Managing Partner Commerce

This chapter describes how you can use Siebel PRM to manage partner commerce. It looks at ways that you can use partner commerce to sell to partners, and at ways that partners use partner commerce to sell to customers. It includes the following topics:

About Partner Commerce

Siebel PRM supports the following types of partner commerce:

Standard Partner Commerce. Allows partners to create quotes and orders using a shopping cart, as customers do using Siebel Sales. Standard partner commerce is straightforward and can be used by partners with little or no training.
Power Partner Commerce. Allows partners to create quotes and orders using the Quotes and Orders screens, as your own employees do using Siebel Partner Manager, Siebel Sales or other Siebel Business Applications. Power partner commerce might require more training and has more capabilities.
Personal Partner Commerce. Allows partners to buy only on their own account, not on behalf of a customer.

Setting Up Partners for Standard, Power, and Personal Commerce

Whether partner employees use standard partner commerce, power partner commerce, or personal partner commerce views depends on their responsibilities.

Responsibility controls which views the partner can use. You assign partners a responsibility that allows them to access the standard partner commerce views or a responsibility that allows them to access the power partner commerce views.

To set up a partner employee as a standard partner commerce user

Navigate to the Administration - User screen, then the Employees view.
In the Employees list, drill down on the name of the partner.
In the More Info form, in the Responsibility field, click the Multiple Select button.
In the Responsibilities dialog box, add a new record.
In the Add Responsibilities dialog box, select the responsibility named "Partner Commerce Standard User," click OK to add it to the user’s responsibilities, and then click OK in the Add Responsibilities dialog box.

To set up a partner employee as a power partner commerce user

Use the following procedure to set up a partner employee as a power partner commerce user.

Navigate to the Administration - User screen, then the Employees view.
In the Employees list, drill down on the name of the partner.
In the More Info form, in the Responsibility field, click the Multiple Select button.
In the Responsibilities dialog box, add a new record.
In the Add Responsibilities dialog box, select the responsibility named "Partner Commerce Power User," click OK to add it to the user’s responsibilities, and then click OK in the Add Responsibilities dialog box.

To set up a partner employee as a personal partner commerce user

Use the following procedure to set up a partner employee as a personal partner commerce user.

Navigate to the Administration - User screen, then the Employees view.
In the Employees list, drill down on the name of the partner.
In the More Info form, in the Responsibility field, click the Multiple Select button.
In the Responsibilities dialog box, add a new record.
In the Add Responsibilities dialog box, select the responsibility named "Partner Commerce Personal User," click OK to add it to the user’s responsibilities, and then click OK in the Add Responsibilities dialog box.

About Standard Partner Commerce

Your partners can use standard partner commerce to shop in two ways:

Partners Shopping for Themselves. The partner is your customer.
Partners Shopping for Customers. The partner is your sales agent, selling your products to customers.

In both of these methods, partners use the Siebel Sales catalog to choose products. For more information about setting up and using Siebel Sales, see Siebel eSales Administration Guide.

Partners Shopping for Themselves

Partners can place orders for themselves to replenish their store inventory or to order new products that the brand owner has made available to them as product offers.

After shopping, partners use the My Quotes and My Orders views in the Quotes and Orders screens in the Siebel PRM Portal to track the quotes and orders that they created.

Partners shop for themselves in the same way whether they use standard partner commerce or power partner commerce.

If partners are using personal partner commerce, the Siebel CRM system skips the step that asks the partners whether they are shopping for themselves or for customers, because they can only shop for themselves.

To shop for themselves

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Product Catalog screen.
The partner browses the catalog and adds an item to the Shopping Cart.
The New Cart form appears, with the question Who are you shopping for?
The Partner clicks My Company.
The shopping cart appears.
The partner continues to browse the catalog and add items.
While browsing, the partner can click the Shopping Cart icon at any time to display the shopping cart.
In the shopping cart, the partner can click Check Out to complete the purchase, or the partner can click Save Cart to save the cart as a quote.
If the partner has saved the cart as a quote, it can be viewed by navigating to the My Quotes view.

Partners Shopping for Customers

Partners with Standard Partner Commerce have only the easiest to use method of shopping for customers. Partners with Power Partner Commerce have additional methods of shopping for customers.

Shopping for Customers Using Standard Partner Commerce (partner)

Your partners’ sales agents can use the Siebel PRM Portal to shop, provide quotes, and place orders for their customers, for example, if the partners are resellers of your products. This is more complicated than shopping for themselves, because resellers could have different price lists for different customers, based on geography, account, or other factors.

After shopping, partners use the My Customer Quotes and My Customer Orders views in the Quotes and Orders screens in the Siebel PRM Portal to track quotes and orders that they created.

To shop for customers using Standard Partner Commerce, the partner uses the shopping cart and product catalog.

This method gives the partner a simple shopping process. It does not allow the partner to specify line item Ship To addresses.

To shop for customers using Standard Partner Commerce (partner)

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner using Standard Partner Commerce navigates to the Product Catalog screen.
The partner browses the catalog and adds an item to the Shopping Cart.
The New Cart form appears, with the question Who are you shopping for?
The Partner clicks A Customer.
The Customer Information form appears.
In the Customer Information form, the partner selects the customer’s account, last name, price list, and to link the sale to an opportunity. After selecting the customer’s account, the partner can select a price list for that account.
In the Customer Information form, the Partner clicks Next.
The Shopping Cart form appears, with the Customer Information form.
The partner continues to browse the catalog and add items for the customer.
When the shopping cart is displayed, the partner can edit the information in the Customer Information form.
In the shopping cart, the partner can click Check Out to complete the purchase, or the partner can click Save Cart to save the cart as a quote.
If the partner has saved the cart as a quote, it can be viewed by navigating to the My Customer Quotes view in the Quotes Screen.

Shopping for Customers Using Power Partner Commerce (partner)

Your partners’ sales agents can use the Siebel PRM Portal to shop, provide quotes, and place orders for their customers, for example, if the partners are resellers of your products. This is more complicated than shopping for themselves, because resellers could have different price lists for different customers, based on geography, account, or other factors.

After shopping, partners use the My Customer Quotes and My Customer Orders views in the Quotes and Orders screens in the Siebel PRM Portal to track quotes and orders that they created.

To shop for customers using Power Partner Commerce, the partner can follow any of the following three processes:

Use the Shopping Cart and Product Catalog
Use the Quotes Screen and the Product Catalog
Use the Quotes Screen without the Product Catalog

Using the Shopping Cart and Product Catalog

This is the best option if the partner does not have to specify line item Ship To addresses and if you want a simple shopping process.

When they use this method, partners with Power Partner Commerce shop for customers in the same way as partners with Standard Partner Commerce. For instructions on how this is done, see the topic Partners Shopping for Customers.

Using the Quotes Screen and the Product Catalog

This is a good option if you have partners who are experienced users. The Quotes screen provides additional functionality, such as the ability to specify due date, effective date, through date, or different bill to and ship to addresses than the defaults for the account.

This option is only available to Power Partner Commerce users.

To shop using the Quotes screen and the Product Catalog

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner using Power Partner Commerce navigates to the Quotes screen.
The partner clicks the My Customer Quotes link.
The partner creates a new quote and enters Quote Header information, such as the account, contact, price list, and so on.
In the Quote Header form, the partner clicks Browse Catalog.
The partner browses the catalog and adds items to the cart.
In the catalog, the partner navigates to the Quote Detail view.
The partner reviews and, if necessary, edits line items in the quote.
The partner navigates to the Orders view.
The partner clicks Sales Order or Service Order to turn the quote into an order.

Using the Quotes Screen Without the Product Catalog

This is also a good option if you have partners who are experienced users. It provides the same functionality as the previous option. The difference is a matter of preference: some brand owners think the product catalog is easier for partners to understand and work with, so they use the previous method. Other brand owners think that it is faster for partners to make choices from a flat list of products, so they use this method.

This option is only available to Power Partner Commerce users.

To shop using the Quotes screen without the Product Catalog using Standard Partner Commerce

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner using Power Partner Commerce navigates to the Quotes screen.
In the Quotes form, the partner clicks the My Customer Quotes link.
In the Quotes list, the partner creates a new quote and enters Quote Header information, such as the account, contact, price list, and so on.
The partner navigates to the Line Items view.
In the Line Items list, the partner adds a new line item to the quote.
The partner selects a product for the new line item, enters the quantity, discount, and other information.
The partner continues to create a new line item for each product being purchased.
The partner navigates to the Orders view.
The partner clicks Sales Order or Service Order to turn the quote into an order.

Note: Partners can manage large quantities of quotes and orders for their customers using the bulk request functionality. For more information about bulk requests, see Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications.

Disabling Partner Commerce Workflows

When a partner adds an item to a new shopping cart, both standard partner commerce and power partner commerce call workflows that ask whether the partner is shopping on behalf of a customer or on their own behalf.

You can turn off this functionality by deleting the following parameter:

PostAddToCartLogic = eChannelShoppingScenarios

You must delete this parameter in both the Server Administration screen and the Siebel Server.

To disable the message that asks partners who they are shopping for

Use any text editor to open the configuration file for the Siebel PRM Portal, which is the file installation directory\siebsrvr\bin\lang\scw.cfg.
In the [InfraShoppingService] section of the file, delete the following line:
PostAddToCartLogic = eChannelShoppingScenarios
Change this parameter in the Server Administration screen:
1. Navigate to the Server Administration screen, then the Components.
2. Navigate to the Component Parameters view.
3. In the Components list, search for eChannel Object Manager in the Name field.
4. In the Component Parameters list, find the parameter PostAddToCartLogic and delete it.
Restart your server.

Removing the PRM Portal Shopping Cart Toolbar

The standard method of removing toolbars is not used for removing the Shopping Cart toolbar from the Siebel PRM Portal.

This topic gives high-level instructions for removing this toolbar. Do this only if you are experienced at working with Siebel Tools. For more information, see Using Siebel Tools.

To remove the PRM Portal shopping cart toolbar

In Siebel Tools, navigate to:
Web Page = Page Container Partner Portal Web Page
Web Page Item = Shopping Cart
Set Inactive = TRUE.