This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 23 JAN 2018 | Revised Document. Corrected feature description. |
|
| 17 JAN 2018 | Created initial document. |
This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update.
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Oracle Configure, Price, and Quote (CPQ) Cloud enables companies to streamline the entire opportunity-to-quote-to-order process, including product selection, configuration, pricing, quoting, ordering, and approval workflows. CPQ Cloud provides a flexible, scalable, enterprise-ready solution ideal for companies of all sizes that sell products and services across direct, indirect, and e-commerce sales channels.
Leverage the rich interface and interactive capabilities available in CPQ Cloud to provide an intuitive selling experience using the Oracle Alta UI enhancements available in the 18A release.
Alta UI is a design system that delivers modern, simple, and more engaging UIs across Oracle's web-based and mobile applications. Alta is the new standard for Oracle applications and Oracle Cloud-based services.
Introduced in CPQ Cloud 2017 R2, the Alta Responsive Transaction UI provides sales users with an improved user experience by focusing on fewer elements and a cleaner design aimed at accelerating performance and information delivery. As part of continuing improvements to the Alta Responsive Transaction UI, the following enhancements are available in CPQ Cloud Release 18A:
- The Alta Transaction UI is fully supported with a Salesforce integration. Users can create or open Transactions using the Alta UI.
- Full tree table functionality in the Line Item table allows users to expand and collapse models and system configurations as well as sort Transaction Lines while preserving the tree hierarchy.
- Updated Panel Settings in Layout Editor: Use Alignment options (i.e. Top and Start) to select the alignment of a label next to the input field. This enhancement supports Right-to-Left and Left-to-Right languages and guides whether the label is to the left or right of the input.
- Interaction with Subscription Ordering, including the display of the Customer Assets button and the ability to create a quote with one or more asset Line Items.
Cater to the need by large, complex enterprises for a robust, integrated, and performant platform using the following CPQ Cloud 18A features:
- Product Eligibility
- Subscription Ordering Enhancements
- Migration Center Enhancements
- BMQL Enhancements to Support JOIN Clauses
- Single Select Pick List Enhancements
- Document Designer Enhancements
- Integrated Solutions
- Oracle Contract Cloud Integration
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration
- OAuth Based REST API Authentication with IDCS Integration
- Commerce Cloud Integration Enhancements
Customers can add parts to a Transaction in a variety of ways including via Recommended Item Rules, BOM Mapping Rules, Part Search, Multi-Part Search, Quick Keys, and API calls. Eligibility refers to the parts to which customers either have or do not have access. In CPQ Cloud Release 18A, administrators can use Eligibility Rules to define the parts available to specific customers. When sales users add parts to a Transaction using any of the available methods, they can only view and add the parts available to the Transaction's customer.
CPQ Cloud Release 18A allows administrators to do the following:
- Add Eligibility Rules
- Apply a condition to Eligibility Rules
- View a list of Eligibility Rules
- Delete Eligibility Rules
- Bulk Upload Eligibility Rules
- Migrate Eligibility Rules
Introduced in CPQ Cloud 2017 R2, the Alta Responsive Transaction UI provides sales users with an improved user experience by focusing on fewer elements and a cleaner design aimed at accelerating performance and information delivery. As part of continuing improvements, CPQ Cloud Release 18A allows customers to use the following Subscription Ordering functions when the Alta Responsive Transaction UI is enabled:
- Reconfigure an asset-based BOM model to update an order prior to fulfillment
- Perform Modify, Suspend, Resume, Terminate, and Renew actions on the Customer Assets page
In 2017 R2, CPQ Cloud introduced granular migration of Configuration Product Lines and Models. CPQ Cloud Release 18A extends this functionality by supporting the migration of Configuration rules and attributes. Administrators can navigate within Product Families, Product Lines, or Models and select elements they wish to migrate.
In addition to granular Configuration enhancements, CPQ Cloud Release 18A delivers Cross Version Migration. Cross Version Migration allows partners to develop and distribute CPQ Cloud content to other versions with compatible features. This enhancement reduces the requirement to maintain multiple version-specific packages. By removing the version restriction, packages become a more valuable feature.
CPQ Cloud Release 18A also provides the functionality to cancel in-progress migrations. This feature allows administrators to abort a large migration rather than waiting for it to finish and reverting to a snapshot.
BMQL Enhancements to Support JOIN Clauses
CPQ Cloud Release 18A provides BMQL JOIN clause functionality to enhance the power and usefulness of CPQ data tables. BMQL now supports SQL syntax for JOIN clauses, the existing ORDER BY operation has been enhanced to allow joined columns, and aliasing is now supported in SELECT and FROM clauses.
- A JOIN clause combines rows from two or more tables, based on a related column between them. BMQL now supports SQL syntax for the following JOIN types: INNER JOIN, LEFT OUTER JOIN, and RIGHT OUTER JOIN.
- Previously, BMQL only supported ORDER BY clauses in simple queries without dotted notation. CPQ Cloud 18A enhances the ORDER BY clause to support JOIN clauses, statements with dotted notation, and statements without dotted notation that reference unique columns in BMQL.
- CPQ Cloud 18A provides SQL JOIN support with aliasing in SELECT and FROM clauses. SQL aliases are used to give a table or a column a temporary name. Aliases are often used to make column names more readable. Aliases only exist for the duration of the query.
Single Select Pick List Enhancements
A Single Select Pick List (SSPL) is an attribute type created in Configuration for Text, Integer, and Float data types. Administrators manage the value for a Single Select Pick List attribute within a defined resource (e.g. Data Tables or Configuration arrays). As part of continuous improvements to Single Select Pick Lists, administrators can use Single Select Pick List attributes in the following ways:
- As a Simple Condition input for Configuration rules
- As an Advanced Condition input for Configuration rules
- In Advanced BML functions for Configuration rule Actions
Document Designer Enhancements
Document Designer is a drag and drop tool for creating and administering document templates. As part of continuing improvements to Document Designer, the following enhancements are available in CPQ Cloud Release 18A.
- Dynamically Embed External Documents Merge multiple documents through Text and Menu attributes using a Document Map attribute in the Embed Document element in Document Designer.
- Filter the Document Map attribute to narrow the number of documents to merge.
- View the Embed Document element output in the Document Designer output file or when previewing the file.
- Nested Tables Add nested tables within tables, enabling the display of hierarchical information in the output document.
- Double click a nested table to open it for editing.
- Apply conditions and loops to a nested table.
Leverage the power of CPQ Cloud by integrating with other software applications. CPQ Cloud administrators can use the following pre-defined integrations to build a strong Oracle Cloud suite:
- Oracle Contracts Cloud Integration
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration
- OAuth-Based REST API Authentication with IDCS Integration
- Commerce Cloud Integration Enhancements
CPQ Cloud currently allows customers to perform certain contract management activities such as contract generation, negotiation of terms, and electronic signature for contract documents. CPQ Cloud Release 18A enables integration with Contracts Cloud to provide a comprehensive Contract Lifecycle Management solution.
Oracle Contracts Cloud has extensive functionality that supports the legal definition, negotiation (redlining), execution, and ongoing management of contracts. The CPQ Cloud - Contracts Cloud integration allows customers to create and manage legal aspects of a Transaction and maintain the contract throughout its lifecycle, long after the initial Transaction that created the contract is completed. The integration also provides the ability to generate and preview the contracts created in Enterprise Contracts seamlessly within the CPQ application via Web service calls.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration
CPQ Cloud Release 17D introduced initial functionality to support a BML-based integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365, including the ability to use a BML function to retrieve a user's OAuth security token during a Dynamics 365 integrated session. Release 17D also provided a CPQ Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365 user integration, supporting the use of Microsoft Azure Active Directory to grant application access to user data.
To further support the Dynamics 365 integration, CPQ Cloud Release 18A provides the following:
- A platform enhancement supporting a BML type integration in CPQ Commerce.
- Managed solution components to configure a process with which to integrate Dynamics 365.
- Use Dynamics 365 to access CPQ Cloud pages and create, edit, or delete Transactions and Transaction line items.
- Data tables to configure data synchronization between CPQ Cloud and Dynamics 365.
- Seeded or productized BML scripts supporting Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrations with an associated Migration Package to perform the following integrations:
- Create, update, or delete a Transaction or Transaction line item.
- Import Transaction data using a Commerce function.
OAuth-Based REST API Authentication with IDCS Integration
In 2017 R2, CPQ Cloud introduced integration with Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS), an integrated identity management solution. The integration simplifies meeting the identity services requirements common to Enterprise customers. With the integration, administrators delegate user management activities such as user creation, activation, and password management to IDCS. The integration minimizes the risk of profile duplication and streamlines administrator and user tasks. CPQ Cloud 18A delivers modern and secure OAuth-based authentication for all CPQ Cloud REST APIs used in IDCS Integrations.
Commerce Cloud Integration Enhancements
Self-service users in Commerce Cloud can configure complex products for purchase in Commerce Cloud using the CPQ Cloud Configurator. In addition, they can request a CPQ Cloud quote, thereby initiating a CPQ Cloud Transaction that a sales specialist can modify, reconfigure, or discount. As part of continuing improvements to the integration, the following enhancements are available in CPQ Cloud Release 18A:
- Use an "Included in Base Price" column in the BOM Item Definition table to specify the BOM items to include in the base price, distinguishing the BOM items from optional items that alter the price.
- Oracle Integration Cloud Service (ICS) receives notification via a REST API call when products are available for Configuration and ready to sell in the Commerce Cloud storefront. Commerce Cloud administrators can subscribe to ICS to receive these notifications automatically.
Pioneer the next generation selling platform using the CPQ Cloud 18A System Configuration enhancements.
System Configuration Enhancements
System Configuration refers to the manner in which customers use CPQ Cloud to configure and bundle the product or series of products they wish to sell using a group of models that together define an entire system. The ability to display BOM Mapping Rule items in Configuration, define BOM hierarchy child items as models, and reconfigure child models were enhancements introduced in previous releases to support System Configuration. Release 17D introduced BML functions to access attribute values for configured system models and provided the ability to build cross-model restrictions or rules using advanced BML functions.
As in prior releases, a BOM instance refers to a set of products that customers buy together on a quote. When independent models from the same or different product families or product lines are part of a single BOM instance, there are typically relationships among these models. CPQ Cloud Release 18A simplifies referencing cross-model attributes within the same product family. When adding attribute references to an advanced BML function, view folders for each model in a BOM hierarchy. Upon expanding a folder, the model and its associated line-level attributes are displayed if the BOM model is in the same product family as the rule.
Additional CPQ Cloud Enhancements
The CPQ Cloud Release 18A release introduces the following enhancements to improve performance and simplify CPQ Cloud integrations.
- Additional eSignature attributes for Document Designer to support DocuSign integration
- "convertbomtohier" and "convertbomtoflat" BML function updates
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