Project Name
RFQ-to-Quote Process Automation on Salesforce and Manual Email Parsing Elimination for an Australian B2B Trading Company
The client is an Australian B2B trading company specialising in the sourcing and supply of industrial automation components, spare parts, and equipment for customers internationally. The business operates three legal entities: a UK Ltd, a US LLC, and a German UG, conducting transactions in EUR, GBP, and USD, with each entity requiring separate performance visibility and commission reporting in its own base currency.
The company sources from multiple suppliers per product with variable costs, currencies, and lead times, and sells equipment in multiple condition variants: New Sealed, New Open Box, Refurbished, and Used, often presenting multiple options on a single quote for the same customer request.
Running its CRM on Zoho alongside Gmail, Excel, and Xero, the business issued an RFP for a Salesforce-based quoting and CRM platform to replace the fragmented setup with a single, automated, integration-ready system, and engaged Ksolves to design and deliver it.
Five disconnected tools, hours per quote, and no margin check before the PDF left the building.
- Entirely Manual RFQ-to-Quote Process Across Multiple Tools: Teams manually reviewed RFQs, sourced pricing from spreadsheets, calculated margins in Excel, created quote PDFs, and emailed customers, resulting in a slow and error-prone process.
- No Margin Validation Before Quote Dispatch: Quotes could be sent with low or negative margins without automated checks, approval workflows, or management visibility, leading to revenue leakage.
- No Unified Pipeline or Quote Tracking: Opportunities, quotes, and customer communications were spread across Zoho, Gmail, and Excel, making it difficult to track quote status, validity, and follow-ups.
- Zoho Limitations Restricting Automation: Platform constraints prevented advanced automation, CTI integration, multi-currency support, and seamless accounting connectivity, limiting scalability.
- Manual Multi-Currency and Multi-Entity Reporting: Reporting across UK, US, and German entities relied on spreadsheet consolidation instead of centralized dashboards and real-time insights.
- Historical Data Locked in Zoho: Critical product, supplier, pricing, and deal history lacked a structured migration path, putting valuable business knowledge and margin intelligence at risk.
Ksolves, an AI-first Salesforce consulting services company, designed a lean, automation-first Salesforce Sales Cloud quoting platform built around the company's specific RFQ-to-Order workflow, replacing every manual step with an automated or semi-automated equivalent without introducing unnecessary complexity. The core design principle was speed with control: the quote workspace was built to feel like a spreadsheet so the team could work fast, while margin rules, approval flows, PDF generation, and quote dispatch automation handled governance and consistency automatically.
- RFQ Intake and Deal Creation: Implemented a semi-automated RFQ intake process that converts inbound emails into Deals, Accounts, and Contacts, with Excel/CSV uploads automatically populating quote line items and eliminating manual data entry.
- Spreadsheet-Style Quote Workspace: Built a Lightning Web Component (LWC) quote workspace with a grid-style interface for rapid quote creation, including automated margin calculations at both line-item and quote levels.
- Automated Margin Controls and Approvals: Enforced a 30% target margin and a hard 20% threshold, automatically triggering manager approval for low-margin quotes before they can be sent.
- One-Click Quote Generation and Dispatch: Enabled a single-click process to generate branded PDFs, send quotes via Gmail, update Salesforce records, advance deal stages, and manage quote validity automatically.
- Multi-Option Quoting for New and Refurbished Products: Allowed users to create New and Refurbished quote options from a single RFQ, with separate pricing, margins, and supplier details for each condition.
- Multi-Currency Setup and Zoho Data Migration: Configured Salesforce for USD, GBP, and EUR operations with entity-level reporting and migrated products, suppliers, and historical pricing data from Zoho to preserve business knowledge.
Technology Stack
| Category | Technology |
|---|---|
| Platform | Salesforce Sales Cloud |
| Automation | Custom Quote Workspace (LWC) |
| Automation | Margin Rules + Approval Flow |
| Automation | Send Quote Automation |
| Integration | Gmail + Zoho Migration |
| Analytics | Multi-Currency + Multi-Entity Reporting |
From five disconnected tools and hours per quote to a single Salesforce platform where the RFQ arrives, the margin is checked, and the PDF leaves in minutes.
- RFQ-to-Quote Process Reduced from Hours to Minutes: Automated RFQ intake, line-item prefill, spreadsheet-style quoting, and one-click PDF generation streamline the entire quote creation process and eliminate manual handoffs across multiple tools.
- Low-Margin Quotes Automatically Controlled: Margin rules enforce a 30% target and block quotes with lines below 20% until manager approval is completed, preventing unapproved low-margin deals from being sent.
- Single Salesforce System of Record Established: Salesforce now centralizes deals, quotes, products, suppliers, and customer communications, with integrated pipeline visibility, quote tracking, and Gmail logging.
- Multi-Entity Reporting Moved to Real-Time Dashboards: Live Salesforce dashboards provide entity-specific visibility into pipeline, margins, and RFQ activity, replacing manual spreadsheet-based reporting.
- Historical Pricing and Supplier Knowledge Preserved: Migration from Zoho retained critical product, supplier, and pricing history, ensuring valuable business intelligence remains accessible and actionable within Salesforce.
Ksolves transformed a fragmented RFQ-to-Quote process into a single Salesforce platform. RFQs are captured automatically, margins are calculated in real time, low-margin quotes require approval, and branded PDFs are generated and sent in one click. Salesforce now serves as the single system of record, replacing Zoho with live multi-entity reporting and preserved historical pricing data. With Phase 2 adding CTI, AI call notes, and accounting integrations, the company is positioned for end-to-end sales automation at scale.
Is Your B2B Quoting Process Still Running Across Email, Spreadsheets, and a CRM that Cannot Talk to Each Other?
