Asset Module

Increase revenue, improve customer satisfaction and increase productivity of sales 
people, channel partners and back-office personnel by addressing the needs of 
aftermarket, field service, entitlements and assets with the WebSource CPQ Asset 
Module. Easily quote, propose and sell additional products and services that are 
pertinent to a specific asset created via the WebSource CPQ quote-to-order 
processing or imported into WebSource CPQ if it was created prior to deployment. 

By selecting an asset, the user will automatically see the product and commercial 
characteristics associated with the asset. Based upon those attributes, the user 
will be guided to offer, select or restrict relevant service and product offerings. 

• Asset models contain individual, key and asset properties conveying 
  product, installation and commercial characteristics. 

• Assets contain customer information. 

• Assets may be managed with revision level control. 

• Assets can be searched and sorted via a number of fields, including 
  attributes identified as “key” attributes. 

• Asset attributes passed to the product being quoted, affecting the 
  behavior of that product via product rules, attribute dependencies 
  and triggers

• Assets updated manually or through the quotation process via 
  revision control. 

• Changes are managed through a workflow and permission mechanism 
  governing who can make changes and the timing of such changes. 

• Side-by-side asset revision comparison identifying lifecycle changes. 

• Repetitive processes such as annual, quarterly and monthly services like 
  warranty, service contracts and maintenance are automated. 

• Automated processes link output document templates (such as quotes, 
  invoices) to assets. 

• User-defined groupings for quotation and invoicing purposes are provided. 

• User-defined selection parameters for automated processing, such as all 
  assets with warranties expiring in 60 days, are provided. 

• An optional linkage to CRM systems for opportunity creation exists. 

• An optional capability to forecast revenue from automated processes 
  without generating quotes or invoices is supported. 

• An optional batch import of existing assets eases module implementation.

Software Industry Scenarios:

An asset was created for a software license which was sold to a particular customer. The maintenance for that license expires 12 December, 2006 (an asset attribute). I quote maintenance for an additional year. My customer accepts the quote. When an order is placed, the software license asset is updated so that a new maintenance expiration date of 12 December, 2007 is set. Additionally, our new policy of 20% maintenance necessitated 
replacing the 18% currently found on the asset. I no longer need to manually pick up a renewal date or worry about charging the wrong amount. 

A customer of mine purchased a 2 CPU license for my software product. They have upgraded to a 4 CPU server. I quoted them what the upgrade would cost. When the order was accepted, the system automatically updates the software license asset to reflect a 4 CPU license, insuring that future upgrades are priced out accordingly. 

Automating Asset Based Sales: 

Industrial Equipment Scenarios: 

I previously sold my customer an X-Ray machine. It was delivered with a 10 negatives tray feature. The customer upgraded to a 20 negatives tray feature through the aftermarket. My customer informed me of the change. I updated the asset to reflect the change, as this may alter service and products that I may want to recommend to this customer in the future. 

As a provider of HVAC controls, we send out service and maintenance reminders (quotes), as well as warranty renewals (invoices). This is a labor intensive task that we can now automate, allowing a redirect of one full-time person to other areas of the business. Additionally, we run quarterly reports to forecast revenue from these activities. Warranties, in particular, are a high margin item for us. Capture of asset-specific data such as warranty expiry date and next service dates are critical.