About on-behalf-of mode

Before you begin working with territories and dealers, it is important to understand how they relate to each other and to the on-behalf-of (OBO) function.

Territories and OBO mode

Territories are created in both the manufacturer and dealer CPQ Enterprise Quoting systems to manage representatives' information access. As stated in Managing territories (administrator), territories are hierarchical, so access to a parent territory automatically provides access to its child territories.

In the manufacturer system, one or more manufacturer territories are assigned to each direct rep and one is assigned to each dealership/customer. As a direct rep, you have access to the agreements, projects, quotes, and orders of each dealership within your own territories. If you also have some level of on-behalf-of quote/order permissions, then you can not only view dealer quotes/orders but also create them, just as a rep at the dealership would.

In the dealer system, one dealer territory is assigned to each dealer rep and one is assigned to each of the dealership's customers. The dealer reps can enter quotes and orders (depending on permissions) for each customer within their own territory. Direct reps using OBO mode for the dealer can quote/order (depending on permissions) for this same set of customers.

Child dealers and OBO mode

Dealers and child dealers are created and maintained in only the manufacturer CPQ Enterprise Quoting system. As stated in Managing dealers, they too are hierarchical, so access to a parent dealer automatically provides access to its child dealers.

Having child dealers provides a means for dealer reps to quote/order on behalf of other dealer reps, similar to the way you as a direct rep can quote/order on behalf of dealers. And when you have access to a dealership because of shared territories, you also have access to its child dealers.

Note: Information about managing customers, items, and quoting/ordering for child dealerships is explained in the CPQ Enterprise Quoting user guide for dealers.

Agreements and OBO mode

Direct representatives cannot create agreements on behalf of a dealer rep, but you can use OBO mode to display a pre-filtered list of agreements for a selected dealer. In OBO mode, the list of agreements is read-only, so even if you are a pricing approver for agreements, the approval or rejection cannot be completed in this mode. See also Working with agreements.

Using OBO mode

When either a direct rep or a dealer rep is using OBO mode to view agreements or create quotes/orders, they are impersonating a selected dealer. The OBO user sees the exact information that is available to the dealer user.

The dealer OBO user may also be able to add customers, My Items, and named configurations to quotes and orders for the selected child dealer, depending on setup options. This is described in the CPQ Enterprise Quoting user guide for dealers.

In both systems, the OBO user clicks the On-Behalf-Of button in the upper right corner of the page, to access a form for selecting the dealer to impersonate. The UI then changes to the view of the selected dealer. The OBO user can click Turn Off On-Behalf Mode to end OBO mode.

OBO task notification

A dealer being impersonated via OBO mode can receive a notification that a task has been completed on their behalf. The notification contains the name of the OBO user and the quote/order ID. The dealer can also open the task to view more information about it.

An orange dot is displayed on the Inbox in the top navigation panel when there are unread notifications. The dealer can click the Inbox icon and then in the menu, click Inbox or Tasks. The notification is included in both lists. The dealer can select the required task and click Show Details.

This functionality works based on task notification setup by the EQ administrator. See Using task notifications for change requests.