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About Agreements and Entitlements in Siebel Communications

This section defines agreements and entitlements and discusses the relationship between them.

Agreements Defined

An agreement is a legally binding document that defines the obligations to offer, provide, or produce specific products or services over a set period of time for a specific amount of money. A sale may require an agreement to detail and document the sale transaction.

An agreement typically includes detailed descriptions of pricing, terms, limitations, coverage, conditions, legal rights, processes, and guidelines. Agreements are often revised to reflect changes in the company, a company's product lines, or in the market.

Siebel Communications can manage complex commercial agreements as well as simple residential agreements. Complex agreement can have multiple levels, each with different terms, conditions, and discounts.

An agreement must be associated with one contact or at least one account. However, agreements may be associated with multiple accounts.

Entitlements Defined

An entitlement defines the level of support to which a customer is entitled. Examples of entitlements include response time metrics and service level metrics. A metric is a type of provision (for example, response time) combined with a value for that provision (for example, 2 hours).

Entitlements are associated with customers through their service-level agreements (see Types of Agreements).

Agreement and Entitlement Relationships

The relationship between agreements and entitlements is as follows:

• An agreement can have one or more entitlements.
• An entitlement can have one or more metrics, accounts, contacts, or products.
• The accounts and contacts associated with agreements may be different from the accounts and contacts associated with an entitlement.

An agreement that is associated with an entitlement can specify that all contacts or products should receive support under the entitlement. This provides blanket contact service agreements and blanket product service agreements.

Types of Agreements

Many different types of agreements can be created in Siebel Communications, including contracts, sales agreements, service agreements, service level agreements, master service agreements, work orders, profiles, letters of understanding, letters of intent, nondisclosure agreements, subcontractor work orders, price protections, and support renewals. Some types of agreements are defined below:

• A contract is an agreement that typically covers an ongoing relationship between a vendor and a customer. A contract states what a vendor is contractually bound to provide to a customer and what a customer is contractually bound to purchase from a vendor. This type of agreement is legally binding and may specify such things as products, services, discounts, terms, and entitlements.
• A sales agreement is an agreement that is typically related to a specific sale. This type of agreement specifies such things as base price, discounts, special rates, rentals or leasing, and financing.
• A service agreement is a type of agreement that defines a service relationship. It spells out a customer's rights to receive service, including the price, service level, support requirements, maintenance, and warranty. Service agreements have specific components that include:
  • Service Calendars. Specify the days and hours during which service will be provided (for example, Monday to Friday and 9 to 5).
  • Quotas. Specify the amounts of service the customer can receive (for example, number of phone calls allowed, number of on-site visits allowed, and so forth).
  • Entitlements. Specify the accounts, contacts, and products that are covered, as well as the metrics being used.
• A service level agreement (also referred to as an SLA or a service support level) is a type of service agreement that defines a customer's entitlements and assets. A service level is a quantitative measurement that is usually expressed as a percentage. As examples, a service level may be the percentage of parts received on time out of those requested, the percentage of asset uptime, or the percentage of problems fixed within a required time frame. A service level agreement can also be part of a larger service agreement.

Master Agreements and Subagreements

Small and uncomplicated transactions may only need a standard boilerplate agreement. Larger transactions may need a customized collection of boilerplate agreement sections. Sales involving multiple products and staggered delivery schedules may need agreements with customized content within the customized collection of agreement sections.

End users can create parent-child relationships among agreements. If, for example, a large commercial account requires a master agreement and one or more subagreements, end users can designate the main agreement as a master agreement and then generate its associated subagreements. These agreements are linked to one another as parent and child agreements.

Data from which to build agreements comes from the agreement library in Siebel Communications. An agreement library is a data repository developed by your company's sales and legal organizations. It includes information such as recommended and required text for agreement sections, answers to agreement questions, sample cover letters, and sample executive summaries.