Siebel Loyalty Administration Guide > Setting Up Siebel Loyalty Programs > Process of Setting Up Loyalty Programs >

Creating Point Blocks for Loyalty Programs

A point block is a set of points, which can be assigned to the host company or a partner. Point blocks must be used so a host company or partner can give reward points to members. Whenever a member accrues points, those points come from a point block associated with that host company or partner. In the event that a host company or partner's point block has insufficient points to reward members, then a partner or host could allocate more points or allow point credits according to the terms of their agreement.

To make points available for use, point blocks must be sold to prepaid partners or to the host company. Point blocks can be created when you set up the program and periodically during the life of the program Once a point block is created, it must be submitted for approval.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Loyalty Programs.

Each point block is created for use by the host company or by a prepaid partner company. Partner companies buy points, as described in About Selling Loyalty Points to Partners.

A single point block can apply to multiple point types. The conversion rate defined for each point type determines the relationship between member points and partner points.

For example, a program can have the point types Miles, Status Credit and Regular. Rather than defining a partner point block for each point type, you define a single point block with a conversion rate for each point type, such as 1 for Miles, no conversion rate for Status Credits, and 0.1 for Regular points. See Setting Up Unified Point Type for Partner Account Debit.

Creating Point Blocks

The loyalty administrator creates the point blocks and submits them to a manager for approval.

To create point blocks

1. Navigate to the Loyalty Program Administration screen.
2. In the Programs list, select the program that uses the points and click its Program Id hyperlink.
3. Click the Point Blocks view tab.
4. Add a new record to the Point Blocks list, and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   Status	When you are finished filling out the record, select Submitted to submit the new point block for approval.
   Partner	Select this checkbox to make it possible to select a partner as the company that uses the points. If you do not select this checkbox, then the point block is automatically created for the host company.
   Partner/Host	Select the company that uses these points, which can be the host company or a partner company. When an accrual transaction is processed from a company, it uses points from a point block associated with that same company.
   Original Number (#) of Points	Enter the total number of points in this point block.
   Remaining Points	Displays the number of points remaining in the block after subtracting those that have been used in transactions.
   Cost Per Point	Enter your internal cost of the points. This value is useful for calculating margin and calculating outstanding liability for tax purposes.
   Sales Price Per Point	Enter the amount charged to a partner for each point in this point block. For more information about selling points to partners, see About Selling Loyalty Points to Partners.
   Submit To	Select the approver for creation of this point block. This field is not required, and if it is not entered, then points are created without going though approval.

Approving Point Blocks

After the loyalty manager creates the point block, another manager might have to approve it.

To approve point blocks

1. Navigate to the Loyalty Program Administration screen.
2. In the Programs list, select the program whose point blocks you want to approve and click its Program Id hyperlink.
3. Click the Point Blocks view tab.
4. In the Point Blocks list, use a query to find all point blocks with the value Submitted in the Status field.
5. To approve a point block, select Approved in the Status field.

Checking the Points Remaining in a Block

When it has been approved, all the fields in the mint block become read-only, so they cannot be edited.

In the Points Remaining field, users can see the calculated value of the number of points in the block that have not been distributed. Loyalty administrators must check periodically to see which blocks have few points remaining, so they can create new point blocks as replacements. To avoid checking in this way and creating new point blocks manually, you can set up auto-creation of point blocks for prepaid partners, as described in Setting Up Auto-Creation of Point Blocks.

To check the points remaining in blocks

1. Navigate to the Loyalty Program Administration screen.
2. In the Programs list, select the program whose point blocks you want to approve and click its Program Id hyperlink.
3. Click the Point Blocks view tab.
4. In the Point Blocks list, use a query to find all point blocks with a small value in the Remaining Points field.