Creating and Configuring Quota Planning in Oracle Sales Planning Cloud

Before you begin

This 65-minute hands-on tutorial shows you how to create and configure Quota Planning in Oracle Sales Planning Cloud. The sections build on each other and should be completed sequentially.

Background

Oracle Sales Planning Cloud provides an extensible, reliable framework that enables your teams to set and analyze data-driven, intelligent quotas using best practice methodologies. All key participants engage in the sales planning process including sales operations, sales management, and sales reps.

You can enable the following business processes in Sales Planning:

• Quota Planning offers top-down and bottom-up target quota planning by territory, product, account, or other custom dimensions. Use Predictive Planning and what if scenario planning to explore and compare different quota scenarios for informed decision making. Quota Planning builds best practices into its content, including its forms, calculations, dashboards, infolets, drivers, and measures.
• Advanced Sales Forecasting provides a robust platform for the sales forecasting process, allowing multidimensional sales forecasting across territories, products, accounts, channels, or other custom dimensions. It offers sales teams connected sales planning with integration between Quota Planning, compensation planning, and sales forecasts. With Advanced Sales Forecasting, you can plan at the weekly or monthly level, and use a rolling forecast if your business requires it.

Extend Oracle Sales Planning Cloud by adding configurations and personalization into your sales planning application with custom navigation flows, dashboards, and infolets. Use tasks and approvals to manage the quota planning process. Use Groovy rules to customize even further for enhanced calculation and business rules. Integrate Oracle Sales Planning Cloud with Oracle Engagement Cloud – Sales Cloud to push quota targets to incentive compensation or bring in actual attainment.

This tutorial shows you how to create a Sales Planning application, as well as enable and configure Quota Planning.

What do you need?

An Oracle Sales Planning Cloud Service instance allows you to deploy and use one application. To deploy another application, you must request another Oracle Sales Planning Cloud instance or remove the current application.

• Have Service Administrator access to Oracle Sales Planning Cloud. The instance should not have an application created.
• Download this file and extract the contents to a local folder.

Setting up your application

Before you create your application and enabling business processes, analyze your organization's current processes and determine your organization’s requirements.

About themes

You can change the theme of your display or add your company logo or a background image to the home page.

This tutorial was developed using the Dark Blue theme. You can select a theme by clicking (Navigator), then under Tools, click Appearance. For Theme, select a color option.

Logging on

Before you create your application and enable business processes, analyze your organization's current processes and determine your organization's requirements.

1. Go to the Oracle Sales Planning Cloud URL provided by your Service Administrator.
2. Enter your user name and password.
3. Click Go.

   The landing page is displayed.

   

Creating a sales application

1. On the landing page, for Create a new application, click START.
2. Complete the required general properties:
   • Name: SalesPln
   • Description: Sales Planning
3. Click Next.
4. Set the Start year to 2015, and End year to 2029.

   

5. For First Month of Fiscal Year, accept the default: January, and for Weekly Distribution, select 4-4-5 Distribution.

   

6. For Main Currency and Multicurrency, accept the default selections.

   

7. Review the name of the reporting cube.

   

8. Click Next.
9. Review your selections. If necessary, return to previous pages to make changes.

   

10. Click Create.

    The Application Creation Status message is displayed.

    

    Application creation may take a moment to complete. When completed, you'll see an Application created successfully message.

    

11. Click Configure.

Enabling Quota Planning

You enable the features you want to use in Quota Planning. When you enable features, dimensions, drivers, forms, and other artifacts are created based on your selections. You can incrementally implement capabilities.

Enabling features

1. On Configure: Quota Planning, click Enable Features.

   

2. In Enable Features, select Planning Model, then:
   • Accept the default selection, Territory.

   You can plan by territory or resource. The lowest level in each hierarchy represents a sales rep. With Territory, you can integrate with Oracle Engagement Cloud’s Territory Management. With Resource, you can integrate with Oracle Engagement Cloud’s Incentive Compensation Management.

   • Under Optional Dimensions, select Accounts, and Product.

   The accounts, product, and geography optional core custom dimensions have predefined functionality and artifacts associated with them.

   

   You must add custom dimensions when you first enable Quota Planning.

3. Select Unit of Measure, and accept the default selection Amount.

   You can choose to plan quota by dollars or units.

   

4. Select Key Functionality, then:
   • Select Overlay Targets.

   You can plan for the additional sales from a support sales force whose assistance increases revenue.

   • Select Seasonality

   You can adjust quota to better reflect the seasonal impact.

   • Select Padding.

   Selecting Padding allows management to make top side adjustments of target quotas before the final quotas are rolled out.

   • Select What if Scenarios.

   You can compare different business outcomes with the base plan.

   

5. Select Planning Methodology then:
   • Select Waterfall.

   With the top down method, after planning target quota for all territories, you can allocate it throughout the organization with one action. With the waterfall method, you can plan target quota at the top of the organization and then allocate it one step below in the hierarchy.

   • In Planning Methodology, select Bottom Up.

   With bottom up, sales reps can propose quotas for each account that they collaboratively review and adjust with their managers.

   

6. Select Predictive Planning.

   Enable Predictive Planning to perform time series statistical analyses on historical data to predict future results. Users can copy these predictions into forecast and what-if scenarios.

   

7. In Map/Rename Dimensions, enable Auxiliary 1, and click (Rename Target Dimension).

   

8. In Map/Rename Dimension,enter Sales Channel to rename Auxiliary 1, and click OK.

   

9. Verify that Auxiliary 1, Accounts and Products are selected, and for Auxiliary 1, Map/Rename displays Sales Channel, and click Enable.

   

10. At the Confirmation message, click Yes.

    

    Enabling features may take a moment to complete.

    

11. When an information message displays that features were enabled successfully, click OK.

    

12. In the upper right corner, click the arrow next to your username, and then click Sign Out.

    

13. When prompted to sign out, click OK.

    

14. Log back into Oracle Sales Planning Cloud.

    The home page is displayed.

    The application display is set to use the Dark Blue theme. You can select a theme by clicking (Navigator), then under Tools, click Appearance. For Theme, select a color option.

    

    Notice that Quota Planning was added to the home page.

Reviewing enabled features

1. On the home page, click Application, then Configure.

   

   The configuration tasks are displayed.

   

   Before you can use the predefined forms, you’ll need to import dimension members, load and prepare historical data, set user variable values, and perform additional configuration tasks.

2. Click Enable Features.
3. Review the enabled features.

   

   

4. Click Close.

Reviewing cubes and dimensions

In this section, you review the cubes and dimensions created after enabling features.

1. Click Overview.

   

2. In Application Overview, review the application properties.



3. Click Cubes.

   The configuration creates one (1) aggregate storage cube and one (1) block storage cube. Quota Planning includes a Salesrep reporting cube, and the OEP_QTP cube to plan sales quota.

   

4. Click OEP_QTP.

   

   The OEP_QTP cube is a block storage cube with several included dimensions and members. Sales intelligence and terminology is built in to support your sales planning.

   

5. Click Done.
6. Click Dimensions.

   

7. For Cube, click (Select Cube), and select OEP_QTP.

   

   Dimensions included in the cube are displayed.

   

8. Click Measures.
9. In Edit Member Properties: Measures, click (Zoom in All Levels).

   

10. Review the measures created to help you plan sales quota.

    

    If you need more measures, you can add them. Adding measures is covered in a separate tutorial.

11. Scroll to the right to see the Default Alias Table column.

    While you cannot change member names, you can change the alias to reflect the name needed for your organization.

    

    You can drag the Default Alias Table column to the left so that it is next to the Member Name.

12. Click Cancel.

Performing configuration tasks

In this section, you import metadata and configure components.

Importing metadata

1. Click Configure.

   

2. Click Accounts.

   

3. Click Browse.

   

   Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.

4. Locate and select Accounts.csv, and click Open.
5. Click Validate.

   

6. In the Information message, click OK.

   

7. Click Close.
8. Click Jobs.

   

   The Validate Metadata job completed successfully.

   

9. Click Configure.

   

10. Click Accounts.

    

11. Click Browse.

    

    Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.

12. Locate and select Accounts.csv, and click Open.
13. Click Import.

    

14. In Options, select Refresh Database if Import Metadata is successful, and click OK.

    

15. In the Information message, click OK.

    

16. Click Close.
17. Click Jobs.

    

    In Recent activity, verify that the jobs completed successfully.

    

18. Return to Dimensions. Click Overview.

    

19. Click the Dimensions tab.

    

20. For Cube, click (Select Cube), and select OEP_QTP.

    

21. Click Import.

    

22. In Import Metadata, click Create.

    

    You can import multiple dimensions at the same time.

23. For each of the following dimensions, click Browse. then locate where you saved the csv files, select it, and then click Open.
    • Territory—Territory.csv
    • Product—Product.csv
    • Sales Channel—Sales Channel.csv

    Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.

    

24. Click Import.

    Best practice is to validate metadata files before importing them. The files included in this tutorial have been validated.

    

25. In Options, select Refresh Database if Import Metadata is successful, and click OK.

    

26. In the Information message, click OK.

    

27. Click Close twice.
28. Click Jobs.

    

    The import job and the refresh job completed successfully.

    

Reviewing and modifying territories

In this section, you review the territories you imported and you make modifications.

1. Click Overview.

   

2. Click Dimensions.

   

3. For Cube, click (Select Cube), and select OEP_QTP.

   

4. Click Territory.

   

5. Click (Zoom in All Levels).

   

6. Scroll right, and drag the Default Alias Table column, and drop it to the right of Member Name.

   

7. Scroll down and select the 1006 row for NA Business Sales - Products - Martin Conway, and click (Move Up) three times to move it up to the top.

   

8. Click Save.

   

9. Click (Refresh Database).

   

10. Click Refresh Database.

    

11. Click Refresh.

    

12. After the progress message displays Succeeded, click Finish.

    

13. Click Close.
14. Click Cancel.

    

Loading data

In this section, you load actual data.

1. Click Actions, and select Import Data.

   

2. Click Create.

   

In Import Data, you select import options and select your data file.



3. Keep all the default selections, and click Browse to select a file.

   Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.

4. Locate and select Historical_Actuals.csv, and click Open.

   When selected, the file name is displayed next to Source File. If you selected the wrong file, you can update your selection.

   

5. In the upper right, click Import.

   Best practice is to validate data load files before importing them. The files included in this tutorial have been validated.

   

6. In the Information message, click OK.

   

7. Next, import 2019_ImpactedRevenue which you'll need for overlay targets. Next to Source File, click Update.

   

8. In Update File, click Browse.

   

   Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.

9. Locate and select 2019_ImpactedRevenue.csv, and click Open.
10. In Update File, click OK.

    

11. Verify your selections, and click Import.

    Best practice is to validate data load files before importing them. The files included in this tutorial have been validated.

    

12. At the Information message, click OK.

    

13. Click Close twice.
14. Click Jobs, and verify that the recent two Import Data jobs completed successfully.

    

Setting variables and user preferences

In this section, you specify the current and previous plan year. You also set user preferences so that you can work with forms and dashboards.

Setting values for substitution variables

1. Click (Navigator), and under Tools, click Variables.

   

   In Variables, you can administer user variables and substitution variables.

   

2. Click Substitution Variables.

   The predefined substitution variables are displayed.

   

3. For OEP_CurYr change the year to FY20, and for OEP_PriorYr, change the year to FY19, and click Save.

   

4. Click OK.

Setting user preferences

1. Click User Preferences.

   

2. In General, under Approvals, select Display Aliases.

   

3. On the left, under Preferences, click Display.

   

4. Under Number Formatting, for Thousands Separator, select Comma.

   

5. On the left, under Preferences, click Ad Hoc Options.

   

6. Set Precision values to:

   	Minimum	Maximum
   Currency Values	0	0
   Non-Currency Values	0	0
   Percentage Values	0	1

   Precision settings affect the value display only, not their stored values.

   

7. On the upper-right, click Save.

   

8. In the Information message, click OK.

   

Setting values for user variables

1. On the left, under Preferences, click User Variables.
2. For each variable, click its (Member Selector) to select a member as the variable's value:

   Dimension	User Variable	Member
   Currency	Reporting Currency	USD_Reporting
   Scenario	Scenario	OEP_Plan
   Territory	OverlayTerritory	OEP_All Overlay Territory
   Territory	Sales Rep Territory	Central - Products - Div 1 - Peter Branch
   Territory	Territory	All Territory
   Accounts	Accounts	OEP_All Accounts
   Product	Product	OEP_All Product

When selecting Sales Rep Territory, click (Settings) and select Show Alias.

3. Verify your selections, and click Save.

   

4. In the Information message, click OK.

   

Preparing actual and forecast data

After loading data, you run a rule to prepare and calculate the loaded data, and aggregate it across the hierarchy to make it available for target setting and predictive planning.

1. Return to the home page. Click (Home).
2. Click Rules.

   

   Deployed rules are listed on this page.

   

   You can filter the display by rule type and cube.

3. Scroll down and for Process Actuals, click (Launch).

   

4. For each item, click its Member Selector (Member Selector)to select a member as its value:
   • Historical Years: FY16,FY17,FY18,FY19
   • Scenario: OEP_Plan
   • Version: OEP_Working

   

5. Click Launch .
6. In the Information message, click OK.

   

Performing additional configuration tasks

In this section, you verify an override option that allows sales reps to override the allocated target quota of a sales manager. You also set seasonality for the upcoming year.

Setting allocated target overrides

The default selection for allocated target overrides is set to No. If you change it to Yes, then targets assigned by those higher in the hierarchy can be changed by those lower in the hierarchy. So if the Sales VP allocates 5 million dollars to his Sales Manager, and the Sales Manager allocates quota to his Sales reps, then the Sales Manager can allocate less than 5 million dollars. To ensure the quota does not get modified, set this option to No.

1. Return to the home page. Click (Home).
2. On the home page, click Application, then Configure.

   

3. Select Allow Overrides on Allocated Target Quota.

   

4. Keep the default selection, "No", to ensure that the quota allocated by someone higher in the hierarchy cannot be changed by someone lower in the hierarchy.

   

   With the default selection set to "No", if the Sales VP allocates 1.2 million to his Sales Manager, and the Sales Manager allocates quota to his Sales reps, then the Sales Manager cannot allocate more than 1.2 million.

5. Click Close.

Setting seasonality

You can set seasonality for the upcoming year. You set this for All Territory. Individual territories can change the seasonality percentages. Data is allocated based on either historical seasonality or what is specified by the user. If a user applies seasonality, the monthly spread will change based on the seasonality settings. Monthly percentages must add up to 100%.

1. Select Seasonality.

   

   Seasonality for the prior year is displayed.

   

2. For FY20, enter monthly seasonality based on the following, and click Save.

   

3. In the Information message, click OK.

   

4. Click Close.

Verifying the configuration

In this section, you verify what you set up. You ensure that you can select Quota Planning and you set targets to get started.

Setting targets

1. Return to the home page. Click (Home).
2. On the home page, click Quota Planning, then Set Targets.

   

3. Click the second vertical tab (Set Growth)

   

4. In Plan YOY Growth %, enter 15%, and click (Save).

   

5. In the Information message, click OK.

   

6. For Plan Target Quota, enter 430m.

   

7. Click (Save).

   

8. In the Information message, click OK.