Siebel Events Management Guide > Preparing for an Event > End-User Procedures for Preparing for an Event >

Third-Party Tasks

This section describes how to use Siebel Events Management to collaborate with partner organizations, work with event vendors, attach files to an event, invite potential attendees, and generate event status reports.

Collaborating with Partner Organizations

When your organization prepares for an event, you may find it useful to collaborate with a partner organization that may benefit from sponsoring an aspect of the event. A partner may sponsor the event through financial support, or may provide services, equipment, speakers, and so on. A partner organization may be associated with an event or an individual session. Siebel Events Management provides lists and forms to help you keep track of partner commitments.

The following procedure describes how to associate a partner organization with an event. This procedure assumes that the partner organization has already been added through the Partners screen in your Siebel application.

To associate a partner organization with an event

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
2. In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you wish to associate a partner organization.
3. Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
4. In the Events list, drill down on the event name.
5. Click the Participants view tab, and then click Partners.
6. In the Partners list, create a new record, and complete the fields.

To associate a partner organization with a session

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Sessions view.
2. In the Sessions list, select and drill down on the session for which you wish to associate a partner organization.
3. Click the Participants view tab, and then click Partners.
4. In the Partners list, create a new record, and complete the fields.

   For sessions, by default, the Role, Value, and Partner Status fields display the values for the corresponding partner record for the event. You can change these values at the session level without affecting the partnership data at the event level.

   The following table describes some fields in the Partners list.

   Field	Comments
   Role	The role of the partner organization. Typical values include Exhibitor, Sponsor, Co-Host, Advertiser, Partner, Strategic Partner, Premier Partner, Base Partner, Gold Sponsor, Silver Sponsor, and Bronze Sponsor. LOV Type: EVENT_PARTNER_ROLE
   Partner Status	The status of arrangements with the partner organization. Typical values include Offered, Requested, Paid, Fulfilled, and Pending. Offered means that the partner organization has offered to be a partner. Requested means that the event-hosting organization has asked the partner organization for a partnership.
   Value	The monetary value of the partner organization's commitment.

Researching and Hiring Vendors

Previous sections describe event-related goods and services that are provided either by your own organization or by the venue or venues where the event is held. One additional category of providers remains to be discussed—good and services vendors who are neither in your own organization nor affiliated with an event venue.

In Siebel Events Management, the procedures for working with vendors are quite similar to those for venues, except that the goods or services vendors provide are not as closely related to specific physical locations.

As with venues, a vendor can be associated with an event or a session. To associate a vendor with one or more sessions, you must first associate it with the event.

In preparation for working with vendor data, you should enter possible vendors as accounts. The Accounts screen allows you to enter vendors, vendor addresses, and vendor contacts before you set up an event. When entering vendors as accounts, choose Vendor in the Account Type field of the Vendor form. For more information, see Defining an Event.

The following procedure describes how to associate a vendor with an event or session. Prior to associating a vendor with a session, you should have already associated the vendor with the event.

To associate a vendor with an event

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
2. In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you want to associate a vendor.
3. Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
4. In the Events list, drill down on the events name.
5. Click the Participants view tab, and then click Vendors.
6. In the Vendors list, create a new record.

To associate a vendor with a session

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Sessions view.
2. In the Session list, select and drill down on the session for which you want to associate a vendor.
3. Click the Participants view tab, and then click Vendors.
4. In the Vendors list, create a new record.

After you have associated a vendor with an event, you can record the billing parameters the vendor uses, any discounts or special rates you negotiate, and optional reviews of the vendor's performance for the event.

The following procedure describes how to record the billing parameters for an event vendor.

To record billing expense information for a vendor

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
2. In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you wish to record the billing parameters.
3. Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
4. In the Events list, select and drill down on the event.
5. Click the Participants view tab, and then lick Vendors.
6. In the Vendors list, select the vendor for which you want to enter billing parameters.
7. Scroll down to the Billings subview and in the Billing list, create a new record.

   The following table describes some fields in the Billing list.

   Field	Comments
   Flat Fee	The currency field for any flat fee to be charged instead of or in addition to the billing rate.
   Qty	The actual quantity of basis units used by the event.
   Rate	The currency field for vendor's rate per basis unit.
   Service Type	The type of responsibility the vendor has for the event.
   Total Cost	A result of the automatic calculation based on Rate, Qty, and Flat Fee, when you save the record.
   Units	The basis of the vendor's rate. Typical values include Per Person, Per Item, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly.

   NOTE:  Billing records created at the Vendor level roll up to the event as expense records, with a Cost Type = Vendor.

The following procedure describes how to enter any discounts or special rates you have negotiated with the vendor.

To enter vendor discounts or other special rate codes

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
2. In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you wish to enter vendor discount information.
3. Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
4. In the Events list, select and drill down on the event.
5. Click the Participants view tab, and then click Vendors.

   Billing, Rate Code, and Reviews subviews appear below the Vendors list.

6. Select the vendor for which you want to specify rate code information.
7. In the Billing subview select, Rate Code from the drop-down list.
8. In the Rate Codes list, create a new record.

   The following table describes some fields in the Rate Codes list.

   Field	Comments
   Name	A name to designate the discount or special rate.
   Type	A description of the discount amount or special rate.

Adjacent to the Billing and Rate Code subviews, there is a subview for review information about the selected vendor. For information about entering a vendor review, see Entering Venue and Vendor Performance Reviews.

Attaching Files

In the process of preparing for your event, you may want to store certain file attachments for an event, such as contracts with vendors or floor plans of exhibit halls.

NOTE:  In this release, event attachments can be stored and retrieved only by users who have access to the administration screens in Siebel Events Management.

The following procedure describes how to attach a file to event information. This procedure is meant for event attachments only. Documents that are used for multiple events should be stored as collateral. For more information about storing collateral items, see Preparing Collateral.

To attach a file to an event

1. Navigate to the Site Map > Events > Event Plans view.
2. In the Event Plans list, select and drill down on the event for which you wish to attach a file.
3. Click the Schedule view tab, and then click Events.
4. In the Events list, select the event.
5. Click the Plan view tab, and then click Documents.
6. In the Documents list, create a new record.

   For URL attachments, a link appears in the Attachment Name field to take you to the Web site. For file attachments, information about the selected file is now displayed in the Attachment Name, Size, Type, and Modified fields.