Do partners need to do complex configurations or create their special pricing?2 This question can help UC determine if they need to use CPQ for partners, which can provide more flexibility and functionality for configuring products and applying discounts than B2B Commerce.
Will partners be using CPQ to sell to our customers that are utilizing our B2B Commerce tool today?1 This question can help UC understand if they need to integrate CPQ and B2B Commerce for partners, which can enable a seamless experience for both partners and customers across different channels.

Implement B2B Commerce and use the CPQ B2B Commerce Connector to integrate to CPQ1. This is a fast and easy way of enabling self-service ordering for customers with existing special pricing from CPQ.
Keep CPQ as the Product and Pricing master1. This is a recommended practice toavoid data duplication and inconsistency between CPQ and B2B Commerce.
For Mask Makers LLC, implementing Salesforce B2B Commerce with integration to the existing CPQ system via the CPQ B2B Commerce Connector is the optimal approach. Keeping CPQ as the Product and Pricing master ensures that the complex pricing rules and special pricing agreements already established in CPQ are maintained and leveraged within the B2B Commerce environment. This setup allows customers to benefit from a streamlined and personalized self-service experience while ensuring pricing consistency and accuracy. The CPQ B2B Commerce Connector facilitates the seamless flow of product and pricing information from CPQ to B2B Commerce, enabling Mask Makers LLC to provide a simplified and efficient ordering process for its customers, adhering to Salesforce best practices for integrating CPQ and B2B Commerce.

External objects are similar to custom objects but they map to data that's stored outside Salesforce. Salesforce Connect uses external data sources to access data that's stored outside your Salesforce organization1. This way, UC can comply with data residency requirements and avoid datastorage issues.
Salesforce Connect allows Salesforce to seamlessly integrate with data that is external to the Salesforce platform, which in this case is the legacy CRM and ERP applications. External objects provide a real-time view of this external data,allowing UC to view and report on it as if it were stored natively in Salesforce, without actually storing it in Salesforce.
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Salesforce Connect allows for the integration of external data in real-time without storing it in Salesforce, using external objects which function like standard Salesforce objects. This would meet UC's need to view and report on Invoice, Order, and Inventory data on-demand, adhering to data residency requirements. Salesforce Connect is designed for such scenarios, offering a solution that avoids data storage within Salesforce while providing access to external data as if it were native. This is in line with Salesforce's best practices for external data integration.