Here is a killer Salesforce.com® business mashup that lets sales personnel request approval to extend credit to a prospect to close a deal.  This mashup was built in collaboration with our latest Serena Mashup Exchange member StrikeIron., which provides an on-demand Web-based infrastructure for delivering business data to any Internet-connected system.

Take a look at this great demo or just download it. It is free on the Serena Mashup Exchange

BRAND NEW!!!! Check out the new SFDC Productivity Kit!  The productivity kit contains lots of free information to help you get started creating cool Business Mashups with SFDC!

Business Implications:

• For Sales: Faster time to revenue with streamline credit approval.
• For Finance: Increased efficiency and lower risk with secure and auditable decision flow
• For the enterprise: Leverage investment in core applications & build favorable ROIs.
• For IT: Connect SaaS apps seamlessly to users and increase the efficient utilization of Web 2.0.

This Serena Business Mashup:

• Makes it easy for a salesperson to request a credit approval from the Finance.
• Streamlines process for a finance person to research the company and make a decision regarding how much credit to extend.
• Cuts the time it takes to get credit requests approved.
• Reduces the amount of work it takes to get outside data reviewed and put into the credit approval system.
• Simplifies  recording the justification for the credit decision to make audits easier.
• Lets stakeholders remain in their tool of preference 

How does it work? 

Through the Salesforce Credit Approval Mashup, an item submitted in Salesforce.com is automatically replicated in the Serena Business Mashup. So when an item is updated in Salesforce.com, the corresponding item is automatically updated in the Business Mashup. This Mashup also automates the interaction with D&B credit information via a StrikeIron® Web service. 

Use Case Scenarios:

Use Case Example 1:
A prospect wants to do business, or an existing customer wants to do more business. In either case, the customer needs credit approval. Sales Sue enters the opportunity in Salesforce.com, including the D&B number of the customer and the amount of credit requested. When she completes the entry and clicks the Request Credit Approval button, a new sales credit approval item is submitted into Business Mashups. Sue sees the Status Log field change to Pending.

Finance David clicks the D&B Lookup button and reviews the information from Dun & Bradstreet. David approves the request. This Business Mashups transition updates the Salesforce.com Status Log field to Approved, and updates the Salesforce.com Credit Amount Extended field to the amount that he approved.

Use Case Example 2:
David does not have all of the information he needs, so he clicks the Need More Info transition button in Business Mashups to send the request back to the AWAITING INFO state. This updates the Salesforce.com Status Log field to Need More Info. The item remains in this state until Sue responds with the needed information.

Sue gives David the additional information. David clicks the Reject transition button in Business Mashups to reject the request. This updates the Salesforce.com Status Log field to Rejected.

Use Case Example 3:
When David clicks the D&B Lookup transition button in Business Mashups, no results are returned because the D&B number was not entered correctly in Salesforce.com. He then clicks the Need More Info transition button and types what he needs in the Info Required field to send the request back to the AWAITING INFO state. This updates the Salesforce.com Status Log field to Need More Info.

The item remains in this state until Sue enters the correct D&B number in Salesforce.com. She then clicks the Request Credit Approval button to update the D&B Number field in Business Mashups. David clicks the D&B Lookup transition button in Business Mashups again, and gets results. He then clicks the Approve transition button to approve the request.

Use Case Example 4:
When David receives the request, he sees that the amount of credit requested is $26,000. He clicks the D&B Lookup transition button in Business Mashups to gather information from Dun & Bradstreet. He then clicks the Director Review transition button to forward the request to Director Tom, because David does not have approval authority for that amount of credit. Tom reviews and approves the credit request.

Products used:

• Serena Business Mashups
• Salesforce.com
• StrikeIron® Web service. 
• Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B) Web service

Contact:

Abed Farhan
Serena Software
afarhan@serena.com