Workflow

Workflow Overview

The following information is an overview of the Price Service workflow when iQuote is integrated to an external Request for Quote (RFQ) system.

There are 2 possible ways to create a new estimate in iQuote using the API:

Based on a product specification

When using the product specification, the user can leave all the characteristics blank in the product specification record and provide all the information in the message.

The user can add some default characteristics in the product specification and add more information in the message. In this case, iQuote will combine both, but the information in the message has priority. So, it will overwrite any defaults in the product specification.

Based on an old estimate

Instead of providing the product specification as a template to create the new estimate in the message, the user can provide an old estimate number.

iQuote will copy the old estimate and will keep or clean the old information as per the rules defined in the “Duplicate Estimate Rules”, which can you can change at Sales > Records > iQuote > Commercial > Estimate Standards > Price Service - XML.

 

Workflow - Based on a product specification

 

Workflow - Based on an old estimate

 

Workflow Details

iQuote receives a BOD XML message from the external system which contains general information about the product(s) that will be a product(s) to be estimated.

iQuote then creates the estimate using a Product Specification as a template or and old estimate number. The XML message may contain different product specifications used to create different types of products in the same estimate.

The XML message supports a list of main specification characteristics. Each characteristic will have a fixed list of properties that the external system can send in the XML message. If the XML does not provide a characteristic, then iQuote will take the information from the product specification.

iQuote calculates the estimate and automatically sets the estimate status to “Allow Proposal” and then sends the price(s) back to the external software. A list of fixed pricing information will be available in the message.

If iQuote cannot create the estimate for some reason such as lack of information or mis-formed XML message, iQuote will send an Acknowledge message to the external system explaining the failure.

The customer has the flexibility to create notifications and specific statuses in the Estimate object to address these message failures and to inform users or teams about the estimates created through the integration

The customer also has the flexibility to create some rules in iQuote to not send the price back in some situations (e.g., type of product, approval limits, etc).