Siebel Partner Relationship Management Administration Guide > Using Market Development Funds > The Advanced MDF Option >

Key Features of MDF Management

MDF management includes the following features:

• Program Management. Programs give the brand owner the ability to make marketing funds available to partners automatically. The brand owner can define a program with specific characteristics, such as activation date, expiration date, eligible partners, target markets, target products, fund accrual rules and so on. After the participating partners are identified, the Siebel CRM system automatically generates all the program accounts for the participating partners. A pool of money made available to partners for the organization of marketing activities, for example, campaigns or events.

  There are two programs types:

  • Co-Op Program. A program under which the partner accrues credits based on performance. The co-op program is also known as an accrual fund. For example, resellers could accrue 2% of all product revenue into their account set up under this program.
  • MDF Program. A program under which the partner receives discretionary funding from the brand owner. This is a nonperformance-based program. It is also known as a fixed fund. For example, after approval, this money could be spent on marketing activities for a specific product promotion.
• Program Participant. The account or organization participating in the program. For participating, the partner receives a program account for accrual of funds according to the program rules. This is temporary data used in selecting the partners that can be used for a program account.

  NOTE:  Participants can be selected only from accounts with the Fund Eligible check box selected. This check box appears in the Administration - Partner screen, Registered Partners view.

• Program Account. The individual account associated with the partner. Program accounts are child funds of the program. The partner accrues funds in a program account according to the program rules, or the channel account manager deposits discretionary amounts of money into the program account. Each partner can have multiple program accounts, one for each program in which the partner participates. Each partner can participate in the same program only once.
• Credit. This is a child of the program account used to represent the crediting of money to a particular program account. Credits are created manually.
• Preapproval. This is a request for funds. Partners request funding for marketing activities out of the funds accrued in their different program accounts. A preapproval can be associated with only one program account.
• Claim. This is a request for payment against a preapproval after a marketing activity has been executed. Claims go through an approval process at the brand owner's company. Claims are created against a specific preapproval. When the claim is approved, the claim debits the program account defined for the associated program account.
• Debit. Debits are read-only and created automatically only after a claim line item is approved.