Customer self-service for Sales Customer Relationship Management
Support your business-to-business (B2B) customers by enabling self-service capabilities through the Business Portal to create and manage orders, invoices, and requests for quotes.
Business Portal overview
The Business Portal is a self‑service, customer‑facing web interface in Sales Customer Relationship Management that enables B2B customers to discover products, configure offerings, and place orders directly through a secure, web‑based experience. The portal complements internal sales workflows, enabling your customers to engage with the sales process independently while remaining fully integrated with core CRM data and processes. The Business Portal, which is based on Customer Service Management, streamlines order placement, reduces dependency on manual sales interactions, and accelerates revenue generation. It also provides integrated access to knowledge articles, community forums, service catalogs, and chatbots.
Business Portal benefits
The Business Portal provides benefits for administrators and B2B customers. Administrators can easily manage and administer the portal and install plugins to enable new features. The following table lists the benefits for B2B customers.
| Benefit | Feature |
|---|---|
| Enable customers to place orders independently, reducing sales cycle time and accelerating revenue realization. | Create orders from the Business Portal |
| Accelerate pricing and proposal turnaround by enabling customers to request quotes directly within the portal. | Submit a request for quote from the Business Portal |
| Enable customers to view quotes generated from requests for quotes (RFQs) or quotes created offline by a sales agent. | View quotes from the Business Portal |
| Reduce customer dependency on customer service agents for routine order inquiries or raising order issues such as quantity or address disputes. | |
| Provide customers access to their invoice and invoice line details so they can track billing information and identify discrepancies. | View invoices on the Business Portal |
| Simplify invoice inquiries and dispute management through a direct, trackable self‑service support channel. |
Dispute a specific line item on an invoice against your account using the Business Portal Dispute multiple invoices against your account using the Business Portal |
Business Portal and sales agents
Sales agents don’t directly use the Business Portal, but work on orders, order cases, invoice cases, and RFQs submitted through the Business Portal from the CSM Configurable Workspace. Depending on the process for orders, order cases, invoice cases, and RFQs, the agents work on their assignments and work with the customers to provide resolution. For example, reviewing RFQs, converting RFQs to quotes, applying price adjustments, and returning the quote to the customer for approval.