Tag Archives: salesforce cpq

Salesforce DevOps tools for CPQ

CPQ With Salesforce DevOps Tools vs. Without

The Benefits of Using a DevOps Tool for Salesforce Revenue Cloud

Salesforce CPQ (or Revenue Cloud) is a highly useful tool to streamline the configure, price, quote process in Salesforce. But did you know you can enhance that process even further with Salesforce DevOps tools like the Prodly DevOps platform?

Salesforce CPQ With a DevOps Tool

Salesforce DevOps tools for CPQ

DevOps involves several key principles, including the automation of as many processes in the development lifecycle as possible. A comprehensive Salesforce DevOps tool automates many of the tasks involved with the change management process in Salesforce CPQ, including:

  • Sandbox seeding: Avoid conflicts with instant, on-demand, data-rich development environments for each individual team member.
  • Sandbox management: Easily spin up, sync, and refresh new sandboxes. Use data replication tools to make them look like production—and save money you’d otherwise spend on a Full Copy.
  • Version control: Quickly roll back changes with easy access to previous iterations of every configuration.
  • Regression testing: Avoid costly downtime by testing work earlier in the process—and prevent bugs from making it into production.
  • Salesforce CPQ data model deployment: Deploy complex relational CPQ schema in minutes, not days, with pre-built automation templates.
  • Audit trail: Ensure SOX compliance with a detailed audit log of every change at your fingertips.

On top of that, a DevOps tool ensures continuous integration and delivery of changes in Salesforce CPQ. This empowers your sales team, enables you to respond to market demands faster, and helps skyrocket your revenue!

CPQ Without Salesforce DevOps Tools

In contrast, without Salesforce DevOps tools that automate many stages of the change management process, you have to do everything manually. That involves hours of tedious, manual labor and unnecessary busy work. It also results in elevated risk due to the increased chance of bugs and issues that can cause downtime. This in turn can cause revenue loss.

Salesforce DevOps Tools Help Maximize CPQ ROI

Clearly, using DevOps tools for CPQ is a good way to maximize your ROI. You have the safety net of source control, the accuracy of deployment automation templates, and automatic SOX compliance. This greatly reduces the risk to the business.

At the same time, you empower your sales team, and you make your business more agile and responsive. As a result, it’s easier and faster to drive up revenue with your investment.

FAQs

What is Salesforce sandbox seeding?

Salesforce sandbox seeding or data seeding consists of two parts: data replication to obtain test data and data migration. When you create a new environment or refresh an existing one, you can use sandbox seeding to move data replicated from production into the sandbox. This effectively makes your dev environments look like mini versions of production. Learn more about sandbox seeding.

 

Why do I need source control for Salesforce CPQ? 

Source control for CPQ offers several advantages. You can easily roll the configuration back to earlier states if needed. It provides an automatic audit log. In addition, it lets you collaborate more effectively. Learn more about the benefits of version control for Salesforce CPQ.

A happy Salesforce admin and developer looking at a monitor to show how Salesforce deployment automation enhances engagement

Salesforce Deployment Automation Enhances Engagement

When it comes to enhancing admin and developer engagement, don’t underestimate the value of Salesforce deployment automation. In this blog, we discuss how Salesforce CI/CD automation helps improve staff morale on your development team. 

Then we share some videos with real life stories of how using Prodly’s automated deployment pipeline tools improved the quality of life for the team at SPS Commerce. Finally, we examine how using our CI CD tools for Salesforce gave them more time for higher-value work.

How Does Salesforce Deployment Automation Improve Admin and Developer Satisfaction?

A happy Salesforce admin and developer looking at a monitor to show how Salesforce deployment automation enhances engagement

According to research by Salesforce, automation is a high priority for 95 percent of IT and engineering leaders. Why? It eliminates repetitive, mind-numbing, manual tasks, which makes employees’ jobs considerably less tedious and more interesting. As a result, it improves staff morale.

In fact, 89 percent of full-time employees report a higher job satisfaction due to workflow automation. Another 84 percent are more satisfied with their company. Moreover, 91 percent agree it saves them time and provides a better work-life balance. 

It follows that Salesforce teams can become more efficient, productive, and happy using deployment automation.

Improved Quality of Life With an Automated Deployment Pipeline

So how does this work? Well, for example, think about using Data Loader to promote a CPQ change up the release pipeline. If the thought alone makes you want to reach for an extra-large black coffee, you’re not alone. 

Fortunately, automation tools in Salesforce like Prodly DevOps let you complete the deployment in 80 percent less time! Better yet—without any errors or do-overs!

That means no more early mornings, late nights, and weekends lost on making sure all the manual sequencing for a deployment is taken care of. You literally get hours back in your day!

Check out this short video to hear how the team at SPS Commerce achieved hassle-free deployments and a better quality of life with our Salesforce automation.

Salesforce CI CD Release Management Enables Higher-Value Work

Building the best CI CD pipeline in Salesforce is critical to establishing streamlined and effective release management. With continuous integration continuous delivery, automation ensures that every change anyone on your team builds, tests, and deploys is based on the most recent version of the code. This results in more successful integrations, fewer bugs in production, and less downtime.

In addition, you deploy changes on a regular basis. This makes the application consistently more useful for users. 

Developed by the team behind Salesforce CPQ, Prodly DevOps is the best CI CD tool for CPQ and other Salesforce apps that are based on config data. Watch this 1-minute video to hear how the SPS Commerce team used our CI/CD automation to accelerate their release management process—and get more time for exciting, innovative work!

FAQ

What is CI/CD in Salesforce?

CI/CD for Salesforce refers to using automation to continuously move changes through the different stages in your release pipeline. As soon as you approve a change, your Salesforce continuous integration tool merges it into your version control system (Git). This ensures everyone on your team’s working from the latest version, which enhances the chances of successful integration and testing. Learn more about CI/CD in Salesforce.

Continuous delivery describes the practice of releasing small changes at frequent intervals to offer new functionality to your end user as soon as possible. By doing this, you continuously add more value to your application.

Why is automated deployment important in Salesforce?

Salesforce deployment automation is important because it speeds up the release management process considerably. Because it enhances accuracy, it also reduces the risk associated with pushing changes to production. On top of that, low-code/no-code deployment tools like Prodly DevOps allow admins and citizen developers to take on more responsibility in the release management process. Learn more about automating deployments in Salesforce.

A female employee speaking to her CFO about Salesforce automation.

How to Talk to Your CFO About Salesforce Automation

In this blog, I outline a strategy for talking to your CFO about investing in Salesforce automation. This involves researching what your CEO’s objectives are and suggesting a solution that’s proven to deliver the desired ROI.

Research Your CEO’s Goals

A female employee speaking to her CFO about Salesforce automation.

Before suggesting a new Salesforce automation to your CFO, you need to have a good overview of the factors they’ll consider before investing in one. 

The role of the CFO involves supporting the objectives of the CEO. They do this by driving top-line growth and shrinking bottom-line expenses. At the same time, they have to protect your company by ensuring it adheres to all the compliance regulations of your industry. 

So if you can attach the automation solution you’re interested in to one of the CEO’s goals, it will likely be accomplished.

How to Find Out What the CEO’s Goals Are

So how can you find out what the CEO’s objectives are?

It’s much easier than you might think. If your company is public, you can research the most recent quarterly earnings statement or earnings transcript and pinpoint what challenges the CEO wants to address. 

If your company isn’t public, research documents such as an OKR, V2MOM, or other company-wide goal-setting framework. Check the company’s press releases or internal newsletters, and pay attention during all-hands meetings.

Attach a Salesforce Automation Solution to a CEO Objective

Here’s an example of attaching a Salesforce automation tool to your CEO’s main objective.

Despite challenging market conditions including market volatility, fluctuating exchange rates, and skyrocketing inflation, your CEO’s main goal remains to increase profit. So whatever automation your CFO invests in has to move the needle towards that objective.

One way your CFO can support the CEO’s goal is to ensure you’re making the necessary price adjustments internally. You need to get the right price points to the sales team so the company doesn’t lose revenue. This has to be accomplished with as few resources as possible while adhering to all applicable compliance regulations.

For example, let’s say your company has business operations across the globe. In Salesforce CPQ, it can take between six and 12 weeks to manually make price adjustments resulting from fluctuating exchange rates. In other words, it would take that long before your sales team can sell at the accurate price point. And that equates to a substantial amount of lost revenue. 

Prodly DevOps for Salesforce CPQ provides automation that lets you accomplish the same volume of price adjustments in two to three days—instead of two to three months. You need fewer people for the project, so you can reallocate team members to other high-priority projects. What’s more: Prodly DevOps automatically creates an audit trail—so you don’t have to worry about being in compliance. 

In short, recommending the cost benefits of Prodly DevOps for moving your Salesforce CPQ changes to your CFO would be a strategic move.

Prove Your Solution Will Deliver the Desired ROI

Of course, your CFO will require proof that any automation they invest in will deliver the desired ROI. So how can you get that?

Many software vendors provide metrics to show how their automation positively impacts their customers’ top or bottom line. You can typically find this type of information in case studies and white papers on their website. If you can’t find the information, ask for it when you get a demo. 

Sometimes, Salesforce features interesting customer stories that illustrate how a specific AppExchange app helped a customer solve a business challenge and what the outcome was.

Prepare a Business Case for Salesforce Automation

Best-in-class software vendors partner with you to make a compelling business case that shows how your profitability can grow as a result of the application.

Business Value Calculator

At Prodly, we use a business value calculator to show our customers how the benefits of Prodly DevOps translate into financial impact for their specific company. 

Our business value calculator considers the cost of investing in our solution and balances it against five quantifiable outcomes:

  1. Deployment maturity: The percentage of efficiency teams obtain by using Prodly
  2. Risk savings: How much revenue could be lost due to downtime without using Prodly
  3. Agility: The percentage of increase in development capacity gained by using Prodly
  4. Pricing change increased revenue: How much revenue is lost while waiting on price changes without using Prodly
  5. Compliance: How much productivity could be consumed preparing for and undergoing external audits without Prodly

Equipped with the numbers of how much your business can profit from investing in a Salesforce automation like Prodly, you can confidently approach your CFO.

Keep It Short and to the Point

As you can see, talking to your CFO about Salesforce automation doesn’t have to be intimidating. Just do your research ahead of time to verify the automation aligns with the CEO’s goals and delivers the desired ROI. 

Pitch your proposal succinctly. Ask for five minutes of the CFO’s time, and give them the most impactful metrics. Then be prepared to follow up with more information if they’re interested.

Follow Up With Metrics to Show ROI

Let’s say the CFO decides to invest in the Salesforce automation you recommended. Then it’s best practice  to demonstrate the ROI after three to six months. This not only proves the business case—it also builds trust with your CFO for your next initiative. 

At Prodly, our Customer Success team is happy to help you determine the financial impact of our products. Then you can take the numbers to your CFO to validate your actions—which in turn can help advance your career. 

Do you want to find out how Prodly DevOps can boost your profits? Schedule a demo, and we’ll show you the business value calculation for your specific company!

FAQ

Why do I need Salesforce automation?

You need automation in Salesforce so you can implement DevOps best practices. These will enable you to deliver more high-quality changes faster than you could manually.

How do I quickly run a Salesforce CPQ deployment?

Prodly offers automation templates that are built for the entire Salesforce CPQ schema. Using them, you can run deployments in 80 percent less time than using Data loader.

The enter key on a computer keyboard with the word oops on it representing version control for Salesforce CPQ configuration.

Benefits of Version Control for Salesforce CPQ

In this blog, we discuss the benefits of version control for Salesforce CPQ configuration, such as the fact that it lets you roll back to prior states with laser precision. In addition, it helps you meet SOX requirements, collaborate more effectively, and implement an agile release management process.

Easily Roll Back to Prior States With Laser Precision

With a version control system (or “oops button,” as we like to call it), you can quickly and easily roll back a specific change or many changes to a mission-critical system like Salesforce CPQ.

The enter key on a computer keyboard with the word oops on it representing version control for Salesforce CPQ configuration.

Let’s say you’re having issues with a Price Rule. Your production org may have dozens or even hundreds of Price Rules, so figuring out which one contains the bug will take time. Do you really want to do that in production… while the downtime prevents sales reps from closing opportunities?

With a version control system (VCS), you have a running log of every change to your Salesforce CPQ configuration. This log is the source of truth for your CPQ implementation, which is why it’s called source code. In the case of CPQ, this includes configuration data

So if there’s an issue, you simply hit the “oops button” and roll back the change to the previous version of the code. Now you’ve restored the system for users, you can do your debugging in a sandbox where you can’t do any damage.

Meet SOX Compliance Requirements

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is designed to help protect investors from fraudulent financial reporting by public corporations. For companies using Salesforce CPQ, this means they have to comply with two main requirements:

  1. They must maintain a complete audit trail of changes to all financial data, including pricing and products.
  2. They must maintain separation of duties.

Failing to meet SOX regulations can result in steep financial penalties, as well as prison sentences. For example, accountants and auditors who are not in compliance can face up to a decade behind bars. 

Recently, auditors have started to catch on that record data falls within the scope of compliance requirements. Record data provides configuration for Salesforce CPQ.

Version control for Salesforce CPQ provides an immutable record of what changes were made, by whom, and who checked them in. And you need a version control system. Why? Because even if you haven’t heard anything from the auditors, you’re breaking the law if you’re not SOX compliant. That’s why it’s advisable to get ahead of the situation and implement version control (VC) as soon as possible.

Collaborate More Effectively With Version Control for Salesforce CPQ

A version control tool for Salesforce CPQ lets you collaborate more efficiently and effectively with your team. Everybody should configure their specific changes in their own environments. Once they’re done, they should check in their work to the source. As a result, every team member can work on their part of the project without fear of wiping out each other’s work. 

In addition, with a version control system (VCS) for Salesforce CPQ, you can thoroughly review all proposed changes before deploying them. This gives you the opportunity to identify conflicts and errors. If there are any, you can resolve them before they go into production.

Implement an Agile Release Management Process

Clearly, Salesforce CPQ version control effectively facilitates an agile release management process. It helps you reduce development time and time spent troubleshooting. As a result, you can deploy successful changes faster.

FAQs

What is version control?

Version control is a data management practice that’s also referred to as source control or revision control. It’s a critical tool for tracking changes to your Salesforce CPQ configuration data or record data as you move it through the release pipeline. This is especially true in an agile environment where you make changes quickly and dynamically. Learn more about version control.

What is a VCS and how does it work?

VCS stands for version control system. When you integrate Salesforce CPQ with a version control system, you can record and manage the changes you make to your configuration data. 

You check a file out of the VCS, update it with the changes you’ve made, and check it back in. If any of the changes you made don’t work during testing, you can refer back to the source configuration file to revert the configuration back to the earlier version. Learn more about version control systems. 

An vector diagram depicting running a Salesforce CPQ deployment

How to Run a Salesforce CPQ Deployment

Learn how to easily run a Salesforce CPQ deployment using Prodly’s automation templates. Deploy CPQ records in 80 percent less time than manual deployment—while simultaneously eliminating errors.

Automate Salesforce CPQ Deployments

Few of us get excited about tedious manual labor. That’s why Prodly created the first DevOps tool for Salesforce CPQ to automate what is otherwise hours of manual, error-prone work. 

Here’s how to easily run a Salesforce CPQ deployment with Prodly’s automation:

  1. Select where the ready-to-go changes are and where they need to go—whether that’s the next org in your release path or a branch in your repository.
  2. Select whether all of CPQ needs to be deployed or just a part of CPQ (i.e. all Price Rules or a new Product)
  3. Deploy.

Prodly’s Salesforce CPQ Automation Features

Proven Templates for the Entire CPQ Configuration Data Model

Prodly DevOps comes with data set templates—think prebuilt automations—that capture the entirety of the Salesforce CPQ configuration data model. That means you can be up and running in no time. Our templates have been battle tested on over 55 million CPQ deployments.

All you have to do is make your CPQ changes in your development org, select the appropriate template—and Prodly DevOps does the rest for you. It knows all the parent-child relationships and selects them automatically for deployment. You can even deploy the entire CPQ configuration in one click using our automation templates.

Customize Data Set Templates

If you like, you can even customize data set templates to add additional relationships with configuration data.

By going deeper into the data set templates, you can get really granular as to what you want to deploy and what not. Then you can preview the deployment to make sure it has everything you need in it—and nothing else.

Temporarily Deactivate Platform Events in Salesforce

Many of our customers say their favorite feature in Prodly DevOps is the ability to temporarily deactivate—and, importantly, reactivate—platform events and automations like Validation Rules and Flows during a deployment.

While great for running your business and maintaining data hygiene in your org, these events can cause unnecessary and frustrating deployment errors during the development process. Prodly DevOps automatically reactivates the events when the deployment is completed.

Prodly’s ability to automate this during a deployment saves you heaps of time compared to manually turning events on and off. Plus, it ensures you don’t overlook an event—which could have serious consequences.

For example, if you forget to reactivate a Validation Rule, it could result in bad data being entered into the system. Or if you forget to reactivate a Flow, it could mean that a critical part of a business workflow doesn’t get executed.

Progress Report

Prodly DevOps shows you in the UI how the deployment is progressing, and it sends you an email notification when it’s complete. That way, you don’t have to keep an eye on it yourself.

Audit History

Does governance and SOX compliance keep you or your management up at night? Prodly DevOps provides automatic change tracking that provides an audit report of every change. This easily-generated audit report includes who made what changes, when, and why—and it can easily be sent, too. Your next SOX audit will fly by.

Promoting CPQ Configuration Data Changes Without Prodly

Without automation, deploying a change to your product catalog or other configuration data in Salesforce CPQ can be a complicated, painstaking, and time-consuming process.

For every root object, you have to migrate all the related objects–so both the parent and child objects—to ensure the configuration changed works when it is deployed to production.

Let’s say you’ve made changes to your Product object, which has dozens of parent and child relationships.

When you have to move the newly-configured Product records from your Developer sandbox or scratch org to integration, you also have to move related records in all those parent and child objects. And because Salesforce record IDs change between environments, you’ll need to map IDs to maintain those relationships.

Manually.

For every single record. One object at a time.

Then you have to do it again when you move the changes to UAT. Manually. For every single record. One object at a time.

And again when you move them to staging.

And again when you promote them to production.

How long does this take? Hours, if not longer. Oh, and that’s assuming everything went according to plan and there weren’t any errors that required a do over.

The Market-Leading Salesforce CPQ DevOps Tool

See how easy it is to run a Salesforce CPQ deployment with Prodly DevOps compared to without?

Prodly is truly the best-in-class DevOps tool to enhance the benefits of Salesforce CPQ, and it offers even more brilliant features than described above! Our state-of-the-art platform includes work management integration, version control, effortless work deployment, and easy compliance. 

Getting up and running is a breeze—and super fast. Plus, if you have any questions at all, our support team is rated one of the best in the industry.

Discover how Prodly DevOps can streamline your Salesforce CPQ instance and accelerate your digital transformation!

A photo that complements the benefits of implementing salesforce cpq

The Benefits of Implementing Salesforce CPQ

In this blog, we explain that implementing Salesforce CPQ is more efficient than a manual CPQ system because it costs less time, minimizes manual work, and eliminates errors.

It streamlines the sales process, improves the customer experience, gives your sales team more time, and, as a result, increases revenue. In addition, it offers a more scalable solution that can grow along with your business.

A photo that complements the benefits of implementing salesforce cpq

Advantages to Implementing Salesforce CPQ

Implementing Salesforce CPQ, an automated system for generating quotes in Salesforce, offers many benefits when compared to using spreadsheets or a homegrown system.

Enhanced Efficiency

The manual use of spreadsheets or a system that’s cobbled together from multiple different processes for CPQ is highly inefficient. Why? Because it’s labor intensive, time consuming, and prone to error.

In contrast, Salesforce CPQ automates the configure, price, quote process in one powerful app.

It automatically narrows down product selections for customers to those that are most relevant based on factors such as need and company size. It helps sales reps with any additional configurations. Plus, it can even suggest fitting add-ons like extended service contracts, extra training sessions, or complementary products.

Because you’ve entered your standard pricing into Salesforce CPQ, the app provides guidance for sales reps to add package or line-item discounts. It can even be configured so you can enter a client’s budget and the software automatically generates matching product discounts. As a result, you can create quotes that capture better value.

Salesforce CPQ also generates a customer-ready quote that can include your branding, cover letters, specific T&Cs, and marketing materials.

More Streamlined Sales Process

According to Salesforce, using CPQ software results in:

  • 10 times faster quote generation thanks to automation
  • 95 percent reduction in approval time due to automatically enforced business rules for pricing and configuration
  • 2 times faster moving from quote to cash because sales reps can move faster
  • 30 percent quicker ramp up for new reps thanks to the use of a single automated process

Clearly, the sales process is significantly streamlined compared to using a manual method.

Improved Customer Experience

The customer experience is significantly improved. Why? It’s significantly faster to generate an accurate quote with any additional offers or product suggestions that apply.

So there’s less time between the customer’s exploration of the product and their receiving of an indication of the cost. This shortened time period keeps the momentum going.

At the same time, the customer receives a correct, automatically-generated, branded quotes that contain all the terms and conditions. It’s not a document with text that’s cut and pasted from a bunch of other sources. Instead, it’s a standardized contractual document that has been reviewed and approved before it goes to the customer.

More Time for Your Sales Team

With the automation offered by Salesforce CPQ, your sales reps spend less time on creating accurate, professional quotes and proposals. This means they have much more time to prospect, generate leads, and close more deals.

Scalability and Flexibility

To ensure smooth business growth, you need a CPQ solution that scales along with your CRM—like Salesforce CPQ. Because Salesforce CPQ is a Salesforce-native app, you don’t have to worry about upgrading the integration with your CRM.

Moreover, Salesforce CPQ is highly flexible and lets you easily customize it to add new features and products when needed.

Increased Revenue

We discussed how Salesforce CPQ gives your sales reps more time to prospect and generate leads, as well as a significantly shorter sales cycle. As a result, your business can see a significant increase in revenue. 

Plus, because Salesforce CPQ is cloud based, it’s accessible from anywhere. This provides sales reps with more freedom to generate quotes and close deals on the move.

In addition, by spending less time on the CPQ process thanks to automation, you can reduce your operational costs.

Enhance Your ROI With a Salesforce CPQ DevOps Tool

You can increase your revenue even more by automating the change management process in Salesforce CPQ with Prodly DevOps. Prodly’s state-of-the-art automation minimizes the manual work associated with data and configuration data migration and integrates seamlessly with DevOps Center. 

Using our Salesforce CPQ DevOps tool, you can deploy work 80 percent faster, reduce operational costs, and increase productivity.

Moreover, Prodly offers 1-click scratch org creation and sandbox seeding, built-in work management, and sandbox management. It provides automatic audit trail creation, as well as version control integration with GitHub, GitLab, Azure, and soon Jira. All this together make it the most effective end-to-end DevOps platform for Salesforce—all managed through a single pane of glass.

Streamline Salesforce CPQ deployment

Prodly Boosts Salesforce CPQ Data Deployment

In this blog, we explain how Prodly accelerates your Salesforce CPQ data deployments.

Boost Salesforce CPQ Deployments

With Prodly, you can quickly and easily deploy Salesforce CPQ data to production.

Created by the team that developed Salesforce CPQ, Prodly is the # 1 data migration tool for Salesforce. It streamlines the process of deploying Salesforce CPQ configuration data for seamless release management. 

With Prodly, you can deploy changes 66 percent faster than other solutions. What’s more: You can ramp up productivity by an astounding 80 percent!

Prodly streamlines Salesforce CPQ deployments because it offers several distinct benefits for users.

Streamline Salesforce CPQ deployment

Its Algorithms Are Optimized for Salesforce CPQ Data Migration

We’ve been perfecting our data deployment algorithms since 2015. Although Prodly was originally developed as a tool to streamline Salesforce CPQ deployments, we’ve developed our tool so it can be used with any Salesforce application. It’s still our core focus and main product.

It’s also important to note that we’re the only company in this space that originally focused on data. Other companies began with metadata and have only recently started to build out their data capabilities. As such, Prodly’s data migration capabilities are much more advanced.

It Provides Full Support for Any User From Start to Finish

Prodly is extremely user-friendly. It’s easy to navigate for admins and revenue operations, yet robust enough for developers. It’s a “clicks, not code” tool with a powerful DX plugin that allows you to move all data within Salesforce, without limits. 

Prodly offers fully automated data deployments, even for highly complex, Salesforce CPQ object models. It automatically determines the correct sequence for multi-object data loads. You don’t need any knowledge of CPQ schema, so everyone on your team can use the tool.

It Knows Which Records to Insert and Which to Upsert

Prodly makes sure your data upserts correctly. Automatic record matching understands the relationships between your records and maintains them in the destination org. This prevents duplicates. 

Recursive processing takes multiple passes through the data to make sure it updates with the correct information. Sometimes this requires the addition of a temporary value so the record can upsert. Later, Prodly goes back and updates the record to the real value.

For example, Price Rules of the type “Custom” require child conditions. So Prodly is smart enough to create Price Rule records in the default type and insert child condition records. Then it goes back and updates the Price Rule records to Custom.

With Lookup relationships and hardcoded IDs, Salesforce stores a record ID. This record ID changes in the destination org, which breaks the relationship between records. Prodly determines which record matches in the destination org and simply updates the IDs accordingly.

It Offers Superior Functionality for Every User Without Compromising Ease of Use

Prodly is completely reliable for Salesforce CPQ deployments. The Diagram View allows non-technical users to easily see what’s being moved. You control all settings down to the field level with a single click. 

It provides pre-built templates that empower you as your needs mature. You can even customize the templates so they’re specifically geared towards your needs.

It Offers Peace of Mind During Development From Start to Finish

Prodly lets you securely move any data to any org within Salesforce. It provides one-click data masking, as well as automatic duplicate, override, and error prevention. 

Prodly also offers easy Git integration for source control because it’s critical for commerce businesses to be SOX compliant,  This helps you enhance your governance and release process with version control.

When to Choose Prodly for Salesforce CPQ Deployments

Prodly is best used when you need to migrate large volumes of highly complex relational data. This occurs frequently in Salesforce CPQ. Just consider how often you need to make changes to reflect factors like seasonal promotions, sales in new territories, etc. And then consider across how many different products or artifacts you need to make those changes.

Clearly, you need a powerful Salesforce CPQ deployment tool that lets you focus on making the changes to the data. 

To see Prodly in action, request a personalized demo

The problem with Salesforce CPQ configuration data deployment

The Problem With CPQ Configuration Data

In this blog, we’ll examine the issue with deploying Salesforce configuration data and discuss why deploying metadata is easier. We’ll explain why Salesforce managed packages use configuration data in the first place—plus, we’ll mention how to streamline Salesforce CPQ configuration data deployment.

The problem with Salesforce CPQ configuration data deployment

The Issue With Deploying Configuration Data in Salesforce

Configuration data, or reference data, achieves a specific functionality in a Salesforce app. It’s like metadata in that it describes how the system behaves. However, it’s stored as transactional data in Salesforce’s databases. 

Because Salesforce doesn’t have tools to manage reference data, it’s critical for Salesforce CPQ users to understand why it exists and how it works.

It becomes particularly challenging when you need to promote many changes with complex relational data from a sandbox to production. You can’t use change sets, because they only work for actual metadata types.

You can use Data Loader–but that can be a laborious, lengthy, and painstaking process. Especially when you have a high volume of complex relational data, like in Salesforce CPQ, you can spend hours mapping objects. And that’s before mistakes and do-overs.

Why Is Migrating Metadata Easier?

In Salesforce, metadata is native to the platform. Salesforce can create new types of metadata when needed and has hundreds of types of metadata to power its applications.

For example, Salesforce created Einstein bots—with dialog as a new custom metadata type within the platform. 

Once the dialog was added as a metadata type, customers could develop their own bots in a sandbox. Then they could define the bots’ interactions with end-users based on the dialog metadata provided. 

Now, when they wanted to deploy those bots from a sandbox to production, they could simply use change sets. Why? Because the metadata types are already included in org migration tools that the platform provides. 

Why Does Salesforce CPQ Use Configuration Data?

If deploying metadata is relatively easy, why do some Salesforce apps use configuration data?

The answer is simple. Many apps are made by Salesforce App Partners (otherwise known as ISVs) who don’t have the ability to create new types of metadata. So when they want to specify behaviors in their applications, they need a solution. That’s where configuration data comes in.

Configuration data are records that serve as the code used by managed packages to produce some type of application behavior for applications built on Salesforce. 

For example, Salesforce CPQ is an AppExchange product originally created by Salesforce App Partner, Steelbrick. Even after Salesforce acquired Steelbrick, you still need to install the CPQ managed packages in your org to gain access to its many powerful features and functionalities.

One of these functionalities is Price Rules—conditions and actions that update prices. However, when Steelbrick developed Price Rules, it wasn’t an option to create a new type of metadata like with our Einstein dialog example. So they needed a different solution. 

Instead, they developed Price Rules as a custom Object made with configuration data. 

However, when you, the user, make changes to Price Rules, you can’t use change sets to promote those changes to production. Because they’re configuration data, you need to promote them as data.

Read Prodly Accelerates Salesforce CPQ Data Deployment to discover how to do this quickly and easily. 

Version control in Salesforce

What Is Version Control and What Are Its Benefits?

A version control system (VCS) tracks and manages the changes you make to your data and configuration data. It’s critical to managing changes in low-code Salesforce apps that use complex configuration data, like Salesforce CPQ and Field Service Lightning. 

A VCS offers many benefits, including faster iterations and configurations, improved collaboration within teams, and enhanced compliance. 

Version control in Salesforce

What Is Version Control?

Ever wish you could roll back changes you just made to your production org in error? How about being able to track the revision history of your changes over time?

Version control (also known as revision control or source control) is a methodology that resolves data control and management scenarios like these.

A VCS tracks and manages the changes you make to your data. In Salesforce apps that use configuration data, tracking changes as you move the data from Developer sandbox to QA to UAT to production is paramount. 

Especially in DevOps, where your changes occur fluidly, dynamically, and rapidly, version control is an essential component of configuration data management. That’s why it’s increasingly becoming a necessary element of the release management process.

The Benefits of Prodly With Version Control

Prodly with version control makes agile development a reality for complex, low-code Salesforce apps. Unlike other version control offerings for Salesforce, Prodly manages your configuration data, which makes it perfect for Salesforce CPQ, FSL, Billing, and B2B Commerce.

Prodly version control combines the power of Salesforce orgs and VCS branches. Using Prodly version control as your single source of truth has the following benefits when compared to traditional in-org development:

  1. You can iterate and configure faster in a truly agile environment.
  2. It improves collaboration within and amongst teams.
  3. You can ship complex configuration features faster.
  4. You can identify conflicts head on.
  5. It provides a full change history and audit trail.
  6. It allows you to maintain SOX compliance.
  7. You can easily roll data back to prior states.

How Does Version Control Work in Salesforce?

Version control in Salesforce works like this:

The initial master data commit retrieves your configuration data from your Salesforce production org and stores it in the VCS. At that point, the data in the VCS becomes your single source of truth. Going forward, you initiate all changes to data in your production org through the VCS.

A version in the VCS is a snapshot of your data at a given time. You check data out of the VCS, update it, and check it back in, creating a new version against which further changes are made. Then, if needed in the future, you can roll back your data to any version.

The VCS records all the changes you make so you can easily roll back to an earlier version if necessary due to a bug. At the same time, this change tracking creates an audit trail you can use for compliance purposes.

Does the VCS Replace My Deployment System?

You might be wondering whether the VCS replaces your deployment system. The short answer is no, it does not. 

The VCS works in conjunction with your deployment system through a concept called branching. A branch is a snapshot of your data created in the VCS and then deployed to a separate Salesforce sandbox or development org. 

Similar to how you likely work now, you develop your new features in the separate org to protect the data in your production org. When you’re ready, you check the changes back into the VCS branch, merge the branch back into the master, and deploy the changes to your production org.

To learn more about Prodly, request a demo.

Salesforce quote-to-cash process

Prodly CEO Max Rudman Featured on CPQ Podcast

Prodly CEO Max Rudman was recently interviewed by Frank Sohn, the host of CPQ Podcast.

CPQ Podcast, created by Novus Consulting, is dedicated to all things configure, price, quote. It shares insights on CPQ tools and processes by talking with industry leaders.

Prodly CEO Max Rudman as an Entrepreneur

In his conversation with Sohn, Max talks about how he caught the “entrepreneurial bug” and started working in CPQ. He discusses the beginnings of SteelBrick, which was later acquired by Salesforce and became Salesforce CPQ.

Expert Advice on Salesforce CPQ

Max talks about the difference between CPQ and quote to cash; plus, he offers advice on implementing Salesforce CPQ for businesses considering adding it to their app lineup.

Salesforce quote-to-cash process

Max also touches on the most common reasons he sees CPQ fail in businesses. Lastly, he explains why he joined the Prodly team , as well as Prodly’s goals for the future of empowering admins with effective and agile reference data management.

Check out the podcast here: