Managing Accounts

You use accounts primarily to represent the wholesale and retail companies to which you sell products and the organizations and physical locations in those companies. You can also use accounts to represent your company and competitor companies.

This chapter describes how to set up and maintain accounts and account hierarchies. Topics include:

About Accounts

Because accounts are critical to your business efforts, maintaining complete, accurate data in your accounts is a primary task. Administrators can perform bulk loading of data on accounts, but administrators and end users can also create and modify accounts manually as needed. For accounts with multiple departments and divisions, end users can enter independent information about those subaccounts.

For more information about bulk loading account information, such as account demographic information, hierarchy, and general account attributes, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

About Account Hierarchies

You can manage and administer different hierarchies for different customers. For example, for a large chain of drugstores, you can establish a four-level hierarchy with the corporate headquarters office at the highest (first) level, its regional offices at the second level, its distribution centers at the third level, and its retail stores at the fourth level. For a distributor, you might establish a two-level hierarchy with the distributor at the highest (first) level and the retail outlets it serves at the second level. If a company uses a third-party distributor for its products, you can associate this indirect account as well. For more information about structuring organizations, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

About Account Classification

You can classify Accounts in many ways. The following standard classifications can drive specific application functionality:

Account type. Classifying an account by type, such as Retailer or Distributor, can drive a dynamic profile attribute form. This form determines the profile information that is stored and available for the account.
Distribution code. You can apply Distribution codes to accounts and products to automatically create authorized distribution lists.
Market segment. Classifying an account’s market segment determines the types of products that appear in that account’s product catalog when creating assortment plans. You classify the market segment for your customer accounts by assigning the personalization attribute Account Channel to accounts.

For more information about methods that are available for controlling authorized product distribution based on distribution codes or account market segment, see Product Distribution

Scenario for Setting Up and Maintaining Accounts

Marketing administrators, account managers, and retail sales representatives perform the process in this example scenario for accounts. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements.

The marketing administrator for a food manufacturing company maintains the account-related data in the Siebel Business Application. Generally, all of the account data is bulk loaded into the Siebel Business Application from the food manufacturer’s legacy database. However, the company just acquired a new account, ABC Mart, and the administrator decides to manually input the information about this account directly into the Siebel Business Application.

The administrator begins by creating account records for all of ABC Mart’s headquarters offices and retail outlets. He then organizes these accounts into a hierarchy. He positions the corporate headquarters for ABC Mart at the head of the hierarchy, with regional headquarters in the middle, and retail outlets at the end. For each account, he then adds account profile and account contact information, and creates addresses and account assessment templates. He arranges with the database administrator to import into the Siebel database consumer demographic information, including household size, income level, and location. Also, he can manually assign account team members or use Siebel Assignment Manager to automatically assign them, based on factors such as State, Area Code, and Type of account. He informs the new account manager when the account information is ready.

The account manager for ABC Mart instructs the retail sales representatives who report to her to enter activities and opportunities for each of the ABC Mart accounts for which they are responsible.

While the sales representatives interact with their contacts at the retail outlets, they enter unique information about each account, such as new contacts, addresses, assessments, best call times, store sizes, visit frequencies, or any additional demographic information. When sales territories change, representatives can remove themselves from account teams. When new representatives are hired, detailed information about accounts is available to them, based on their roles and responsibilities.

Viewing Account Plan Status

To see the status of any particular plan, use the Plan Details view. This view contains data about plan details, account details, estimated volumes, and actual volumes. Account managers can see the status of a plan by viewing the following typical types of reports:

Sales Trending: YTD actual sales compared with planned sales compared with YAGO Sales
Sales Profitability: Gross sales compared with net sales compared with margin contribution
Fund Forecasting: Fixed funds plus accrual rate plus planned volume
Fund Accounting: Forecasted funds compared with committed (planned) spend minus accounting for committed funds reconciliation
Spend Forecasting: YTD actual paid plus forecasted spent plus YTG planned to spend
Promotion Performance: Planned volume compared with actual volume compared with claim volume
Promotion Profitability: Total profitability compared with incremental profitability compared with ROI compared with sales/trade spend
An account manager can see this data at the Total Account Plan level or drill down by:
- Time: Year, Month, Week
- Product: Category/Brand, Promoted Product Group, SKU
- Account: Territory, HQ Account, Planning Account, Ship To Account

Account managers can also select a particular dimension to review, such as a specific PPG.

To view the status of a plan

Navigate to the Plans screen, Plan List, and then the Details View.
In the Plans list, select the relevant plan.
Review the fields for the plan.
The following table describes some fields.

Field	Description
Category	Allows the account plans for an account to be segmented by the category of products for which the account managers are responsible. This segmentation is especially important for large companies that use multiple account managers or brokers to service a single account.
Period	Designates the fiscal year of the plan. This field is can be used to group promotions and perform analyses by fiscal halves, quarters, or months.
Status	Indicates when the plans are complete and ready for review.
Volume Planning Type	Use Sell-In or Sell-Out data for volume planning. The default value is Sell-In.
Main Volume Planning Methodology	Select the most appropriate methodology: Baseline & Incremental: The ideal volume planning methodology for true promotion ROI analysis. It is the most labor intensive and might not be appropriate for account managers with very many accounts, for accounts or products that are over-promoted, or for accounts for which good sales data is not available. Total Volume Planning (promoted/non-promoted volume planning): For accounts and products that are not responsible for a significant percentage of sales, such as the smaller wholesalers, accounts and products that are over-promoted or almost never promoted, or for accounts and products for which good sales data is not available. Promotional Volume Only: For indirect accounts.
Account Team	Limits visibility at the account plan level data to only the people actively involved with the account or category of products being sold into that account.
Baseline	The volume that would have been sold if no promotions were planned.
Incremental	The additional volume (over and above baseline volume) that is being sold due to the planned promotions.
Total	Baseline plus Incremental.
ROI	Return on Investment. The incremental profit from the planned promotions divided by the total spend.

Process of Managing Accounts

This topic lists the tasks that administrators and end users typically perform to manage accounts. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements.

Administrator Procedures

The following list shows tasks that administrators typically perform to manage accounts:

Creating or Modifying Accounts
Deleting Accounts
Setting Up Account Hierarchies
Profiling Accounts
Creating Account Contacts, as described in Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Creating Addresses for Accounts
Creating Account Assessment Templates, as described in Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Assigning Account Team Members
Use Siebel Assignment Manager or Siebel Territory Manager to manually or automatically designate Account team members:
- For information about manually assigning account team members, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
- For more information about using Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

End-User Procedures

The following list shows tasks that end users typically perform to access and use account information:

Creating or Modifying Accounts

When implementing the Consumer Goods application, you might decide to import account-related information from another database in your company and avoid entering this information manually. However, when you add new customers and when your existing customers add new retail outlets, you might need to create new accounts manually.

Before you create an account, find out if you already have the account information in your database so that you do not enter information more than once. To determine if the account already exists in your database, query for values such as the company name, contact information, customer number, telephone number, or any other unique identifier.

As an administrator, you can create addresses for accounts. Later, you or end users can associate these addresses with the appropriate accounts. You can also edit existing addresses. Be careful when editing an existing address because the address for all accounts and contacts that are associated with that address also changes. For more information about querying your database for accounts, see Siebel Fundamentals.

Verifying if an account exists can be done automatically if deduplication is active. For more information about deduplication, see Siebel Data Quality Administration Guide.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To create an account

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Account List view.
Create a new record.
Drill down on the Account field hyperlink and click the More Info view tab.
Complete the necessary fields.
The following table describes some fields.

Field	Comments
Address	An account can have multiple addresses. Click the select button to access the Account Addresses dialog box, where you can select an existing address or create a new one. Select the Primary field in the dialog box to specify the primary address. You can edit an existing address in the Account Addresses dialog box. However, changing this address also changes every instance of the address for all the other accounts and contacts that are associated with it.
Account Team	A list of employees who work with this account. This list determines who can access information about the account. The system administrator can determine the primary team member, or the person who creates the account record can be the primary team member.
Account Name	The name of the Account.
Site	A description of the physical location or function of the account, such as headquarters, corporate, or San Francisco.
Parent	The parent account of the account. For more information, see Setting Up Account Hierarchies.
Industries	The type of industry in which the account is involved, for example, manufacturing or service. You can enter multiple industries in this field.
Price List	The account specific price list, for example, Consumer Price List or North American Price List.
Buying Group	Select this check box if the account serves as a buying group for other accounts. For more information, see About Buying Groups.
Account Type	The type of account, for example, HQ, Distributor, or Retailer. This field determines the account Profile form layout. Use Siebel Tools to configure the Profile form. For more information, see Profiling Accounts.
Synonyms	A preferred way to refer to accounts and associated sites. For example, an account named A and B Products, Inc. might have the following synonyms: AB, A and B, and AB Products.
Partner	Select this check box if the account is a partner.
Competitor	Select this check box if the account is a competitor.
Status	The status of the account, for example, Active or Prospect.
Disable Cleansing	Select this check box to disable cleansing for the account. For more information, see Siebel Data Quality Administration Guide.
Fund Eligible	Select this check box to indicate that users can associate the account with a fund.
Lock Assignment	Provides information for the Territory Assignment program. If you select Lock Assignment, the Territory Assignment program does not automatically change the account team for the account.
Assignment Area Code	If you use area codes in your account assignment process, enter an area code. The Assignment Area Code value determines the area code that the Territory Assignment program uses to assign this account or subaccount.
Assignment Country Code	If you use country codes in your account assignment process, enter a country code. The Assignment Country Code value determines the country code that the Territory Assignment program uses to assign this account or subaccount.

Changing the Prices of Individual Line Items

When a customer buys enough product from the manufacturer to warrant a better pricing bracket, a new price list is associated with the customer. When there is a universal change to the prices of only a few items, you can change the prices only by using the Price List Line Items view.

Price and Cost are refreshed when Price List, Price List Item, Cost List, or Cost List Items are changed.

To change the price of a line item

Navigate to the Pricing screen, Price Lists, and then the Price List Line Items view.
In the Price List Line Items list, drill down on the Name hyperlink of the price list.
To change the price of an item, create a new record to duplicate the item.
The price is updated and the Start Date field of the new price is populated.

Updating Product Price and Cost

To perform accurate margin and ROI analysis, cost and prices are available at the account product level. As prices change over time, this information is stored at the Product Baseline level. When price lists or costs lists change, you can identify which product baseline records have been affected, and, in turn, which periods, products, and accounts need to be restated.

When the product baseline record is created in Administration - Data, Account Product, the Baseline applet, the Product Price and Cost fields are populated automatically. You can associate the price list with the account and populate price and cost for the product baseline.

To update produce price and cost

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, Account Product, and then the Baseline view.
Click Update Price/Cost to populate the price and cost for future account product baseline records.

In Administration – Data, Account Product, Baseline, when a new record is created, it automatically populates the price and cost if the price and cost lists are associated with the account.

When baseline records are created, but the price list is later associated with the account or any update in pricing or account price is associated in Administration, Pricing, the user can click the Update Price/Cost button in Account Product, Price Lists view or in Account Product, Baseline view to populate or update the price and cost value for product baseline records.

If any pricing is updated in account product baseline records, and those records are used in an account promotion, then the Refresh Pricing button in the promotion applet is enabled.
Click Refresh Pricing to refresh the data related to the pricing change of product baseline in the promotion hierarchy.

Deleting Accounts

Deleting an account completely removes the account and all data related to the account, such as activities, contacts, and addresses, from the application.

If you do not know if the account is still active, contact the primary account team member and inquire before modifying or deleting the account. Do not delete active accounts.

You can remove yourself or others from the account team instead of deleting the record. End users can remove themselves from the account team, but they cannot delete records in the preconfigured Consumer Goods application. Removing a team member from the account team removes the account from the records that the removed team member can view.

As an administrator, you can delete individual accounts manually or delete accounts in batch using Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM). For information about EIM, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To delete an account

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Account List view.
Select an account record.
In the Accounts/Orgs list, click Delete.

Setting Up Account Hierarchies

For overview information about account hierarchies, see About Account Hierarchies.

To set up account hierarchies, you create parent-child relationships between accounts. A list of guidelines for creating account hierarchies follows:

Accounts can have any number of child accounts.
Accounts can have only one parent account.
An account hierarchy can have any number of levels.
You can define Accounts as Buying Groups (an attribute flag of account).
Accounts can have any number of associated product categories and products.
Each account can have only one profile (based on Account Type).
An account can have any number of associated assessments, and assessments can have many assessment values.

If your company uses the Sales Volume Planning module, you must create one contiguous account hierarchy with all the accounts for the sales volume planning process. For example, you might create a five-level hierarchy with your corporate headquarters at the highest level and your company’s divisions at the second level. You can place the accounts representing all of the headquarters offices for your customers in the third level, distribution centers in the fourth level, and retail outlets in the fifth level. For more information about sales volume planning, see Sales Volume Planning

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To create an account-subaccount (parent-child) relationship

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Account List view.
Verify that the parent account record exists; if it does not, create it.
For more information about creating accounts, see Creating or Modifying Accounts.
Verify that the child account record exists; if it does not, create it.
In the Accounts/Orgs list, select the child account record.
In the Account form, click the select button in the Parent Account field.
In the Pick Account dialog box, select the Parent account record, and click OK.

Note: You cannot create a new account from the Parent Account field; the account must already exist. For more information about creating accounts, see Creating or Modifying Accounts.

Profiling Accounts

Account profiles maintain and display information specific to the type of an account. For example, an account of the type Retailer has a different profile than an account of the type Distributor.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To profile an account

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Drill down on the Name field hyperlink for an account, and click the Profiles view tab.
The Profile form that appears on the Account Profile view depends on the type of account that you select:
- If the Account Type value is HQ, an HQ Profile form appears.
- If the Account Type value is Retailer, a Retail Profile form appears.
In the Profile form, complete the necessary fields.

Creating Addresses for Accounts

You can create addresses for accounts. Later, end users can associate these addresses with the appropriate accounts. You can also edit existing addresses. Be careful when editing an existing address because the addresses for all accounts and contacts that are associated with that address also change.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To create an address for an account

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Addresses view.
In the Address form, create a new record, and complete the necessary fields.

Use the following procedure to associate an address with an account.

To associate an address with an account

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Select an account record.
In the Account form, click the select button in the Address field.
In the Account Addresses dialog box, move the address record from the Available column to the Selected column, and click OK.
In this dialog box, you can also create new addresses from which to choose.

Removing Yourself from Account Teams (End User)

Unlike administrators, end users cannot delete accounts. If end users need to remove an account from their My Accounts view, they must remove themselves from the account team.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To remove yourself from an account team

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Select an account record.
Click the select button in the Account Team field, move the row containing your name from the Selected column to the Available column, and click OK.
The change is reflected the next time you log in to the application.

Associating Activities with Accounts (End User)

Siebel Business Applications allow end users to record many types of activities for a variety of reasons. You can record an activity to remind you to do something regarding an account. For example, an end user might want to make note of a meeting with a contact at an account.

In the Account Activities view, end users can:

Create new activities.
View all activities for an account.
Modify existing activities.
Drill down on the Type field hyperlink for an individual activity to view additional information.
Chart completed activities for an account.

For more information about activities and managing your calendar, see Siebel Fundamentals.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To create an activity for your account

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Drill down on the Name field hyperlink for an account.
In the Activities list, create a new activity record, and complete the necessary fields.
The following table describes some fields.

Field	Comments
Type	From the drop-down list, select the specific type of activity to perform. This field provides a hyperlink to the Visit Execution view and to other views.
Description	A description of the activity.
Status	From the drop-down list, select the current status of the activity.
Activity	A high-level description of activity that an administrator provides. This field provides a hyperlink to the Activity Attachment view. In the preconfigured Siebel Consumer Goods application, this field is General, by default, and you cannot update it. However, you can use Siebel Tools to modify the behavior of this field or to remove this field.
Employees	Click the select button to assign employees from the Employees list to the activity. Depending on the type of activity you create, this record now appears on this person’s My Activities calendar or to-do list.

Associating Contacts with Accounts (End User)

End users can associate contacts with accounts.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To associate contacts with accounts

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Drill down on the Name field hyperlink for an account, and click the Contacts view tab. In this view, you can:
- Create new contacts.
- View all contacts for an account.
- Modify existing contacts.
- Drill down on the Last Name field hyperlink for a contact to create activities for that contact and account.
  
  Note: Before creating a new contact, make sure that the contact does not already exist by querying the All Contacts view. If the contact does not exist, you can enter a new contact from the All Accounts View or the All Contacts view and associate the contact with the appropriate account. For more information about querying, see Siebel Fundamentals.

For the procedure about creating and modifying contact information, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Adding Merchandising Locations to Accounts (End User)

You can add merchandising locations to accounts. Merchandising locations are physical locations where products can exist, such as one or more display locations in a retail outlet or in a bin in a warehouse. Adding merchandising locations to accounts allows you to associate products with physical locations and to perform merchandising audits.

For more information about merchandising locations, see Associating Account Products with Merchandising Locations (End User) and Performing Merchandising Audits.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Accounts.

To add a merchandising location to an account

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Drill down on the Name field hyperlink for an account, and click the Merchandising Location view tab.
In the Merchandising Locations list, create a new record, and complete the necessary fields.
The following table describes some fields.

Field	Comments
Type	The type of merchandising location. Values include Bin, Aisle, Shelf, Trunk, Virtual, and Warehouse.
Location Order	The order in which the products or merchandising locations appear. This field facilitates retail audits. A field value example is side-by-side. The person performing the retail audit then knows the exact location of each individual product.
Asset Name	A product the customer owns, typically acquired through contract or purchase. For consumer goods companies, this field is typically a type of merchandising or display unit.
Asset Number	This field is automatically populated when you select an asset in the Asset field.