Overview
Market development funds (MDF) are a resource that a vendor grants to its indirect sales channel partners to help the channel with sales and marketing programs.
Flexible MDF management
The Bridge Platform offers a lot of flexibility in terms of MDF management. Vendors can create multiple MDF plans and enable them for selected users.
The Admin and User sections of the MDF module
The MDF management module is divided into Admin and User sections. In the Admin section, the Admin User can create custom fields based on the Company’s business plan for MDF. The Admin User can create multiple MDF Plans for different marketing activities and specify the maximum amount allocated to each. These Plans can be assigned to different Partners based on the Company’s criteria for allocation. There are provisions to hide the maximum allocated amount so it is not displayed to partner Users and setting an expiry date for MDF Plan.
MDF Reporting
The Admin User can view the report of each MDF plan which will display the maximum allocated amount, the sanctioned amount, and visual representations (Chart based reporting) of distribution of the amount activity-wise for allocation and sanction.
MDF Request process
The Partner User can request for funds based on the Fund Plans assigned to the Partner. While requesting, the Partner User needs to upload documents for each request like invoices, receipts, payment proofs, etc. as per the Company’s requirements. The Company can configure the ‘Terms and Conditions’ related to the MDF usage and disbursal, in the Bridge Platform, which the Partner User needs to accept every time they place a request for MDF disbursal. Partner Users can also attach data such as Leads associated with the request, email campaigns sent, Deals registered, or Opportunities created/closed for the activity.
MDF Request approval
The requests may be approved/rejected by Admin Users or sent back to the Partner User with for more information. The approved amount can be equal to or lesser than the requested amount. After approval, the Partner User can send the request back later for reimbursement, which the Admin User can reimburse partially or totally. There is a setting to hide the reimbursement option if the Company has separate process or tool for reimbursement.
Also, Admin User can create a search list based on various conditions of request and send notifications to requester/managers/specific User/User Groups about the request. This helps in setting multiple approval levels and also in updating the Users about the request status.
Currency conversion
The requests can be sent in any currency and the Bridge platform will automatically convert it to the Fund Plan currency for validation.
Related modules/Sections
The Bridge platform’s MDF management module has multiple sections that allow partner users to
- Request funds
- View the status of their fund requests (Approved/Rejected)
The MDF widgets can be added to the User’s Dashboard for quick access to the MDF Module and to get information on the status of the requests as soon as the Users log into the Bridge platform.
From the vendor’s perspective, Admin Users have access to different sections of the MDF Module that allows them to
- Approve/reject MDF requests
- Create fund plans
- View MDF management related reports
As in the case of Partner Users, the MDF widgets can be added to the Admin User’s Dashboard as well for quick access to the MDF Module.
An insight into the working of Bridge’s MDF feature
The Partner can place an MDF request by submitting all the required documents/receipts via the Bridge Platform. Once the partner places a request for the disbursal of MDF, a notification is sent to the vendor for approval. Based on the various conditions (MDF static and custom attributes), the request may be approved or rejected by the vendor. Once the request is approved/rejected, the partner User gets an instant notification informing them of the vendor’s decision. From the vendor’s perspective, all the data needed to make decisions regarding the MDF fund allocation is available in the Bridge Platform’s MDF database.