Database Reference
In-Depth Information
to training courses, curriculum, and registration. They can target courses and content that is
most relevant to the right type of partners. They can track course enrollment, participation, and
completion rates for the various partners.
Furthermore, brand owners can create, target, and manage certification programs for channel
partners and track status and completion at employee level. The number of employees certified
for products and services can be linked to the partner profile for use in partner analysis, partner
segmentation, and lead distribution.
8.5.1.4 Partner Compensation
SAP CRM enables the setup of partner compensation planning for different partner types and
individual partners. It also calculates compensation based on posted sales data and also provides
a compensation simulator to demonstrate how much compensation partners can earn, if the deal
is closed. This simulator also provides a look at compensation settlements in which partners can
view the earned compensation as also the payment dates.
8.5.1.5 Partner Planning and Forecasting
SAP CRM provides tools that enable companies to plan and manage their sales and channel
strategy. Brand owners can set annual goals, targets, and measurements as well as track and mea-
sure partner progress against those goals. This supports both collaborative channel forecasting
and pipeline channel forecasting. With collaborative channel forecasting, the brand owner can
plan and forecast sales by partner segment or product line, including
what-if
analysis. Pipeline
forecasting can be done by region, product, partner type, and so on, including forecasting channel
revenues and funnel analysis.
8.6 industry-Specific Solutions
SAP CRM supports more than 25 different vertical industries. SAP offers industry-specific solu-
tions for a variety of manufacturing industries (such as automotive, chemical, consumer goods,
high tech, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and engineering, construction, and operation) and service
industries (such as banking, financial services, insurance, leasing, retail, media professional ser-
vices, telecommunications, and utilities).
Deregulation, privatization, and technological innovation have dramatically altered the global
business landscape. In this evolving marketplace, companies are competing to find and manage
a sustainable competitive position. The winners will recognize that their only lasting competitive
advantage is knowledge about their customers, leveraged throughout the enterprise. SAP is com-
mitted to delivering software solutions that allows its customers to build and exploit this com-
petitive advantage. SAP provides unrivaled breadth and depth of sales, marketing, and customer
service functionality. SAP industry-specific solutions provide comprehensive front-office function-
ality, customized to address the business requirements of various industries.
In most industries, vast amounts of valuable customer information remain isolated in back-
office systems, largely inaccessible to potential users. SAP's vision has been to provide sales,
marketing, and customer service professionals with immediate access to customer information
residing in diverse back-office systems and to enable them to leverage this information into
