Examples for Using Delegated Assignment

This topic provides examples of how delegated assignment might be used. You might use delegated assignment differently, depending on your business model. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements.

This topic contains the following information:

"Scenario for Working with Delegated Administrators"
"Delegated Assignment Example 1: Delegated Administration Tasks"
"Delegated Assignment Example 2: Second-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks"
"Delegated Assignment Example 3: Third-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks"
"Delegated Assignment Example 4: Third-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks for Partners"
"Summary for Examples of Delegated Assignment Administration"

Scenario for Working with Delegated Administrators

This topic is part of "Examples for Using Delegated Assignment".

A sales organization for a high tech company wants to create assignment rules that are inheritable and configurable by several different levels in the organization. The requirements are:

Handle large sales leads internally; handle small sales leads externally using partners
Promptly assign sales leads to the most qualified representative
Design complex assignment rules, making use of the delegated assignment inheritance and criteria templates features to allow for uncomplicated rule administration by persons at all levels

In this scenario, the Sales EVP, vice presidents, regional sales managers, partners, and sales representatives participate in delegated assignment for one rule group hierarchy, as shown in Figure 8-4.

Figure 8-4 shows the following relationships:

Amy, Executive Vice President of Sales, is the assignment administrator (AA).
Two vice presidents report to Amy:
- Lance, VP Direct Sales
- Henry, VP Channel Sales
Lance and Henry are second-tier delegated administrators.
Two managers report to Lance:
- Rick, Eastern Regional Manager
- Sarah, Western Regional Manager
Rick and Sarah are third-tier delegated administrators (DAs).
Two partners report to Henry:
- Robin, Partner 1
- Sam, Partner 2
Robin and Sam are also third-tier delegated administrators (DAs).
Three Western regional sales representatives report to Sarah.
Three partner sales representatives report to Robin.

Figure 8-4 Sample Delegated Assignment Organization Chart

Table 8-2 provides sample responsibilities for each of the positions discussed previously.

Table 8-2 Sample Positions and Responsibilities for Delegated Assignment Scenario

Position	Responsible for …
Executive Vice President (EVP) of Sales	Making sure that large leads are handled by internal sales representatives and small leads are handled by partner sales representatives.
VP Direct Sales	Making sure that leads are routed to the correct regional manager. (Second-tier delegated administrator)
VP Channel Sales	Making sure that leads are routed to the correct partner. (Second-tier delegated administrator)
Regional Manager	Making sure that leads are routed to the best sales representative. (Third-tier delegated administrator)
Partner	Making sure that leads are routed to best partner employee (because the high tech company cannot determine which partner employee is best suited for the lead). (Fourth-tier delegated administrator)

Delegated Assignment Example 1: Delegated Administration Tasks

This topic is part of "Examples for Using Delegated Assignment".

Amy, the EVP and assignment administrator (AA), makes sure that large leads go to internal sales reps (by way of Lance, VP Direct Sales) and small leads go to channel partners (by way of Henry, VP Channel Sales).

To perform high-level delegated assignment administration tasks

Create a root-level rule group.

In this example, Amy organizes her assignment rules into a logical grouping. Rules that route leads are in one rule group.

For information about how to create a root-level rule group, see "Creating Assignment Rule Groups".
Create a child rule group (or groups) with the root-level rule group as the parent.

In this example, Amy creates two rules groups, as follows:
- Rule Group 1 with Owner = Lance
- Rule Group 2 with Owner = Henry
Creating these rule groups gives Henry and Lance the ability to manage their own lead assignment rules for their subordinates.

For information about how to create a child rule group, see "Creating Child Assignment Rule Groups".

Create an assignment rule (or rules).

Add a new assignment rule.
Assign candidates to the rule.

For information about adding candidates to assignment rules, see "Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee".

Add criteria templates to the rule.

Note:

It is recommended that assignment administrators create criteria templates to assist DAs in rule creation. Doing this reduces the need for DAs to fully understand the steps required and implications of creating new logic.

For information about adding criteria templates to assignment rules, see "Adding Criteria Templates to Assignment Rules".

Add owners of the child rule groups to the inheritance access list for the assignment rule.

After owners are added to the inheritance access list, inheritors of those rules can refine and specialize the rules by adding criteria and candidates for their unique circumstances.

For information about adding owners to the inheritance access list for an assignment rule, see "Adding Owners to the Inheritance Access List".

In this example, create the following assignment rules to route leads to Lance and Henry.

Task	Assignment Rule 1	Assignment Rule 2
Add criteria	Leads greater than $100,000	Leads less than $100,000
Assign candidates	Lance (VP Direct Sales)	Henry (VP Channel Sales)
Add owners to inheritance access list	Lance	Henry

These configured values help make sure that large leads are managed by internal sales and smaller leads are managed by partners.

(Optional) Create additional criteria templates.

Create new criteria for the assignment rule.
Click the Template flag for each new criteria created.

In this example, use the following criteria:

Add to Rule	Assignment Rule 1	Assignment Rule 2
Criteria Template 1	Product Line = Servers	Not applicable
Criteria Template 2	Product Line = PCs	Not applicable
Criteria Template 3	Product = Notebooks	State = NY, CT, NJ
Criteria Template 4	Product = Desktops	State = WA, CA, OR, NV
Criteria Template 5	Product = Peripherals	Not applicable

These configured values provide Lance and Henry with the ability to refine rules with predefined criteria instead of creating new criteria.

Delegated Assignment Example 2: Second-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks

This topic is part of "Examples for Using Delegated Assignment".

Lance, VP of Direct Sales and a second-tier delegated administrator (DA), makes sure that the leads that are more than $100K are routed to the correct sales manager based on geography and territories:

Leads in the Eastern states go to Rick
Leads in the Western states go to Sarah

Henry, VP of Channel Sales and another second-tier DA, follows the same steps as Lance, except Henry uses different criteria templates to route leads based on product line, as follows:

Leads for PCs go to Robin (employee of Partner 1)
Leads for servers go to Sam (employee of Partner 2)

To perform second-tier delegated assignment administration tasks

In the Rule Group Explorer, select a rule group previously created by the assignment administrator.

In this example, Lance selects the rule group for which he is the owner (Rule Group 1).
Create a child rule group (or groups) with the current rule group as the parent.

In this example, Lance creates two rules groups, as follows:
- Rule Group 10 with Owner = Rick; Parent Rule Group = Rule Group 1
- Rule Group 20 with Owner = Sarah; Parent Rule Group = Rule Group 1
Creating these rule groups gives Rick and Sarah the ability to manage their own lead assignment rules for their subordinates.

For information about how to create a child rule group, see "Creating Child Assignment Rule Groups".
Inherit assignment rule (or rules).

In this example, Lance inherits Amy's rule twice so that he can refine each rule to make sure that leads in the Eastern states go to Rick and leads in the Western states go to Sarah.

For information about inheriting an assignment rule, see "Inheriting Delegated Assignment Rules".

Refine the inherited assignment rule (or rules).

Apply criteria templates.

See "Applying Criteria Templates to Inherited Assignment Rules".
Add candidates.

See "Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee".

In this example, use the following information to refine the assignment rules. The first criterion was inherited from the original rule and is read only. The second criterion was applied from criteria templates.

Rule Data	Assignment Rule 10	Assignment Rule 20
Criteria	Leads greater than $100,000	Leads greater than $100,000
Criteria	State = NY, CT, NJ	State = WA, CA, OR, NV
Candidate	Rick	Sarah

Add owners of the child rule groups to the inheritance access list for each assignment rule.

See "Adding Owners to the Inheritance Access List".

After you add Rick and Sarah to the inheritance access list for the appropriate assignment rule, Rick and Sarah can inherit the rules and further refine them by adding criteria and specifying candidates.

Delegated Assignment Example 3: Third-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks

This topic is part of "Examples for Using Delegated Assignment".

Rick and Sarah are third-tier delegated administrators in the rule group hierarchy.

To perform third-tier delegated assignment administration tasks

Rick and Sarah follow the same steps as Lance in "Delegated Assignment Example 2: Second-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks", except that Rick and Sarah:
- Inherit Lance's rules (Assignment Rule 10 and 20), and refine those rules so that the leads are routed directly to sales representatives.
- Do not have to create child rule groups (because they assign leads directly to representatives).

Delegated Assignment Example 4: Third-Tier Delegated Administration Tasks for Partners

This topic is part of "Examples for Using Delegated Assignment".

Robin and Sam are third-tier partner delegated administrators. Robin must make sure that leads that have been assigned to Partner 1 are routed to the best sales representative and that no leads go unassigned.

To perform third-tier delegated assignment administration tasks for partners

In the Rule Group Explorer, select the rule group previously created by the second-tier delegated administrator (Henry, in this example).

In this example, assuming Henry created Assignment Rule 30 for Robin and Assignment Rule 40 for Sam, Robin selects Rule Group 30.
Inherit the assignment rule (or rules).

In this example, Robin inherits Henry's rule three times and refines each rule to make sure that leads are routed to one of Partner 1's three sales representatives.

For information about inheriting an assignment rule, see "Inheriting Delegated Assignment Rules".
Refine the inherited rule (or rules).
1. Apply criteria templates.
  
  See "Applying Criteria Templates to Inherited Assignment Rules".
2. Add candidates.
  
  See "Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee".
Add owners to the inheritance access list for the assignment rule.

See "Adding Owners to the Inheritance Access List".

In this example, use the following information. In this example, rule 30B inherits from rule 30A, and rule 30C inherits from either rule 30B or rule 30A. Therefore, the values for the first and second criteria are read-only for rules 30B and 30C. For the third criteria, Product = Desktops, new values from criteria templates were applied to rule 30B and rule 30C.

Apply to Rule	Assignment Rule 30A	Assignment Rule 30B	Assignment Rule 30C
Criteria	Leads greater than $100,000	Leads greater than $100,000	Leads greater than $100,000
Criteria	Product Line = PCs	Product Line = PCs	Product Line = PCs
Criteria	Product = Desktops	Product = Notebooks	Product = Peripherals
Candidate	Partner 1 Sales Rep 1	Partner 1 Sales Rep 2	Partner 1 Sales Rep 3

Summary for Examples of Delegated Assignment Administration

This topic is part of "Examples for Using Delegated Assignment".

The following bullet points further summarize the delegated assignment activities as they pertain to the examples provided:

The examples describe a four-level assignment model. However, this is no limit to the number of levels that the delegated assignment feature supports, and there is no limit to the number of branches in a level. In these examples, the levels are:

Level 1 = Amy

Level 2 = Lance, Henry

Level 3 = Rick, Sarah; Robin, Sam

Level 4 = Eastern and Western Sales Reps; Partner 1 and Partner 2 Sales Reps
Rule group hierarchies are executed from the bottom up (from the lower levels to the higher levels of the hierarchy). For example, Assignment Manager attempts to use Robin's rules to match a particular lead to a candidate before it tries to use Henry's rules. However, if Robin's rules fail, then Assignment Manager then tries Henry's rules, and assigns the lead to Robin, and so on up the hierarchy.
Each rule group owner can assign a designee.

Designees have the same responsibilities as an owner. You might want to delegate your ownership to someone else, such as an administrative assistant, to perform the tasks.
Each partner might assign one person as the delegated administrator (in these examples, either Robin or Sam) and that person would manage the partner's rule group. This same person should receive all leads that are not assigned to the partner's sales representatives.
AAs and DAs can create new criteria (you are not required to use criteria templates). However, it is recommended that the AA create criteria templates for the most common criteria to ease the learning curve for the DAs.