Distribution Agreements

Updated: June 2, 2020

Contents

For each marketplace that a provider wants to use, they must create a distribution agreement in the scope of a certain program agreement. A distribution agreement defines terms and conditions that vendors must accept to supply their products through the associated marketplace.

Data Model

A program agreement can contain several distribution agreements. Several vendors can enroll in a particular distribution agreement.

Provider Portal

Creating Distribution Agreements

A provider creates a distribution agreement within a program agreement to enable vendors to supply their products through a marketplace of the provider.

Prerequisites

Before creating a distribution agreement, the provider must ensure that the following business objects exist in Connect:

A program agreement that is the parent of the new distribution agreement
A marketplace with associated hubs to direct product flows from vendors to commerce platforms
An agreement content that can be either a file or a web page

Process

To create a distribution agreement, the provider must perform the operations described in the following sections.

1. Select a program agreement

A provider can create a distribution agreement only in the context of a program agreement that the provider must select first on the main page:

2. Start creating a distribution agreement

On the program agreement details page, scroll to the bottom and click the “Create Distribution Agreement” button:

3. Set distribution agreement attributes

In the pop-up window, set the required parameters as illustrated below:

Name: a descriptive name to identify this agreement
Description: a synopsis about the agreement
Marketplaces: a marketplace that this agreement is associated with
Document source: a file or a link to the distribution agreement content that vendors must read and accept
Activate version: check this box to make the newly created version active immediately

After completing the above steps, the new distribution agreement is in the list:

The new distribution agreement is available for vendors to enroll in that agreement and set associated distribution contracts.

Managing Distribution Agreements

Similar to Updating Program Agreements, a provider can revise distribution agreements by creating and activating its versions. To create a new distribution agreement version, the provider must follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the distribution agreement details

All management operations are performed within the distribution agreement pane that users can navigate to from the Program Agreements main page as illustrated in the example below:

In the open program agreement screen, find the list of distribution agreements:

Click the distribution agreement that you want to upgrade.

2. Add a version

In the distribution agreement screen, click Add Version in the bottom of the screen:

3. Set new version attributes

In the pop-up window, assign the new distribution agreement properties:

Refer to the document content either through a URL or by uploading a file. This document must contain terms and conditions that vendors will read and accept to access the marketplace associated with this agreement.
If the new version must be published immediately for your partners, check the Activate version box.
Click Add and notice that the new version is active.

After completion of the above steps, the new agreement version is available for enrollment. The vendors that have contracts associated with this distribution agreement will notice a tag “New version” near that Agreement on the main page and in Contracts. They can update their contracts to the new distribution agreement version as described in Accepting Agreement Updates.

Vendor Portal

Enrolment in a Distribution Agreement

To set a distribution contract with a provider, a vendor must find a proper distribution agreement inside the program agreement of this provider and then follow these steps:

In the Actions column of the required distribution agreement, click Enroll.
In the pop-up window, follow the link to the agreement content, read and accept the agreement, and then click Enroll:

This creates a new pending contract with a conversation log. You can add more messages to that conversation:

The new contract will stay pending until the provider approves it as described in Approving a Pending Distribution Contract.

Accepting Agreement Updates

In, a program agreement, a vendor can notice an updated distribution agreement and and upgrade their respective distribution contract to the new version.

In the Actions column of the required distribution agreement, click Sign.
In the pop-up window, follow the link to the agreement content, read and accept the agreement, and then click Sign: