Opportunity Processing by Channel Partners 

Purpose

In this process, channel partners process opportunities which have either been dispatched to them by the channel manager, or which have been created by the partner manager. Partner managers can either process the opportunities themselves, or they can assign further channel partners to the opportunity, that is, other partner managers and partner employees belonging to their own company. This means that more than one channel partner from the same company can work on an opportunity at one time.

Unlike partner managers, partner employees cannot create opportunities or follow-up opportunities. However, partner employees can create sub opportunities and other follow-up transactions, such as follow-up activities, from an opportunity.

During opportunity processing, channel partners can assign products or product categories, qualify the opportunity and use elements of the sales methodology. During this time, the channel manager can monitor the opportunity and, if required, support the channel partner.

Prerequisites

·        You have completed the required settings for Organizational Management. For information on Organizational Management, see the master data section at the top of this scenario, in particular the Specifics of Channel Management section under Determining Organizational Data.

·        You have completed the required settings for Partner Determination. For more information on partner determination, see the master data section at the top of this scenario, in particular the documentation under Basic Elements of Partner Processing -> Partner Determination Procedures.

·        You have completed the required settings in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management →Channel Management →Basic Settings → Assign Transaction Types for Partner Processes

·        You have completed the required settings in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management → Basic Settings → Define Copy Control for Order Processing

·         You have completed the required settings for the CRM Access Control Engine in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management under Channel Management ® Basic Settings ® Access Control Engine.

 

The accessibility of channel opportunities differs for partner managers and partner employees. For detailed information, see the documentation under Accessibility of Channel Opportunities for Channel Partners.

 

 

 

 

Process Flow

1. Log on to partner portal

The partner manager displays his workflow inbox in the portal and sees the opportunities which have been dispatched to him. From here, he can navigate directly to an opportunity. He can only display the opportunity in read-only mode as he has not yet accepted it.

2. Create or accept opportunity

The partner manager can accept the opportunity directly in his workflow inbox. As soon as he has accepted the opportunity, he can maintain it. Parallel to this, he can also create opportunities, which he either processes himself or assigns to other channel partners belonging to his company for further processing. Channel partners who create opportunities can use transaction type OPCP, which is delivered with the standard. Alternatively, channel managers who wish to allow channel partners to use other transaction types can do this in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management →Transactions → Basic Settings → Define Transaction Types.

 

If you want your channel partners to be able to use their own transaction types, they must make sure the correct settings have been made in order that the opportunity can be displayed by other channel partners. For more information, see the Prerequisites section above and, in particular, the information on the necessary system statuses.

 

Business Partners

Channel management specific example partner profiles are set up in such a way that channel partners can only add those partner functions on the Partner tab page which are maintained in the example partner profiles.

Channel partners can change all partner functions on the Partner tab page except for sales partner, which is read-only for all channel partners.

If channel manager add their own partner functions to the partner profile, all partner functions related to the partner function category 0010 will be read-only for channel partners.

Organizational Data

Organizational data is not relevant for channel partners in opportunities. Therefore, the Organizational Data tab page is not visible to them. All Organizational Management settings are made by the channel manager. For more information on the required Organizational Management settings, see the Prerequisites section in this documentation.

 

3. System saves opportunity

The system saves the opportunity when the partner manager accepts the opportunity or creates a new opportunity and saves it.

4. Assign partner employees

The partner manager enters other channel partners (both partner managers and / or partner employees) belonging to his company as Responsible at partner. As soon as the partner manager has saved the opportunity and his entries, the opportunity is visible for the channel employees concerned (the partner managers were already able to display the opportunity when it was dispatched).

 

5. Assign products or product categories

Partner managers and partner employees can enter the required products or product categories of the prospect.

6. Qualify opportunity

Channel partners can qualify the opportunity using the Opportunity Assessment, together with the chance of success calculated by the system resulting from the assessment. On the basis of this, you decide whether the project will be continued (“Go/No Go decision”).

7. Use elements of sales methodology

Channel partners can work with elements of the Sales Methodology, such as the Opportunity Assessment, Buying Center, Project Goals and Competitor Information.

 

No channel management specific example is delivered for the sales methodology. If you want to use the sales methodology for this scenario, the same applies as for the standard sales methodology.

 

Channel partners can only display the Buying Center. They cannot make changes as this is not possible with the People Centric User Interface.

 

 

 

8. Monitor opportunity and support partner

The channel manager can display the opportunity at any time and, if required, can support the channel partner.

9. Create business transactions from opportunity

Partner managers can:

·         Create follow-up transactions

·         Create sub opportunities

·         Create or copy opportunities

Partner employees can:

·         Create follow-up transactions except for follow-up opportunities

·         Create sub opportunities

Follow-up Orders

Channel partners can create orders in the Partner Shop containing the partner sales prices, and they can also create orders on behalf in the Customer Shop, containing the end customer sales prices.

Order

In this case, channel partners create an order for themselves. They do this by choosing the Create Order pushbutton. This takes them directly into the Partner Shop, where a pre-filled shopping cart is displayed, containing the opportunity items.

Order on behalf

In this case, channel partners create an order on behalf of their customer. They do this by choosing the Create Order on Behalf pushbutton. This takes them directly into the Customer Shop, where a pre-filled shopping cart is displayed, containing the opportunity items.

 

You can activate or deactivate the pushbuttons Create Order and Create Order on Behalf for each opportunity transaction type. For more information, see Customizing for Customer Relationship Management ® Channel Management ® Basic Settings ® Define Copy Control for Order Processing.

 

 

In both of the above cases (order and order on behalf), you need to make sure the pricing settings match in both the opportunity and the order, because conditions are not copied from the opportunity to the order. This means prices are re-determined as new during order creation. Therefore, pricing has to be identical for both the opportunity and the order in the CRM system.

For this reason, channel partners cannot change conditions and therefore the Conditions tab page is read-only.