Why to use plugins?
Salesforce CPQ is a powerful tool where without writing a single line of code, you are able to provide your Sales People a solution making their life easier, to make your sales activities traceable and to make sales cycle shorter.
But there are cases, when the OOTB features are just not enough… And the requirements from the business are so complex or so unique that OOTB just cannot do. So what then? Call CPQ Plugins to the rescue!
You may say: OK, but what are those plugins? How they can help? Can they be purchased? I got you covered. Just read to the end of the article.
What is a plugin?
You may think of a Salesforce CPQ Plugin as a component that is build of a set of Salesforce technologies: APEX, JavaScript, LWC. That component is designed to help with a specific use case in a very narrow/specific CPQ functionality. Typically, the interface between the plugin and Saleforce CPQ is defined.
Because of the fact that those plugins are by definition working within a specific use case and area with specific interface, I often say that plugins are the standard way to customise Salesforce CPQ.
What plugins can be created?
See the below list of Salesforce CPQ Plugins, and their purpose.
| Salesforce CPQ Plugin | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Legacy Page Security Plugin | Enables you to extend the standard Salesforce Profile and Permission Sets, by adding an additional layer of security rules for visibility and edits of fields in the Quote Line Editor. |
| Billing Plugin | Get some control over the billing processes. |
| Legacy Quote Calculator Plugin | Provides an ability to extend the CPQ pricing engine by writing the pricing algorithm in APEX code. – Read Salesforce Documentation – QCP Intro Video |
| Quote Calculator Plugin (QCP) | Go above and beyond with possible price calculation logic. This one is a Swiss Army knife type of plugins! – Read Salesforce Documentation |
| QLE Custom Action Plugin | Extend custom actions. |
| Electronic Signature Plugin | Integrate your Salesforce CPQ with e-signature platforms like DocuSign or AdobeSign. – Read Salesforce Documentation |
| Product Search Plugin | Customise product search process. – Read Salesforce Documentation |
| Document Store Plugin | Get some control on the Quote Documents storage, and integrate third party tools. – Read Salesforce Documentation |
| Order Management Plugin | Influence how Orders are generated in your Salesforce Org. |
| Product Search Executor Plugin (Guided Selling) | Extend the Product Catalog search, by providing additional logic behind the scenes. |
| External Configurator | Customise your configuration process, by replacing standard Salesforce CPQ Configurator, with your own! – Read Salesforce Documentation – Watch the 20 min video showing how to build it! |
| Product Configuration Initializer | Auto initialise the configuration of your products. – Read Salesforce Documentation |
That’s a plenty of possibilities out there for you. Indeed. But remember, the best practice is to use OOTB functionalities first. Once you run out of options, plugins may be the way to achieve your goals.
You can access Salesforce documentation to all CPQ plugins here.
