Overview

The multi-partner reward platform can be configured to support the needs of organizations involved in diverse business activities.

Major features

• Set up reward schemes and share reward offers and participants with partners across diverse fields of business.
• Define the amount that each partner must contribute to the platform (as a percentage of the total amount awarded to reward participants).
• Debit merchant accounts according to how much of the awarded amount they agree to contribute
• Simultaneously define all partner groups with identical contribution rules.

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Setting Up Multi-partner Rewards

To use the rewards platform and set up a partner business structure, CRM.COM must be configured as shown in Rewards.

Participation agreements

Participation agreements establish the cooperation between the business with the rewards platform and its partners that participate in the schemes.  A set of rules are agreed between the parties that determine the contribution of reward partners to the amount awarded to participants.  Participation agreements are defined for (individual) partners or for a partner group.

• Partner unit rewards participation agreement is defined for each individual partner and can override agreements made at the group level.
• Partner group rewards participation agreement can be defined once and applied to all partners in the same group.
  
  

Both agreements can be set up through the rewards admin Data Entry page, under the rewards participation agreements information section.

Partner unit rewards participation agreement

Partner unit rewards participation agreement fields 

The table describes the sections of Partner Unit Rewards Participation Agreement Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Main Information
Unit: Represents the rewards participating merchant. Each unit can be associated with a single merchant. Accounts Receivable: Owned by the unit that represents the rewards participating merchant. An existing accounts receivable owned by the unit can be selected or a new one can be created. Merchants Group: Indicates the reward participating merchant group to which the merchant belongs (read-only). Life Cycle State: The life cycle state of the rewards participating merchants which can be effective or not effective Description: A description of the rewards participating merchant
Award Rules (Determine which participants can be rewarded by a specific merchant)
Merchants can be 'Enabled' to: Award Rewards Participants Owned by Merchant's Group Award Rewards Participants Owned by Other Collaborating Groups Block Award Events of Rewards Participants Not Participating in Any of the Merchant's Reward Schemes: Participants and merchants must take part in a common scheme, otherwise customer events cannot be awarded. Schemes Used to Provide Awards by the specified merchant. It is possible to select 'All Schemes' or designate 'Specific Schemes'.
Spend Rules (Applied when a merchant submits spend requests on behalf of rewards participants)
Merchants can be 'Enabled' to: Submit Spend Requests on Behalf of Rewards Participants Owned by Merchant's Group Submit Spend Requests on Behalf of Rewards Participants Owned by Other Collaborating Groups Block Spend Events of Rewards Participants Not Participating in Any of the Merchant's Reward Schemes: Participants and merchants must take part in a common scheme, otherwise spend request cannot be processed.
Allowed Spend Request Amount Range per Scheme	From: The minimum amount that a participant can spend at a time at the merchant. To: The maximum amount that a participant can spend at a time at the merchant. If the 'Specific Schemes' option is selected in the Award Rules section, the 'Allowed Spend Request Amount Range' can be defined for each scheme. Otherwise, a single range will apply across schemes. Minimum Spend Request Amount that a rewards participant can spend, at a time, at the merchant Maximum Spend Request Amount that a rewards participant can spend, at a time, at the merchant
Allowed Automatic Spend Request Amount Range	Allow Automatic Awards Spending: Defines whether the available awarded amount can be spent on all purchases. The setting overrides that of the field with the same name found on the rewards participant Data Entry page (I.e., if automatic spending is not allowed at merchant level, it cannot be enabled at participant level).       Rewards Participant Rewards Participating Merchant Result 1 Allow Automatic Awards Spending 2 Allow Automatic Awards Spending 3 Allow Automatic Awards Spending 4 Allow Automatic Awards Spending Do not confuse Spend Method 'Spend Instantly' (available in a number of reward offer classifications) and 'Allow Automatic Awards Spending'. 'Spend Instantly' directly deducts the award earned from a specific purchase as an instant discount, regardless of the participant and merchant setting. 'Allow Automatic Awards Spending' deducts any awarded amount available in the participant's wallet (possibly in addition to 'Spend instantly').
Reduction Method Settings	Reduction Method: How instant spends from awards are handled. Front-End Reduction: The discount is applied at the point of sale (the customer is charged the discounted price). Back-End Reduction: The customer pays the regular price at the point of sale and is refunded the discount amount by CRM.COM (through the Payment Gateway). Default Credit Note Type that will be generated against the account that should be refunded Default Credit Note Product which will be included in the generated credit note lines. Default Credit Note Category Default Credit Note Notes Default Refund Type that will be generated and processed by a payment gateway, in order to credit the online account of the customer with the awarded amount. Default Refund Product that will be included in the generated refund lines. Default Refund Category Default Refund Notes
Sign Up Rules (Applied when merchants sign up new reward participants or when existing participants are signed up to new schemes)
Merchants can be 'Enabled' to: Sign up New Rewards Participants Sign up Rewards Participants Owned by Merchant's Group to New Schemes Sign up Rewards Participants Owned by Other Collaborating Groups to New Schemes Schemes Used for Sign up: Determines the reward schemes that the merchant can offer participants. It is possible to select 'All Schemes' or designate 'Specific Schemes' (at least one must be selected). Schemes must be 'Effective' and accessible to the unit of the merchant to be available for selection.
Contribution Rules
Determine the percentage of the awarded amount to be contributed by the merchant (100%, by default). Multiple rules can be defined and applied based one their Priority. Unless a individual merchant specifies rules, rewards participating merchants group rules are applied by default. (else only the merchant's) Rule Name (generated automatically) Contribution Percentage Priority: Used when multiple contribution rules are applicable. Available values are 'Low', 'Normal', 'Medium' and 'High'.
Applicable Offer Applicable Payment Medium Brand Applicable Payment Medium Type	Determines the offers, payment medium brands and payment medium types towards which the contribution will be applicable. Only 'Effective' offers of the following classification can be selected: Utilise Free Capacity Increase Revenue, Transaction Based Increase Revenue, Product Based
Period Contributions	Merchant Contribution Percentage for a specified period (can be between 0 and 100). Multiple contributions can be defined within a rule.

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Partner group rewards participation agreement

Common award, spend, and contribution rules for partners within the same group can be configured simultaneously (saving considerable time).

Partner group rewards participation agreement fields

The table describes the sections of  Partner Group Rewards Participation Agreement Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

Merchants Group

 Mandatory   Configurable

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Related configuration

The following modules are related to rewards and must be configured for the multi-partner reward platform to operate at its full capacity.

Using the Multi-partner Reward Platform

 Using awards and spends to settle partner accounts

Partner accounts are debited by awards provided through their reward offers and credited by awards redeemed at their shops.  I.e., when an award is given out for a purchase from Partner A, the account of Partner A account is debited. When a customer spends an award earned from Partner A in the shop of Partner B, then the account of Partner B is credited with the spent amount.  To this end, customer events and spend requests are evaluated through reward settlement runs.  The runs debit or credit the accounts associated with the unit of the rewards participating partner, based on the contribution rules defined for each partner.  

Using reward settlement runs to settle partner accounts

1. Set up General Settings >Settlement Settings.
2. Under Rewards Participation Agreements Information create and schedule a new Reward Settlement Run.
3. Once the definition is configured, Save the run and click on Submit from the Actions menu to run once or recurrently (as scheduled). 

The contribution rules (set up under rewards participating partners) are used to calculate the amount that the partner account should be debited or credited.

Reward settlement run fields

The table describes the sections of settlement run Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Criteria
Purchase Customer Events Process Customer Events Performed X Days Ago	Determines which events to process based on how many days have passed since they were performed. If nothing is specified, all events will be processed regardless of the number of days.
Reward Schemes	Schemes used by the settlement process to apply awards and spends and settle the accounts receivable of partners.
Partner unit rewards participation agreement	Defines the rewards participating partners that should be considered during the settlement process. All are considered if none are specified.
Input Settings
Reward Settlement Type	Defines whether the process will debit and/or credit the accounts receivable of the merchant (Debit and credit by default).

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Switching to another Merchant Group

The process is responsible for managing Rewards Participating Merchants by moving them to another Merchant group as well as their Contribution Rules.

1. Select the merchant group to which the merchant will be moved
2. Select the contribution rules that will be moved/copied from the merchant group agreement to the merchant agreement.
   
   

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Rewards Analytics

Dashboards 

Dashboards make information regarding the key performance indicators of the progress of the rewards available from a single integrated view. Dashboards are made up of components such as charts and summary tables. Refer to Dashboards for information on their use and set-up.

Dashboard components

Reward settlements per logged in unit and month

The component displays the reward settlements of the logged in partner (unit) that took place over the last 12 months, in a bar chart, grouped by month

The settlement amount is calculated by subtracting credits from debits in the primary accounts receivable of the merchant.

Reward settlements per unit and month 

The component displays the reward settlements per partner (unit) over the last 12 months, in a stacked bar chart, grouped by month.

The settlement amount is calculated by subtracting credits from debits in the primary accounts receivable of the merchant.

Reports

Rewards information can be extracted in a structured format for analysis by using reports. The rewards included in the report are selected and grouped based on user-defined criteria.  Users can select the fields displayed in the report.  Refer to Reports for more information.

Reward settlement report

The report displays a list of debits and credits posted against the accounts receivable of a partner (unit), as part of the reward settlement process for a specific period.

Partner unit credits report

A rewards participating partner credits report displays credit notes which add funds to the accounts receivable of a rewards participant when a spend request customer event is performed by a rewards participating partner.

The report is used to identify the accounts receivable that have been credited as a result of spend request customer events.

The accounts receivable of the participant can be credited with the amount of money that should be paid to the partner when the wallet of the participant cannot be used  to redeem awards.  The rewards participant subsequently pays the partner for the full amount and it is up to each merchant to set up a custom procedure for redeeming customer awards identified through the report (i.e. credit the bank account of the customer).

Business example

Refunding reward participant payment gateway accounts for back-end reductions