Working with Deal Registrations

This chapter describes how to set up and use deal registrations. It contains the following topics:

About Deal Registrations

Deal registration is a process by which a partner registers an opportunity with a vendor to make sure that the opportunity is not taken away or undercut by another partner or the vendor’s direct sales force. Some of the key features of deal registration are as follows:

Flexible creation mechanism. Both the vendor and partners can create and submit deal registrations. This mechanism enables partners who do not have access to Siebel PRM to enjoy the benefits of deal registration.
Configurable approval process. The approval process associated with deal registrations is configurable. Approvers can be individuals or specific job roles. Approvals can be parallel or sequential. Multiple levels of approvals are supported.
Automatic expiration of approved registrations. An expiration date can be set for a deal registration when it is approved. If a date was set, the deal registration automatically expires on the specified date. This feature enables the vendor to set expiration dates for deal registrations.
Approvers can view potential duplicates. Deal registration includes built-in logic to identify potential duplicates. Before approving a deal registration, approvers can view other deal registrations that might be potential duplicates. This feature enables an approver to make an informed decision when approving a deal registration.
Enforcement of one approved registration for each opportunity. The deal registration process automatically makes sure that an opportunity never has multiple, approved deal registrations.

Scenario for Registering a Deal

This topic provides an example of how deal registration might be used. You might use deal registrations differently, depending on your business model.

In this scenario, a partner creates a deal registration. A manufacturing company specializes in the manufacture of a wide variety of electronic components used in personal computers, servers, and software. It uses licensed distributor to sell its products.

A sales manager at one licensed distributor learns of a potential opportunity for a customer that requires several hundred CAD licences. Upon further discussion with the design team at the customer company, the sales manager is certain that their requirements can be met by one of the manufacturing company’ products.

The sales manager wants to make sure that the time and effort he spends working on this opportunity is not wasted. The reality of the market is such that many companies compete for one opportunity. As such, he wants to make the manufacturing company aware of the fact that he was the first person to communicate with the design team at this customer about this opportunity. Submitting a deal registration with the manufacturing company makes sure that the opportunity is not poached by another partner or by the direct sales team at the manufacturing company.

The sales manager logs in to Siebel Partner Portal and creates a deal registration for the opportunity with this customer. He submits the deal registration for approval. One or multiple approvers at the manufacturing company review the deal registration. Among the various pieces of information that are reviewed is whether there are any other approved deal registrations for the same opportunity. The approvers find that all conditions have been met, and approve the sales manager’s deal registration. He is now guaranteed that he has exclusive rights to this opportunity with this customer. Safe with the knowledge that he is the only person selling the manufacturing company’ products to this customer for this specific opportunity, he now invests more time and effort in successfully closing the sale.

Setting Up the Deal Registration Approval Flow

Setting up the deal registration approval flow involves defining a list of users who are required to approve the deal registration, and defining whether the approval is parallel or sequential.

To set up the deal registration approval flow

Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the Approval Admin view, and then click Query.
In the Approval Item field, enter Deal Registration Approval, and click Go.
In the Approval Flow Type field, do one of the following:
- Select Parallel only if one user is required to approve a deal registration.
- Select Sequential if deal registration must be approved by multiple users.
In the Approval Stage subview, set the Approval Type, and define the list of users or positions that are required to approve deal registrations. Optionally, set the sequence of approvers.

Submitting a Deal Registration

Distributors must use Siebel Partner Portal to submit deal registrations. All deal registrations must be associated with a new or existing opportunity.

Vendors can submit a deal registration on a partner’s behalf. The vendor uses Siebel Partner Manager. The following steps apply to both Siebel Partner Portal and Siebel Partner Manager.

To submit a deal registration

In Siebel Partner Portal or Siebel Partner Manager, navigate to Opportunities screen, then the List view.
Create a new opportunity, or drill down on an existing opportunity.
For more information on creating opportunities, see Example of Partners Creating and Working on Opportunities.
Navigate to the Registrations view.
Add a new record to create a deal registration, enter information about the deal, and save the record.
To submit the deal registration, change the status to Submitted.

The deal registration is sent to the vendor for review.

Approving a Deal Registration

When a deal registration is submitted, it is available for approval by the vendor.

To approve a deal registration

Navigate to the Administration - Inbox screen, then the All Submitted Items view.
A deal registration that requires approval is displayed in the inbox of the current approver.
Drill down on the deal registration.
Check if there are potential duplicates by navigating to the Similar Registrations view.

Note: Opportunities identified as potential duplicates must share the same end customer and have at least one product in common.
Approve, reject or return the deal registration.
If and when the final approver approves, the status of the deal registration changes to Approved.

Only one deal registration can be approved for each opportunity. If other deal registrations are submitted for the same opportunity, they appear in the registrations list, but you cannot approve them until the current approved registration expires.