Channel Management

As businesses become more complex, so do the distribution channels from the vendor to the customer. Contemporary distribution channels include system integrators, solution providers, wholesalers, value added resellers, and affiliates. Different strategies and channel management solutions are required to manage the entities in the distribution channel.

The complexity of building the channel 

Enterprises with large and multi-channel distributed sales operations need to implement core processes for on-boarding new channels and participants, sales performance reviews, product and sales training, product launches and sales promotions, and compensation dispute resolution. The complexity of document flows and ”exceptions” could be daunting.

Effectively engaging the channel is inherently Social in nature

Channels expect the company to be continuously engaged and responsive. This puts an enormous strain on the channel sales team especially if transactions are conducted over email and attachment exchanges. 

How Qontext Helps

Effective engagement of a channel in a competitive marketplace requires social portal capabilities including social engagement and collaboration. Integrating Qontext with channel management applications enables customers of these applications to deepen their channel engagement through enhanced collaboration and communication. Qontext integrates social tools and collaboration capabilities and enables “contextual collaboration” within business objects inside the channel management application.

• While channel management applications provide features for on-boarding and managing large-scale hierarchical channels, Qontext enhances channel management events and processes by binding context-specific conversations, documents, and other unstructured data together. This enables customers to build a closely knit and fully engaged channel community.
• To support training, create a Product/Sales Training group. Members that watch the group receive activity alerts. Post messages on upcoming training sessions and seminars as a wiki page or a document. Employees can post short messages or write their thoughts on the group whiteboard to request training sessions. Share information on product launches and sales promotions with the group.
• Engaging the channel and its members through region-specific offers and content is as simple as creating region-specific groups and posting information via wiki pages or other document formats. Region-specific offers can be highlighted as featured content on the group’s home page. Regular performance updates and incentives can also be announced using this feature to motivate channel partners, create a competitive atmosphere, and close performance gaps.