Using Market Development Funds

This chapter describes how to use Siebel PRM to manage market development funds. It includes the following topics:

About Market Development Funds

Brand owners administer market development funds (MDFs) using Siebel PRM Manager, and partners can apply for market development funds on the PRM Portal. The Advanced MDF option provides additional partner program features. For more information on Advanced MDFs, see The Advanced MDF Option.

An MDF makes it possible to do joint marketing activities with one or more partners. For example, you might create an MDF to fund a joint advertising campaign with one of your large partners or to send several of your partners to a large trade show.

Process of Working with a Market Development Fund

To work with an MDF, perform the following tasks:

Making Market Development Funds Visible to Partners. You must configure the Siebel Business Application to make the fund visible in the partner portal.
Creating Market Development Funds. When you create a fund, you specify how much funding it has and which partners participate in it.
Setting Up Fund Approval Authorization. You must authorize your employees to approve fund requests. Employees have a fund request approval limit. If a request is greater than an employee’s limit, that employee routes it to other employees for further review.
Changing the Partner Manager Field. Optionally, you can change the Partner Manager field to change the routing of fund requests for approval.
Initiating a Fund Request. After a fund has been created, employees of the partner company or from the brand owner company can request funding on behalf of partners who participate in the fund.
Adding Attachments, Activities, and Activity Plans to MDF Requests. It can be useful to add attachments, activities, and activity plans to an MDF request.
Reviewing a Fund Request. Your company must approve or reject funding requests. Optionally, you can use Siebel Business Process Designer to inform people by email when they must review a request or provide more information.
Viewing a Fund’s Checkbook. The MDF checkbook lets you track the amount of credits, debits, and total funds available in a fund.

Making Market Development Funds Visible to Partners

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

Perform the following configuration in Siebel Tools to make the market development fund that the brand owner creates visible to partners using the Partner Portal:

Define the following user property in Employee Limit Pick Applet
- Name: Override Visibility: Siebel Partner Manager
- Value: Sub-Organization

For more information about Siebel Tools, see Using Siebel Tools.

Creating Market Development Funds

Market development funds (MDFs) are created for a variety of reasons. For example, an alliance partner might agree to a fixed MDF as part of its alliance agreement, or you can do joint marketing with a partner and create an accrual MDF to which you contribute one percent of the partner’s sales.

When you create a new MDF, you must specify which partners are participants in the fund and you must specify the fund type.

There are three types of MDFs:

Fixed Fund. A fund that has a specific amount of money allocated to it.
Accrual Fund. A fund that has money allocated to it based on the partner’s performance. For example, partners can accrue funds based on the number of units sold of a specific product or product line, based on a percentage of their revenues, or based on other metrics you define.
Mixed Fund. A fund that has both a fixed and an accrual element. It begins with a specific amount of money, and it also accrues additional money depending on partner performance.

When you create the Fund record, you must specify the type of fund. This determines where funds are added.

To create a new MDF, you perform the following tasks:

About Fund Design Lists

From the Fund Design screen a number of different fund design lists are available. The following table describes each list.

Table Fund Design Lists

List	Description
My Fund Designs	This list displays all fund designs owned by the user.
All Fund Designs	This list displays all fund designs of the partners in the same organization of the user.
All Fund Designs Across My Organizations	This list displays all fund designs of the partners in the same organization and sub-organizations of the user.
All Fund Designs Across Organizations	This list displays all the fund designs of the partners in all organizations.

Creating a New Fund Record

The first step in creating a new MDF is to add a new Fund record.

To create a new Fund record

Navigate to the Fund Design screen.
In the My Fund Designs list, add a new record to this list.

Enter information about the new fund in the new record and the More Info form, as shown in the table below.

Table Fund Administration Fields

Field	Description
Name	Enter a name for the fund (up to 50 characters) for your own use.
Type	Choose Fixed, Accrual, or Mixed to indicate how funding is allocated.
Fund ID	A unique identifier that is generated automatically.
Active	Indicates whether the fund is currently active, that is, whether partners can make fund requests against this fund. Generated automatically based on the start date and end date.
Locked	Lets you lock the fund record so no one can update it.
Period	Optionally, use the Pick Period dialog box to choose a predefined period from a picklist defined by the Siebel administrator, such as 2005 or Jan. 2005. If you select a period, the Start Date and End Date fields are filled automatically.
Start	The date when a partner can begin applying for money from this fund.
End	The last date when a partner can apply for money from this fund.
Target Amount	The amount of money targeted to be accrued to a fund. For a fixed fund, the amount of money agreed to in a fund.
Description	A text description of the fund for your own use. Enter up to 150 characters.
Total Credits	The total of all deposits into the fund. Read-only field calculated by the Siebel CRM system.
Total Debits	The total of all the approved withdrawals from the fund (actual amounts granted to partners). Read-only field calculated by the Siebel CRM system.
Fund Balance	The balance in the fund, calculated as Total Credits minus Total Debits. Read-only field calculated by the Siebel CRM system.
Fixed Credits	Credits from fixed deposits into the fund.
Accrual Credits	Credits from accruals to the fund.

Adding Partner Companies as Fund Participants

The second step in creating a new MDF is to add the partner companies that are fund participants to the fund. Partners must be added to the Fund Participation list because only fund participants (and employees at the brand owner company acting on their behalf) are authorized to spend against a fund.

Sometimes, partners contribute to MDFs for joint marketing activities with the brand owner. In these situations, the partner is usually the only participant in the fund.

Similarly, because accruals are used as incentive programs for partners, you generally have only one partner in each accrual fund. If you added multiple partners, one partner would accrue funds and the other partners could spend the funds accrued by the first partner.

If you add a partner company as a fund participant, there must be a partner manager defined for that partner company, so the partner’s fund requests can be routed to the partner manager for approval. For more information, see Registering the Partner Company

To add a partner company to an MDF

Navigate to the Fund Design screen.
Select the appropriate fund design list and drill down on the name of the fund to which you want to add the partner company.
Navigate to the Fund Participation view.
The Fund Participation view appears.
In the Fund Participation list, add a new record.

Enter information in the new record’s fields about the partner company’s participation, as shown in the following table.

Field	Description
Partner	In the Pick Channel Partner dialog box, choose the participating partner company.
Target Amount	Enter the target amount for this partner to receive from all its fund requests to this fund.
Period	Optionally, use the Pick Period dialog box to choose a predefined period, such as 2005 or Jan. 2005. When you do select a period, the Start Date and End Date fields are filled automatically.
Start	Enter the date when this partner can begin applying for money from this fund. The default value is the start date of the fund.
End	Enter the last date when this partner can apply for money from this fund. The default value is the end date of the fund.
Description	Optionally, enter a description (up to 150 characters) of this partner company’s participation in this fund for your own use.

Adding Funding to the Market Development Fund

The third step in creating an MDF is to add funding to it. The type of funding you add depends on the choice you made in the Type field when you created the Fund record:

Fixed. If the fund type is Fixed, add the funding amount in the Fixed Fund Administration view.
Accrual. If the fund type is Accrual, add the funding amount in the Accrual Fund Administration view.
Mixed. If the fund type is mixed, use both the Fixed Fund Administration view and the Accrual Fund Administration view to specify the amount of funding it has. The mixed fund contains the sum of the fixed and accrual funding that you specify.

Use the following procedure to add fixed funding to an MDF.

To add fixed funding to an MDF

Navigate to the Fund Design screen.
Select the appropriate fund design list and drill down on the name of a Fund that is Fixed or Mixed.
Navigate to the Fixed Fund Administration view.
In the Fixed Fund Administration list, add a new record.

Enter information about the fixed funding in the new record., as shown in the following table.

Field	Description
Name	A name for this funding for your own use, such as Initial Funding or Q2 Added Funding.
Amount	The amount of funding allocated to this fund for this transaction.
Period	Optionally, use the Pick Period dialog box to choose a predefined period, such as 2005 or Jan. 2005. When you do select a period, the Start Date and End Date fields are filled automatically.
Start	The date when partners can begin spending this funding. If this record is the initial allocation of money to this fund, then this date is the same as the start date for the fund. If this record is a supplementary allocation, it could be a different date. For example, if you have a yearly fund and you allocate extra funding for the third quarter, the start date for the extra funding could be the first day of the third quarter.
End	The last date when partners can spend this funding.

To add accrual funding to an MDF

Navigate to the Fund Design screen.
Select the appropriate fund design list and drill down on the name of a fund that is either an Accrual or a Mixed type.
Navigate to the Accrual Fund Administration view.
In the Partners list, select the partner company that accrues funding, or add a new record to add a new partner company to the list.
In the Accrual Definition list, add a new record.

Enter information about the accrual definition in the new record, as shown in the image below.

Table Accrual Definition Fields

Field	Description
Type	Select the type of component on which the accrual is based. The default options are as follows: Orders (accrued funding based on all the orders of the partner) Product Line (accrued funding based on the orders of the partner for a specific product line) Product (accrued funding based on the orders of the partner for a specific product) Other options might have been added.
Product Line	If you choose Product Line in the Type field, in this field’s dialog box, choose the product line on which accrued funding is based. If you do not choose Product Line as the type, this field is disabled.
Product	If you choose Product in the Type field, in this field’s dialog box, choose the product on which accrued funding is based. If you do not choose Product as the type, this field is disabled.
Period	Optionally, use the list to choose a predefined period, such as 2005 or Jan. 2005. When you do select a period, the Start Date and End Date fields are filled automatically.
Start	The date when funding begins to accrue to this fund.
End	The last date when funding accrues to this fund.
Base	This field lets you tier funding by specifying the base amount at which the accrual begins. For example, if you want to give the partner accrual funding only after it sells $1,000,000, you can set the base at $1,000,000. Or, if you want to give the partner 1% of the first $1,000,000 it sells, and 2% of everything exceeding that, you can create one fund record with a base of $0 and a rate of 1% and a second fund record with a base of $1,000,000 and a rate of 1%. The second fund record would give an additional 1% beyond the 1% in the first fund record.
U/M	Select the unit of measurement on which the funding is based. For example, if you choose Pallet, Bag, or Dollar, the partner accrues the amount in the accrual rate field for each pallet, bag, or dollar of your product ordered. The units available here can be determined in the LOV administration view under UNIT_OF_MEASURE.
Accrual Rate	Enter an amount of funding that accrues for each unit sold.
Estimated Volume	Enter your goal, the volume of sales targeted for this accrual.
Actual Volume	Enter the actual volume of sales for this accrual.

Note: When you add an Accrual Definition record, the options available in the Type field can be defined in the List of Values view of the Applications Administration screen by adding values of type ACCRUAL_SRC_TYPE, and the options available in the U/M field can be defined by adding values of type UNIT_OF_MEASURE. For more information about list of value administration, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Setting Up Fund Approval Authorization

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

Before your company can work with any MDFs, you must authorize the appropriate employees to approve fund requests.

Optionally, you can also change the Partner Manager field. The partner manager is the initial reviewer of the fund request, so specifying the Partner Manager field for a partner company determines how new fund requests from that company are routed.

Authorizing Employees to Approve Fund Requests

To authorize employees to approve fund requests, you specify the maximum amount of a fund request that each employee can approve.

Employees might get fund requests to review that are greater than the amount that they can approve. After reviewing those fund requests, they can route them to other employees in your company for approval.

For example, your channel manager for this company might be authorized to approve requests up to $10,000. If a partner submits a request for $5,000 and the channel manager approves it, then the approval process is finished. The request does not need any further approval.

However, if a partner submits a request for $50,000, it is still reviewed by the channel manager initially. The channel manager can either deny or route it to his or her manager for approval. Managers continue to have the option to deny the request or route it to their managers, until it reaches a manager who is authorized to approve the amount.

To route the request to the next employee in the approval process, select that employee’s name in the Processed By field of the Fund Request record. The employee in this field is the only employee who can change the value of the record.

When you select an employee’s name in the Processed By field, Siebel PRM automatically routes the Fund Request record to that employee, and it appears in that employee’s My Funds Request view.

To authorize your employees to approve fund requests

Navigate to the Administration - User screen, then the Employees view.
Drill down on the name of the employee you want to authorize to approve fund requests.
In the More Info view, enter the amount for that employee in the Fund Approval Limit field.

Changing the Partner Manager Field

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

Optionally, you can change the Partner Manager field to change the routing of fund requests for approval.

The initial reviewer for a fund request logged by a partner is the employee selected in the Partner Manager field for that partner organization. This employee’s name is automatically entered in the Processed By field of the fund request. This is the only use of the Partner Manager field, and you can change the initial reviewer of fund requests by selecting a different employee in this field.

To change the partner manager

Navigate to the Administration - Partner screen, then the Registered Partners view.
In the Partner list, drill down on the name of the partner company for which you want to set the Partner Manager field.
In the More Info form, click the Single Select button for the Partner Manager field.
The Pick Position dialog box appears.
Select the person you want as the partner manager, and click OK.

About Fund Request Lists

From the Fund Requests screen a number of different fund request lists are available. The following table describes each list.

Table Fund Request Lists

List	Description
My Fund Requests	This list displays all fund requests owned by the user.
All Fund Requests	This list displays all fund requests of the partners in the same organization of the user.
All Fund Requests Across My Organizations	This list displays all fund requests of the partners in the same organization and sub-organizations of the user.
All Fund Requests Across Organizations	This list displays all the fund requests of the partners in all organizations.

Initiating a Fund Request

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

A fund request can be submitted either by a partner who enters it using the Siebel PRM Portal, or by an employee at your company who enters it using the Siebel PRM Manager. For example, it might be submitted by an employee in your company’s marketing department who plans a marketing campaign involving MDFs.

Siebel Business Process Designer can be set up so that, when the request is initiated, the first employee who must approve it receives an email notifying that employee that the fund request has been submitted for approval. For more information about Siebel Business Process Designer, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

To initiate a fund request

Navigate to the Fund Requests screen.
In the My Fund Requests list, add a new record.
Enter information in the fields of the new record and the More Info form, as shown in the table below.

Table New Record Fields

Field	Description
Name	Enter a name for the request (up to 50 characters) for your own use.
Partner	In the Pick Channel Partner dialog box, choose the partner to which the request applies.
Fund	In the Pick Fund dialog box, choose the fund from which the money comes.
Tracking #	This field contains a unique number generated automatically, which you can use to track the request.
Campaign	Optionally, use the Pick Campaign dialog box to choose your company’s marketing campaign for which this fund is being used.
Region	Optionally, choose a region (for example, Africa or North America) where the funding is spent.
Vertical	Optionally, choose an industry (for example, Automotive or Insurance) on which this funding is spent.
Category	Optionally, choose a category (for example, Advertising or Customer Event) on which this funding is spent.
Processed By	This field displays the name of the manager who is currently reviewing this request. When you enter a new request, the value in the field defaults to the Partner Manager for this partner organization, who is normally the first manager to review the request. To transmit the request to the next manager in the approval process, use the Pick Position dialog box to choose that manager’s name. Only the employee whose name appears in this field can change the record (for example, to change the status to Approved or to Need More Information, or to route the record to the next person for approval).
Due	Enter the date when the funds are needed.
Status	In a new request, the status is New. During the approval process, the status of the fund request changes.
Owned By	This field holds the name of the person who initiated the fund request.
Amount Requested	Enter the amount of the request.
Amount Approved	During the approval process, approvers enter the approved amount in this field. They can approve the requested funding or a smaller amount. This field cannot be edited in a new request.
Actual Amount	This field displays the actual amount that has been debited to this fund request. This field cannot be edited in a new request.
Approval Log	Keeps track of the modifications to the fund request. Every time a user changes the status of the request or changes the amount approved, another record is added to the approval log.

Adding Attachments, Activities, and Activity Plans to MDF Requests

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

While you are working with a fund request, you might find it useful to add attachments, activities, or activity plans to the request.

Adding Attachments to Fund Requests

You can attach supporting documents to fund requests. For example, if you write a report that describes in detail how the partner plans to use the funding, you can attach it to the Fund Request record. Or, if the request is to fund a booth at a trade show, you can attach a brochure from the trade show using any convenient file format, such as Adobe Acrobat. Employees who review and approve the request can view these attached documents. Attach files to MDF Request records in the Fund Request Attachments view.

The partner to which an MDF request applies can view attachments to the request and can also add attachments to the request for the brand owner company to view.

To enter fund request attachments

Navigate to the Fund Requests screen.
Drill down on the name of the request to which you want to add the Attachment.
Navigate to the Fund Request Attachments view.
In the Fund Request Attachments list, add a new record.
In the Attachment Name field, select the file you want to attach to the record.

Adding Activities to Fund Requests

You can record a variety of activities that you perform as part of a Fund request, such as a meeting you must schedule with a partner to discuss the fund request. You can do this by attaching activities to the fund request.

To add an activity for a fund request

Navigate to the Fund Requests screen.
Drill down on the name of the request to which you want to add the activity.
Navigate to the Fund Request Activities view.
In the Fund Request Activities list, add a new record.
Fill in the fields with the details of the new activity.

Adding Activity Plans to Fund Requests

If you have a regular series of activities that you perform when you submit a type of fund request, such as a request for funding for a trade show, you can save time by using an activity plan. Activity plan templates define lists of activities that are often performed in sequence. If your company’s Siebel Business Applications administrator has created appropriate templates, you can use a template to attach an activity plan to a fund request.

For information about creating activity plans, see the chapter on creating activity templates in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

To enter an MDF request activity plan

Navigate to the Fund Requests screen.
Drill down on the name of the request to which you want to add the activity plan.
Navigate to the Fund Request Activity Plans view.
In the Fund Request Activity Plans list, add a new record.
In the Template field choose an existing template.
The activities from that template are listed in the Activities list.

Viewing Fund Requests for a Partner Company

You can review a partner’s performance periodically or view how many other fund requests from a partner are open before approving the current request. The Partner Fund view lets you look at a single list of the partner’s fund requests, regardless of which MDF is involved.

To view a partner’s fund requests

Navigate to the Partners screen, then the Partner List view.
Select the appropriate partner list and drill down on the name of the partner whose requests you want to display.
Navigate to the MDF Requests view.
The MDF Requests list appears with that partner’s fund requests from any MDF.

Viewing the Status of a Fund Request

You can use the Siebel PRM Manager check the status of a fund request after it has been submitted, and your partners can use the Siebel PRM Portal to view this information. For example, a partner who submitted a fund request can make sure that the approval process has started at the brand owner company. Employees who need to start work when the funding is available want to see if it is approved.

A fund request can have the status values shown in the following image.

To view the status of a fund request

Navigate to the Fund Requests screen.
Select the appropriate fund requests list and drill down on the name of the request whose status you want to check.
The status appears in the Status field of the record.

Reviewing a Fund Request

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

After a fund request has been submitted, it must be routed in sequence to the employees who must review it. If the initial reviewer is authorized to approve the full amount in the request, only this approval is needed. However, if the request is larger than the initial reviewer can approve, the reviewer can either reject it or route it to another employee in the brand owner company for further review. If that employee is not authorized to review the entire amount, that employee can either reject it or route it to another reviewer.

To route the request for further review and approval, an approver selects Pending Approval in the Status field of the fund request and then selects that person’s name in the Processed By field of the fund request. The fund request appears in the My Fund Requests view for that person. Only the reviewer whose name is in the Processed By field can modify the Fund Request record.

Rather than routing the request for further approval, approvers can also use the picklist in the Status field of the request to choose from among the following options:

Need More Information. The approver needs more information to make the decision.
Rejected. The approver rejects the fund request, and the request fails.
Approved. The approver gives final approval to the fund request. This option is available only to an employee who is authorized to approve the full amount of the request.

When the status of a fund request is new, rejected, or need more information, all fields are editable.

When you change the status to another status, all fields become read-only, except for the Status, Comment, and Processed By fields.

After you change the status to approved, processed, fulfilled, or submitted for fulfillment, all fields become read-only, except for the Due Date, Amount Approved, and Actual Amount fields.

The possible values for the status of a fund request are shown in the table below.

Table Fund Request Status Values

Value	Description
New	The request has been submitted but has not yet been viewed by the initial approver.
Pending Approval	The request has been viewed by the initial approver.
Pending Approval 2	The request has been routed to a subsequent approver.
Pending Review	The request has been routed to the final approver. The final approver is called the reviewer.
Need More Information	One of the approvers has requested more information.
Rejected	The request has failed because an approver has rejected it.
Approved	The request has the required approvals.
Submitted for Fulfillment	The request has been submitted to the payments administrator for fulfillment.
Processed	The request has been processed by the payments administrator.
Fulfilled	The request has been fulfilled by the payments administrator. Funding has been sent to the partner.

Before you approve a fund request, you must look at the fund’s checkbook to see the balance in that fund. Make sure the request is not larger than the remaining balance in the fund.

Note: The balance in the checkbook is debited only after the Actual Amount field for a fund request is filled out. If you have approved a request and entered the approved amount, it is not necessarily reflected in the checkbook. It is visible only after you enter the actual amount.

To view the balance in an MDF

Navigate to the Fund Design screen.
Select the appropriate fund design list and drill down on the name of the fund whose balance you want to see.
For an accrual or mixed fund, navigate to the Accrual Fund Checkbook view.
The Accrual Fund Checkbook view appears.
Click the Calculate Total button to update the total.
The accrual balance in the fund appears in the Fund Balance field.
For a fixed or mixed fund, navigate to the Fixed Fund Checkbook view.
The Fixed Fund Checkbook view appears.
Click Calculate Total to update the total.
The fixed balance in the fund appears in the Balance field.

To review a fund request

Use the following procedure to review a fund request.

Navigate to the Fund Requests screen.
To reject the request, give final approval to the request, or ask for more information, choose a value in the Status field of the request you are reviewing.
The Status field picklist gives you the option of approving the request only if its amount is less than the amount in the Fund Approval Limit field of your Employee record.
To route the request to another employee for further review and approval, do the following:
1. Change the status to Pending Approval.
2. Click the Single Select button next to the Processed By field to display the Pick Position dialog box.
3. Select that employee’s record, and click OK.

Viewing a Fund’s Checkbook

This task is a step in Process of Working with a Market Development Fund.

You can use an MDF’s Accrual Fund Checkbook view and Fixed Fund Checkbook view to display the balance remaining in the fund, as well as to display the details of how much of this balance comes from fixed funding, how much comes from accrued funding, and which funding requests have been debited against the fund.

The debits against the fund are shown in both the accrual fund checkbook and in the fixed fund checkbook.

Note: The balance in the checkbook is debited only after the Actual Amount field for a fund request is filled out. If you have approved a request and entered the approved amount, it is not reflected in the checkbook. It is visible only after you enter the actual amount.

To view an MDF’s checkbook

Navigate to the Fund Design screen.
Select the appropriate fund design list and drill down on the name of the fund whose balance you want to see.
If it is an accrual or mixed fund, navigate to the Accrual Fund Checkbook view.
Click Calculate Total to view the balance.
In the MDF Accrual Credits list, review the credits that have accrued to this fund. In the MDF Debits list, review the debits for this fund.
If it is a fixed or mixed fund, navigate to the Fixed Fund Checkbook view.
Click Calculate Total to view the balance.
In the Fixed Credits list, review the credits for this fund. In the MDF Debits list, review the debits for this fund.

The Advanced MDF Option

The advanced MDF option is described in the following topics:

Overview of Advanced MDF Option

In this MDF or co-op management process, the marketing manager sets up one or several programs and selects partners who can participate in the associated funds. This automatically creates program accounts for these partner participants so that partners can accrue funds or receive discretionary MDF amounts under the associated programs. Partners can request funding for marketing activities out of the funds accrued or received in their different program accounts. Partners request funding through the Siebel PRM Portal by creating a preapproval with one or more associated line items, identifying the different cost items associated with the marketing activity. These preapprovals are routed to the channel marketing manager, who can review and either accept or reject cost items at the line item level. Once approved, the partner can execute the corresponding marketing activity.

Partners can create claims through the Siebel PRM Portal to redeem the money in their program accounts for marketing activities against the preapprovals. When a claim is approved, the claim debits the program account. The claim amount can then be sent to the accounting system for payment processing. This process includes flexibility for routing and escalating approval requests to multiple people within brand owner organizations.

Key Features of MDF Management

MDF management includes the following features:

Program Management. Programs give the brand owner the ability to make marketing funds available to partners automatically. The brand owner can define a program with specific characteristics, such as activation date, expiration date, eligible partners, target markets, target products, fund accrual rules and so on. After the participating partners are identified, the Siebel CRM system automatically generates all the program accounts for the participating partners. A pool of money made available to partners for the organization of marketing activities, for example, campaigns or events.
There are two programs types:
- Co-Op Program. A program under which the partner accrues credits based on performance. The co-op program is also known as an accrual fund. For example, resellers could accrue 2% of all product revenue into their account set up under this program.
- MDF Program. A program under which the partner receives discretionary funding from the brand owner. This is a nonperformance-based program. It is also known as a fixed fund. For example, after approval, this money could be spent on marketing activities for a specific product promotion.
Program Participant. The account or organization participating in the program. For participating, the partner receives a program account for accrual of funds according to the program rules. This is temporary data used in selecting the partners that can be used for a program account.

Note: Participants can be selected only from accounts with the Fund Eligible check box selected. This check box appears in the Administration - Partner screen, Registered Partners view.
Program Account. The individual account associated with the partner. Program accounts are child funds of the program. The partner accrues funds in a program account according to the program rules, or the channel account manager deposits discretionary amounts of money into the program account. Each partner can have multiple program accounts, one for each program in which the partner participates. Each partner can participate in the same program only once.
Credit. This is a child of the program account used to represent the crediting of money to a particular program account. Credits are created manually.
Preapproval. This is a request for funds. Partners request funding for marketing activities out of the funds accrued in their different program accounts. A preapproval can be associated with only one program account.
Claim. This is a request for payment against a preapproval after a marketing activity has been executed. Claims go through an approval process at the brand owner’s company. Claims are created against a specific preapproval. When the claim is approved, the claim debits the program account defined for the associated program account.
Debit. Debits are read-only and created automatically only after a claim line item is approved.

Scenario for MDF Management

This scenario gives one example of how MDFs might be used. You might use MDFs differently, depending on your business model.

A program manager at the brand owner company is responsible for collaborative marketing with partners. She realizes that partners often have better insight into local markets and are therefore more suited to organize targeted marketing activities. Recently, her company’s new product was introduced and in order to give resellers an incentive to resell this product, she has decided to set up a targeted program. This program lasts for six months, active immediately, and only specially certified dealers are eligible for participation. Under the program, resellers accrue 3% of their revenues for the server product line into their program account. All the funds accrued can then be used by the resellers to run marketing activities. However, her firm refunds only 50% of the total amount approved for every activity.

As part of the setup, the program manager selects the resellers eligible for participation and adds them to the program. By clicking the Generate button, individual program accounts are generated for each participating reseller.

The sales manager at one of the brand owner’s resellers has noticed the new program set up by the brand owner. The sales manager decides to set up a local event to promote the new product to the existing client base. The plan is to invite the 20 most popular customers to a seminar to discuss the product. The sales manager creates and submits a preapproval to obtain approval from the brand owner to run the event.

After the event, the reseller collects invoices for the individual line items on his preapproval and submits a claim for payment. The reseller submits the claim, aware that the brand owner funds a maximum 50% of the total amount.

The channel account manager at the brand owner company reviews the claim. The manager sees that all conditions for payment are met. The manager sets the status of the claim to Accepted. However, because the channel account manager can only approve claims up to $1000, the claim status is not automatically set to Final Approved. Instead, the claim gets routed to his manager for review, who approves it.

Process of Setting Up MDF Programs

To set up MDF programs, perform the following tasks:

Creating MDF Snapshot Periods

Program account snapshots give an overview of all transactions for a given program account by period. They contain the amount of available and used funds in an MDF during each period. To use snapshots successfully, periods must first be set up in the Administration - Data screen, Periods view. For more information about creating periods, see the chapter that discusses ongoing applications administration tasks in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Before creating MDF programs, you must create at least six snapshot periods of type HTIM MDF Snapshot to cover the current month and the five following months.

To create snapshot periods

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Periods view.
In the Period Definition list, create a new record.
Enter a name for the period in the Period field.
From the Type list, select HTIM MDF Snapshot Month.
Complete any other necessary fields. For more information about these fields, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
Repeat Step 2 to Step 5 for each subsequent period until you have created at least six HTIM MDF Snapshot Month periods. Each period you create must begin at the end of the preceding period.

Note: You can edit snapshots in the Monthly Snapshot (Admin) view in the MDF Program Accounts screen.

Making Partners Eligible for MDF Participation

Prior to creating an MDF program, you must make sure that each partner you want to include in an MDF program is eligible for funds.

To make partners eligible for MDF programs

Navigate to the Administration - Partner screen, then the Registered Partners view.
Drill down on the record of the partner you want to include in a MDF program and then navigate to the More Info view.
Locate the Fund Eligible field.
- If the Fund Eligible field is checked, this partner is already eligible for funds and can participate in an MDF program and no action is required.
- If the Fund Eligible field is not checked, select the check box. The partner is now eligible to participate in an MDF program.

Enabling the HTIM MDF Period Ending Process Workflow

The HTIM MDF Period Ending Process workflow must be run as a server task (workflow manager task). It can be either a manual task or a repeated task running at the end of the period.

For more information about the HTIM MDF Period Ending Process workflow, see HTIM MDF Period Ending Process Workflow For information about how to activate workflows in Siebel Tools, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

Setting Up MDF Approval Authority Limits

You need to set up an approval authority limit in the Administration - User screen for each employee responsible for approving MDF programs.

To set up approval authority limits

Navigate to the Administration - User screen, then the Employees view.
Drill down on the employee for whom you want to set up approval authority limits.
Navigate to the More Info view.
In the Approval Authority section, in the Fund Approval Limit field, enter an approval amount.

Creating an MDF Program and Program Account

The program manager creates an MDF program and adds partners to it. A program account is then created automatically so the partner can take advantage of the MDF.

To create an MDF program and a program account

Navigate to the MDF Program screen, then the Programs view.

Create a new record and complete the necessary fields in the record and the More Info form. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Aging Period (Month)	Number of days until new credits expire.
Start Date	Date preapprovals can start to be created against the program.
End Date	Date after which partners can no longer create preapprovals against the program. After this date, partners can still claim fund accruals in their Program Accounts (until the claim receipt deadline).
Amount	Total dollar amount committed to the program. Required if MDF is selected from the Type field.
Type	MDF or Co-op program.
Market	Market segment.
Program GL Code	General ledger account under which the program is created.
Participation Rate %	Indicates the percentage of activities organized under this program that the brand owner is willing to fund. This value transfers down to the preapprovals and claim line items.
Available Balance	Total Balance = [Total Credit] - [Total Debit] These values are rolled up from the credit and debit records through the snapshot, to the program account, and then to the program.
Credit	Rolled up from program account.
Debit	Rolled up from program account.

Note: Click the Rollup Snapshot button to refresh the sum of all the credits and debits for all MDF Program Accounts associated with the selected MDF program.

Navigate to the Program Participant view, and add a record.
In the Pick Account dialog box, select the partners you want to include in this program and click OK.
In the Program Accounts subview, click Generate.
Program accounts are created automatically for each partner.

Setting Up a Program Account's First Snapshot

Before you can add credits to a program account, you must set up snapshot periods for the program account.

To set up a program account’s first snapshot

Navigate to the MDF Program Accounts screen.
Locate and drill down on the program account for which you want to set up snapshots.
Navigate to the Monthly Snapshot (Admin) view and add a new record.
Click the Period select button.
In the Pick Period dialog box, query for Period Type of HTIM MDF Snapshot Month.
Select the period with the Start Date that is less than or equal to today's date, and the End Date less than or equal to today's date and then click OK.

Removing a Participant From an MDF Program

You might need to remove a participant from an MDF program.

To remove a participant from an MDF program

Navigate to the MDF Program screen.
Drill down on the program from which you want to remove a participant.
In the Program Participants list, select the participant you want to remove.
From the menu, select Delete Record.
In the warning dialog box, click OK to confirm deletion of this record.
Navigate to the MDF Program Accounts screen.
In the Program Accounts list, select the program account belonging to the participant you are removing.
In the program account form, from the menu, select Delete Record.
In the warning dialog box, click OK to confirm deletion of this record.
The participant no longer has access to this MDF program.

Adding a Credit to a Program Account

Credits make funds available to resellers. You must create credits manually for each program account. In addition, the batch imports of the MDF credits can be performed using Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager. For information on batch imports, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

There are three types of credits:

Accrual. Allows partners to accrue credit in their accounts.
Adjustment. Allows program managers to apply an adjustment to an existing MDF accrual credit.
Reinstatement. Allows program managers to extend MDF credit that was forfeited.

Note: Co-op program credits are incentive-based while MDF program credits are discretionary.

To create an Accrual credit

Use the following procedure to create an Accrual credit.

Navigate to the MDF Program Account screen, then the Program Account view.
Drill down on the program account record for the partner to whom you want to provide a credit.
Navigate to the Checkbook (RW) view and add a new record.

Complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Type	Indicates the nature of the credit.
Sub Type	Further indicates the nature of the credit. This field is optional and does not affect how the MDF credit is processed.
Market	Market segments relevant to this partner.
Amount	Amount of the credit.
Period Posted	Period during which this credit is posted. Note that the MDF credit is set to the current period regardless of what information is entered in the Period Posted field.
Expiration Date	Date on which this credit is no longer available for the partner’s use.

Repeat for each partner or program account for which you want to provide a credit.

To create an Adjustment credit

Use the following procedure to create an Adjustment credit.

Navigate to the MDF Program Account screen, then the Program Account view.
Drill down on the program account record for the partner to whom you want to make an adjustment.
Navigate to the Checkbook (RW) view and add a new record.

Complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Type	Indicates the nature of the credit.
Sub Type	Further indicates the nature of the credit. The available values are Correction or Reallocation. This field is optional and does not affect how the MDF credit is processed.
Market	Indicates the market segments that are relevant to this partner.
Amount	Amount of the adjustment. Both negative and positive amounts are accepted.
Period Posted	Period during which this credit is posted. If the adjustment is a correction to an MDF credit, set the Period Posted date to the same date as the Period Posted date of the original MDF credit. If the adjustment is a reallocation, set the Period Posted date according to your business needs.
Expiration Date	Date on which this credit is no longer available for the partner’s use. If the adjustment is a correction to an MDF credit, set the Expiration Date to the same date as the Expiration Date of the original MDF credit. If the adjustment is a reallocation, set the Expiration Date according to your business needs.

Repeat for each partner or program account for which you want to make an adjustment.

To create a Reinstatement credit

Use the following procedure to create a Reinstatement credit.

Navigate to the MDF Program Account screen, then the Program Account view.
Drill down on the program account record for the partner to whom you want to reinstate credit.
Navigate to the Checkbook (RW) view and add a new record.

Complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Type	Indicates the nature of the credit.
Sub Type	Further indicates the nature of the credit. This field is optional and does not affect how the MDF credit is processed.
Market	Indicates the market segments that are relevant to this partner.
Amount	Amount of the reinstatement credit.
Period Posted	Period during which this credit is posted.
Expiration Date	Date on which this credit is no longer available for the partner’s use.

Repeat for each partner or program account for which you want to make a reinstatement.

Overview of How Credits Affect the Monthly Snapshot

Adding a credit to a program account results in real-time changes to the current Monthly Snapshot. Some fields are described in the following table.

Table How Credits Affect the Monthly Snapshot

Field	Description
30	If the expiration date of the MDF credit is within the current period, the 30 field is increased by the new credit value.
60	If the expiration date of the MDF credit is within the second period, the 60 field is increased by the new credit value.
90	If the expiration date of the MDF credit is within the third period, the 90 field is increased by the new credit value.
90+	If the expiration date of the MDF credit is past 90 days, the 90+ field is increased by the new credit value.

Note: For adjustments, the values are either increased or decreased.

Creating a Preapproval

Using the Siebel PRM Portal, the reseller creates a preapproval so that it can request funds offered by the MDF.

The reseller creates a preapproval with several associated line items. Line items allow the partner to identify specific items required for the marketing activity and their estimated cost.

To create a preapproval

In the Siebel PRM Portal, navigate to the MDF Pre-Approvals screen, then the My Pre-Approvals view.

Add a new record and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Pre-Approval #	Automatically generated number for the preapproval.
Pre-Approval Name	Description of the preapproval.
Status	Approval status of the preapproval.
Program Name	Name of the program to which the program account associated with this preapproval belongs.
Program Account	Program account against which the preapproval was created.
Assigned To	Name of person responsible for reviewing and approving this preapproval.
Partner	Name of the partner account that is submitting the preapproval request.
Submitted By	Name of person who submitted this preapproval.
Total Amount Proposed	Sum total of the values in each Amount Proposed field in the line items.
Total Participation Amount	This value is equal to the participation rate multiplied by the amount proposed as part of the preapproval request. The participation rate value comes from the MDF program.
Total Amount Approved	Calculated field. The amount is rolled up from the preapproval line items.

Drill down on the Preapproval record and navigate to the Line Items view.

Add a new record for each component of this preapproval and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Category	Indicates the kind of item this is. Values include Advertisement, Seminar, Conference, Trade Show, and Collateral.
Market	Market segments relevant to this partner.
Vendor Name	Name of the vendor supplying the good or service indicated in the line item.
Start Date	Date the specified marketing activity starts.
End Date	Date the specified marketing activity ends.
Participation Rate	This value is inherited from the MDF Program Participation Rate.
Participation Amount	Calculated field indicating the maximum amount the brand owner contributes. The value comes from the participation rate multiplied by the proposed amount.
Amount Approved	Calculated field indicating how much the brand owner approves for a given line item. This defaults to the participation amount multiplied by the approved percentage.
Category	Indicates the kind of item this is. Values include Advertisement, Seminar, Conference, Trade Show, and Collateral.
Market	Market segments relevant to this partner.
Vendor Name	Name of the vendor supplying the good or service indicated in the line item.
Start Date	Date the specified marketing activity starts.
End Date	Date the specified marketing activity ends.
Participation Rate	This value is inherited from the MDF Program Participation Rate.
Participation Amount	Calculated field indicating the maximum amount the brand owner contributes. The value comes from the participation rate multiplied by the proposed amount.
Amount Approved	Calculated field indicating how much the brand owner approves for a given line item. This defaults to the participation amount multiplied by the approved percentage.

Navigate to the Activity or Activity Plans view to associate activities with this preapproval.
In the Status field of the preapproval form, select Submitted to submit the preapproval, and then save your changes.

Reviewing a Preapproval

After a preapproval has been submitted, the channel account manager reviews it. He or she can change amounts, reject line items, and approve as appropriate.

To review a preapproval

Navigate to the MDF Pre-Approval screen, then the All Pre-Approvals view.
Drill down on the preapproval you want to review.
Navigate to the Line Items view to review each line item.
In the Status field of each line item, select one of the following:
1. If you approve the line item, select Accepted As Is.
2. If you approve the line item but have made changes to it, select Accepted With Changes.
3. If you do not approve the line item, select Denied.
4. If you want the partner to make changes, select Returned.
In the preapproval form, the value in the Status field must be Submitted and can then be changed to one of the following:
- Accepted
- Rejected
- Pending
- Returned
- On Hold

Creating a Claim

After the partner has completed the activity for which it submitted the preapproval, the partner can create a claim and submit it to obtain the funds.

One preapproval can have several claims associated with it, but a claim can be associated only with one preapproval.

To create a claim

In the Siebel PRM Portal, navigate to the MDF Claim screen.

Add a new record and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Status	Status of the claim. Values vary depending on where the claim is in the review process.
Pre-Approval #	Indicates the preapproval against which this claim is being made. All claims originate from a preapproval.
Claim Name	Name of the claim.
Program Name	Name of the program from which this claim originates.
Has Enough Funds	If this check box is selected, it indicates that the internal available balance field is greater than or equal to the total amount approved field.
Total Amount Claimed	Total sum of money requested by the reseller.
Total Amount Approved	Total sum of approved line items.
Total Participation Amount	This value is equal to the participation rate multiplied by the amount proposed. The participation rate value comes from the MDF program.

Save the claim, drill down on it, and enter more information in the More Info form as needed. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Description
Claim Category	Choose from a variety of types of events to describe what this claim is for.
Pre-Approval Category	Type of preapproval event. This value comes from the preapproval record.
Promotion Name	Provide the name used to promote your event.

Navigate to the Line Items view, add a new record for each completed activity or task outlined in the preapproval, and complete the necessary fields.

Field	Description
Amount Claimed	Indicates how money much is being requested for this line item.
Name	Enter a name for this line item.

In the claim form, in the Status field, select Submitted to submit the claim.
Save your changes.

Reviewing a Claim

After the reseller submits a claim, the channel manager reviews it and decides whether it is approved.

To review a claim

Navigate to the MDF Claim screen.
In the Claims list, drill down on the claim you want to review.
Navigate to the Line Items view and review each of the claim’s line items.
For each line item, enter values in the Amount Approved and Final Amount Approved fields.

Note: Amount Approved could be different from Final Amount Approved if the final approver has to make changes. Final Amount Approved is the field used for back-office processing.
In the Status field of each line item, select one of the following:
- If you approve the line item, select Accepted As Is.
- If you approve the line item but have made changes to it, select Accepted With Changes.
- If you do not approve the line item, select Denied.
- If you want the partner to make changes, select Returned.
In the claim form, change the value from In Progress to one of the following:
- If you approve the claim, select Accepted.
- After you change the Status field to Accepted, the claim is processed. If there are sufficient funds and the employee has a sufficient approval limit, then the claim status is automatically set to Final Approval and the appropriate debits are created.
  
  Note: The status of an accepted claim is not sent to Final Approval if the claim amount is higher than the approval limit of the channel manager. In this situation, the Reserved field in the current Monthly Snapshot is increased by the claim amount. The Reserved field is decreased by the claim amount when the claim is approved or rejected by a manager with the appropriate approval limit.
- If you do not approve the claim, select Denied.
- The claim cannot be edited any further.
- If you want to make changes to the claim before approving, select Returned.
- The reseller can change the status to Pending and continue to work on the claim.

About MDF Debits

Debits are read-only and created automatically only after a claim line item is approved. There are two types of MDF debits:

Paid. This type of debit is created after an MDF claim is approved by the channel manager and the status is set to Final Approval by the Siebel Business Application.
Forfeiture. Any unused credit for the current period is forfeited when the HTIM MDF Period Ending Process workflow is executed at the end of the current period. In this situation, a Forfeiture debit is created with the value of the unused credit.

Debit creation results in real-time changes to the Monthly Snapshot. The following table describes the changes that occur when a Paid debit is created.

Table Changes in the Monthly Snapshot Resulting from a Paid Debit

Field	Description
Paid	The value is increased by the debit amount.
Ending Balance	The value is decreased by the debit amount.
Available Balance	The value is decreased by the debit amount.
30	If the available credit in this field is more than the MDF debit, the value is decreased by the debit amount. If the balance is zero (0) or less than the MDF debit amount, the balance remains 0 or is decreased to 0.
60	If the available credit in this field is more than the remaining debit amount after debiting available credit from the 30 field, this field is decreased by the remaining MDF debit. If the available credit is less than the remaining debit amount, the balance remains 0 or is decreased to 0.
90	If the available credit in this field is more than the remaining debit amount after debiting the available credit from the 30 and 60 fields, this field is decreased by the remaining MDF debit. If the available credit is less than the remaining debit amount, the balance remains 0 or is decreased to 0.
90+	If the entire MDF debit was not used against the available credit balance in the 30, 60 or 90 fields, this field is decreased by the remaining debit amount.

The following table describes the changes that occur in the Monthly Snapshot when a Forfeiture is created.

Table Changes in the Monthly Snapshot Resulting from a Forfeiture

Field	Description
Forfeited	The value is increased by the debit amount.
30	The value is decreased to 0.
Ending Balance	The value is decreased by the debit amount.
Available Balance	The value is decreased by the debit amount.

HTIM MDF Period Ending Process Workflow

On the last day of the current period, the MDF program account Monthly Snapshot for the current period is closed and a new Monthly Snapshot for the next period is created. This process is executed by running the HTIM MDF Period Ending Process workflow. For information about enabling this workflow, see Process of Setting Up MDF Programs.

The workflow appears in the image below.

This workflow performs the following steps:

Queries for the next period with an end date that is less than or equal to the current date and where the type is HTIM MDF Snapshot Month.
Checks if today is the end of the current period and if there are subsequent periods available:
- If the period has not ended or there is no subsequent period available, the workflow ends.
- If the period has ended and a subsequent period is available, the workflow creates a new Monthly Snapshot for each active MDF program account. Some fields in the new Monthly Snapshot are described in the following table.

Table Monthly Snapshot Fields

Field	Description
Beginning Balance	Same value as the Ending Balance of the previous Monthly Snapshot.
Accrued	Total of all MDF accrual credits for the current new period. The value is always 0 when the new Monthly Snapshot is created.
Adjusted	Total of all MDF adjustment credits for the current new period. The value is always 0 when the new Monthly Snapshot is created.
Reinstated	Total of all MDF reinstatement credits for the current new period. The value is always 0 when the new Monthly Snapshot is created.
Paid	Total amount of all MDF debits paid for the current new period. The value is always 0 when the new Monthly Snapshot is created.
Reserved	Same value as the Reserved field in the previous Monthly Snapshot.
30	Same value as the 60 field in the previous Monthly Snapshot.
60	Same value as the 90 field in the previous Monthly Snapshot.
90	Value is TC90-TP90 where: TC90 is the Total Credits expiring within 60 to 90 days of this new period. TP90 is the Total Paid amounts equal or less than the total credits expiring within 60 to 90 days of this period.
90+	Value is TC90Plus-TP90Plus where: TC90Plus is the Total Credits expiring within 90+ days of this period. TP90Plus is the Total Paid amounts equal or less than the total credits expiring within 90-plus (+) days of this period.
Available Balance	Total of 30, 60, 90 and 90+ field values.