Salesforce, long ago, acquired Steel Brick for CPQ functionality. Also, a few years ago, they acquired vlocity, which was an industries framework for Salesforce. These two acquisitions have had some overlap for a while and haven't changed all that much in recent years.
This left a little bit of a gap, where we had multiple ways to do CPQ, and very focused solutions, but nothing was really looking end-end on revenue management from product catalog all the way through to fulfilment.
Salesforce have realised this. We have been able to create fantastic solutions with the current products and the ISV ecosystem (products built on Salesforce). Now, they have released Revenue Lifecycle Management or RLM.
As with all new Salesforce products, it will mature well over the next few years. Out of the gate, it has some nice features. What I am most excited about is the approach of the new product, owning revenue end of end. Product Catalog, Pricing, Configuring, Contracts, Order Management, Billing and Intelligence.
It's worth noting that the order management is not the same as the Order Management in Commerce Cloud. That one is focused on retail, stores, etc. This one is a broader engine that also handles decomposition of a SKU into the fulfilment of it - services, training, licenses, etc, which is a very nice set of functionalities.
The final point, which is a big one! Is that just like many other recent announcements from Salesforce, this new product is built on the core platform with all its capabilities. It will connect well to data cloud, to AI capabilities and more. This multiplies the value due to the power of the platform and makes extension to marketing campaigns, service centers and more both easy and joined up. Look out for it!
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