Problem...A business software license broker has 200+ records of inventory available for lease. Currently she sends her customers a link to a google sheet. Then they email her back with what they have picked, and the deal moves down the pipeline. There are issues with follow up and communication which result in a lot of missed opportunities. Each deal requires several variables be determined such as Price negotiation, length of term, location, server hosting requirements, etc. additionally there are document generation issues which further slow the process, purchase orders, nondisclosure agreements, and sales contracts. These are all generated by hand allowing for additional project slippage.
In an attempt to automate this process she moved the inventory records into a base and created some views then created some forms to allow provider/vendors to easily add new inventory offerings via an embedded form, or she could easily enter it herself while on a phone call. This has proven successful on this side of the business.
Alternatively on the customer facing side of the workflow there are issues. She tried embedding an ordering form side by side with an inventory view so customers can scroll the inventory on the right and copy paste their item numbers to the form on the left. This was semi successful but a bit ugly and a bit clumsy on Google Sites. Second attempt was with MS power pages...but there is an undetermined conflict with the rendering of the iframes.
What she needs is a 'picklist' with big sexy select buttons on each row. This would be shared to the customers either via email link or embedded in a webpage. The ultimate goal is that when a customer selects a few records they can additionally toggle a few single/multiple select fields to indicate preference for the order and add a bit of text describing a requirement in a field or two. They would then hit a 'Submit Button' and these choices are sent back to the broker to review.
This reply to the broker should:
- update the inventory status to show it is ‘pending’
- notify the broker of the items selected, the price offered, etc (email)
- allow for easy response to the customer confirming or counteroffering etc
Alternatively, I think each customer (there are less than 50) could have their own inventory view they could interact with maybe?
Any suggestions are appreciated
