About the Business Planning Module

The Business Planning module lets vendors draft, review, track, and share business plans with partners. It is a crucial component of the Partner Relationship Management process that lets organizations participate in Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR) and target business achievements with their partner ecosystem. This module also allows you to drill down to target objective levels and track the performance on these objectives through visual dashboards and reports.

Key Capabilities

Business Plan Management

• Creation and Assignment: A channel manager can be assigned to draft the business plan and to then share it with an assigned primary partner
• Collaboration: Partners and channel managers can share resources and files, collaborate using Social Collaboration, and track tasks and other activities on each Business Plan
• Target Accounts: Channel managers can manage and assign specific target accounts to business plans for focused partnership strategies

Time-Based Tracking

• Annual Planning: Business plans are intended to be annually tracked with time-based targets (e.g. Quarterly, Monthly, Annually) available for tracking as business objectives
• Progress Monitoring: Progress towards these targets can be tracked by the vendor and partners through visual dashboards and reports
• Quarterly Business Reviews: Supports structured QBR processes for regular partner performance evaluation

Business Plan Status Workflow

Business plans follow a structured status progression:

1. Draft Outline: The plan is being drafted by the administrator and/or channel manager
   • Partners cannot view or access plans in this status
   • Internal preparation and planning phase
2. Draft: The plan is being reviewed by the partner
   • Partners can view and collaborate on the plan
   • Email notifications sent to partners for review
3. In Progress: The plan is approved and is in progress for the annual year
   • Active execution and tracking phase
   • Regular QBR meetings and progress monitoring
4. Completed: The plan is completed for the annual year
   • Final status after completion of annual objectives

Security and Access Control

• Channel Manager Role: Must be designated as an employee security role with specific permissions
• Partner Access: Partners can view and edit business plans with Draft, In Progress, and Completed status
• Account-Based Security: Partner access is controlled by account associations, ensuring partners only see their own business plans
• Target Account Management: Channel managers can assign and manage specific accounts within business plans

Edition and License Requirements

• Product Requirement: Available only for Partner Community customers
• Edition Requirements: Elite, Advanced, and Unlimited editions of Magentrix partner portals
• Channel Manager Setup: The channel manager role must be designated as an employee security role. Please contact Support or your Account Manager for more details on how to enable it for the team through employee roles

Objective Types and Tracking

The Business Planning module supports multiple objective types for comprehensive tracking:

Automated Calculation Types

• Course Completion: Track number of completed course assignments for specific courses
• Deal Registration: Tracks aggregate field values from lead entities by specified criteria
• Qualified Deal Registration: Tracks aggregate field values from opportunities by specified criteria
• Number of Deals: Calculate the number of deals registered by specified criteria
• Number of Qualified Deals: Calculate the number of qualified deals registered by specified criteria

Manual Entry Type

• Custom Objectives: Manual entry objectives for tracking equipment, tools, resourcing head counts, or actual financial revenues not tracked in the CRM

Integration Features

• CRM Integration: Seamless integration with lead and opportunity data for automated objective tracking
• Social Collaboration: Built-in collaboration tools for partner and channel manager communication
• Email Notifications: Automated notifications to partners when business plans are ready for review
• Multi-Currency Support: Currency tracking at the business plan level with automatic inheritance for objectives
• Task Management: Track action items and activities within the business plan context

Best Practices

• Annual Planning: Set business plan start dates to the first day of the calendar year or partner engagement start date
• Status Management: Use Draft Outline status for internal preparation before partner engagement
• Regular Reviews: Leverage QBR functionality for structured partner performance discussions
• Objective Weighting: Assign appropriate weights (1-100) to objectives for accurate progress calculation
• Target Account Focus: Utilize target account management for strategic partner account development

The Business Planning module provides comprehensive partner relationship management capabilities that support strategic planning, execution tracking, and performance measurement throughout the annual partner lifecycle.

Business Planning Checklist >>