Issue

An Opportunity represents a potential revenue-generating event—such as a deal or sale—that Syensqo wants to track and manage through various stages of the sales process.

Key points:

• Opportunities are linked to Accounts and often Contacts.

• Each opportunity has a Stage (e.g., Prospecting, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed Won/Lost).

• It includes details such as amount, expected close date, probability, and products involved.

• Opportunities feed forecasting and pipeline visibility, helping sales teams measure performance and predict revenue.

In the context of the CRM transformation, we must define the role of the standard Opportunity object in the renewal process. How do we want to manage the overall business pipeline in Salesforce? Do we want to extend the usage of the opportunities to renewal business? Should a Renewal Quote be linked to an Opportunity? If so, should this linkage be manual, automated, or should the Opportunity be bypassed? The decision must ensure consistency across the Sales process, maintain accurate pipeline reporting, and maximize user adoption. 

In the current system, Opportunities are primarily used to manage the new/growth business. Opportunities are sometimes created for renewals if the deal is considered as a growth business.

Recommendation

Recommendation: Opportunity is not used for Renewal Quotes (aka Option C)

We recommend following the Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud best practices and therefore leveraging the Sales Agreement as the primary container for renewal tracking and linking the Renewal Quote directly to the Sales Agreement or Account, bypassing the Opportunity.

Given that the demand forecast is handled by an external tool, Maestro Kinaxis, and the internal Salesforce pipeline is mainly used for "New/Growth Business", forcing the creation of a Renewal Opportunity would introduce unnecessary process complexity and actively pollute the Opportunity pipeline. The Sales Agreement object (part of Manufacturing Cloud) is specifically designed to handle and track recurring revenue commitments. This minimizes user steps, reduces data volume, and aligns well with the defined forecasting scope.

Manufacturing Cloud as a best practice:

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud represents the recommended approach for companies operating within the Manufacturing sector, including the Chemicals sub-industry.

This purpose-built solution is designed to address the specific challenges and requirements of companies by providing enhanced tools for forecasting, sales agreement management, and account-based planning.

However, as a relatively new product, there is a current limitation in the number of publicly documented and well-established use cases available.

How to measure the Renewal/Retention KPI without an Opportunity?

In a traditional Salesforce model, the Opportunity Win/Loss status is used to measure the retention.

However by leveraging Manufacturing Cloud, we move to a model where we can more accurately track the Actuals vs. Planned Volumes/Revenue and we introduce new objects and features:

1. Sales Agreement is our source of truth for the entire deal lifecycle. Instead of waiting for a Win/Loss at the end of an opportunity process, we have real-time visibility into the Actuals vs. Planned Volumes/Revenue. We measure retention by the renewal and expansion of the Agreement itself, not by a separate record.
2. The Renewal Quote linked to the Sales Agreement is still there to capture the intent. The Quote allows us to track the specific outcomes of a renewal (Price increases, volume changes). If a Quote is accepted, it updates the Sales Agreement; if it’s rejected, we track the loss reason directly on the Quote or a cancelled status on the Agreement.
3. Advanced Account Forecasting (Manufacturing Cloud feature) aggregates data from Opportunities, Quotes, Sales Agreement and Orders. This gives us a more reliable long term view of the run-rate revenue than the opportunity pipeline which is better suited for one off deals.

In conclusion, the renewal KPIs will be build on the Sales Agreements and Quotes objects instead of the Opportunities.

Background & Context

• Current State:
  • New business: Managed via Opportunities and Quote process is followed if a quote is required
  • Renewals: Typically managed via Quotes only, without Opportunities.
  • Spot sales: Managed as exceptions, not standardized.
  • Recurring business: Managed outside Salesforce (in SAP).
• Strategic Goal: Standardize and harmonize the global Sales processes within Salesforce and significantly improve the efficiency of the Sales team. This is intended to increase revenue and reduce the time required to close a deal.

• To-Be Architectural State:

  • The project introduces Manufacturing Cloud for Sales and Revenue Cloud (CPQ). 

  • Sales Agreements of Manufacturing Cloud are intended to handle recurring revenue commitments and tracking.

  • Forecasting Scope: The Salesforce Opportunity pipeline will mainly used for the "New Business" deals but not restricted; primary demand forecasting is handled by an external tool, Maestro Kinaxis.

Assumptions

Key Assumptions:

• Manufacturing Cloud:
  • The recommendation of this KDD is based on the functionality provided by Manufacturing Cloud and therefore if Manufacturing Cloud is not chosen, the recommendation of this KDD will need to be reevaluated. See also KDD092 - CRM Salesforce Cloud Selection

Other Assumptions

• Forecasting Tool: 

  • Business relies on an external system, Maestro Kinaxis, for demand forecasting.

• CRM Pipeline Scope:

  • The standard Salesforce Opportunity object will be mainly for New Business sales pipeline tracking and reporting. Most Renewal/recurring revenue must not appear in this Sales pipeline.

• Sales Agreement Focus:

  • The Sales Agreement will be utilized as the source of truth and management tool for recurring revenue commitments and consumption (as per Manufacturing Cloud design)

• CPQ Technical Constraint:
  • The Revenue Cloud/CPQ module can successfully generate and manage a Renewal Quote without a parent Opportunity record

Constraints

The validity of the recommended approach is constrained by the following factors:

• Forecasting Tool Constraint: This decision is invalidated if business decides to retire the external forecasting tool and mandate the use of the Salesforce Opportunity pipeline for all revenue (New, Renewal and Recurring).

• Manufacturing Cloud Functionality Constraint: The decision assumes that all required renewal data and metrics can be tracked and managed directly on the Sales Agreement object, as designed by Manufacturing Cloud.

Impacts

Business Rules

• Renewal Quote Linkage:

  • All Renewal Quotes must maintain a mandatory lookup relationship to the Sales Agreement or the Quotes record from which they originated and to the Customer.

• System Automation:

  • The system must be configured to prevent the auto-generation of an Opportunity during the Renewal Quote process, even if standard CPQ/Revenue Cloud settings default to this behavior. 

  • The creation of a Sales Agreement must not automatically trigger the creation of an Opportunity.

Options considered

Option A: Opportunity is mandatory for renewal with manual creation

The user is responsible for manually creating a Renewal Opportunity before initiating the Renewal Quote process.

Option B: Opportunity is mandatory for renewal with automatic creation

The Opportunity is mandatory, but automated workflow creates the Renewal Opportunity in the background when the user initiates the Renewal Quote.

Option C: No Opportunity usage for renewal

The Opportunity object is bypassed entirely for renewals. The Renewal Quote and subsequent renewal booking are linked directly to the Account or the Sales Agreement.

Option D: Opportunity is mandatory for renewal and Sales Agreement-Driven

The Renewal Opportunity is mandatory but is created and managed directly through the renewal logic embedded within the Sales Agreement object (leveraging Manufacturing Cloud capabilities)

Evaluation

Category	Option A: Opportunity is mandatory for renewal with manual creation	Option B: Opportunity is mandatory for renewal with automatic creation	Option C: No Opportunity usage for renewal (RECOMMENDED)	Option D: Opportunity is mandatory for renewal and Sales Agreement-Driven
User Experience (UX)	Poor. High administrative burden; violates goal of improving efficiency.	Good. Automation simplifies the process for the user.	Excellent. Simplest path; users only interact with the Sales Agreement/Quote.	Good. Seamless, leveraging Sales Agreement renewal capabilities.
Forecasting Alignment	Low. Pollutes the "New Business" pipeline, violating the scope.	Low. Violates the "New Business Only" pipeline scope.	High. Adheres well to the "New Business Only" pipeline scope.	Low. Still creates an Opportunity record, potentially polluting the pipeline.
Salesforce Architecture	Standard. Uses base SF objects;	Custom Logic. Use standard Salesforce objects but Require custom automation to handle the mandatory linkage.	Clean & Focused. Aligns with Manufacturing Cloud design.	Complex Logic. Heavily relies on bespoke logic triggered by Sales Agreement status changes.
Full activation SF Standard Features	High. Uses standard Opportunity/Quote objects fully, all the Sales Cloud features are available	High. Uses standard Opportunity/Quote objects fully, all the Sales Cloud features are available	Moderate. The access to standard Sales Cloud features (see detailed table below) will be impacted for renewal sales.	High. Leverages both Manufacturing and Sales Cloud features extensively.
Integrations	Standard Link. Interfaces rely on the standard Opportunity ID, which is always present.	Standard Link. Interfaces rely on the standard Opportunity ID, which is always present.	Extra effort. Interfaces must be configured to prioritize the Quotes or Sales Agreement ID for renewal transactions.	Standard Link. Interfaces rely on the standard Opportunity ID, which is always present.
Data Volumes	High. Creates an extra Opportunity record for every single renewal, increasing data volume significantly.	High. Creates an extra Opportunity record for every single renewal, increasing data volume significantly.	Low. Avoids creating redundant Opportunity records, keeping data volumes focused on New Business and Agreements.	High. Creates an extra Opportunity record for every single renewal.
Industry Best Practices	Deviation. Requires manual steps, leading to data quality issues (not best practice).	Consistent. Follows the best practice of the quote process in Salesforce.	Aligned. Salesforce Best practice is to the leverage industry-specific tool, Manufacturing Cloud, for their intended purpose (recurring revenue management). /!\ New Salesforce product.	Aligned, but Complex. Follows best practice but introduces complex synchronization logic between objects.
Development Cost	Zero. No automation required.	Moderate. Requires custom automation (Flow/Apex).	Low-Moderate. Requires confirmation that CPQ can function without the Opportunity link; may need custom quote link logic.	Moderate. Requires custom logic/Flows triggered by Sales Agreement status changes.
Data Integrity	Low. High risk of users forgetting the manual step.	High. Automation ensures data consistency.	High. Renewal/Recurring data lives natively where it belongs: the Sales Agreement.	High. Data linkage is strong.
Adoption/Compliance	Low. Users will resist the extra administrative burden.	High. Process feels seamless and logical to the user.	High. Process is simple and aligns with the defined scope.	Medium. Simple for renewals, but inconsistent with new business flow.

Sales Cloud Features impact with Option C (No opportunity):

See also

Change log