Product lifecycle & Set up a product catalog

Product lifecycle & Set up a product catalog

Product lifecycle--publish to retire

In MS Dynamics CRM before setting the set up a Product catalogue it is important to understand the complete cycle a product goes through. First you create a product and add details to it in the Draft state. When the product is ready for selling, you publish it, which puts the product in the Active state. Then, if the product changes for any reason, you can revise it so that sales agents see updated product information. When you do this, the product is set to Under Revision status. After you’ve made the required changes, publish the product again. When your organization decides to stop selling a certain product, you retire it.

Set up a product catalog: Walk-through

Make it easier for your sales reps to increase their sales by creating a product catalog. The product catalog is a collection of products and their pricing information. To set up pricing, you need to define the units in which your products are sold, the amount to charge for each unit, and the discounts you want to offer based on volume purchased.

Other than setting up the pricing for products, product catalog also supports product taxonomy that lets you create a rich classification of products. This helps ensure that your customers receive the most appropriate and complete solution. More information: Classify products and bundles into product families

Because of how units, discounts, and prices are tied together, it’s important that you create each of these components in a product catalog in the following sequence:

Set up a product catalog: Settings > Product Catalog (A product catalog is a collection of products and their pricing information.)

1) Creating Discounts for Products:

1.1)  Create Discount List (Percentage, Amount): Create discount lists to offer your products and services at different prices, depending on the quantity purchased.

     List A: 3 packs, 10% Off 

     List B: 1 box, 20% Off

     List C: 1 can, 1 $ Off

1.2) Then Crete Discount (Begin Quantity, End Quantity, Percentage and other business logic) and associate this with Discount List.

2)  Create a Unit Group and add Units to that group: Define the measurements or quantities your products will be available in.

     Unit Group: Cold Drink Unit

      And associate Unit with Unit Group

      Unit: Single Can

      Unit: Packs of Six Can

      Unit: Box of 4 Packs

3)  Create Product: Create product for the items you sell (For Ex: Fanta Cold Drink). You can create a standalone product or a product inside a Product family depending on how you want to organize and classify your products. Each product you create will be linked to a unit group and default unit. You can also create a standalone bundle or a bundle inside a product family. (In Product entity you can Save Product, Bundle & Product family type of record with the help of Product Structure & Family Hierarchy fields)

4) Create Price List & Price List Item: After doing above three step we need Define pricing for product (Fanta Cold Drink). Create a Price lists and Price list items to define pricing of products

    4.1) Create an Empty Price List: For Example, create a U.S Pepsi Price List for U.S Region. Price lists tell your sales agents what to charge for your products or services. You can create multiple price lists so that you can maintain separate price structures for different regions you sell your products in or for              different sales channels. Price lists tie the unit, product, and pricing details together, so before you create a price list, make sure the units and products are in place.

    4.2) Price List item: Create a Price list item for each unit in which the product is available. For example, if the product is available as a single item (each), in a half dozen, and in a dozen, create three list items. This lets you order the product in any quantity you want, using the same price list. After creation of a Price List Item and associate it with Price List.

     Note1: Out of the box when you create a Price List Item from Price List form (+ Sign) it will automatically map Product and Unit fields according to Price List.

     Note2: At this stage you can Classify products and bundles into product families (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/classify-products-            and-bundles-into-product-families.aspx)

5) Optional: Associate Discount List with Price List Item.

6) Optional:  Classify products and bundles into product families. Product Family make it easier for sales agents to find products and services in a product catalog by creating a product family and classifying similar products in it. A product family lets you group and categorize products, making it easier for you to manage them. For example: TV is product family, LED TV's and plasma TV's is Child family and Samsung 42' LED TV is Product.

Set up a product catalog: Walk-through (Diagram)