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Opportunity Elements - Overview

What are Opportunity Elements?​

Opportunity Elements are simplified product combinations formed from two dimensions of Items. They serve as a bridge between the detailed item master data in Business Central and a simplified product selection in Dynamics 365 Sales.

Example:

  • Dimension 1: Manufacturer (HP, Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo)
  • Dimension 2: Purchase Type (Purchase, Rent, Leasing)

Result:

  • HP-Purchase
  • HP-Rent
  • Dell-Purchase
  • Microsoft-Purchase
  • Microsoft-Rent
  • Lenovo-Purchase

Why Opportunity Elements?​

Problem without Opportunity Elements​

Without Opportunity Elements, salespeople in Dynamics 365 Sales would have to choose from a large number of individual items. This leads to:

  • Lack of clarity
  • Errors in product selection
  • Time consumption during quote creation
  • Difficulties in forecasting

Solution with Opportunity Elements​

With Opportunity Elements, sales in Dynamics 365 Sales works with only a few, clearly defined product combinations. The internal sales team in Business Central then enters the specific items in the sales quote.

Advantages:

  • Simple product selection in Sales
  • Fast quote creation
  • Structured forecasts for controlling
  • Clear separation between sales (rough planning) and internal sales (detailed elaboration)

The Business Process​

Practical Example: IT Distributor​

Initial Situation​

An IT distributor sells products from various manufacturers in different business models (purchase, rent, leasing).

Setup​

  • Dimension 1 Code: MANUFACTURER
  • Dimension 2 Code: PURCHASE TYPE
  • Generated Opportunity Elements: HP-Purchase, HP-Rent, Dell-Purchase, Microsoft-Purchase, Microsoft-Rent, Lenovo-Purchase, etc.

Process​

Step 1 - Opportunity in Sales: Salesperson Hans creates an opportunity for customer "Example Ltd." and estimates:

  • Microsoft-Rent: 50,000 EUR
  • HP-Purchase: 10,000 EUR The salesperson can go into more detail in the description of the opportunity or in the description of the opportunity lines. For example, the description could state that it is likely 5 notebooks of the Elitebook series.

Step 2 - Sales Quote in Business Central: Internal sales employee Maria creates a sales quote from the synchronized opportunity and enters:

  • 10 × Microsoft Surface Laptop (Dim: Microsoft-Rent) at 1,200 EUR = 12,000 EUR
  • 5 × Microsoft Surface Pro (Dim: Microsoft-Rent) at 1,500 EUR = 7,500 EUR
  • Microsoft 365 Subscription (Dim: Microsoft-Rent) at 500 EUR/Month × 12 Months = 6,000 EUR
  • 5 × HP EliteBook (Dim: HP-Purchase) at 1,400 EUR = 7,000 EUR

As soon as the sales quote reaches a Smart Workflow Tool process status, the Sales Calculation Elements are calculated in the background.

Sales Calculation Elements (automatically calculated):

  • Microsoft-Rent: 25,500 EUR (instead of estimated 50,000 EUR)
  • HP-Purchase: 7,000 EUR (instead of estimated 10,000 EUR)

Step 3 - Update in Sales: Hans sees the quote in Sales and updates the opportunity with the real values (25,500 EUR + 7,000 EUR = 32,500 EUR instead of 60,000 EUR).

Result:

  • Controlling has a realistic forecast based on concrete quotes.
  • Sales continues to work with simple product combinations.
  • Internal sales works with complete item details.