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Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015

Post Author: Joe D365 |

It's been quite some time since we've seen any enhancements to the Product Catalog in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. But wait no longer! The product catalog is getting a face lift. Here is an overview of the new features and improvements being included in the CRM 2105 release.

New features for Sales Operations and Management:

 

Product Families and Child Products

Product families provide a way to group, classify and categorize products for more streamlined product management. You can even view the family and child product relationships using the new CRM 2015 Hierarchy Visualization feature.

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

The new product structure includes: Product Families, Product Bundles and (individual) Products. Both bundles and individual products can be included in a product family tree. And don't fear, if you use kits, they are still available and have not changed.

Product Bundles

Product bundles provide a superior way to group common products together to be sold with more attractive package pricing (using price lists). Bundles are similar to kits (which still exist and have not changed) but are greatly enhanced. For example, unlike kits, bundled products are visible to the salesperson on the opportunity, quote, order or invoices as they are entering line items. Additionally, the quantities and properties of the bundled products can be edited on the line items.

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

A limitation of bundles does exist. Because of the new ability to define and customize product properties, nesting of bundles isn't an option (adding a bundle within a bundle product). Nested kits are still an option.

Inherited Product Properties

Product properties can be created for product families. Product Properties describe attributes or values that apply to the products in the family such as color, size, user count, version, etc. These product properties are then inherited by all bundles and products created within the family and further can be updated by the salespeople when they are adding them to opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices!

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

Product properties can be created with the following data types: option set, decimal, floating point number, single line of text or whole number. They can also be set to read-only, required and/or hidden when viewed on the product line items.

Product Relationships

Relationships between products can now be defined to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling by sales representatives! These relationships appear as "suggestions" for the sales reps when entering opportunity, quote, order and invoice line items.

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

Sales Operations Managers can create four types of relationships between products: Up-sell, Cross-sell, Substitutes and Accessories.

Product Life-cycle Management with Versioning

Now you can manage the state of products throughout the lifecycle of the product. Only Active products with valid price lists are available on opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices.

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

Sales operations managers can maintain products as they are be prepared for release. Available product status are Draft, Active, Under Revision and Retired. Revised product versioning exists to ensure that existing opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices are not impacted by products under revision.

Preview and Clone Products

With the advent of CRM 2015 sales operations managers will now be able to copy an existing product using the Clone button to create a new product. Save even more time using the Preview button to see how the product will be rendered from the salespersons perspective. No more creating a test opportunity to preview how line items will display!

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

Import and Export Products with the Configuration Migration Tool

The Configuration Migration Tool that was introduced with CRM 2013 is being enhanced to support import and export of the CRM 2015 product taxonomy.

 

Benefits to the Salesperson:

 

Territory Based Price Lists

As part of the new product features in CRM 2015, sales operations managers can now link CRM territories to price lists. This directly benefits salespeople by defaulting the appropriate price list to opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices created by the salesperson based on the territory assigned on the salesperson's user record.

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

All of these great new features in the CRM 2015 product catalog benefit the salespeople in your organization by making them more efficient when working with product line items on opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices! When used in conjunction with the new Business Process Flow enhancements in CRM 2015, there's virtually no limit to how much more effective they can be at getting your product or service out the door. Here's how these new product catalog features play out for the sales team:

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

1. Capture Product Properties on Opportunities, Quotes, Orders and Invoices

Salespeople have the ability to review and update the property values defined for the product line item using the "Edit" properties hyperlink. For example, the salesperson could change the "color" property if a customer requests it. The line item cannot be saved if required values are not updated ensuring that no important line item information is missed during the opportunity, quote, order or invoice process.

2. Cross-sell and Up-sell Product Suggestions Based on Product Relationships

Product suggestions are available for any product line items where product relationships have been defined. Click on the "Suggestions" hyperlink to pick products suggested for up-sell, cross-sell, and substitutions or as accessories. The items picked are added as new product line items.

3. View and Manage Components of Bundled Products Inline

All of the components of bundled products are visible as line items on the opportunity, quote, order or invoice. Properties and product suggestions are editable for both the bundle product and the components providing for great flexibility.

Override Default System Pricing Engine and More...

In the past there was no way to prevent the default pricing engine from overriding custom calculations on sales opportunities, quotes, orders or invoices. CRM 2015 includes a number of new system settings on a Sales tab in the System Setting area. These settings relate to the new product catalog features discussed in this blog, including the ability to override the default pricing engine. This means custom plug-ins can now be successfully implemented to support your organizations unique pricing needs!

Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015!

Another help new pricing feature is the ability to define how line item discounts are calculated when using the default system pricing engine. Options are to apply the discount at the Line Item [(Qty*Price per item)*Discount] or Per Unit [(Price per item*Discount)*Qty].

Interested in learning more of the new features in CRM 2015? Look to our blog on the Top 10 New Features in Dynamics CRM 2015!  For any further information on Dynamics CRM head on over to our education department where you will have access to webinars, boot camps and our very popular CRM Book!

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

19 comments on “Product Catalog Enhancements in Dynamics CRM 2015”

  1. Your screenshot references a setting called "Set whether users can override the default system pricing". I do not see this setting in my CRM 2015 on premise system. Was this setting removed from 2015 by the MS team?

    1. Hi - Looks like this 'override the default system pricing" is now available in security roles......so we can have more flexibility in crm 2015.

      1. Hi Joe CRM - do you know why we can't edit the "price per unit" directly from this grid? why is is locked? I'm admin so I should be able to override the pricing from here right? Or do I always have to go into the opp product? (image attached)
        Thanks!

        1. Hi Tim - Yeah - this appears to be locked down. We even tried using our PowerGrid which allows in line editing in sub grids, but we could not see this price per unit. We'll research this a bit more and post an update here as we have a client with this exact same need.

          1. Hi Joe CRM, I need to setup a way for my users to quickly enter order product information including custom fields. There are significant limitations with the Order Product Inline Edit View, don't get me wrong, it provides a lot of nice functionality but it does not allow me to add custom fields etc. so me clients have to go into each order product page manually which is not productive at all. I tried the PowerGrid option but I can not seem to make the Order Product entity (I used the All Order Products View) with some added fields, editable inline or have the ability to add / remove the lines. Looking for help if this is possible with your PowerGrid or if you have another idea.

            Thanks,

            Drew

          2. Hi Joe,
            Do you have an update on this? Right now a user has to search for the product, add the line item and then go into the opportunity product to change the price per unit.

            Thank you,

  2. Can product be assigned to accounts and how would resigning a service work after a contract period?

    1. Hi Stuart - yes a product coudl be assigned to accounts. As an example, you could create a new many to many relationship from account to products. . And call this relationship 'Owned Products'. Now very easy to keep track of which products are owned by which accounts.

  3. How can we do a massive import of products and match them with their families previously created in the CRM 2015? I do the import but hierarchy doesn't work properly

  4. How can I do a massive import of products and match them with their
    families previously created in the CRM 2015? I do the import but
    hierarchy doesn't work properly...

    1. Hi Richard - Most of the time when we batch load a new system we use a data import tool such as Scribe or SSIS with the KingwasySoft adapter. The out of the box import can work, but associating can be tricky......much easier with an etl tool.

  5. Is there a possibility to update the relation from products to Product families in case that changes in a ERP System should be transferred into CRM? I did not find a method to update...

  6. Does anyone know of a way to hide pricelist items between business units? We are trying to hide pricelistitems (amounts) as Business Unit A (with pricelist A) is not allowed to see the price from Business unit B that uses pricelist B.

  7. Hi Joe CRM

    I'm working on French Dynamics CRM 2015 CU 0.1 with the samples data.

    I'm facing a strange issue with bundles in quote.

    When I add a bundle to a quote all the sub items quantities are multiplied by "10 000 000 000,00000"

    So the total amount is also huge !
    Look at screenshot in the attachement.
    What do you think about it ?
    Thanks for your help
    Laurent

    1. Hi Laurent - check your bundle definition. When we defined a bundle we define how many of the items are inluded in the bundle. My guess is that your bundle has a 1000000 of each items??

      1. Hi Joe
        My bundle is OK. I finally open a case to the MS Support and it's a known issue. It will be fix with the CU 0.2
        The issue only append with the OnPremise version.
        I hope this will help someone.
        Have a nice day

  8. I have created 20 products in Dynamics CRM 2015 online, but I did not have "product family"
    Now, I have "product Family", I need to edit/update each product from my 20 to "Family Hierarchy", but its locked.
    Could you please help me on this?

    Thanks
    Mohamad

    1. It has to be done the other way around. First the Product Family and then the Products.
      You can export your products. Import or create the Product Family. Add the Product Family attribute to the Product in your Excel import and then import them again. If you can't reimport, you can delete your products and then import the Excel sheet.
      If you want them added to a Price list you can do that through import as well.
      Once you have your Product Family you can add properties when in revision state.

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