Opportunity Overview and Walkthrough

Opportunities represent a chance to do business with a customer.  In ILR, only custom programs are Opportunities.  Opportunities are records stored in Salesforce, and are focused around the following:

1. Prospecting for a potential chance to do business
2. Creating a budget and getting it approved by the Office of the Dean of Outreach
3. Developing a contract and getting it signed and approved by the ILR Fiscal team
4. Documenting the final outcome of the process as to whether the Opportunity was won and will continue on as a program or whether it was lost

Using the Opportunity Form

1. In Salesforce, click the "Opportunities" tab.  Note: if you do not see the tab, contact the ILR Administrative Applications team.  A list of Opportunities will appear.  This list may be different depending on how your Salesforce view is configured.
2. Click the "New" button at the upper right above the list of Opportunities.
3. A New Opportunity form will appear in the middle of the screen.  Try to fill out the fields as best you can, but only 5 fields are required initially.  As you develop the Opportunity and new information comes to light, update the record with additional information.   A list of all the fields and what they are can be found below.  Note that most fields have a help bubble next to the name.  Hover your mouse over the "i" in a circle to see the help for that field.
4. Initially only the Opportunity Name, Responsible Director, ILR Department, Close Date, and Stage fields need to be filled out.
5. Once you've entered the information, click "Save" at the bottom of the form.

Field Walkthrough

1. Opportunity Name: This is a required field.  Give your Opportunity a descriptive name.  You may want to look at other people's Opportunities in your group to see how others name Opportunities.
2. Type of Opportunity: Select the type of Opportunity from the drop-down.
3. Responsible Director: This is the person who will be responsible for the program associated with this Opportunity.
4. Department: Enter the ILR department that will own the Opportunity and, presumably, the resulting program.
5. Joint Venture Department: If applicable, enter a second department that will also work on this Opportunity and resulting program.
6. Account Name: An "Account" is a company name in Salesforce.  Enter the company name you will be doing business with.  It will likely appear in the Account list.  You may see multiple names already in the list for that company, mainly due to their being multiple locations.  Beneath each company name will be that office's location.  Click on the desired company name.  If nothing matches your search, that company doesn't already exist in Salesforce, but you can add it by clicking "New Account".  Do not add duplicate company names.
7. Primary Contact: Do not enter data into this field directly.  This is the primary person who you are dealing with at that company.  In order to have a Primary Contact, you must first enter one or more "Contact Roles".  Use the Contact Roles list in the right-hand column to add the person with their appropriate role as follows:
   1. Click the down-arrow in the Contact Roles box and select "Add Contact Roles"
   2. A list of the people associated with this company who are already in Salesforce will appear.  (If you don not see the person you are looking for you will need to exit from this process and create them as a Contact first.)
   3. Select one or more people to add and click Next
   4. Select the appropriate roles for each person, and, optionally, designate one of them as the Primary Contact for this Opportunity by selecting their name in the top box.
   5. Click Save
   6. The person you designated as the Primary Contact will appear on the Opportunity.  You do not need to manually edit the Primary Contact field in the Opportunity.
   7. If you need to select a different person, edit the desired Contact role and set them to be the Primary Contact.
8. Approved by Dean of Outreach: Only the Office of the Dean of Outreach can check this box.  Initially this checkbox doesn't matter and you can ignore it, but in order to move to the contract stage, approval will need to be sought.  This will occur automatically as you move your Opportunity through the stages (detailed more below).
9. Close Date: This is a required field.  This is the date you anticipate closing this Opportunity.  Take your best guess here.  It is easy to change at a later date if necessary.
10. Delivery Date: This is the date you anticipate delivering the final product (class, event, consultation, etc.) to the customer.  Initially you could set this to the Close Date if you wish, though once the contract is being developed you will want to change this to match.
11. Stage: The stage denotes where the Opportunity is in the process from early concept to completed contract.  Stages also trigger notifications and validations that allow the Opportunity to continue through this process.  There are 4 stages.  They are documented in depth on this page, but also briefly here.  Note that if an Opportunity is contracted and managed by eCornell, there are only 3 stages.
    1. Prospecting: The initial phase of the Opportunity, where you are gathering information and starting to put a budget together.
    2. Approval by Dean of Outreach: Selecting this stage automatically notifies the Office of the Dean of Outreach, who will review the Opportunity and request budget information.  Approval takes 5-7 days and you will be notified by email when approval has occurred.
    3. Contract Review and Approval: Once this stage is selected it is expected that you will be contacting the ILR Fiscal team regarding contract review. The Fiscal team will NOT automatically be notified as you will need to use their contract submission system to work with them.  If this Opportunity is contracted and managed by eCornell you can skip this stage.
    4. Closed: There are 3 sub-types of the Closed stage, Won, Lost, and Pending Review.
       1. If the Opportunity is won you will need to upload the final version of your contract prior to selecting Closed/Won.  If this Opportunity is contracted and managed by eCornell there is nothing to upload so simply set the stage to Closed/won.
       2. If the Opportunity is lost, set the stage to Closed/Lost.
       3. Do not use the Closed/Pending Review stage.  It is only for use by the Fiscal office.
12. Amount: When known, enter the dollar amount involved in this Opportunity.
13. KFS Account: When known, enter the KFS Account number associated with this Opportunity and program.  You cannot close/win an Opportunity without entering a KFS number.
14. Sponsored Research (Grant Funded): Check this box if this Opportunity will be grant-funded.
15. I have uploaded the final contract: In order to set the Opportunity to Closed/Won you must attest to having uploaded the final contract.  For eCornell Opportunities, leave this unchecked.  If for any reason there is no contract related to this Opportunity, please contact the ILR Fiscal office.
16. Description: Enter a description of this Opportunity and the (hopefully) resulting program.
17. Content Area: Select any number of areas that this Opportunity is related to.  Shift-click to select multiple content areas at once.
18. Sent to eCornell: Check this box if this Opportunity was sent to eCornell.  When this box is checked several additional fields will appear as follows:
    1. Contracted and Managed by eCornell: Check this box if eCornell will indeed take this Opportunity and program.
    2. Expected Revenue from eCornell: Enter the dollar amount of the expected eCornell revenue.
    3. eCornell Revenue Description: Describe the nature of the eCornell revenue.
    4. Revenue Received from eCornell: Enter the dollar amount of the actual eCornell revenue.
19. Probability: Leave this field blank.  It will be automatically filled in by Salesforce.
20. Forecast Category: Leave this field blank.  It will be automatically filled in by Salesforce.