Managing Design Programs

This chapter describes how to use Siebel PRM to create and manage design programs. It contains the following topics:

About Design Programs

A design program is a collaborative activity involving two organizations:

The first organization makes products that can be included as a component in various products.
The second organization manufactures products that might include the former’s components.

Often, but not always, design programs also involve a third organization, which is a business partner (distributor, reseller, and so on) of the first organization. Typically, the first organization is referred to as the component manufacturer (or, component supplier), and the latter as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).

A design program is an opportunity business component that includes one or more design opportunities. A design opportunity is a convenient mechanism to divide a design program into smaller activities, so that you can track and manage them independently. For example, different people might have to approve different parts of a design program. Subdividing the design program into several design opportunities allows you to accomplish assign it to different people.

In addition, a design opportunity might include one or more design registrations. A design registration is a mechanism to establish exclusive rights over a design opportunity. The design registration process is designed, so that a design opportunity can have only one approved design registration at any time.

Note: A design registration is always associated with a design opportunity, which in turn is always associated with a design program.

About Design Program Users

The following users use design programs:

Component manufacturer. Refers to the organization that manufactures products (components) that can be included in other products. Typical examples of component manufacturers are companies that produce semiconductor chips (included in electronic devices), special light bulbs (used in automobiles), and so on. Component manufacturers are sometimes also referred to as component suppliers or vendors. In the context of this chapter, the terms component manufacturer, component supplier, and vendor are synonymous, and refer to the organization that has deployed Siebel PRM to interact with its business partners.
Distributor. Refers to an organization that has a business relationship with the component manufacturer. The nature of the business relationship typically includes, but is not restricted to, reselling the component manufacturer’s products to other organizations, such as OEMs, other distributors or resellers, retail end customers, and so on.
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Refers to a company that includes components made by one or more component manufacturers within its own products. A typical example of an OEM might be the manufacturer of a computer that includes the semiconductor chip as one of its components. This chip is made by a component manufacturer.

Scenario for a Partner or Distributor Creating a Design Program

In this scenario, a technology company is selling its products through an indirect sales network that consists of partners or distributors around the world.

A licensed partner of this technology company specializes in reselling the latter's memory chips, video cards, transistors, capacitors, and so on to several OEMs in the high-tech industry. A sales representative at the partner company has developed a good working relationship with several OEM contacts. He gets information that one of the OEMs that the partner company supplies to is designing a high-end server. He gathers that the design is still at an early stage, and the OEM is actively sourcing suitable components to include in the final design. He realizes that some of the components manufactured by a technology company are good candidates for inclusion in the new server product.

The sales representative logs in to Siebel Partner Portal, and creates a new design program. He indicates that he is working with an established design firm with an in-depth knowledge of a technology company's products, during the design phase.

After creating the design program, he identifies the technology company products that might be considered for inclusion in the new server product. Because several technology company products are likely to be evaluated by the OEM for inclusion in its server, he logically groups them by some criteria, such as function, win probability, and so on. For each logical product group, he creates a design opportunity. The design program now consists of one or more design opportunities, with each opportunity encapsulating a set of a technology company products.

After creating the design opportunities, the sales representative registers them with the technology company. Registering the design opportunity formally establishes that it belongs to the partner company, thus preventing poaching by other partners or even by the direct sales force of the technology company. A formal establishment of ownership is also crucial to earn expected financial incentives, such as commissions, bonuses, discounts, and so on.

The design registration administrator at the technology company logs in to Siebel Partner Manager and navigates to the Design Registrations List view and drills down to the specific registration. The drill-down presents the administrator with a single-page view of the design registration, which includes details about the registration, the parent design opportunity, the grandparent design program and any potential duplicate registrations. This information enables her to make an informed decision on whether to approve, reject or return the design registration.

The design registration administrator is satisfied that the design registration provides a legitimate option to expand the company's business, and gives her approval.

The technology company’s approval indicates that the technology company has accepted the partner company’s claim of ownership of the specific design opportunity, and is a crucial pre-requisite for subsequent financial compensation if the initiative eventually succeeds.

As the design progresses, the partner company sales representative adds notes, records activities, and uploads attachments to both the design program as well as the appropriate design opportunities. He also captures any changes that might be pertinent to the design program, such as the number of servers estimated to be sold annually by the OEM.

Once the partner company sales representative and the OEM team finalize the configuration of the server, the sales representative logs back in to Siebel Partner Portal, and requests concurrence from the technology company to upgrade the status of the design opportunity to Design Win. The technology company has configured their Siebel Business Application in such a manner that requests for upgrading to Design Win have to be approved by a design registration administrator. Therefore, the administrator is notified that a design opportunity must be approved. She logs in to Siebel Partner Manager, checks the details specified on the design opportunity, and approves it. The status of the design opportunity is updated to Design Win.

Around the same time, the OEM finalizes the design for its server and decides to move it into production. This represents the beginning of a constant revenue inflow for the technology company because its components are present in the new server product. Therefore, from the technology company's perspective, this is a business event of substantial significance. To reflect this fact, a sales representative updates the phase of the design program to Production. This update triggers two processes - creation of a revenue template and creation of a forecast series. The revenue template contains a line item for every product on every design opportunity that brings in revenue. Simultaneously, a forecast series is also created for the design program. The period on the forecast series is set to be the same as that of the design program by default, and the search specification is set to include only the revenue directly associated with the design program.

As the OEM begins to ramp up the manufacture of its new high-end server, it has a need for the technology company's components. Therefore, the OEM gets in touch with the partner company and requests to buy the technology company’s components that are included in the server. The partner company’s sales representative requests a Special Pricing Authorization from the technology company, so that he can get a higher margin when reselling to the OEM. For more information about Special Pricing Authorization, see Working with Special Pricing Authorization.

Scenario for a Vendor Creating a Design Program

In this scenario, distributors are not involved, and the component manufacturer interacts directly with the OEM. Because design registrations are a mechanism for distributors to specify that a noncompetitive situation exists for their design opportunities, they are typically not required in such situations. Additionally, special pricing authorizations are not required in this scenario, because there are no distributors involved. However, for the purposes of internal revenue forecasting and tracking, the vendor might still create the design program (and the associated design opportunities) using Siebel Partner Manager.

A technology company produces many different products, such as printers, motherboards, servers, circuit boards, and so on.

The OEM is the end customer that buys products from the technology company to include within their own products, and subsequently sells them under their own brand name.

The technology company sales representative establishes direct contact with the OEM to find out more about the new server they are designing and developing. After gathering sufficient information, he logs in to Siebel Partner Manager, and creates a design program.
The sales representative creates design opportunities to logically group components that the OEM is considering to include in its new server. He works with engineers in his company (or, through an external design firm) to finalize a configuration that is compatible with the new server product. The OEM evaluates the proposed configuration and, after further refinements to the design, accepts it. The sales representative updates the design opportunity status and design program phase appropriately. A revenue template and forecast series are created in the background when the design program is updated to Production, thus facilitating forecasting. The OEM now places its order with the technology company.

Roadmap for Managing a Design Program

To manage a design program, perform the following process and tasks:

Process of Setting Up a Design Program

To set up a design program, perform the following tasks:

Configuring Design Opportunity Status

You can configure the statuses associated with a design opportunity, and you can modify them to suit specific business requirements. You can rename the status values and their associated win probabilities. You can also specify whether a specific design opportunity status is treated as being open, won, or lost. This feature is important, because the values that you specify influence the approval process, revenue figures, and so on.

Design opportunities use the status values associated with only two sales methods: design opportunity sales method and design opportunity won sales method. Therefore, limit your configuration changes to these two sales methods only.

To configure a design opportunity status

Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Sales Methods view.
Query for the Sales Method of either Design Opportunity or Design Opportunity Won, and make changes as appropriate.

Defining Design Opportunity Approvers

Define a list of users who must approve a design opportunity before the status changes to win.

To define a design opportunity approver

Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the Approval Admin view.
Query for the Approval Item of Design Opportunity Approval.
In the Approval Stage list, add records and specify users or positions who must give their approval for a design opportunity to be considered a win.

You can also specify whether the approval process is sequential or parallel. In the sequential process, all listed users must approve. In the parallel process only one user must approve. For more information on the approval administration process, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Defining Design Registration Approvers

Define users or positions that must approve a design registration.

To define a design registration approver

Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the Approval Admin view.
Query for the Approval Item of Design Registration Approval.
In the Approval Stage list, add records and specify users or positions who must give their approval for a design registration to be considered a win.

Creating a Design Program

Before you can create a design registration, you must create a design program.

This task is a step in Roadmap for Managing a Design Program.

To create a design program

Navigate to the Design Programs screen.
In the design programs list, add a new record.

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

Field	Description
End Customer	Name of the organization for which the design program is being considered.
Partner	The partner or distributor organization that acts as the liaison between the component supplier and the end customer. This field typically remains blank if the component supplier interacts directly with the end customer. Note: This field is informational and does not control access to the design program. In Siebel Partner Portal, this field displays the organization of the active position by default. It is always read-only. In Siebel Partner Manager, this field does not display any value by default. Additionally, it can be modified, enabling the partner manager to specify a partner.
Potential Revenue	The sum of open revenue and won revenue.
Phase	The current stage of the design program.
Production Probability	Denotes the probability that the design program might result in revenue for the component supplier.
Organization	This field is set to the organization of the active position of the creator in both Siebel Partner Manager and Siebel Partner Portal by default. This field controls access to the design program; that is, users of organizations specified in this field can gain access to it.
Estimated Units	Estimated units for each period. This field is an estimate of how many units of the program the end customer is likely to manufacture in the unit of time specified in (time units); that is, month, quarter, year, and so on.
Probability Reason	Description of the reasoning behind the specified production probability.
Primary Design Account	Name of the design firm designing the product. Frequently, the end customer is also the design firm, but OEMs also work with a design firm or OEM.
Time Unit	The values are: weeks, months, quarters, years.
Primary Design Rep.	Informational field. Indicates the main point-of-contact for the design program.
Assigned To	Informational field. The individual who has overall responsibility for the design program.

Several fields on a design program become read-only when the phase is one of the following: production, cancelled, or end of life. A design program has several views. Navigate to the different views to see more information about the design program.

Creating a Design Opportunity (Partner)

Design opportunities are used to divide a design program into smaller activities, so that you can track and manage them independently.

This task is a step in Roadmap for Managing a Design Program.

To create a design opportunity

In the Partner Portal, navigate to the Design Programs screen.
Select an existing design program for which you want to create a design opportunity.
Drill down on the design programs record, and navigate to the Design Opportunities view.
Enter the products you want to include in the design opportunity, as well as expected revenue. Complete the other fields as appropriate.
To submit the design opportunity for approval, click Submit for Win.
The design opportunity is routed to the configured approvers.

Creating a Design Registration (Partner)

Design registrations are used to establish exclusive rights over a design opportunity. The design registration process is designed, so that a design opportunity can have only one approved design registration at any given point in time.

This task is a step in Roadmap for Managing a Design Program.

To create a design registration

In the Partner Portal, navigate to the Design Programs screen.
Select an existing design program for which you want to create a design registration.
Drill down on the design programs record, navigate to the Design Opportunities view, and then to the Registrations view.
add a new record to create a design registration, enter information about the design, and save the record.
To submit the design registration for approval, select Submitted in the Status field.
The design registration is routed to the configured approvers.

Approving a Design Opportunity

The approval process for a design opportunity is initiated when a partner or vendor selects the opportunity and navigates to Submit for Win.

This task is a step in the Roadmap for Managing a Design Program.

To approve a design opportunity

Navigate to Administration - Inbox screen, then the All Submitted Items view.
A design opportunity that requires approval is displayed in the inbox of the current approver.
In the More Info form, in the Action field, select Approved or Rejected. opportunity.
If and when the final approver approves, the status of the design opportunity changes to Win.
When the status becomes Win, most of the information on the design opportunity becomes read-only.

Approving a Design Registration

The approval process for design registrations makes sure that a similar request has not been submitted by another partner. For example, several distributors might identify a potential opportunity and try to submit a design registration against it. The vendor might want to specify that only one distributor registers the opportunity, so it is essential to provide the approver with a mechanism to identify potential duplicates.

Potential duplicate design registrations are identified based on the following criteria:

They have at least one product in common on the parent design opportunity.
They have the same end customer.
The status of the potential duplicate registration is Submitted, Approved, Pending Review, Rejected, or Expired.

Only those design registrations created in the past n days are considered. In the preconfigured version of Siebel PRM, n is 366 days by default. However, customers can modify this number to suit their business needs.

This task is a step in Roadmap for Managing a Design Program.

To approve a design registration

Navigate to Administration - Inbox screen, then the All Submitted Items view.
A design registration that requires approval is displayed in the inbox of the current approver.
Drill down on the design registration to the single page view.
Check if there are potential duplicates by navigating to the Similar Registrations view.
In the More Info form, in the Action field, select Approved or Rejected.
If and when the final approver approves, the status of the design registration changes to Approved.