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Business Planning > Scenario for Managing Plans for Objectives and Products

Scenario for Managing Plans for Objectives and Products

This scenario gives one example of how Oracle CRM On Demand business planning functionality might be used. You might use Oracle CRM On Demand business planning functionality differently, depending on your business model.

In this scenario, an account manager is responsible for managing business plans that focus on plans, objectives, and products. The plans might be applied to a broad group of accounts. For example, for a strategic product launch, senior sales or marketing management creates business plans and objectives that are applied to all accounts (or a relevant subset), regardless of the specific detail in the individual account plans.

The senior sales management or marketing management with senior sales management approval typically perform the following tasks to manage the plan. How they manage the plan depends on how their organization implements access controls.

1. At the beginning of the annual and quarterly planning periods, the marketing manager creates the business plans for some product marketing initiatives. While the marketing organization might have a separate system for comprehensive, product-business planning, its use in this scenario is for high-priority initiatives that require special attention from the sales team. The business plans establish high-level quantitative and qualitative goals during the associated period. There might be an annual plan and child quarterly plans. The key metrics for the business plans typically include revenue. For information on how to set up a business plan, see Business Plans.
2. The marketing manager might change the status of the business plans from Draft to Submitted. The required managers review, edit, and approve plans by changing the status to Final Approved. At the end of the planning period, the marketing manager changes the status of the plan to Expired to reduce the number of inactive plans.
3. The marketing manager adds more details to the plan, namely the objectives. Objectives are goals that are at a lower level in the plan, for example, activate sampling, or perform activities: make specific calls, visits, and so on. The marketing manager can associate the activities with either the business plan or the objectives. For information on how to set up an objective, see Objectives.
4. The marketing manager applies the plan or objective to a group of accounts. The plan can apply to all accounts or a subset of accounts that are relevant to a particular product. The marketing manager attaches the business plan or objective to each relevant account. The account manager executes and evaluates the business plan or objective.
5. As sales opportunities arise, the account or marketing manager enters the opportunities, associating them with either the plan or objective. For information on how to set up opportunities, see Opportunities.

While performing the planning activities, the account or marketing manager can do the following:

• View plans, objectives, opportunities, and activities that are explicitly associated with an account and any associated account contacts.
• View any objectives that apply to all accounts.
• Review existing activities continuously, and create follow-up activities and opportunities.