Challenges of Channel Data Collection and Management
Improper processing of point of sale channel data (POS reports, inventory reports and incentive claims, royalty reports, direct sales to distributors and resellers) causes large holes in information which makes companies vulnerable to revenue leaks and unnecessary costs. The consequences include incentive over-payments to partners, incorrect sales commissions and flawed revenue recognition. For many companies, despite inefficiencies and high error rates, the processing of point of sale (POS) reports and other channel data remains a largely manual function involving spreadsheet manipulation and ad hoc databases. This is true even when companies outsource processing to a third party.
The first step to maximizing channel revenues and making the most of partner relationships is to replace manual POS processes with reliable software automation. This helps companies get the accurate and actionable data they require to perform business-critical analyses, not only as it pertains to POS reports and inventory management, but to ensure that they can easily track and analyze the impact of partner programs and activities on bottom line results as parts and products move through the channel.
Get Partner Data on Track with cCRM
When companies move channel data collection and management to Entomo’s automated process, they gain real-time visibility into their channel operations. The Entomo SmartHub® platform, which drives our cCRM solution, ensures that all vital data is captured, processed and aligned from different tiers in the channel (e.g. distributors and resellers) for consolidated channel analytics. In general, the process summarized below applies not only to POS reporting, but also to inventory reports, sell-in reports, claims and any data brought in from an external source.
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Collection and Cleansing
Data in any format or protocol is automatically collected and cleansed from partners daily, weekly, monthly or at other intervals. Once received, channel data is auto-processed by the SmartHub, extracted and cleansed of extraneous data.
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Normalization
Cleansed data is then normalized to ensure consistent field names, currencies, date formats, etc.
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Validation
Normalized data is validated and reconciled via built-in tools that search for inconsistencies in data. Exceptions are automatically flagged for further resolution by designated company users or by Entomo’s managed services team.
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Enrichment and Customer Matching
Validated data is enriched with different attributes such as matched end customer names, product hierarchy, pricing info, industry verticals, SIC, NAICS codes, etc. Customer names can be de-duplicated, matched and unique identifications assigned, at any tier in the distribution channel: distributor, reseller, end customer, etc. Unique IDs can be assigned based on company specific customer masters and associated rules. Conversely, or in addition, uniqueness can be established using Entomo’s internal database of technology resellers or globally recognized unique IDs (e.g. DUNS) for any business.
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Valuation and Currency Conversion
A key differentiator is the SmartHub’s ability to value POS in a variety of different ways, including FIFO, price book or reported cost. If using reported cost, Entomo supports currency conversion for all transaction types from any reported currency to any base currency. Conversion rates can be real-time or synchronized with the company’s ERP system.
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Data Aggregation
As part of creating a consolidated picture, the SmartHub can also normalize and aggregate transactional data from companies’ ERP system (direct sales, sales forecasts, bookings, billings, backlog, etc.)
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Post-Processing
The transformation engine can also be configured with customer-specific rules for further ad-hoc manipulation of the incoming data.
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Audit Trails
Regardless of how much transformation the data goes through, the SmartHub maintains an automated audit trail to ensure complete traceability. This eliminates any questions about data integrity, since the original data is never lost, and reported and transformed fields can always be compared online, on-demand.
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Channel Analytics
Once the data has been transformed and aggregated as outlined above, users can generate on-demand interactive channel analytics or schedule periodic status reports that slice and dice the data in any way they want. Specific functional teams such as sales, finance, marketing, or compliance can also configure their own report groups to share function-specific business intelligence and channel insight.
