Territory Category Versions

The work of balancing territoriesIn a territory category, you can define as many named territories as you need to identify sales responsibilities. Territories are often divided geographically, and can include whole countries, states or provinces, or even ZIP/postal code ranges. Other criteria can be included for each territory, such as firm association or channel/subchannel definitions. If needed, you can filter offices, reps, partnerships, and teams to which a territory will apply by their firm association alone. Each territory can have one or more operators assigned to it; after territory assignments are set, permissions can be set to control the level of access each operator has to data (such as viewing or editing), based on his or her territory assignments. within each territory categoryA territory category represents one set of distinct territories that you need to maintain at the same time. A single territory category may not reflect how your sales force is distributed, so you can define up to fifteen (15) different territory categories in SalesConnect; however, only one version in each territory category can be current at any given time. Categories can represent particular lines of business (such as wirehouses or banks) or product lines (such as mutual funds or annuities), or any other meaningful division for which you need to support distinct sets of territories. Categories include as many named territories as you need to identify sales responsibilities. Named territories are often geographical in nature, but can also include channel/subchannel definitions and firm associations. Applicability also affects office and rep/partnership/team territory assignments: if a territory category is applicable to a firm, then entities associated with that firm can be assigned to territories in that category; but if the category is not applicable to a firm, then associated entities are not assigned to a defined territory in it, but are instead flagged "Not Applicable" for the category. is ongoing—it's not something you can simply set up once and then walk away from. Periodically, you need to assess how well balanced the existing territories within a category are, and determine whether changes are needed. That's where territory category versions come in. Within each territory category, you have a currently enforced version of territories (the current version), but you may also have historical versions (sets of territories for that category that you used to use), as well as a version you are testing for possible implementation.

Historical versions provide a way for you to examine how you have handled balancing in the past; territory history, a record of past territory assignmentsOnce a set of territories within a particular territory category version has been made current in SalesConnect, those territories will be assigned to appropriate connections (offices, reps, rep partnerships, teams, and even plan sponsors, if appropriate). Territory assignments are based on the criteria in the territory category definitions, on firm applicability, and on whether an entity is locked or not. In SalesConnect, territory locks always override systematic territory assignments. Firm associations can be set at the territory definition level; separately, territory categories can be set to be applicable to particular firms. These settings are very different from each other, but both firm associations and territory category applicability affect territory assignments for entities., is maintained for all of the connectionsConnections are entities; they're the different types of companies and individuals you may need to track. SalesConnect is set up to display information about the types of connections you care about, based on the roles to which you are assigned. and records to which territories may be assigned, including officesAn office is a connection in the intermediary business hierarchy, an organization subordinate to a broker/dealer firm. Offices are also sometimes referred to as "branches'; institutional firms have branches in SalesConnect. An office is affiliated with a single broker/dealer firm, and may have one or more reps directly affiliated with it. An office may have associated office contacts, as well. Possibly the most critical information you can track for offices are aliases, also known as trading IDs. Aliases are the IDs that associate transactions with each office. If you need to write queries or reports: The primary data for offices is stored in the Office table. Information about office trading IDs is stored in the Office Alias table., repsA rep is perhaps the most important contact connection in the intermediary business hierarchy. Each rep is an individual who sells funds and is affiliated with an office (and through the office, with a broker/dealer firm). Reps may also be referred to as "financial advisors." Possibly the most critical information you can track for reps are aliases, also known as trading IDs. Aliases are the IDs that associate transactions and assets with each rep. If you need to write queries or reports: The primary data for reps is stored in the Contact and Rep Profile tables. The Rep Alias table stores trading IDs associated with reps., partnershipsA partnership is a contact connection in the intermediary business hierarchy, though it is really a name for a group of reps working together to sell one or more products. A partnership, sometimes called a rep partnership, is treated as a special type of rep: this means that most of the tools for working with reps may be used to work with partnerships as well. Most views of transactions associated with an individual rep generally don't include transactions or parts of transactions that the rep may have cleared as part of a partnership. Instead, these kinds of trades are listed only for the rep partnership. Each member's portion of rep partnership sales data is always based on the percentages currently assigned to each member; no long-term historical information about percentages is maintained. SalesConnect does not store any calculated trade or asset values based on rep partnerships. If you need to write queries or reports: The primary data for partnerships is stored in the Contact, Rep Partnership, and Rep Profile tables. The Rep Alias table stores trading IDs associated with partnerships as well as reps., teamsA team is a contact connection, though it is really a group of individuals working together to achieve a common sales goal; a team may include reps and rep partnerships from the office with which the team is associated, but it can also office contacts and non-producing reps who support team sales efforts., and transactions.

When you need to change the territory set that you are currently applying for a category, you create a test or proposed version. You can experiment with new ways of balancing the territories in that version, until you have a model that you want to implement.

See Developing a Territory Category Version for an overview of the steps involved in developing a version for a territory category.