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Example Workflow for Product Distribution

This example workflow for product distribution is performed by marketing administrators and key account managers. Your company may follow a different workflow according to its business requirements.

Administrator Procedures for Product Distribution

Because of the many options available for controlling product distribution in Siebel Consumer Sector applications, you must decide which of the procedures below are applicable to your company's business needs. The sequence in which the steps are performed depends on the features your company uses.

• Set up distribution codes. To manage product distribution across the account hierarchy that is based on distribution lists, an administrator needs to set up distribution codes and assign sequence. For more information, see To set up distribution codes.
• Create or modify distribution lists. If your company uses distribution codes to control product distribution, an administrator needs to establish product distribution lists. For more information, see Creating and Modifying Distribution Lists.
• Set up personalization attributes. If your company uses account personalization attributes to control product distribution to accounts through assortment plans, you can use the values shipped with the standard product or change the values to meet your company's needs. For information on changing these values, see Setting Up Personalization Attributes.
• Assign personalization attributes. To make effective use of account personalization attributes, administrators or end users must assign Account Channel and Product Differentiator values to your company's accounts, and product categories or products or both. For more information, see Assigning Personalization Attributes.
• Assign categories to account catalogs. Administrators can manually assign the categories of products available to accounts. For more information, see Assigning Product Categories to Account Catalogs.
• Set up sizes and size distributions. For products of type AF (apparel and footwear), administrators can indicate the sizes and size scales of the different products manufactured, as well as the distribution of sizes typically included in assortment plans or ordered for that product. For more information, see Setting Up Sizes, Size Scales, and Size Distributions.

End-User Procedures for Product Distribution

After distribution lists have been created, the other tasks involved in product distribution can be performed in any order. However, specifying suppliers for products can be done only after buying groups have been created, because the suppliers are selected from the existing buying groups.

1. View an account's distribution list products. End users, such as retail sales representatives, can view lists of products authorized for retail distribution at each of their retail outlets. For more information, see Viewing and Modifying Distribution List Products.
2. Modify a distribution list. End users can add products outside of the distribution hierarchy (that is, unauthorized products) to subaccount distribution lists. For more information, see Viewing and Modifying Distribution List Products.
3. Create an account-specific size distribution. Individual accounts can have their own size distributions for assortment planning purposes. For more information, see To modify a key account's distribution list.
4. View account catalogs. End users can view the products in an account's catalog. For more information, see Reviewing Account Catalogs.
5. Create a buying group. A buying group account acts as a product supplier to its multiple member accounts. For more overview information about buying groups, see About Buying Groups. For more information about creating buying groups, see Creating Buying Groups.
6. Specify suppliers for products. You can specify multiple buying groups as suppliers for a single product. For more information, see Associating Sources of Supply with a Product.
7. Associate account products with merchandising locations. By associating an account's product with merchandising locations, you can assign a specific physical location for that product, such as one or more display locations within a retail outlet, or within a bin in a warehouse. For more information, see Associating Account Products with Merchandising Locations.