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This release of the Comergent eBusiness System provides the capability to manage marketing programs using MDF and Co-op funds. Enterprise channel executives (enterprise users assigned the Channel Executive function) can create programs and activities associated with the program, and then enterprise account managers can assign the program to some all or all of their accounts. See CHAPTER 30, C3 Partner Programs for more information on these tasks.
Partners who are assigned programs can participate in their assigned programs by initiating activities as described in the program's marketing plan. They can make requests for funds by submitting pre-approval requests for activities, and then claims once they have completed the activities. See Program Administration by Partners for more information.
Each partner has payment accounts for MDF and Co-op funds: these are maintained through the partner profile for the partner. You can add and remove funds from these accounts to manage activities undertaken by your partners, and claims made against activities can be used to remove funds from accounts as the claims are made.
A program represents a general marketing plan such as the launch of a new product. Typically, a program may have several associated activities such as press releases, print campaigns, direct mail, and so on that your partners can undertake.
A program has a start date and an end date that determine within which time the associated activities must take place.
A program can be assigned to one or more partners. When you assign a program to a partner, you make it possible for the partner to start making claims against their payment accounts for activities.
An activity is a specific component of a program. A program can have one or associated activity. When a partner participates in a program, they do so by undertaking one or more of the activities that make up the program, and they make claims against the activities as they plan and execute the activities.
An essential part of program management is to manage the funds that partners can spend on their program activities. The Comergent eBusiness System enables you to create payment accounts for each partner: each payment account is of MDF type or Co-op type, and you can create more than one payment account of each type for a partner.
When a marketing executive partner user makes a claim against a program activity, the money must be allocated by the enterprise channel executive from one or more of the partner's payment accounts.
Co-op accounts can be denominated in a currency such as US dollars, or you can choose to use points as a virtual currency to manage them. All Co-op accounts for all partners are denominated in this currency. You can upload updates to the Co-op accounts which result in more funds being assigned to the accounts. When you do so, the Co-op Percentage and Co-op Account Maximum fields in the partner profile are used to calculate by how much the account is increased.
The CoopAccountsUsePoints business rule is used to specify this: set the value of this rule to "True" to use points, otherwise set it to "False".
The process of making a claim is a two-step process:
When a partner is planning an activity that is part of a program, they consider the anticipated costs, and decide whether to make a full or partial claim against a payment account. If they choose to do so, then they must first submit an approval request against the activity.
The approval request is submitted to the enterprise and a channel executive can choose to approve or deny the request. If they approve the request, then funds are deducted from the available balance of one or more payment accounts: the channel executive can choose how to allocate the approved request across one or more payment accounts. If the approval request is denied, then no claims can be made against the request, but a new request can be submitted.
Once a partner has had an approval request approved and has completed the corresponding activity, they submit a claim against the approval request. The channel executive can choose to approve or deny the claim. If the claim is approved, then the channel executive specifies how the funds should be deducted from the payment accounts.
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