White Paper Channel Data Management: Enabling Data-Driven Decision Making

1. WHITE PAPER Channel Data Management: Enabling Data-Driven Decision Making Sponsored by: Zyme Solutions Gerry Murray January 2016 IDC OPINION Manufacturers are increasingly reliant on channel partners to accelerate revenue growth and open new markets. However, channels are typically underutilized and manufacturers' processes that support them are poorly managed. This is because many manufacturers lack the channel data needed to create actionable insights. Leading manufacturers have realized the only way to accurately understand the channel is through data. Manufacturers are adopting channel data management (CDM) as a means to transform how they manage key channel business processes. CDM is a set of technology capabilities and best practices that simplify and standardize the collection of a wide range of channel data at scale and use it to drive channel performance and optimize channel-related processes. Traditionally, manufacturers have relied on products with a strong brand value to open markets and drive the channel business model. They have rolled out programs to engage and incent channel performance. But it is getting much harder to differentiate based on just products and programs. Ultimately, the business relationships between partners and manufacturers will determine long-term channel growth and performance. The nature of those relationships will hinge, in part, on how effectively manufacturers leverage partner data to drive key internal processes such as: Sales execution and coverage models Post-sales service Incentive and loyalty programs Finance, risk, and compliance Supply chain, inventory, and distribution Channel marketing       Many vendors do some,or even all,of these things very well for some of their partners —usually the top 5–20%. But very few vendors are able to scale best practices across the entire channel population. As a result, latent revenue and market share are buried in underperforming channelsand latent inefficiencies and costs are buried in suboptimal channel managementprocesses. IDC's Channel Data Management maturity model provides a road map for companies to develop a mature channel data management function,which is essential to competing at the scale and speed today's channel requires. A mature CDM function can dramatically extendthe reach and capability of your channel management practices, enabling you to get the best out of the best partners and leave the rest to your competitors. January 2016, IDC #US40629815

2. IN THIS WHITE PAPER This white paper presents a method for establishing channel data management as a core competency across all channel-facing departments. It includes a maturity model for driving excellence in strategy, people, process, technology, and data workstreams. Companies that embrace a new approach to channel management based on data-driven decision making will develop stronger relationships with stronger channel partners than their rivals. Companies using this model are gaining channel capacity in a time of extraordinary transformation. SITUATION OVERVIEW Channel partners are vitally important sources of revenue, strategic support, and customer experience. In spite of the channel's tremendous role in overall business performance, it is often under-resourced and inadequately managed. This is especially true for companies that established their channels to sell physical products, whether widgets or boxed software. In these models, channels typically were considered a mere fulfillment arm. The attitude of many manufacturers was, "We gave you great products and a strong brand, now go sell stuff." In an era when product release cycles were measured in years and solutions were relatively simple, that attitude worked pretty well. Today, the channel is vastly more competitive and complex. Large manufacturers can have channel populations in the tens or hundreds of thousands, making it difficult to optimize performance for all of them. Top-tier partners have extraordinary market power, making it extremely important to recruit, retain, and optimize the best channel partners. New technologies such as mobile, social, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, and big data are changing customer behavior, blending product categories, blurring market definitions, and opening up new revenue streams. As a result, partners are under pressure to master the skills needed to deliver new solutions, market to new customers, and run new business models. Manufacturers that guide partners through these challenges will gain share, loyalty, and revenue at the expense of those that do not. But doing so requires manufacturers to master an increasingly complex world of channel data. Key drivers of complexity in channel data include: The number and variety of entities reporting data — distributors, TAPs, alliances, resellers, VARs, and service providers The volume and variety of data types needed — activation, consumption, and opportunities The depth of data (e.g., serial number, deal registration, and end-user data)    The magic ingredient is data. Imagine having the financial, operational, and behavioral data on partners to optimize new product launches, margin splits, inventory turns, coverage models, and channel programs. Imagine being able to show partners — no matter how new or small or niche their focus — how other partners like them have achieved high return on investment (ROI) on their business with you. This is all possible, but it requires a new approach to channel data management, one that goes beyond ad hoc, fragmented, and periodic reporting to a model where data exchange is embedded into the relationship and data management is supported by dedicated infrastructure and best practices. Key questions that we address in this document include: How can manufacturers progress through IDC's Channel Data Management maturity model? How can manufacturers leverage partner data for competitive advantage? How can manufacturers get partners to participate? What are the benefits for partners?     ©2016 IDC #US40629815 2

3. Progressing Through IDC's Channel Data Management Maturity Model At even the largest, most leading-edge companies, channel data management is in its nascent stages. Companies typically lack the organizational expertise, process controls, technology infrastructure, and data management practices necessary to fully leverage channel data throughout the business. As a result, this leads to poor decision making in areas such as: Sales execution: Sales execution: Unable to match MDF to bookings and hard to enforce price and discount policies and partner reviews based on gut checks Post-sales support: Post-sales support: Don't know the end customer, unable to upsell, and unable to validate warranty claims Incentives and loyalty: Incentives and loyalty: Incorrect partner payments Finance: Finance: Unable to produce accurate sales forecasts and business plans and slow to adjudicate partner payment disputes Supply chain: Supply chain: Unable to analyze how much product partners have on hand Channel marketing: Channel marketing: Programs are generic, effectiveness is hard to measure, and ROI is unknowable       Practitioners we spoke with are aspiring to or are in newly created (two years or less) global CDM roles, but few of them have the dedicated resources and authority to be truly successful. Leadership and executive sponsorship are essential but are not enough. The transformation requires an organizational commitment. People must be assigned to own the processes. Then the processes can be defined, optimized, and automated. Technology must be brought in to support the new processes and generate the data necessary to deliver insights into partner performance. Data is the final, but most important workstream. It will provide the scalability needed to better manage, support, and enable every partner, not just those that justify dedicated human resource commitments. But the data cannot be effectively captured and leveraged until significant changes are made in the technology platform, organization, and processes. Table 1 provides a detailed description of the key stages in this journey. ©2016 IDC #US40629815 3

4. TABLE 1 IDC's Channel Data Management Maturity Model: Detailed Description by Stage Stage 1: Ad Hoc Stage 2: Opportunistic Stage 3: Repeatable Stage 4: Managed Stage 5: Optimized for Scale Strategic vision Start-up mode Extend product marketing to the channel Channel marketing/ management asserts leadership Corporate owner to create enterprise efficiencies and strategic alignment Identify and continuously deliver the most effective support to all channels; consume channel data in all downstream business process to deliver value No dedicated resources Driven by product groups Departmental or business unit (BU) or regional CDM teams Corporate team under sales VP Global channel data leader with sponsorship and resources People No clearly defined processes Ad hoc data capture and limited use cases Single department to consolidate channel data and expand data- driven use cases Centralized channel data that departments can leverage to drive specific use cases Enterprise/global processes for data collection, analysis, and use cases with SLAs across functions Process Uncertain what systems are being used to capture channel data Existing back- end systems to house fragmented channel data Departmental systems of record dominate (CRM in sales, ERP in finance) Channel data management platform implemented in BU Channel data management platform implemented enterprisewide Technology No one knows what data is captured or where it is Limited, poorly managed channel data Emergent standards for channel data validation, enrichment, and governance Enterprise/master channel data management best practices for validation, enrichment, and governance Analytics exposed to partners to propagate best practices and drive performance at scale; data is accurate and decision grade; connecting it back to master data is important so that it can be used in all downstream systems Data Opinion- based channel decisions Collect POS and inventory data monthly in predefined templates Weekly updates with support for multiple data collection formats and modes of transmission Support for global data collection standard and advanced collection methods Partner data captured via automated partner submission portal with no manual steps; attention to frequency of data collection and depth of incoming data Capability Source: IDC, 2015 ©2016 IDC #US40629815 4

5. In any maturity model, it is important to benchmark yourself against industry norms and best practices. In CDM, you would benchmark things such as your coverage and latency of tier 1 and tier 2 data, the kinds of data you collect, the accuracy of the data you collect, the compliance of your partners with the process, and your ability to leverage the data in downstream processes to drive business value. Benefits for Manufacturers Channel Marketing  Customer segmentation Customer segmentation is the capability to classify your prospective and current customers and create groups of similar customers based on their behavioral and demographic attributes. It is used to make key business decisions for effective marketing, promotions, and product planning.  Partner segmentation Partner segmentation is the capability to segment partners and assign tiers by sales performance, order history, or other value measures and to profile partners based on sales performance. Partner segmentation data can be used to set or revise sales targets, analyze or define partner engagement models, map coverage to market segmentation, and improve the ROI for the channel incentive program.  Campaign management Campaign management is the capability to design, execute, and manage campaigns to deliver the right offer via the right channel at the right time and maximize profits. It consumes channel data to "close the loop" and match sales data to cost data to determine the ROI for the campaign. Sales Execution  Deal registration Deal registration is the capability to identify deal registrations and match them to actual sales through partner-reported point-of-sale (POS) data. It is used to validate and pay incentives for the deal registration based on the actual POS-reported sale. It calculates close rate and cycle time of a deal, the "net, net price," and supports the automated closure of the deal registration and automated auditing of incentive payments.  Channel sales performance management Channel sales performance management is the capability to aggregate channel performance across a geography, a segment (i.e., retail), and/or globally. It is used to drive sales performance in the channel by providing granular data on sales and inventory management. Post-Sales Service  Installed base via POS Installed base via POS is the capability to populate installed base records using clean and enriched POS data. It can be used to create serial number installed base records from POS data; match activations, license, and other customer data; track the asset; and identify additional service to customers.  End-customer visibility End-customer visibility is the capability to collect POS data with end user and serial number information to identify the end user of the device or asset within the installed base. It is used to identify the channel "route to customer" to generate leads and target marketing campaigns into the installed base.  Warranty and returns management Warranty and returns management is the capability to validate whether the product sold follows the terms and conditions of warranty or not (e.g., product manufactured should be sold only in the United States; if sold outside the United States, warranty is not applicable). If warranty conditions are fulfilled, so is the ability to derive the validity period of warranty.  Upsell and re-engagement Upsell and re-engagement is the capability to build a detailed profile of the installed base (e.g., product, device identifiers, service, and warranty expiration dates) to identify sales opportunities for additional product/services and the route to customer. It can be used for supporting upsell and cross-sell alerts and the advance notifications of upcoming renewal expiration dates to reengage with customers and eliminate any lapse in service and/or unnecessary fees. ©2016 IDC #US40629815 5

6. Incentive and loyalty Incentive and loyalty is the capability to pay partner incentives from POS data or inventory data submitted by the partner without the administrative burden of a claiming process. It is used to accelerate partner payments and reduce the cost of partner incentive programs. It supports the ship and debit process, special pricing, net-net valuations, and other incentive plans based off of sales and inventory data.  Finance, Risk, and Compliance  Revenue recognition Revenue recognition is the ability to use the sell-out POS data and to reconcile sell-in/sell-out data in order to accurately recognize revenue from channel sales net of all MDF and channel incentives spend. It is used by finance to recognize the financial statement revenue or internal business unit revenue.  Financial planning Financial planning is the capability to monitor financial planning and budgeting items from POS and inventory data reported by channel partners. It is used to extend the financial planning to include channel sales and incentives to better predict the financial performance of the enterprise.  Channel audit Channel audit is the ability to aggregate sales by partner, inventory, and risk alerts in a package that can be provided to internal or external auditors to complete channel compliance audits in an effective and efficient manner. It is used to focus audits on high-risk partners and high-risk transactions and to reduce the time to audit these partners and/or transactions. Supply Chain  SISO inventory reconciliation SISO inventory reconciliation is the capability to analyze reported sell-through information with inventory data to enhance profitability. It is used to detect variances within defined tolerance limits for validation that the channel partner sales and inventory data are in sync with. It supports the identification of grey market activities and high-risk partners as well as improves overall data quality. Demand forecasting Demand forecasting is the capability to consume granular POS data to quantify future demand at a very granular level. It is used to align inventory balances with predicting future quantities demanded by sold-to customer or end customer. Accurate forecasting will reduce inventory balances, reduce stock-outs, and identify excess inventory for supply chain actions. Inventory tracking Inventory tracking is the capability to analyze the current inventory level with recent sales history to determine the number of days of inventory (inventory aging) at the current sales level. It is used to identify excess inventory, reduce inventory aging, and avoid inventory write- offs. For retail channel partners, store-level POS and inventory data should provide channel visibility to the larger retail chains. Stock-out avoidance Stock-out avoidance is the capability to minimize the occurrences of stock-outs at the point of sale by understanding product availability within the channel to identify locations with low volumes earlier. It can be used to increase revenue by providing stock at locations where sales would otherwise be lost and reduce the logistics costs associated with accelerated shipments. Sell-in/sell-through analysis Sell-in/sell-through analysis is the capability to link the sell-in and sell-through POS data to provide channel visibility from sell-in to end-customer sale or activation. It is used to drive visibility to channel inventory and overall channel sales. POS returns and optimization POS returns and optimization is the capability to evaluate the rate of product returns to manufacturer, identify specific high-rate partners, and understand the reasons for the return. It can be used to reduce the associated costs of returns via early detection of potential product issues and abnormal partner return rates. Logistics and inventory optimization Logistics and inventory optimization is the capability that provides the POS and inventory data to supply chain modeling to reduce the overall number of inventory moves to achieve the optimal cost of logistics and inventory.       ©2016 IDC #US40629815 6

7. Getting Partners to Participate Large distributors and partners are likely prepared to deliver a well-defined set of sales and marketing data. Smaller partners with limited resources, however, will need a tangible and immediate benefit and a very low overhead process to participate fully and consistently. The general rule for channel data should be that everything that goes out to partners should be designed to bring data back. The four broad categories of ways in which manufacturers can capture partner data are: Contractual obligation. Contractual obligation. Data should be part of the partner contract. This approach is usually already in place with the largest partners and distributors. Contractual reporting should cover all the data attributes required by the manufacturer such as point of sale, inventory, part/serial numbers, customer identity, and MDF spend. Key to effective data provisioning by partners is the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the data. The best practice in this regard is for weekly updates. Performance against these requirements should also be factored into how the partner receives rewards or penalties relating to incentives, certifications, go-to-market funds, and so forth. Operationalized data capture. Operationalized data capture. One of the most difficult types of partner data to capture is marketing and sales activities. To facilitate this, companies should redesign the partner portal as a SaaS platform that provides a wide range of functionality. The ideal platform will consolidate all of the interactions with partners by offering personalized access to content and transactional systems, as well as the ability to execute customer interactions such as marketing campaigns. By virtue of this consolidation, it captures an increasingly large portion of partner activities and provides a continuous flow of valuable data to inform channel marketing and management. Partner scorecards. Partner scorecards. Many companies use partner scorecards, but they are typically designed around lagging indicators that are based on incomplete, outdated, and inaccurate data. A CDM process will enable much richer and more useful scorecards to be developed. A critical component of the partner score must be related to the data provisioning process itself. Partners should be scored on the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the data, which can be linked to a number of valuable perks: MDF allocation, prompt payout processing, and access to greater data services. Data as a service. Data as a service. A more advanced method is to externalize the database of partner performance data and make it available to partners in a way that captures even more data from more partners. By offering access to the data to partners, manufacturers can deliver specific insights to them on how they can better run their businesses. Partners can query the database for detailed benchmarks on the financial, operational, and behavioral characteristics of very similar peer groups. Of course, the level of detail they get in return depends on the level of detail they provide. As a result, the database is in a virtuous cycle of enrichment. They should be able to get insight into a wide variety of strategic and tactical questions such as:  How many people do I need in marketing, sales, technical, and support roles?  What level of skills and training should people have?  What marketing activities are most effective?  What sales methodologies and plays are most effective and at what stage?  What manufacturer resources and networks should staff be utilizing most frequently?     ©2016 IDC #US40629815 7

8. OPPORTUNITIES Benefits for Channel Partners While the benefits to internal departments that interact with channel partners are significant, the real payoff for channel data management is in driving the partner performance curve. By gathering more detailed data on a broader range of partners, manufacturers can get more revenue from their existing partner base. The key is for manufacturers to leverage their unique position at the center of the partner universe. No other company, including your distributors and partners, can possibly have the same level of insight into how different types of partners perform and why. Armed with that data, manufacturers can start to identify who the highest-performing partners are and the best practices for partners like them. These insights can be used to show underperforming partners, specifically how they can boost their ROI on their relationship with the manufacturer — how should they invest the next dollar in the relationship: Marketing campaigns? Sales training? Technical certifications? Hiring staff? Recommendations can apply to every role in the partner organization and might include any or all of the following: Marketing: Marketing: Improving competencies, longer-term campaign planning, and new accounts or buyer types; leveraging social and mobile channels; and understanding buyer's journey, product mix, pricing, marketing technology or services, customer data management practices, and so forth Sales: Sales: Updated or more pervasive sales training, new sales plays, and improved qualification milestones Technical sales: Technical sales: Advanced certifications and more pervasive technical training Support: Support: Upsell skills Executive management: Executive management: Balancing staff resources      This highly personalized guidance can bring underperforming partners closer to their high-performing peers. It can be a source of tremendous value and promote loyalty that product and programs alone cannot. Key benefits for partners include: Improved cash flow and product availability Proactive help to reduce inventory levels Benchmarking performance against peers Data-driven account reviews More effective collaboration to grow business      Of course all this data sharing must be conducted within a good channel conflict structure so that partners are not helping their direct competitors. But the experience of one partner in one region can be highly beneficial for partners in other regions with similar business and market profiles. The ability to propagate best practices with data enables manufacturers to optimize channel recruitment. ©2016 IDC #US40629815 8

9. FUTURE OUTLOOK Companies must adopt a new data-driven model for channel engagement: Enterprise/global leadership role and team CDM platform for data collection, aggregation, analysis, and management CDM governance to maintain completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of channel data Data-driven channel management processes and investment models across functions Virtuous cycle of information exchange with channel partners      Leading companies are starting to appoint global heads of channel data management, assess the (topically sorry) state of their partner databases and data management practices, and deploy solutions to provide a channel data management platform. These companies are exerting organizational, process, and technological influence across a wide range of departmental areas — product marketing, corporate and field marketing, sales, sales operations, and regional channel management. They are aggressively pursuing the vision of stage 5 maturity (refer back to Table 1). In large organizations, progress will be measured in years, giving first movers significant market advantage. IDC recommends that to compete, companies must take the following actions (at a minimum) over the next few years: Now Now    Establish a channel data management organization. Decide where the channel data management leadership should be positioned — in sales or under the CEO. Assess channel strategy and objectives against the current channel data management organization and processes. Develop urgency and a new story line to move company culture to a channel data management mentality. Assess the current state of your partner portal technology and the governance structure for capturing and managing partner data. Expand partner advisory boards to include representatives from all segments of the partner community. Next budget cycle Next budget cycle  Develop a plan to consolidate the organization's channel data management infrastructure.  Establish key organizational interlocks between all partner-facing departments with associated service-level agreements (SLAs), where appropriate.  Develop standard taxonomy and governance models for partner data, and roll out globally across systems.  Plan to establish an analytics function (staff, tools, and governance) to support internal and external analytics requirements. Over the next one to two years Over the next one to two years  Adopt a data-driven approach to everything related to channel management, marketing, and enablement.  Reveal insights that both reinforce and challenge current thinking on what drives channel revenue.  Encourage partners to use your data to help them better run their businesses.  Promote your ability to provide business insights as a key differentiator, and socialize success.       ©2016 IDC #US40629815 9

10. CHALLENGES Companies are not able to perform mission-critical business operations because of lack of channel visibility. For example, they are not able to: Accurately detect and prevent overpayment of incentives/discounts Understand drivers of supply and demand across the globe, within specific regions or countries, branch locations, or end-customer demographics Pinpoint the amount of inventory in the distribution system Get timely, detailed insight to identify and propagate best practices needed to drive partner performance Perform partner profiling and segmentation and measure partner satisfaction Make confident, data-driven decisions on revenue recognition and reserves       CDM can be a large undertaking for companies that have neglected their channel management processes over the years. A culture of ad hoc decision making can be hard to change. But technology is one of the most effective catalysts for change. New systems demand new thinking about how work routines, holistic processes, and business outcomes can be forged into a core competency. New CDM solutions such as those from Zyme that provide scalable channel data management capabilities can be rallying points for channel-facing functions to come together. Another key challenge is getting partner participation. The CDM program needs to be supported with marketing and training for distributors, VARs, resellers, and integrators. Every new partner should get a standard training package explaining the data requirements and usage policies. Every partner account manager (PAM) or equivalent should also receive training and support resources to help them assist partners in achieving the highest data provisioning scores they can. CONCLUSION By using CDM solutions such as Zyme's, companies can get unprecedented insight into large-scale channel populations and leverage their position at the center of their channel universe. In addition to its CDM platform, Zyme provides a global channel directory of over a million partners, support for a wide range of partner data formats, and a methodology for ensuring partner reporting compliance. With a deeper understanding of customers, manufacturers can improve regional sales performance and product planning. Finance and IT benefit from more efficient data collection and financial reporting enabled by CDM. Other key benefits include: Drive channel revenue Lower inventory costs Market more effectively Rationalize partner investment Increase compliance      Technology is only one piece of the project, but it is the organizing principle around which change happens in the organization, the processes, and the data related to channel partners. ©2016 IDC #US40629815 10

11. About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact- based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Global Headquarters 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA 508.872.8200 Twitter: @IDC idc-insights-community.com www.idc.com Copyright Notice External Publication of IDC Information and Data —Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Copyright 2016 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.