Bookshelf v7.5: Direct and Indirect Distribution

Siebel Partner Relationship Management Administration Guide Addendum for Industry Applications > Siebel PRM for Apparel and Footwear >

Direct and Indirect Distribution

Siebel PRM is often used differently in the apparel and footwear industries than in other industries.

Indirect distribution in most industries. In most industries, Siebel PRM is used to work with partners who are active resellers or service providers to customers. Because partners actively pursue sales and respond to service requests, the Siebel Partner Portal provides them with information about sales opportunities, customer service requests, customer accounts, customer contacts, and other information needed to deal with customers. Brand owners may also set up market development funds to provide funding to help partners sell their products; for example, they might give partners funding to display their products at trade shows.

Direct distribution in apparel and footwear. In the apparel and footwear industry, Siebel PRM is most often used to work with partners who are retailers. The brand owner sells products directly to retailers, who retail the products to consumers. In this direct distribution model, the retailer is both the channel partner and customer for the apparel and footwear brand owner. The brand owner does not share sales opportunities, customer service requests, or other information used to deal with customers.

Indirect distribution in apparel and footwear. In apparel and footwear, Siebel PRM is sometimes used to work with partners who are intermediary distributors or resellers who sells the products to retailers. In this indirect distribution model, the distributor or reseller is the channel partner, and the retailer is the customer. In this model, the brand owner may share sales opportunities, customer accounts, and other information needed to deal with customers with partners. For example, a brand owner may learn about a sales opportunity with a major retailer and assign this lead to one of its channel partners. Then the partner may work on that lead and orders products from the brand owner to resell to the retailer.

Direct Distribution for Apparel and Footwear

Because direct distribution is most common in these industries, as it is installed out of the box for apparel and footwear, Siebel PRM displays only the screens needed for direct distribution.

By default, for apparel and footwear, the Siebel Partner Portal displays the following screens:

Home. The personalized home page greets users by name and displays links to their recent work, such as current quotes and orders. Users can click any of these links to view complete information about them.

Accounts. This screen lists accounts associated with the user.

Assortment. This screen lists assortment plans that have been created for users by an account representative in Siebel Partner Manager or in Siebel eApparel & Footwear.

Quotes. This screen lists quotes created for or by users, which you can view using Siebel Partner Manager or Siebel eApparel & Footwear. Users can create quotes by selecting products from product catalogs personalized for their accounts. Users also select size distributions for products in their quotes.

Orders. This screen lists orders that users placed for their accounts, which you can view using Siebel eApparel & Footwear.

Catalog. This screen lists the product catalogs personalized for the user's account.

To create and administer a Siebel PRM for Apparel & Footwear Web site, you must complete the following tasks:

Set up Siebel PRM. Install and configure Siebel PRM, add new channel partner companies, add channel partner employees as users, and give login access to channel partners. For more information, see the chapters about setting up Siebel PRM and working with new partners in Siebel Partner Relationship Management Administration Guide.

Administer products. Define products, create product catalogs, and associate price lists with product catalogs. For more information, see Siebel eSales Administration Guide.

Administer sizes. Create size scales and size distributions. For more information, see the chapter on marketing administration in the Siebel eApparel & Footwear Guide.

Indirect Distribution for Apparel and Footwear

By default, for apparel and footwear, the Siebel Partner Manager displays the screens you use to work with the direct distribution model.

However, Siebel PRM also provides supplemental features that support the indirect distribution model for apparel and footwear. They include all the screens that Siebel PRM uses to support the indirect distribution model in other industries, such as the Opportunities, Contacts, Service Requests, and Market Development Fund screen.

As another supplemental feature for apparel and footwear, Siebel PRM also provides delegated administration. You can designate employees of channel partner companies as delegated administrators, and these delegated administrators can use the Siebel Partner Portal to perform administrative tasks, such as adding new Siebel PRM users at the partner company. This feature helps you reduce the time that you must spend on administrative tasks.

These supplemental features are used the same way for apparel and footwear as they are for other industries. For information about using Siebel PRM with these supplemental features, see Siebel Partner Relationship Management Administration Guide.