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Scenario for Managing Product Distribution

Marketing administrators and account managers perform the process in this example scenario when using distribution hierarchies and the Account Channel personalization attribute to determine how their products are distributed among their accounts. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements.

The administrator at a large beverage manufacturing company is responsible for making sure that the right products are available for each customer account. He does so by controlling product distribution lists at the corporate level. These lists determine the set of products available at the key distribution account level of each account's hierarchy and the subsets of products available to the accounts down the hierarchy. In addition, the administrator determines where various products are available in retail outlets.

The Ace Corporation account consists of two warehouse distribution centers, Ace Corporation East and Ace Corporation West. Each warehouse supplies retail outlets throughout North America. Ace Corporation headquarters determines the beverage items that are stocked at each warehouse. In addition, Ace Corporation employs a third-party wholesaler, AnyCompany Distribution, to supply products to outlets in the state of Louisiana in the United States.

The administrator enters the Ace Corporation account hierarchy for product distribution into the Siebel database. He indicates that the Ace Corporation East and West accounts are Distributors and that AnyCompany Distribution is a wholesaler or supplier account for one or more of the Ace Corporation accounts in its product distribution account hierarchy.

He then establishes an authorized product distribution list for the Ace Corporation account product distribution hierarchy that is based on the inclusive distribution option. He gives both of Ace Corporation's distribution warehouses (Ace Corporation East and West) a distribution code of Premium for the category Fizz and a distribution code of Standard for the category Splash. This designation authorizes both warehouses to receive all of his company's beverage products that are part of the Fizz category, independent of product category, and all products in the Splash category that have a distribution code of Standard or Limited. However, because Louisiana bans the sale of alcoholic fruit drinks, the third-party wholesaler in Louisiana is not licensed to distribute them. The administrator gives the wholesaler a distribution code of Limited for the category Fizz so that only the subset of his company's products that do not contain alcoholic fruit drinks is shipped to this warehouse.

The account manager manages and updates the authorized product distribution lists, supplier references, and source of supply for each of her key accounts. She notes that Ace Corporation East cannot meet the demand for beverage products for all the retail outlets that it supplies, so she fulfills the needs of those outlets by designating Ace Corporation West as the alternative supplier for those outlets in the account hierarchy for product distribution.

Finally, the account manager specifies the percentage of the authorized product distribution list each warehouse supplies and designates merchandising locations for several of the products that are available to Ace Corporation's outlets.