Managing Sales with Siebel PRM

This chapter describes examples that illustrate different ways that you can use Siebel PRM to manage sales. It also describes tools that Siebel PRM provides to help you manage sales. It includes the following topics:

About Managing Sales with Siebel PRM

This chapter describes examples of how you might use Siebel PRM to manage sales. It is not comprehensive; it simply gives you an idea of the many ways that Siebel PRM can be used. The sales examples fall into the following categories:

Partner-led sales. Partner sales agents work on opportunities generated by either the partner or brand owner company.
Collaborative sales. Partners and the brand owner work on opportunities together.

This chapter includes examples illustrating how the brand owner and partner can work together. For information about how partners can work with other partners, see Partner-to-Partner Collaboration.

In addition to these sales examples, this chapter describes these tools that are useful in managing sales:

Forecasting. You have several ways of forecasting partners’ sales, and this chapter provides forecasting examples.
Presentations and Proposals. You can create templates for presentations and proposals, which your partners can use to generate specific sales presentations and proposals.

Examples for Partner-Led Sales

The partner works on the opportunities in the following examples:

Example of Brand Owner Creating Opportunities and Assigning Them to Partners

This topic gives one example of how partners work with opportunities. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, opportunities are created by the brand owner company and assigned to specific partners.

This example applies to you if you generate opportunities through your marketing campaigns and you can clearly determine which partner follows up on each opportunity, for example, because each partner specializes in a different geographical territory or in a different product line.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Entering Opportunities (Brand Owner)

You can gather opportunities in a number of different ways, for example, at trade shows, through marketing campaigns, or through your Web site. The first step in working with an opportunity is to enter it into your Siebel Business Application. When you enter an opportunity, you are automatically added to the sales team as the primary.

If opportunities have already been entered in another application, you can import them into your Siebel Business Application using Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM) or Siebel Business Application Integration (EAI). For example, you might get opportunities through a Web site that stores them in another format, and then import them into the Siebel PRM Manager. For more information about EIM, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide. For more information about EAI, see Overview: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration. For more information about working with opportunities, see the chapter on opportunities in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

To enter a new opportunity

Navigate to the Opportunities screen, then the List view.
In the Opportunities list, add a new record to that list.
Enter information about the opportunity in the new record.

Assigning Opportunities to Partners (Brand Owner)

Next, assign the opportunities to the appropriate partner. You can do this manually, but it is generally better to use Siebel Assignment Manager to assign the opportunity by creating rules based on partners’ skills, expertise in a specific product, language ability, territory, workload and availability, or other criteria.

For example, you might assign all opportunities in Illinois for one of your product lines to a partner who is located there and has expertise in that product line.

You can assign opportunities to partners in two ways:

Assign opportunities to the partner company. To assign an opportunity to a partner company, enter that company’s organization in the Organization field of the Opportunity record. The opportunity is visible in the All Opportunities view for that organization, but it is not visible in the My Opportunities view for any employee of the organization. The partner company must designate a person who has visibility to the All Opportunities view to find these new opportunities and assign them to the appropriate employee.
Assign opportunities to partner employees. To assign an opportunity to a partner employee, you enter the employee’s name in the Sales Team field of the Opportunity record. The opportunity is visible in the My Opportunities view for that employee.

You can either assign the opportunities manually, or you can set up Assignment Manager to assign them automatically. Assignment Manager can add partner organizations to the opportunity’s Organization field or add partner employees to the opportunity’s Sales Team field. For more information about Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Working on the Opportunity (Partner)

After the opportunity has been assigned, partner employees work on it using the Siebel PRM Portal:

If the opportunity was assigned to a partner employee, that employee is on the sales team and can see the opportunity in the My Opportunities view.
If the opportunity was assigned to a partner organization, it appears in the All Opportunities view, but it does not appear in the My Opportunities view of any employees until partner employees are added to the sales team.

As partner employees work on an opportunity, they update information about that opportunity. For example, they might update activities related to the opportunity, create proposals and presentations for the opportunity, create quotes for the opportunity, and update contacts for that opportunity.

As partner sales agents learn more about the opportunity and get a clearer sense of the deal size, they can update the revenue items associated with the opportunity. The expected revenue, sales stage, and probability fields of the revenue record give you crucial information about the opportunity. For more information about opportunities and revenue, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

To add a revenue item to an opportunity using the Opportunities screen of the Siebel PRM Portal (partner)

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Opportunities screen.
In the Opportunities list, the partner drills down on the name of the opportunity to which revenue line items are added.
The partner navigates to the Revenues view.
In the Revenues list, the partner adds a new record.
In the new record, the partner enters information about product, quantity, price, type, and probability.
The revenue field is calculated automatically based on values in the price and quantity fields.
In the Revenues list, the partner navigates to the menu button, and clicks Update Opportunity.
The Revenue and Expected Revenue fields of the opportunity are updated.

To add a revenue item to an opportunity using customer quotes in the Siebel PRM Portal

Use the following procedure to add a revenue item to an opportunity using customer quotes in the Siebel PRM Portal.

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Opportunities screen, then the Opportunities List view.
The partner drills down on the name of the Opportunity record upon which the quote is based.
The partner navigates to the Quotes view, and in the Quotes list, the partner adds a new record.
The partner enters information about the new quote including the name of the quote, the price list that used for the quote, order terms, shipping terms, billing details, and shipping details. The prices from the price list that is selected are entered automatically for the items that are selected.
The partner can see the new quote in the Quotes list.
The partner drills down on the quote record that was just created.
In the Line Items list, the partner adds a new record.
In the new Line Item record, the partner enters the product, quantity, and other information.
The partner continues to add new line items, until the line items for the quote are added.
In the Quotes list, the partner clicks Update Opportunity.
The opportunity is updated with information from the line items of the quote. The revenues associated with the quote and the opportunity reflect prices from the selected price list.

Tracking the Opportunity (Brand Owner)

You can track a partner’s progress on opportunities by displaying the opportunities, looking at the activities attached to them, and looking at the status field of each opportunity to see if the sale has been closed.

Because you created the lead in this example, you are automatically the primary on the sales team. You can drill down on the opportunity record to view detail information about the lead. If you were not on the opportunity sales team, you could view this record in the Partner Operations screen, but you could not drill down into the opportunity record and view details.

Note: The Partner Operations screen displays opportunities if the partner company is listed in the Organization field.

To track a partner company’s opportunities

Navigate to the Partner Operations screen.
In the Partners list, drill down on the name of the partner company whose opportunities you want to see.
Navigate to the Opportunities view.
The partner’s opportunities appear.
Drill down on the name of an opportunity.
The Opportunity form appears.
Navigate to the different views to display information associated with that opportunity, such as revenues and activities.

Example of Brand Owner Creating Opportunities and Transferring Them to Partners

This topic gives one example of how partners work with opportunities. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

All the other examples in this chapter assume that you are working with partners who use the Siebel PRM Portal. However, you can also share opportunities with partners who do not use the Siebel PRM Portal by using opportunity transfer to move opportunity data to the partner’s customer relation management (CRM) system.

The brand owner can initiate the opportunity transfer. After the opportunity has been transferred, the brand owner can send updates to the partner that update the opportunity in the partner’s system, and the brand owner can query the partner’s system to receive updated information about the opportunity.

If the partner uses Siebel PRM or some other CRM system that supports opportunity transfer, the partner can also initiate an opportunity transfer, and then send updates to the brand owner’s system, or query the brand owner’s system to receive updates.

This business example for using opportunity transfer is similar to Example of Brand Owner Creating Opportunities and Assigning Them to Partners. It also applies to you if you generate opportunities through your marketing campaigns and you can clearly determine which partner follows up on each opportunity. However, it is appropriate when you are working with large partners who have their own CRM systems and do not use the Siebel PRM Portal.

This example shows how to transfer opportunities and send and receive updates manually. In practice, a brand owner can use Siebel Business Process Designer to automate the processes of transferring opportunities to partners and of sending and receiving updates.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Setting Up ASIs for Opportunity Transfer (Brand Owner)

Opportunity transfer uses Siebel’s Application Services Interfaces (ASIs) to synchronize your Siebel database with the partner’s CRM system.

Before you can transfer opportunities, you must set up the appropriate ASIs. There are three ASIs used for opportunity transfer, one to initiate the opportunity transfer data, one to send updates to the partner’s system, and one to query the partner’s CRM system to receive updates. For more information on setting up ASIs, see Setting Up Application Services Interfaces for Siebel PRM

Entering an Opportunity and Transferring It to a Partner (Brand Owner)

The brand owner gathers and enters information about the opportunity in the same way described in the previous example, Example of Brand Owner Creating Opportunities and Assigning Them to Partners. However, after entering the data, the brand owner navigates to the Transfer Opportunity button, rather than assigning ownership of the opportunity to a partner company or partner employee.

To enter a new opportunity

Navigate to the Opportunities screen, then the List view.
In the Opportunities list, add a new record to that list.
Enter information about the opportunity in the new record.
In the Organization field for the new record, select the partner organization.
Drill down on the name of the new opportunity.
Navigate to the Transfer view.
In the Transfer form, click Transfer.
A list of partners appears, including all partners who are set up for opportunity transfer.
Select the partner to whom you want to transfer the opportunity, and click OK.
The opportunity is transferred, and the Transfer Status field is updated with a value that specifies whether the transfer was successful.

Working on the Opportunity (Partner)

After the opportunity has been transferred, partner employees work on it in the same way they would work on any opportunity in their CRM system.

When the opportunity is transferred, all the contacts, revenues, notes, and activities associated with it are also transferred to your partner’s CRM system, and converted to the data used in that system. For example, if your partner’s system uses the word "lead" instead of "opportunity," the opportunity appears to the partner as a Lead record.

Tracking the Opportunity (Brand Owner)

You can track a partner’s progress on opportunities by using opportunity transfer to query the partner’s CRM system and to update the opportunity record and related information back in the Siebel PRM Manager.

For example, if the partner’s CRM system supports equivalent data, you can look at the Activity records attached to the opportunity, and look at the status field of each opportunity to see if the sale has been closed. If the partner has updated the revenue associated with the opportunity, you can use the Revenue record in your forecasting.

You can receive an update from a partner only if you already transferred the opportunity to the partner or if the partner transferred the opportunity to you.

To query the partner’s database to update an opportunity

Navigate to the Opportunities screen.
In the Opportunities list, select an opportunity that has been transferred to a partner.
Navigate to the Transfer view.
In the Transfer form, click Receive Update, and click OK to confirm the action.
Siebel PRM Manager queries the partner’s system for an update of the opportunity.

Example of Partners Creating and Working on Opportunities

This topic gives one example of how partners work with opportunities. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model. In this example, opportunities are created by the partner company and logged by the partner company for tracking purposes. Using the Siebel PRM Portal, sales agents at the partner company can enter opportunities they develop, share these opportunities with other agents at the partner company, and track the opportunities as they work on them. Using the Siebel PRM Manager, the channel manager at your company can also track the opportunities’ progress at partner companies.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Entering Opportunities (Partner)

In this example, your partners develop new opportunities and enter them into the Siebel system using the Siebel PRM Portal. When a partner enters an opportunity, the partner is automatically added to the Sales Team field as primary and the partner organization is automatically added to the Organization field.

To enter a new opportunity through the Siebel PRM Portal

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Opportunities screen.
In the Opportunities list, the partner adds a new record.
The partner enters information about the opportunity in the new record.

Sharing Opportunities (Partner)

Optionally, if the partner sales agent who entered the opportunity thinks that other sales agents at the partner company can help work the opportunity, then the agent can share the opportunity with the other agents by adding them to the Sales Team field. By default, the partner sales agent who added the record is the primary on the sales team.

The partner sales agents on the sales team see the opportunity whenever they display the My Opportunities view, and they can modify the opportunity record as they work on the opportunity. For more information about opportunities, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

To share an opportunity with other partner sales agents

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Opportunities screen.
In the Opportunities list, the partner selects the opportunity to be shared.
In the form for the opportunity, the partner clicks the Multiple Select button of the Sales Team field.
The Sales Team Members dialog box appears.
In the Sales Team Members dialog box, the partner adds desired employees to the sales team.
In the Sales Team Members dialog box, the partner reviews the list to make sure that the individuals who belong on the sales team are listed. Then, the partner clicks OK.

Tracking Opportunities (Partner)

Just as sales managers at your own company use Siebel Sales to track their direct reports’ progress on opportunities, managers at the partner company can use the Siebel PRM Portal to display the opportunities their direct reports have entered and track their progress on them.

To display your reports’ opportunities

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Opportunities screen, then the My Team’s Opportunities view.
Opportunities that have the manager on the sales team or one of the manager’s reports as the primary on the sales team appear.

Tracking Opportunities (Brand Owner)

Although your company does not develop or work opportunities in this example, your channel managers can display the opportunities for the partner companies that they manage, in order to track each partner company’s progress in selling your products.

In this example, the channel manager does not see detail information about the opportunity. To see detail information, the channel manager must be on the sales team for the opportunity. To make detail information visible, you can set up Siebel Assignment Manager to automatically add the channel manager to the sales team when a partner creates an opportunity, as described in the next example.

To view the opportunities of a partner company

In the Siebel PRM Manager, navigate to the Partner Operations screen.
In the Partners list, drill down on the name of the partner company whose opportunities you want to see.
Navigate to the Opportunities view.
The partner’s opportunities appear.

Examples for Collaborative Selling

The following topics look at three examples of how partners work on sales opportunities in collaboration with the brand owner:

Example of Brand Owner Creating Opportunities and Brand Owner and Partner Working Together on Them

This topic gives one example of how partners work on opportunities in collaboration with the brand owner. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, opportunities are created by the brand owner company and assigned to specific partner sales agents who work collaboratively on the opportunity with your sales agents.

This example is appropriate for you if you generate opportunities and you use partners’ help in following up on opportunities. For example, you might generate opportunities through a national marketing campaign, and when you follow up on these opportunities, you might need help from partners who specialize in training or in systems integration.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Entering the Opportunities (Brand Owner)

You might gather opportunities in a number of different ways, for example, at trade shows, through marketing campaigns, or through your Web site. The first step in working with an opportunity is to enter it into your Siebel Business Application.

When you enter an opportunity through the Siebel PRM Manager, you are automatically added as the primary on the sales team. For more information about opportunities, see the chapter on opportunities in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

To enter a new opportunity

Navigate to the Opportunities screen, then the Opportunities List view.
In the Opportunities list, add a new record.
Enter information about the opportunity in the new record.

Assigning Opportunities to Brand Owner Sales Agents (Brand Owner)

After you enter the opportunity, it must be assigned to the appropriate sales agent at your company. To assign an opportunity to a sales agent, you enter the employee’s name in the Sales Team field of the Opportunity record. The opportunity is then visible in the My Opportunities view for that employee.

You can assign the opportunity manually, but it is best to use Siebel Assignment Manager to assign the opportunity by creating rules based on geography, partners’ skills, expertise in a specific product, language ability, territory, workload and availability, or other criteria. For more information about Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Assigning Opportunities to Partners (Brand Owner)

Next, opportunities are assigned to the appropriate partner. You can do this manually or use Siebel Assignment Manager to assign the opportunity by creating rules based on partners’ skills, expertise in a specific product, language ability, territory, workload and availability, or other criteria.

You can assign opportunities to partners in two ways:

Assign opportunities to the partner company. To assign an opportunity to a partner company, you enter that company’s organization in the Organization field of the Opportunity record. The opportunity is visible in the All Opportunities view for that organization, but it is not visible in the My Opportunities view for any employee of the organization. The partner company must designate an employee to find new opportunities in the All Opportunities view and assign them to the appropriate employee.
Assign opportunities to partner employees. To assign an opportunity to a partner employee, you enter the employee’s name in the Sales Team field of the Opportunity record. Then the opportunity is visible in the My Opportunities view for that employee.

You can either assign the opportunities manually, or you can set up Assignment Manager to assign them automatically. Assignment Manager can add partner organizations to the opportunity’s Organization field or add partner employees to the opportunity’s Sales Team field.

It is usually difficult for you to keep track of the special skills of individual employees in partner companies, so it is more common to assign the opportunity to the partner company and have someone there assign it to the appropriate employee. For more information about Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Working Together on Opportunities (Brand Owner and Partner)

It is easier for you and the partner to work together on the lead, because both are on the sales team.

Whenever you display the My Opportunities view in the Siebel PRM Manager or the partner displays the My Opportunities view in the Siebel PRM Portal, the shared opportunity is included in the list. You can select the Opportunity record and do the following:

Share files. You and the partner can share files (such as Microsoft Word documents) that are useful for this opportunity by navigating to the Attachments view and adding records to the Shared Attachments list.
Share activities. You and the partner can log your activities as you work on this opportunity by navigating to the Activities view and adding records to the Activities list. You are always current about each other’s activities. You can also add future activities to the Activities view or add activity plans to the Activity Plans view for this opportunity, in order to invite other members of the sales team to work on these activities.
Share notes. You and your partner can share notes by adding activities to the opportunity and choosing the Note activity type.
Share revenue line items. As the partner sales agents learn more about the opportunity, they can add to it revenue line items, which indicate the potential revenue, chance of success, and sales stage. These are visible to both partner companies.
Create customized sales tools. You can use the brand owner's prebuilt proposal, presentation, and correspondence templates to create proposals, presentations, and letters based on this opportunity, giving you selling tools that are automatically customized for this opportunity and account.

Example of Partner Creating Opportunities and Brand Owner and Partner Working Together on Them

This topic gives one example of how partners work on opportunities in collaboration with the brand owner. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, opportunities are created by the partner companies, and the partners then call for help from sales agents at the brand owner company, so they can work in a joint selling effort.

This example is appropriate for you if your partners generate opportunities and need help working on the opportunity. For example, your partners might generate opportunities by attending trade shows, and when they follow up on these opportunities, they might need help from your sales agents who have special product knowledge.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Using Assignment Manager to Add Brand Owner Employees to the Sales Team (Brand Owner)

To make it easier to work with your partner, set up Siebel Assignment Manager so it automatically adds the appropriate employees from your company whenever partners enter new opportunities. You would probably want to add the following employees from your company:

Channel manager. Add the channel managers who are responsible for the partner companies that entered each opportunity, so they can track the opportunities. Because the channel managers are on the sales team of the opportunities generated by the partner companies they work with, they can track these opportunities by displaying the My Opportunities view.
Sales agents. Add the appropriate sales agents to work with the partner sales agent who entered the opportunity. Assignment Manager can choose which of your sales agents to add to each opportunity based on your agents’ location, product expertise, workload and availability, and other criteria.

For more information about Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Entering Opportunities (Partner)

To enter a new opportunity through the PRM Portal

Partners develop new opportunities and enter them into the Siebel PRM Portal. When a partner enters the opportunity, that partner is automatically added to the sales team as primary.

You can set up Siebel Assignment Manager so the channel manager and appropriate sales agents at the brand owner company are also added to the sales team automatically when the partner enters the record. Alternatively, the partner can assign the opportunity to these people manually.

Navigate to the Opportunities screen.
In the Opportunities list, the partner adds a new record to that list.
The partner enters information about the opportunity in the new record.
The opportunity can be assigned to appropriate sales agents manually or automatically as follows:
- The partner can assign the opportunity to appropriate sales agents at the partner company and to the channel manager at the brand owner company by adding these people to the Sales Team field manually. Then, the channel manager would add sales agents at the brand owner company to the sales team.
- You can set up Siebel Assignment Manager to add these people to the Sales Team field automatically.

Working Together on Opportunities (Brand Owner and Partner)

Having both your sales agents and partner sales agents on the sales team makes it easier to work together on the opportunity.

Whenever your sales agent displays the My Opportunities view in the Siebel Business Application or the partner displays the My Opportunities view in the Siebel PRM Portal, this opportunity is included in the list. Both your agents and your partner can select the Opportunity record and do the following:

Share files. You and the partner can share files (such as Microsoft Word documents) that are useful for this opportunity by navigating to the Attachments view and adding records to the Shared Attachments list.
Share activities. You and the partner can log the activities you have done to work on this opportunities by navigating to the Activities view plan and adding records to the Activities list. You and the partner are always up to date about each other’s activities. You can also add future activities to the Activities view or add activity plans to the Activity Plans view for this opportunity, in order to invite other members of the sales team to work on these activities.
Share notes. You and your partner can share notes by adding activities to the opportunity and choosing the Note activity type.
Share revenue line items. As the partner sales agents learn more about the opportunity, they can add to it revenue line items, which indicate the potential revenue, chance of success, and sales stage. These are visible to both partner companies.
Create customized sales tools. You can use the brand owner’s prebuilt proposal, presentation, and correspondence templates to create proposals, presentations, and letters based on this opportunity, giving you selling tools that are automatically customized for this opportunity and account.

Example of Partner Creating Opportunities and Assigning Them to Brand Owner

This topic gives one example of how partners work on opportunities in collaboration with the brand owner. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, opportunities are created by the partner companies and assigned to employees of the brand owner company.

This example is appropriate for your company if your partners generate opportunities for you and you follow up on each opportunity. For example, your partners might generate opportunities by attending trade shows, and your company might follow up on these opportunities through your national sales force.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Entering the Opportunities (Partner)

In this example, your partners develop new opportunities and enter them using the Siebel PRM Portal.

When partner sales agents enter the opportunity, they are automatically added to the sales team as primary. Though the partner sales agents remain on the sales team, they do not work on this opportunity.

To enter a new opportunity through the Siebel PRM Portal

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Opportunities screen.
In the Opportunities list, the partner adds a new record.
The partner enters information about the opportunity in the new record.
The partner assigns the opportunity to the brand owner company by adding a brand owner organization in the Organization field.
The opportunity are visible to everyone in that brand owner organization who can display the All Opportunities view.

Assigning Opportunities to Brand Owner Sales Agents (Brand Owner)

Next, you assign opportunities to the appropriate sales agent in the brand owner company. Use Siebel Assignment Manager to assign each opportunity by creating rules based on the employee’s special skill, product lines, geography, or other criteria. For more information about Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Notifying Sales Agents (Brand Owner)

Optionally, you can notify the sales agent by email when an opportunity is assigned. You set up rules in Siebel Business Process Designer so it sends the email using the communication server when the rules are satisfied.

As with partners, you can notify the employee only when important opportunities are assigned. For example, you can create a workflow rule saying that email is sent when an opportunity is assigned that involves sales of over $200,000.

Working On the Opportunities (Brand Owner)

Once the opportunity has been assigned to a sales agent at the brand owner company, the employee can view it in Siebel Sales or another Siebel Business Application by displaying the My Opportunities view. Because Siebel products use the same database, you do not have to export this record from Siebel PRM to Siebel Sales.

To view a new opportunity

Navigate to the Opportunities screen, then the Opportunities List view.
Drill down on the name of the new opportunity in the Opportunities list and navigate to the appropriate views to view more details about the opportunity.

Tracking opportunities (Brand Owner)

As your employees work on these opportunities, you can track their progress using the Siebel PRM Manager.

To track an employee’s opportunities

Navigate to the Opportunities screen, then the Opportunities List, and the My Team’s Opportunities view.
Use a Query to search for the employee.
Drill down on the name of an opportunity you want to track, and navigate to the Revenues and Activities view.
The revenue items and activities attached to that opportunity appear.

Example of a Customer Transferring a Shopping Cart From the Brand Owner’s Web Site to a Partner

This topic gives one example of how partners work on opportunities in collaboration with the brand owner. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

Shopping cart transfer is used by companies that want to make sales through their own Web site but that want distributors, authorized resellers, or other partners to fulfill the orders. The customer can use Siebel Sales on your Web site to create a shopping cart. Then, the customer can transfer the shopping cart to a partner’s site for fulfillment.

Note: For this process to work properly, the same product must exist on both the brand owner and the partner site, with the same Part Number and the same Price. If the price is different, the Siebel Business Application uses the price from the partner site in the order.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Setting Up a Web Site to Sell to Customers (Brand Owner)

Before customers can use shopping cart transfer, the brand owner must:

Set up a Web site to sell products or services to customers.
Set up the Application Services Interface (ASI) for shopping cart transfer.

In this example, the brand owner creates the Web site where customers make purchases. Partners who fulfill orders do not need to use Web sites to sell to customers.

The brand owner can set up this Web site using Siebel Sales. For more information, see Siebel eSales Administration Guide.

Shopping cart transfer uses Siebel’s ASI to integrate the brand owner’s and the partner’s order systems. The partner does not need to use the Siebel PRM Portal to track and fulfill orders.

For information about setting up the ASI for shopping cart transfer, see Setting Up Application Services Interfaces for Siebel PRM

Making a Purchase at the Brand Owner’s Web Site (Customer)

Customers make purchases at this Web site as they would at any Web site, by browsing the catalog and adding items to the shopping cart. The Web site displays an approximate price for the products or services they are ordering.

When they are ready to buy, customers click the Transfer Cart button and choose the partner who fulfills the order. Then they see the exact price that partner charges for their order.

To make a purchase using shopping cart transfer

The customer browses the catalog at the brand owner’s Web site and adds products or services to the shopping cart.
The customer navigates to Transfer Cart.
A list of partners who can fulfill the order appears.
The customer selects a partner to fulfill the order.
A screen appears to allow the customer to confirm the order, with the exact price that the selected partner charges.
The customer confirms the order.

Fulfilling the Order (Partner)

After the shopping cart is transferred, it appears as an order in the partner’s order management system. The partner company fulfills this order as it would any other order.

Opportunity Management Workflows

With any of the preceding examples that involve the brand owner and partner sharing opportunities, you can use the Siebel PRM opportunity management workflows to send email notification to the brand owner or partner employee who is assigned the opportunity and to that employee’s manager when certain conditions are met.

The following opportunity management workflows are available:

Opportunity Assigned Notification Process
Opportunity Pending Notification Process
Opportunity Inactive Notification Process
Opportunity Pending Notification Process
Opportunity Lost Notification Process
Opportunity Won Notification Process

For more information about these workflows, see the topics about opportunity workflows in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Before you can use them, you must activate these workflows, as described in Activating Workflows for Siebel PRM.

Examples for Forecasting Partner Revenue

Forecasting lets you monitor the sales pipeline to predict future sales. When salespeople enter opportunities, they specify the total possible revenue and probability of success for that opportunity, which is the basis of forecasting.

By using the forecasting module, analysts at the brand owner company can define a forecast series covering virtually any example. They can specify the partners, accounts, products, opportunities, and other data to be included in the forecast series. Then, both brand owners and partners can use the predefined forecasting series to create forecasts of future revenues. For more information about forecasting, see Siebel Forecasting Guide.

Partner Forecasting lets you give forecasting credit to partners in multiple ways. You can give credit to a partner if that partner is the primary organization in the Organization field using the [Opportunity Primary Organization] search specification. You can also give credit to a partner if a partner employee is the primary on the opportunity sales team by using the [Sales Rep Organization] search specification. If you want to give credit to all partner organizations, you can give credit to partners who are the primary organization in the Organization field by using the [Opportunity Primary Organization Partner Flag] search specification. Alternatively, you can give credit to the partner organizations in which the primary sales representative works for a partner organization by using the [Partner] search specification. To support the last alternative, the Partner field must be completed on revenue line items to be included in the forecast.

The following topics provide examples that are specific to partner forecasting. Brand owners can forecast partner revenue and partners can forecast their own revenue. Administrators at the brand owner company can set up forecast series in different ways to automate forecasts, limit visibility, and allow modifications of forecasts at each level of the forecast.

The following topics provide examples of different ways in which the brand owner can forecast partner revenue:

Example of the Brand Owner Creating a Direct Quarterly Forecast of All Partner Revenue

This topic gives one example of how the brand owner forecasts partner revenue. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, only one person at the brand owner company, typically the channel manager, creates a forecast.

The forecast series in this example covers quarterly revenues that have been committed where a partner employee is the primary on the sales team or the partner organization is the primary in the Organization field. Forecasts would be run once every month.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Creating the Forecast Series

Before running a forecast, you must create the forecast series. The forecast series defines forecasts covering all committed, quarterly partner revenue.

To create the forecast series

Navigate to the Administration - Forecast screen.
In the Forecast Series list, add a new record.

Enter the values in the following table in the fields of the new record.

Field	Description
Series Name	A name for the forecast, such as Channel Manager’s Quarterly Partner Forecast.
Auto Forecast Search Spec	([Partner] is not NULL or [Opportunity Primary Organization Partner Flag] = 'Y') and [Committed] = 'Y' and [Calculated Primary Flag] = 'Y'
Active	checked
Description	A description of the forecast, such as Channel Manager’s Quarterly Partner Forecast - Committed.
Detail Depth	Summary Only
View Mode	All Across Organizations
Interval Period Type	Month
Interval	1
Base Period Type	Quarter

Navigate to the Forecasts Series Dates view.
In the Forecast Series Dates list, add a new record.

Enter the values in the following table in the fields of the new record.

Field	Description
Forecast Date	The date when you want to begin running forecasts. This can be today’s date.
Description	A description, such as Q1 Partner Forecast.
Start Date	The start date for the forecast period, such as 1/1/05.
End Date	The end date for the forecast period, such as 3/31/05.

To create additional forecast dates, you can select the record you just created, click the menu button, and then click Copy Record. By default, the new forecast date is one month later and the rest of the fields are the same as in the original record. Repeat this step as many times as you want; as you repeatedly copy records, the Forecast Date continues to change to later dates. Therefore, you might want to change the Start Date and End Date periods to reflect the time frames of the forecasts you want to generate.
Navigate to the Forecast Series Participants view, and in the Forecast Series Participants list, add a new record.
The Add Participants dialog box appears.
In the Add Participants dialog box, use a query to find the channel manager, select the channel manager’s record, and click OK.

Creating the Forecast

Once the forecast series has been set up, you can run the forecast.

To create the forecast

Navigate to the Forecasts screen.
In the Forecast list, add a new record.
In the Forecast Series field of the new record, select the forecast series you want to use, such as Channel Manager’s Quarterly Partner Forecast.
Navigate to the Forecast Series Dates view.
In the Forecast Date field, click the Single Select button.
In the Pick Forecast Series Date dialog box, select the record with the forecast date you want and click OK.
The forecast runs.

Example of the Brand Owner Creating a Direct Annual Forecast of Revenue for One Partner Organization

This topic gives one example of how the brand owner forecasts partner revenue. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, only one person at the brand owner company, typically the channel manager, creates a forecast.

For this forecast, the forecast series defines forecasts that would cover annual revenue of one specific partner (Partner X) and be run once every quarter. The forecast results would provide a running total of forecasted revenues for the year.

You create this forecast series and forecast in the same way that you do in the example Example of the Brand Owner Creating a Direct Quarterly Forecast of All Partner Revenue, with these exceptions:

Because this is an annual forecast that is run on a quarterly basis, you need to set up the Forecast Series Dates accordingly.

You enter the values in the following table in the fields of the Forecast Series record.

Field	Description
Series Name	A name for the forecast, such as Channel Manager’s Annual Partner X Forecast.
Auto Forecast Search Spec	`([Sales Rep Organization] = ‘Partner X’ or [Opportunity Primary Organization] = 'Partner X') and [Committed] = 'Y' and [Calculated Primary Flag] = 'Y'`
Description	A description of the forecast, such as Channel Manager’s Annual Partner X Forecast - Committed.
Active	checked
Detail Depth	Summary Only
View Mode	All Across Organizations
Interval Period Type	Quarter
Interval	1
Base Period Type	Year

Example of the Brand Owner Creating a Rollup Forecast of Annual Revenue for a Partner Organization

This topic gives one example of how the brand owner forecasts partner revenue. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, partner employees whose revenues are included in the forecast can run the forecast. In the previous examples, only the channel manager could run the forecasts.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Setting Up the Reporting Hierarchy
Creating the Forecast Series
Creating the Forecast

Setting Up the Reporting Hierarchy

In this example, forecasts are rolled up through the position hierarchy to the channel manager at the brand owner company. You must set up the position hierarchy so all partner employees whose revenue is included in the forecast report directly or indirectly to the channel manager at the brand owner company.

The position at the head of the partner company reporting hierarchy, the partner relationship manager, reports to the channel manager at the brand owner company. Partner sales agents whose revenue is included in the forecast report directly or indirectly to the partner relationship manager.

You can set up the positions hierarchy using the Administration - Partner Screen, Positions view. For more information about setting up the positions hierarchy, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Creating the Forecast Series

The channel manager creates a forecast series that defines forecasts that covers annual revenue of one specific partner (Partner X) and be run once every month. If you have set up the reporting hierarchy correctly, you can create this forecast series to do a rollup forecast.

To create the forecast series

Navigate to the Administration - Forecast screen.
In the Forecast Series list, add a new record.

Enter the values in the following table in the fields of the new record.

Field	Description
Series Name	A name for the forecast, such as Rollup Forecast of Annual Partner X Revenue.
Auto Forecast Search Spec	`[Sales Rep Organization] = 'Partner X' and [Committed] = 'Y' and [Calculated Primary Flag] = 'Y'`
Description	A description of the forecast, such as Rollup Forecast of Annual Partner X Revenue - Committed.
Active	checked
Detail Depth	Summary Only
View Mode	My Revenues
Interval Period Type	Month
Interval	1
Base Period Type	Year

Navigate to the Forecasts Series Dates view.
In the Forecast Series Dates list, add a new record.

Enter the values in the following table in the fields of the new record.

Field	Description
Forecast Date	The date when you want to begin running forecasts. This can be today’s date.
Description	A description, such as June Rollup Forecast of Annual Partner X Revenue.
Start Date	The start date for the forecast period, such as 1/1/05.
End Date	The end date for the forecast period, such as 12/31/05.

If you want create additional forecast dates, you can select the record you just created, click the menu button, and then click Copy Record. By default, the new forecast date is one month later, and the rest of the fields are the same as in the original record.
Navigate to the Forecast Series Participants view, and in the Forecast Series Participants list, add a new record.
The Add Participants dialog box appears.
In the Add Participants dialog box, query for the people in the brand owner and partner organization who would run the forecast, select these people, and then click OK.
The positions of these people would include Channel Manager, Partner Sales Representative, Partner Sales Manager, and Partner Relationship Manager.

Creating the Forecast

Either the channel manager at the brand owner company, or any employee in the partner company who is under the channel manager in the reporting hierarchy, can run the forecast.

In order for the rollup forecast to run logically and to give employees the ability to adjust their forecasts, employees run and roll up forecasts in an order that is inversely related to their rank. The sales representative runs the forecast first, then the sales manager, then the partner relationship manager, and finally, the channel manager.

However, when managers run forecasts, Siebel PRM automatically runs their reports’ forecasts, if the report has not already run the forecast.

To create the forecast

In the Siebel PRM Portal, partner sales representatives (employees with no reports) navigate to the Forecast screen, then the My Forecasts view.
The partner sales representative creates a new forecast.
The partner sales representative selects Rollup Forecast of Annual Partner X Revenue as the forecast series name.
The partner sales representative selects June Rollup Forecast of Annual Partner X Revenue as the forecast series date.
If the partner sales representative wants to adjust any of the revenue amounts that comprise the forecast, the partner sales representative navigates to the Details view and modifies the revenue amounts.
When the partner sales representative is satisfied with the forecast details, the partner sales representative clicks the Rollup button.
The forecast is rolled up to the partner sales representative's manager, the sales manager.
In the Siebel PRM Portal, the sales manager repeats through Step 6, rolling up the forecast to the partner relationship manager.
In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner relationship manager repeats through Step 6.
In the Siebel PRM Manager, the channel manager at the brand owner company repeats through Step 5.
The channel manager’s final rollup forecast includes information from all of the employees whose revenues contributed to the forecast.

Example of the Brand Owner Forecasting Revenue for All Partners that a Partner Manager Oversees

This topic gives one example of how the brand owner forecasts revenue for multiple partners. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, there are multiple channel managers at the brand owner organization. Each channel manager oversees partnerships with a distinct group of partner organizations.

A channel manager at a brand owner organization wants to track the revenues associated with his or her own partners, but does not want other channel managers to be able to view these forecasts. In this example, only the channel manager can see the forecast.

This example consists of the following tasks:

Creating the Forecast Series
Creating the Forecast

Creating the Forecast Series

The channel manager creates a forecast series that defines forecasts that would cover the annual revenue of three specific partners (Partner X, Partner Y, and Partner Z) and be run once every quarter.

To create the forecast series

Navigate to the Administration - Forecast screen.
In the Forecast Series list, add a new record.

Enter the values in the following table in the fields of the new record.

Field	Description
Series Name	A name for the forecast, such as Channel Manager’s Annual Forecast of Partners X, Y, and Z.
Auto Forecast Search Spec	([Sales Rep Organization] = 'Partner X' or [Sales Rep Organization] = 'Partner Y' or [Sales Rep Organization] = 'Partner Z') and [Committed] = 'Y' and [Calculated Primary Flag] = 'Y'
Description	A description of the forecast, such as Channel Manager’s Annual Forecast of Partners X, Y, and Z - Committed.
Active	checked
Detail Depth	Summary Only
View Mode	All Across Organizations
Interval Period Type	Quarter
Interval	1
Base Period Type	Year

Navigate to the Forecasts Series Dates view.
In the Forecast Series Dates list, add a new record.

Enter the values in the following table in the fields of the new record.

Field	Description
Forecast Date	The date when you want to begin running forecasts. This can be today’s date.
Description	A description, such as Q1 Partner X, Partner Y, and Partner Z Forecast.
Start Date	The start date for the forecast period, such as 1/1/05.
End Date	The end date for the forecast period, such as 12/31/05.

If you want to create additional forecast dates, you can select the record you just created, click the menu button, and then click Copy Record. By default, the new forecast date is one quarter later, and the rest of the fields are the same as in the original record. You then edit the record, for example, to change the description so it refers to the new quarter.
Navigate to the Forecast Series Participants view, and in the Forecast Series Participants list, add a new record.
The Add Participants dialog box appears.
In the Add Participants dialog box, use a query to find the brand owner’s channel manager, select this record, and click OK. In the Forecast Series form, click Save.
Only the channel manager who was selected is able to run a forecast based on this forecast series.

Creating the Forecast

Only the channel manager at the brand owner organization can run the forecasts based on this forecast series.

After the forecast series has been set up, the channel manager can run the forecast.

To create the forecast

The channel manager navigates to the Forecasts screen.
In the Forecast list, add a new record.
In the Forecast Series field of the new record, the channel manager selects the forecast series to be used, such as Channel Manager’s Annual Forecast of Partners X, Y, and Z.
In the Forecast Date field, select the forecast date.

Examples of Partners Forecasting Their Revenue Without the Brand Owner Viewing Forecasts

Previous examples focused on producing forecasts for the brand owner company, though the partner company could sometimes share the forecasts. In the following examples, forecasts are produced exclusively for the use of the partner company:

Example of the Channel Manager Creating a Direct Partner Forecast Series

This topic gives one example of how the partners forecast revenue. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, the channel manager creates a forecast series that allows only the partner relationship manager to run a forecast of the partner’s own revenue. The partner relationship manager does not share this information with the brand owner.

The steps are identical to the steps in Example of the Brand Owner Creating a Direct Annual Forecast of Revenue for One Partner Organization. The only difference is that instead of adding the channel manager to the Forecast Participants, you add the partner relationship manager at the partner company. Then, only the partner company can run these forecasts of its annual revenue.

Example of Multiple Partner Employees Creating Rollup Forecasts

This topic gives one example of how the partners forecast revenue. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, multiple partner employees run a forecast of the partner company's revenue. The partner does not share this information with the brand owner.

The steps required for this example are identical to the steps in Example of the Brand Owner Creating a Rollup Forecast of Annual Revenue for a Partner Organization. The only difference is that the channel manager at the brand owner company is not included in the Forecast Series Participants list, so the brand owner does not automatically have visibility into the forecast.

Using Presentations and Proposals

Using the Siebel PRM presentation and proposal generation functionality, brand owners can standardize partners’ proposals and presentations, make sure that partners are positioning brand owner products appropriately, and reduce the amount of time and money that partners spend generating new proposals or presentations. Using the proposal and presentation generation capabilities, partners can generate customized, professional proposals and presentations that reflect the most current and accurate information available, without having to write any original content themselves.

Use the Siebel PRM Manager to create templates for sales presentations and sales proposals. When your partners generate an actual presentation, proposal, or correspondence, these templates incorporate information about a specific opportunity or account.

Siebel Presentations generates Microsoft PowerPoint or Lotus Freelance Graphics slide shows. You create the templates for slide shows about your products. When your partner generates a slide show, it is personalized with the customer’s name or with other information that you specified when you created the template. The partner can further customize the slide show by changing the order of the slides or adding slides from the presentation library.

Siebel Proposals generates Microsoft Word or Lotus WordPro documents. You create templates for typical sales proposals. When your partner generates a specific proposal, it is personalized with information from the Opportunity or Account record, and also with a quote, if it was included in the template. Your partner can customize it by changing the order of sections or adding sections from the proposal library.

Your partners do not need to have Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance Graphics, Microsoft Word, or Lotus WordPro installed locally to use Siebel Presentations and Proposals. Partners need these applications only if they want to edit presentations and proposals.

Your employees can use the same presentation and proposal templates as your partners.

The following scenario illustrates how you would typically create a proposal or presentation.

A sales executive at the brand owner company develops a conceptual plan for a generic template for a presentation or proposal to be standardized. The plan includes modularized sections that can be added or subtracted, depending on the nature of a specific opportunity. The proposal or presentation includes markers where fields, such as the account name, quote, product name, sales representative, contact, and so on, are to be inserted.

The sales executive’s staff uses Siebel PRM Manager to create the presentation or proposal template, including bookmarks where fields are to be inserted. The staff also maps these bookmarks to fields from opportunity or account records in the Siebel database. These bookmarks are replaced by data from the account or opportunity on which the proposal is based. Finally, the staff saves the template in the presentation or proposal library. Then, partner sales agents can use the Siebel PRM Portal to generate the presentation or proposal. For more information about presentations and proposals, see Siebel Correspondence, Proposals, and Presentations Guide.

To generate a presentation or proposal

In the Siebel PRM Portal, the partner navigates to the Accounts screen.
The partner drills down on the name of the account on which the presentation or proposal is based.
The partner navigates to the Presentation or Proposal view.
The partner clicks Auto Presentation or Auto Proposal.
The Siebel business application automatically selects the most appropriate presentation or proposal template for the account or opportunity and creates a new record.
The partner clicks Generate Draft to generate and display the presentation or proposal in Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance Graphics, Microsoft Word, or Lotus WordPro.
If the partner has the appropriate application installed locally, then the partner can drill down on the record to display the presentation or proposal in that application.