Introduction:
Attributes in Revenue Cloud are essential for defining key product details like bandwidth for internet services or color and storage for mobile devices. Revenue Cloud’s Product Catalog Management (PCM) system groups attributes into categories and organizes choices through picklists, making it easy to manage and customize products.
PCM brings flexibility and reusability, allowing attributes to be shared across products and modified for specific needs. Unlike traditional systems like Salesforce EPC, PCMalso lets attributes impact pricing directly—enabling dynamic, customer-focused pricing without heavy customization. In this article, we’ll dive into how these attribute features in PCM make Revenue Cloud a powerful tool for modern product management.
Attribute Dafination:
Attribute Definition and Explanation:
In Salesforce Revenue Lifecycle Management (RLM), an attribute represents a reusable key/value pair that defines a unique characteristic or property of a product. These attributes provide a structured way to describe products in detail, ensuring consistency and flexibility in product configuration. For example:
- Color could have values like Red, Blue, or Black.
- Storage might offer options such as 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB.
- Bandwidth could specify values like 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps.
Key Features of Attributes:
- Reusability:
Attributes can be reused across multiple products, reducing redundancy and making product configuration more efficient. For instance, a “Color” attribute can apply to both phones and laptops. - Customization:
Each attribute can have predefined values (picklists) or be flexible (like text inputs), depending on the product’s needs. For example, “Contract Term” could range from 12 months to 36 months. - Pricing Impact:
Attributes can be configured to influence product pricing dynamically. For example, choosing a specific color or larger storage option might trigger a price adjustment. - Behavior Configuration:
Attributes support behaviors like setting default values, making them required, or defining display types. For example, “Black” can be set as the default color, or “Bandwidth” can appear as a dropdown in the product configurator. - Integration with Categories and Picklists:
Attributes are often grouped under categories (e.g., “Technical Specifications”) and rely on picklists to define their possible values. This grouping ensures an organized and logical presentation during configuration.
By leveraging attributes, RLM empowers businesses to offer precise, customer-focused product configurations while maintaining operational simplicity.
Attribute Category:
Attribute Category Definition and Explanation:
An Attribute Category in Salesforce Revenue Lifecycle Management (RLM) is a way to organize and group multiple attributes under a single heading, providing structure and clarity to the product configuration process. These categories act as logical sections in the product filter or configuration windows, making it easier for users to navigate and select relevant options.
Key Features of Attribute Categories:
- Grouping Attributes:
Attribute Categories allow related attributes to be grouped together. For instance:- A “Technical Specifications” category might include attributes like bandwidth, storage, and processor type.
- A “Physical Features” category might include color, weight, and dimensions.
- Improved User Experience:
During product configuration, attribute categories appear as headings that organize the attributes beneath them. This enhances usability by preventing information overload and ensuring attributes are presented logically. - Reusable Across Products:
Attribute Categories can be reused across multiple product classifications or configurations, providing consistency and reducing administrative effort. - Behavior Customization:
Categories can influence the display of attributes, such as collapsing certain sections or highlighting important ones during the configuration process. - Visual Clarity in Product Designer:
When managing attributes in the Product Designer, Attribute Categories provide a clean, structured way to assign and visualize attribute groupings, ensuring that the setup is logical and easy to maintain.
Picklist
Picklist Definition and Explanation:
A picklist in Salesforce Revenue Lifecycle Management (RLM) is an ordered list of predefined values that users can select when configuring a product. Picklists simplify the selection process by offering a controlled set of options, ensuring data consistency and reducing errors during product customization.
Key Features of Picklists:
- Predefined Options:
Picklists provide a list of specific values that users can choose from. For example:- For a “Color” attribute: Red, Blue, Black.
- For a “Contract Term” attribute: 12 months, 24 months, 36 months.
- Reusable Across Attributes:
Picklists can be reused for multiple attributes or products, enhancing consistency and reducing the need for repetitive setup. - Ordering and Priority:
Values in a picklist are arranged in a specific sequence, ensuring a logical order for users to select from during product configuration. - Display Customization:
Picklist values can have display names different from their backend codes, ensuring a user-friendly interface while maintaining technical accuracy in the background. - Behavior Integration:
Picklists work seamlessly with attributes to enable dynamic behaviors like setting default values, enforcing mandatory selections, or triggering price adjustments. - Ease of Management:
Picklists are managed in the Product Designer, where administrators can add, modify, or delete values with ease.
Example Use Case:
For a “Paint Color” attribute:
- Picklist Name: Product Paint
- Picklist Values:
- Name: Black
- Code: Product_Black
- Display Value: Black
- Sequence: 1
- Name: Red
- Code: Product_Red
- Display Value: Red
- Sequence: 2
- Name: Black
In this example, users selecting a “Paint Color” will see the options “Black” and “Red,” with “Black” appearing first due to its sequence.
Benefits of Using Picklists:
- Consistency: Ensures uniform attribute values across products.
- Efficiency: Simplifies product setup by offering predefined options.
- Flexibility: Enables easy updates and adjustments to attribute values.
By integrating picklists with attributes and categories, Salesforce RLM provides a powerful, organized way to manage product characteristics and configurations.
Assigning Attributes to Product Classifications:
To fully leverage the power of attributes in Salesforce Revenue Cloud, it is essential to assign attributes to a product classification and then associate that classification with specific products. A product classification acts as a grouping mechanism that allows you to organize and categorize products with similar attributes, making it easier to manage and apply those attributes in a structured way.
Steps to Assign Attributes to Product Classifications:
- Create or Select a Product Classification:
- Product classifications help organize your products into logical groups. For example, you might create classifications like “Mobile Devices,” “Laptops,” or “Internet Services.”
- Assign Attributes to the Classification:
- Once a product classification is defined, you can assign relevant attributes to it. These attributes could include characteristics like color, storage, bandwidth, and more.
- Assign the Classification to Products:
- After the attributes have been assigned to the classification, you then associate that classification with individual products. This allows those products to inherit the attributes and values defined in the classification.
By assigning attributes to product classifications and then linking those classifications to specific products, you ensure that the correct attributes are applied across your product catalog, streamlining the configuration process and maintaining consistency. This structured approach helps in delivering accurate, customer-focused product offerings while reducing the complexity of manual setup.
Conclusion:
Attributes, categories, and picklists in Salesforce Revenue Cloud offer businesses an efficient, flexible, and user-friendly way to manage and customize their product offerings. By grouping related attributes under logical categories and allowing for reusable, dynamic picklist options, Salesforce RLM enables consistent and precise product configurations.
Attributes not only help in defining key product characteristics but also have a direct impact on pricing and behavior, streamlining the configuration process and enhancing the customer experience. With these features, businesses can easily tailor products to meet customer needs while maintaining operational simplicity and consistency. Salesforce Revenue Cloud’s approach to product management empowers companies to drive sales success by offering flexible, customer-focused solutions with minimal customization effort.