Infographic | The A-Z of Channel Acronyms
Love them or Loathe them, Channel Acronyms are not going anywhere, anytime soon. We use acronyms on a daily basis, mostly without giving them a second thought. Or without asking the question, “does everyone else understand what I mean?” Coming from a marketing background, I was familiar with acronyms. However, when I joined Channel Mechanics, I quickly realized the acronyms I took to mean one thing, often referred to something completely different in the channel.
Getting up to speed with channel terminology, I took note of the channel acronyms I regularly heard. Like most people, I didn’t like to ask what specific acronyms meant, (after all who wants to appear foolish) so I started to do my homework. Often discovering there was no one specific meaning to certain channel acronyms! Over time my list has grown, and while it is by no means exhaustive, it might just help the next time a channel acronym is thrown across the table at you!
For a more comprehensive list of Channel Acronyms, please read my post: The complete A-Z List of Channel Acronyms
The A-Z of Channel Acronyms
(See below for descriptions)
1T (aka Tier 1) Partner: Partner Purchasing Direct
A Vendor sells direct to a Channel Partner
2T (aka Tier 2) Partner: Reseller purchasing via distribution
A Vendor sells to a Distributor who sells to a Channel Partner
A
AR: Authorized Reseller
An authorized re-seller is a business partner that has entered into a contractual relationship with the vendor to sell their software and/or hardware products.
B
BECS: Back-End Credit System
BECS (also known as ship and debit transactions) is the process by which a distributor ships goods at a lower price to the customer and either debits the supplier for the difference in the acquisition and selling price or absorbs the cost themselves. It enables distributors to execute programs from stock with financial assurance from the vendor. It is an easy to use, fully transparent claims process.
C
CIPM: Channel Incentive Program Management
CIPM is the real-time management of incentives (MDF, SPIFFs, loyalty programs, etc. ) to provide actionable metrics and drive revenue for vendors and their channel partners.
D
DMR: Direct Market Reseller
A DMR is a company that sells directly to consumers (usually) online without operating bricks and mortar operations of any kind.
E
EODB: Ease of Doing Business
EODB makes the experience of selling your products as simple as possible for channel partners. The use of simple transaction interfaces, such as a partner portal that is simple and easy to navigate and one that has all current and relevant information.
F
FMO: Fulfillment Model Option
The decision to use the 1T or 2T model to distribute products and services.
G
GPPC: Global Partners and Pricing Catalog
GPPC is a global pricing architecture that can scale, flex and differentiate not only your products and services but also differentiate your partners and distributors. It enables partners to always have the latest information and pricing on product and service offers immediately available to them.
I
ISV: Independent Software Vendor
A vendor that makes and sells software products that run on one or more computer hardware or operating system (OS) platforms.
J
JMF: Joint Marketing Funds
Joint Marketing Funds (JMF) are programs designed to support joint activities between a vendor and it’s channel partners. JMF programs are intended to provide certified partners with the funds to support a range of proactive, revenue generating activities such as advertising and direct marketing campaigns.
K
KM: Knowledge Management
KM is a concept in which an organization consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyses its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills.
L
L2RM: Lead to Revenue Management
L2RM is a set of sales and marketing methods that focuses on generating revenue throughout the customer life cycle, in B2B marketing and sales. It starts with lead generation and extends through each stage in the buyer’s journey in order to evaluate how much revenue customers in each stage bring in.
M
MDF: Market Development Funds
Market development funds are used in indirect sales channel whereby a vendor makes funds available to help affiliates, channel partners, resellers, VARs, or distributors sell its products and create local awareness. The funds are issued to partners in advance of sales and are discretionary in nature, as they are based on predicted or expected behavior.
N
NFR: Not for Resale
NFR is a designation for products that vendors give to channel partners for testing and educational purposes to become familiar with the products they sell and support. There is a contractual agreement that the channel partner will not resell those products.
O
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is a company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. OEM is sometimes used interchangeably with “vendor.”
P
PRM: Partner Relationship Management
PRM is a combination of the software, processes and strategies companies use to streamline business processes and support the activities required to manage the entire life cycle of channel partners. It typically includes a partner portal, partner database, and other tools that allow companies and partners to manage leads, revenues, opportunities and sales metrics.
Q
QIP: Quarterly Incentive Program
An incentive program ran on a quarterly basis to promote or encourage specific actions or behavior by a specific group of partners during a defined period of time.
R
RFP: Request for Proposal
A RFP is a document that an organization posts to elicit a response — a formal bid — from potential vendors for a desired IT solution. It specifies what the customer is looking for and describes each evaluation criterion on which a vendor’s proposal will be assessed.
S
SPIF | SPIFF: Special Pricing Incentive Fund (Sales Performance Incentive Funds) | Special Pricing Incentive Fund Formula
A SPIFF is a short-term incentive, to drive sales in a set period of time. They include dollar rewards, prizes, or loyalty points, but they are all aimed at one thing—driving your sales.
T
TPMA: Through Partner Marketing Automation
Enables partners to engage their customers with a consistent brand experience that creates awareness, amplifies brand, and generates demand. It includes through-channel marketing automation, campaign management, social media, syndicated content, microsite development, partner locators, lead management, and routing.
U
UPL: Universal Partner Locator
A vendor’s online partner locator search facility, which incorporates partner characteristics including name, geography, technology capability, certification/specializations etc.
V
VEV: Virtual Entitlement Voucher
A VEV is an online voucher with a unique identification number that provides authorization and assurance that a partner is entitled to carry out the transaction defined in the VEV, as part of a program or promotion.
X
XaaS: Everything as a Service
A cloud computing term for the extensive variety of services and applications emerging for users to access on demand, over the internet as opposed to being utilized via on-premises means.
Y
YoY: Year over Year
YoY is a comparison of a statistic for one period to the same period, usually a month or quarter, the previous year. The year-over-year growth rate calculates the percentage change during the previous twelve months.
Now that you’ve got a taste for Channel Acronyms, check out my more comprehensive blog post: The Complete A-Z of Channel Acronyms