Process of Managing SPA Quotes and Claims

The distributor and supplier submit and manage SPA quotes and claims by performing the following tasks:

"Submitting an SPA Quote"
"Reviewing and Approving SPA Quotes"
"Submitting an SPA Claim"
"Validating an SPA Claim"

Submitting an SPA Quote

Distributors must use Siebel Partner Portal to submit SPA quotes.

An SPA quote can contain multiple line items. Each line item represents a special pricing request for a specific product. The distributor must first create and save the SPA quote before adding line items to it. When the quote is complete, the distributor submits it to the supplier.

A vendor can create and submit an SPA quote on a partner's behalf using Siebel Partner Manager. The following steps apply to both Siebel Partner Portal and Siebel Partner Manager.

This task is a step in "Process of Managing SPA Quotes and Claims".

To submit an SPA quote

In Siebel Partner Portal or Siebel Partner Manager, navigate to the SPA Quotes screen.

Click New to create an SPA quote, and enter information about the quote.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Registration ID	The design program that is associated with the components for the project.
End Customer	OEM manufacturer in whose end products the components are used.
Resale Customer	The customer who buys the part. The customer is often a contract manufacturer. A contract manufacturer produces the final, finished product on behalf of an OEM manufacturer (end customer).
Total Exposure	Sum of all the Total Line Item Cost field values for all approved line items.
Last Name	The name of a contact at the distributor organization. This field is auto-populated with the login name. You can modify this field.

Click Save.
Drill down on the new SPA quote, and create a new record in the Line Item Detail form beneath the Line Items list.

Enter information about the line item.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Product	Component for which the distributor is requesting special pricing.
Quantity	Total number of units for which the distributor is requesting special pricing.
Competitor Name	Name of the competitor for the component listed in the line item.
Competitor Product	Name of the competitive product.
Competitor Part Price	Price of the competitive product.
Purchase Cost	Price the distributor originally paid to purchase the components.
Requested Cost	Special (reduced) pricing that the distributor is requesting.
Authorized Cost	Cost authorized by the supplier.
Book Cost	Price at which the component was originally sold to the distributor by manufacturer.
MSRP	The manufacturer's suggested retail price.
Requested Resale Price	Resale price at which the distributor wants to sell the components.
Suggested Resale Price	Resale price suggested by the manufacturer.
Total Line Item Cost	Quantity of the line item multiplied by the difference between the authorized and requested costs.

Repeat Step 5 for each additional line item in the SPA quote.
When the SPA quote is completed and ready for approval, click Submit.

Note:

The Line Items view for the SPA quote becomes read-only. To enter or change line items, set the status to Recalled, and click Save. You can then modify the line items.

The SPA quote is automatically assigned to the partner manager responsible for the given distributor.

Reviewing and Approving SPA Quotes

When the supplier receives an SPA quote request, the partner manager reviews it, evaluating the individual line items, comparing it to similar quotes received for the same end customer, and finally either approves or rejects the quote.

Depending on how SPA was set up, multiple approvers might be required. For more information on the SPA approval flow, see "Setting Up the SPA Approval Flow".

An approved quote automatically creates a pricing agreement. For more information about agreements, see Siebel Field Service Guide. The agreement is created by the Siebel HTIM SPA Quote Approval Workflow process. For more information about the SPA Quote Approval workflow process, see "HTIM SPA Quote Approval Workflow".

This task is a step in "Process of Managing SPA Quotes and Claims".

To review and approve or reject a pending SPA quote

Navigate to the SPA Quotes screen.
In the SPA Quotes list, drill down on an SPA quote that has a status of Submitted.
Review the line items for the selected SPA quote. For each line item:
- Modify the Authorized Cost field, as needed.
- Modify the Suggested Resale Price field, as needed.
- Set the status as appropriate. Each individual line item must be reviewed before the entire SPA quote can be approved.
Click the Similar Quotes view tab to see other SPA quotes that are potential duplicates.
Review the listed quotes to verify pricing on similar parts to maintain pricing integrity across quotes.
In the SPA quote form, set each line item to Approve, Reject or Return.
Click Commit Actions to automatically change the Status of the SPA quote.

The following list describes the possible outcomes:
- If a line item is set to Reject or Return, the Status is immediately updated to Rejected or Returned. No further approval action is required.
- If a line item is set to Approve and no other approvers are required, the Status is immediately updated to Approved. Otherwise, the status remains Pending Review.
- If any line items are still Pending Review, the entire SPA quote is routed to the next approver.
- If there are no Pending Review items but at least one Returned item, the entire SPA quote is returned to the submitter.
- If there are no Pending Review or Returned items, the SPA quote is fully approved, and a pricing agreement is created.

Use the following procedure to review an agreement for an SPA quote.

To review an agreement for an SPA quote

Navigate to the SPA Quotes screen.
Drill down on an SPA quote that has a status of Approved or Partially Approved.
Click the Agreement tab to see the agreement generated for the SPA quote.

Drill down on the agreement name for more information on the agreement.

The Entitlements - Price Details view appears. Some of the fields in the Price Details list are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Balance Quantity	Number of parts not yet claimed through the SPA claim process. The value automatically decreases with each approved SPA claim.
Approved Quantity	Number of parts quoted in the approved SPA.
Purchase Cost	Price at which the distributor purchased the parts.
Suggested Resale Price	Price suggested by the distributor. This price prevents excessive margins.
Authorized Cost	The agreed, reduced-purchase cost, based on the SPA quote.

Note:

The agreement entitlement is valid for three months starting from the day of approval. You can change the period by modifying the QUOTE_EXPIRATION_PERIOD LOV. See Siebel eSales Administration Guide for details on how to set the quote expiration dates.

Submitting an SPA Claim

An SPA claim is a request by a distributor to reimburse a lost margin. When SPA quotes have been approved by the supplier, and an agreement with SPA-approved pricing entitlements is generated, the distributor can submit SPA claims against the entitlement.

Distributors can submit claims through Siebel Partner Portal. You can also import the claim data from external systems into &ProductName; by using Siebel EAI. For more information about Siebel EAI, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

Point-Of-Sale Reports and SPA Reports

SPA claims are submitted by the distributor as line items in an SPA report. Point-of-sale (POS) reports and SPA reports are directly related. Both reports contain multiple line items grouped together for transmission purposes only. Each line item describes a different sales transaction with an end customer. SPA reports contain line items identified as claims. The claims are transactions for which the distributor wants to be credited. Each claim line item must be verified against the appropriate entitlement by the supplier.

POS reports are used:

By the distributor to report sell-through data to the supplier
By the supplier to track end-customer sales, which is useful for marketing purposes
By the supplier to estimate sell-through volumes for design registrations, which is useful to see how sales compare with the sales goals in the design registrations, and to increase the accountability of the sales representatives

SPA reports are used to substantiate SPA claim line items. After distributors submit claims for lost margins to the manufacturer, the SPA report gives the manufacturer proof of the end-customer purchase volumes, which are used to generate credits for the distributor when prices are lower than the guaranteed margin. For more information on SPA claims, see "Submitting an SPA Claim" and "Validating an SPA Claim".

The distributor must first create and save the SPA report record before adding line items to it.

This task is a step in "Process of Managing SPA Quotes and Claims".

To create an SPA claim through Siebel Partner Portal

In Siebel Partner Portal, navigate to the SPA Claims screen.
In the form beneath the POS/SPA Reports list, create a new SPA report record, and enter information about the report.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Note:

You can see some of the following fields only after you save and drill down on the record.

Field	Description
Distributor Report ID	Report identifier for the distributor.
Mfg Report ID	Report identifier for the manufacturer.
Type	Distinguishes between POS and SPA Claim reports.
Distributor	Read-only name of distributor company, the parent organization of the current login.
Debit Note #	Typically, a number that comes from the supplier's accounting system. After the claim is approved, the accounting system generates a debit or credit note for payment to the distributor.
Claim Cost	The total value of the approved line items on a validated claim. This is the cost of the claim to the supplier, and the amount of the credit to the distributor.
Currency Code	Currency for the overall Claim/POS report, if not specified at the line item.
Exchange Date	Currency conversion date. Used to identify the internal currency conversion table.

Click Save.
Drill down on the SPA record, and create a new line item record in the Line Item Detail form.

Enter information about the line item.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
SPA Entitlement #	Pick list of approved and active SPA entitlements for the distributor.
Branch Office	Distributor's branch office.
End Customer	The OEM account related to the SPA claim.
End Customer Address	Address for the OEM account (end customer).
Resale Customer/Address	Account address to which the parts were sold and delivered.
Ship To Customer	Account to which the product identified on the line item was shipped.
Product	Manufacturer's product sold.
GTIN#	Global product identifier. A unique reference number for the manufacturer's product.
Shipped Quantity	Quantity shipped by the distributor to the end customer.
Ship Date	Distributor's ship date to the end customer.
Design Registration #	ID of the design registration under which this transaction was executed.
Transaction Status	Status of the individual line item.
Deviation	The difference between the amount submitted by the distributor on the claim and the amount originally agreed upon in the agreement. Sometimes the authorized price or purchase cost submitted on the claim differs from the values specified on the agreement, which generates a deviation.

Use the following procedure to submit an SPA Claim report.

To submit an SPA claim report

In Siebel Partner Portal, navigate to the SPA Claims screen, and select an SPA quote of status In Progress.
Set the status to Submitted, and click Save.

The Line Items view for the SPA Claim becomes read-only.

Validating an SPA Claim

This task is a step in "Process of Managing SPA Quotes and Claims".

To validate an SPA claim

Navigate to the SPA Claims screen, and select an SPA report of status Submitted.
Click Validate.

This step triggers the workflow process, SPA Validate Claim Items. For more information about the HTIM SPA Validate Claim Items Workflow, see "HTIM SPA Validate Claim Items Workflow". The claim status is updated according to the results of the workflow. On the form beneath the SPA Claims list, the Claim Cost field shows the aggregate value of all approved claim line items.
Drill down on the report to review the transaction status of the individual line items associated with the SPA report claim.