D-Link Uses CMR’s Channel Pos to Gain Rapid Insight Into The Effectiveness Of Its Distribution and Sales Channels
Company Info
Founded in 1986, D-Link provides end-to-end network solutions using award-winning products that integrate seamlessly with a variety of devices and applications. Its mission, to make networking easy and affordable for its customers, has paid off.
D-Link is currently the leading networking company in the small-to-medium business (SMB) segment, providing almost 10 million connection points in Q2/2005. Company revenues total more than $966 million. D-Link has 90 offices worldwide, offering thousands of networking products in 16 major categories including cable/DSL routers, USBs, print servers, VPN/Firewalls, and power- over-Ethernet devices.
The Challenge
Being the leading supplier of a broad range of products doesn’t come easy to any company, no matter how many awards its products have received. Just getting inventory out of the warehouse and tracking it through distribution and reseller Channels are huge tasks.
When Robert Robinson joined D-Link as Director of Business Channel Sales, he had lots of data to help him measure and manage partner Channel sales. But he was concerned about whether he could use it in a credible way.
“You can’t go into a sales meeting and make a forecast or justify a budget if you don’t trust the data,” Robinson said. “A report containing three-week-old data just doesn’t hack it.”
Though all D-Link distributors are required to send monthly point of sale (POS) reports, each distributor uses different product categories, subcategories and SKUs. Data isn’t always accurate or complete, and there is no standard file format used in the industry.
Though this lack of data standardization is common in the manufacturing industry, it doesn’t make Robinson’s job any easier. “I was hired to build a strong Channel,” Robinson said. “I needed to know where we had been in order to predict where we were going. We tried to improve the accuracy and consistency of our data internally, but it usually took us three or four weeks, and even then we were never sure that it was correct.”
CMR’s Channel POS Delivers Uniform, Accurate Data
Realizing that he needed better quality data,Robinson and his staff evaluated four vendors who specialize in the collection and processing of multiple distributors’ POS records. After a 90-day proof of concept, they chose CMR’s Channel POS.
“CMR was eminently more capable,” Robinson recalled. “They were unique in the breadth of their technology as well as their personal service and commitment to getting the job done.”
Unlike competing products, CMR accepts data in any format, including EDI, spreadsheet, email, FTP and HTML, among others. Perhaps even more importantly, instead of three or four weeks, it takes CMR less than a day to collect and scrub the data.
“Our distributors still send their data in whatever format they want, via any delivery method they want,” Robinson explained. “CMR applies business rules to the data to make the database uniform and accurate. The end result is that we now have immediate, reliable, actionable data upon which to make decisions.”
Once D-Link’s Channel data is processed, it becomes available online from the CMR Partner Avenue portal. From Partner Avenue, Robertson and his sales group can view reports and analyze data using OLAP cubes. “CMR offers more than 30 standard Crystal reports, and they have also helped us customize several reports to help us extract information we never had before,” Robinson commented.
Actionable Data Helps Grow The Business Channels
“We really wouldn’t be able to manage our Channels this efficiently without Channel POS,” Robinson added. “It’s given us the opportunity to see where we are successful and where we are not and make incremental adjustments month by month.”
Robinson has recently begun using CMR’s escalating alert system. This feature triggers automatic email to D-Link partners, notifying them of deadlines for turning in their sales information. If the initial deadline isn’t met, a second more urgently worded alert is sent.
“The results benefit everyone. The faster Channel POS receives and processes our sales data, the sooner our sales reps know if they are meeting their numbers. It also accelerates financial reporting, because we can post validated numbers to the general ledger sooner than before.”
More reliable data helps Robinson manage Partner Program Levels, which he can now easily determine from Channel POS data. It is also making Sarbanes-Oxley compliance reporting more efficient.
“We need to be able to document sell through accurately, because Sarbanes-Oxley says that you can’t recognize revenue until you reach the point in the process where the product cannot be returned.”
Robinson is also taking advantage of the Reseller Profile module. CMR developed this Web solution to automate the process of reviewing and approving Channel applicants who wish to become authorized resellers. With a click of a button, the reseller can submit an application for D-Link’s review and approval. The reseller profile information can then be used for future reference alongside its sales history.
According to Robinson, the ROI of using Channel POS is substantial. “CMR’s Channel POS is far less expensive than doing it in-house, and we get far better results. It allows me to keep my operations and sales people focused and to see where we’re heading so that we can take appropriate action.”
“We now have a much higher ability to drive the business in a specific direction based on the data we get from CMR. As a result, we’ve been quite successful in boosting our business networking market in U.S.”
“CMR has invested heavily in the best individuals and database and server technology. That investment is clearly reflected in its finished product.”
Benefits To The Organization
- More accurate information on Channel performance yields more effective marketing plans and programs
- Accurately documents returns, promotions and rebates as a percent of actual sales
- Features standard and customized reports
About Computer Market Research
For more than 23 years, CMR has delivered cost effective, technology-based applications and services to manufacturers to assist them in managing channel data, optimize their trade promotion investments and maximize the effectiveness of their distribution channels. CMR’s Web-based solutions accelerate and automate distributor and reseller data collection, processing, analysis and reporting. CMR’s newest clients include Buffalo Technology, D-Link, LSI Corporation, and Targus. More information is available from the CMR customer support line at
(858) 795-1021, or can be viewed at www.computermarketresearch.com.
