required information on the Product Detailed Edit page.

     For information on the fields, see the table at the end of this topic.

     NOTE: If your company administrator has set the Enable Filtering of Product Selection by Sales Rep Allocation setting, then only the products that are allocated to the sales representative appear in the Product selector. For more information, see Setting Up Picklist Filtering Based On the Allocation Records for a Sales Representative.

     NOTE: Product Detailed fields are copied to the new record when you create a new call record from a smart call template.

     To access the Attendee Detail page, go to the Attendees section on the Call Detail page, and open the attendee record that you want.

2. Save the record.
3. Repeat steps 1-2 to add more product detailed line items to the call record.
4. When ready, click Submit to submit the call detail information for processing.

   For information, see Submitting Call Detail Information for Inventory Tracking.

   Field	Description
   Key Product Detailed Information
   Product Category	(View only) The product category that the company administrator defines. For example, it can be one of the following: Samples Dropped Promotional Item Dropped Products Detailed
   Product	(Required) The name of the product (for example, a medical device), discussed or demonstrated to the customer. Select the item, using the Lookup selector. For information on setting up products, see Setting Up Company Products and Product Fields. Only products of the category type Samples Dropped, Promotional Item Dropped, Products Detailed, or Sample Request Item that meet the following conditions can be linked to a call record: The products are not blocked for a primary contact. The products have been allocated to the sales representative, and the company administrator has set the Enable Filtering of Product Selection by Sales Rep Allocation setting. For more information, see Setting Up Picklist Filtering Based On the Allocation Records for a Sales Representative. The products are active on the current call date.
   Priority	Optional field for customer use.
   Indication	The condition that the product addresses. Some examples are: Allergy, Asthma, Arrhythmia, Heart Failure, and so on. Use the drop-down list to select an indication. Before Release 23, the Indication field was a required field by default. However, for the current release, this field is no longer required. However, if your company has customized the page layout for the Product Detailed category in Release 23, then the Indication picklist field remains a required field for those customized layouts. To change this field to Not Required, your company administrator must deselect the Required check box for the field that was set up in the customized page layout for product details. For more information on field setup, see Creating and Editing Fields.
   Issues	This field is optional field for customer use. Some examples include: Side Effects, Efficacy, Cost versus Generics, Price, and so on. Use the drop-down list to select an issue.
   NOTE: The following fields are not available by default. However, your company administrator can add them to your Product Detail page layout. For more information, see Customizing Static Page Layouts.
   Detailed Product	This value is set to the same value as in the Product field. Changing this value by using the Lookup selector changes the Product field to the same value.
   Primary Messaging Plan Item	The messaging plan item that is designated as the primary message for the detailed product.
   Primary Messaging Plan Relations	The messaging plan item relations record that is designated as the primary for the detailed product.
   Primary Message Response	The message response that is designated as the primary for the detailed product.
   Type	The Product Detailed category. Use the picklist to choose the type. The default values for Type are Message Response, Outcome, Call Objective, and Next Call Objective. However, your company administrator can add additional types, if required. Selecting a type can result in a different page layout from the default page layout for the Products Detailed record type if your administrator has set up dynamic page layouts for this record type. For example, selecting Call Objective can result in a Call Objective page layout, if it is set up by your administrator. For more information on setting up dynamic page layouts for this record type, see Specifying Dynamic Page Layouts and also see the topics about page layouts in Configuration Guide for Oracle CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition.
   Product Indication	A combination of a symptom or malady and the specific product or drug that alleviates the symptom or malady that is typically detailed by pharmaceutical sales representatives during a call with a health practitioner. For more information, see Product Indications.
   Detail Notes	Additional information about the product detailed. This field has a limit of 250 characters.