About Onboarding Partners

Overview

Onboarding is a critical factor in partner engagement and channel success. By providing a structured path to progress, you can guide your partners to the content and actions that will make your relationship mutually profitable.  You can communicate what is expected and how they can meet those expectations. 

An onboarding plan is a staged path that requires partners to complete specific tasks or steps before they can progress to the next stage. To encourage partners to maintain momentum, it is common to provide additional benefits for later stages. 

You can create multiple onboarding plans to support the needs of different partners; for example, you could create regional or industry-specific plans that would deliver relevant content to specific partner groups.  The most common use of onboarding plans is to help new partners acclimatize to your channel ecosystem. However, you can also use onboarding plans to provide special support to distinct partner groups. 

Unifyr provides the option to translate your Onboarding Plan into multiple languages. For more information, see Translate an Onboarding Plan.

Like all other elements in your Unifyr implementation, your partner onboarding efforts should be closely aligned with your channel program objectives. You should aim to deliver an onboarding program that incrementally builds the partner's confidence and abilities to generate new business. Onboarding programs are highly adaptable and can incorporate a variety of activities that a partner can complete on- and off-system.  You can incorporate training and content resources as well as activities that the partner can take to demonstrate their engagement. 

You have two options for giving your partners their Onboarding Plan:

• Onboarding IQ - an integrated assistant that gives users realtime guidance on what they need to do, encourages them to navigate through the plan with personalized task suggestions and messaging, and tracks their progress

  Onboarding IQ is an AI agent. For information about enabling it for your partners, see About Onboarding IQ and Automated Assistance with Unifyr IQ's AI Agents.

• A custom page in the partner portal where users can see the tasks they need to complete, with links to the relevant portal pages or other apps, and a list-based progress tracker

For more information, see Communicate Your Onboarding Plan to Partners.

Before You Begin

Work with your Unifyr team to define your corporate success plan, if you haven't already. The success plan contains your goals and will help to guide the Onboarding Plan for partners.

Consider if/how onboarding tasks need to be segmented to different partner groups.

Decide how you will deliver Onboarding Plan(s) to your partners.

Contents

Click on the + to expand the instructions for the desired task.

Available Onboarding Tasks

Each onboarding plan is made up of many tasks. These can be cumulative - for example, if you require a new partner to register one deal to progress through stage one of the plan and two deals to progress through stage two, the partner will only need to register a single deal in stage two to complete the requirement.

Unifyr default tasks are automatically marked as complete when the partner or user completes the required actions - no manual intervention is required. Suppliers must manually mark completion of any Custom Task included in the plan.

Below is a list of the available Onboarding Tasks, displayed when creating or editing an Onboarding Plan.

Task Name	Description
Custom Task	Partners are required to complete tasks that are not available as a default in Unifyr. For example, you may have an article on Academy that you want new users to read, or users should meet with their Channel Sales manager. Add the name of the task and a target URL if applicable. Define the Completion Level - Partner or individual Partner User level Custom tasks must be manually checked off/marked as completed for a partner. For more information, see the Track Partner Completion of Custom Tasks section of this article. Note If the custom task includes a URL (an optional setting), it will automatically be marked as complete when the user clicks the link. This type of custom task doesn't have to be manually tracked and acknowledged.
Activate Campaign	(Not available in a Unifyr Engage subscription) Partners are required to activate any campaign to mark the task as complete.
Complete Certification	Partners are required to pass a specific certification to complete the task. This task can be added multiple times to the plan.
Complete Course	Partners are required to pass a specific course to complete the task. This task can be added multiple times to the plan.
Download Collateral	Partners are required to download a piece of collateral specified by the supplier. The partner is given the link as part of the task. Once they download the collateral from the link, the task is marked as complete.
Register a Deal	Partners are required to register a specified number of deals for the task to be marked as complete. The deals can be registered by the supplier and assigned to the partner, partners can create the deals from the portal, partners can create a deal directly from a lead, or the deal may be pulled over from a third-party integration. Any of these registrations will contribute to completion of the task.
Register a Lead	Partners are required to register a specified number of leads for the task to be marked as complete.
Review Company Profile	Partners are required to review the Company Profile. They should ensure the name, address, time zone, and email subscription information is up to date. The task is completed when the partner visits the page.
Submit Partner Form	(Not available in a Unifyr Engage subscription) Partners are required to fill in a specified Partner information form to mark the task as complete. Your custom Partner forms are listed for selection. For more information, see Custom Forms.
Submit Partner User Form	(Not available in a Unifyr Engage subscription) Partners are required to fill in a specified Partner User information form to mark the task as complete. Your custom Partner User forms are listed for selection. For more information, see Custom Forms.
View Portal Page	Partners are required to visit a specified portal page. The task is marked complete once the partner visits the page.

Create an Onboarding Plan

Each onboarding plan is cumulative, which means that the requirements for one stage contribute to the assessment in later stages. As an example, if you require a new partner to register one deal to progress through stage one of the plan and two deals to progress through stage two, the partner will only need to register a single deal in stage two to complete the requirement. 

Caution

• Each task (both default and custom tasks) MUST be given a unique Task Name that is not used on any other Onboarding Plans you have built for your partners. This is to ensure that each task can be reported on accurately.

  After you have dragged and dropped a task onto your plan, you must rename it.

  For example, if you have a 30-day Onboarding Plan and a 60-day Onboarding Plan built, they should NOT both include a task called “Register a Deal.” Instead, we recommend creating a task called “Register a Deal (30 Day)” and “Register a Deal (60 Day)” to ensure each task displays accurately on your reports.

• Ensure that tasks associated with marketing activities such as emails or campaigns point to active/published content.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Onboarding Plans.
2. Click Create Plan.

3. Provide the following information:

   Parameter	Type	Description
   Plan Name	Text	A unique identifying name to distinguish this plan from others in lists.
   Description	Text	More information about the plan, to ensure effective use and management. This is especially useful if you have multiple onboarding plans.
   Active/Inactive	Toggle	Whether eligible partners will have relevant actions counted towards progression in this plan. Set the toggle to Active to have any tasks completed by the partner or user tracked. This happens regardless of whether the plan is published in the portal. The plan must be Active to be added to be displayed in Onboarding IQ, or added to a custom page, and seen in the portal by partners. Best practice: We recommend you build the plan and then return later to make it active.
   Partner Groups	Multi-select	Specify which partners are eligible for the plan by assigning it to partner groups. For more information about Partner Groups, see About Partner Groups. By default, onboarding plans are available to all users. Use the Advanced option to create other rules for assigning the plan, based on custom partner fields, user roles or partner names. For more information, see Use Ad-Hoc Partner Groups.
   Advanced	n/a	Click to open the Advanced Rules window, where you can create rules to permit/restrict your partners' access to the plan, based on partner fields, user roles or partner names. Partner Rules - Add rules based on partner fields/values Use Add Rule to add a new rule (creating a group of rules, each one separated by an AND, i.e. they must all be met to trigger the rule) For example: Country is USA AND Partner Status is Active Use New Rule Group to add a new group of rules, separated from the previous rule/group by an OR, i.e. one of the rule groups must be met to trigger the rule. For example: [Country is USA AND Partner Status is Active] OR [Partner Group is USA Partners] User Rules - Add rules based on partner user fields/values These rules further refine the results generated from the partner rules Matching Partners - Details the list of partners that match the defined partner rules Matching Users - Details the list of users that match the defined partner user rules For some examples of partner rules, see Partner Group Rules.
   Create Group	Button	[Optional] By default, each partner onboarding program is created with three default stages (task groups): 30-, 60-, and 90-Day Plan. This option allows you to track the progression against time-based milestones. You can modify this by either editing the name of the default groups or adding new ones with Create Group.
   Plan Tasks	Click and Drag	The individual actions that must be completed by, or for, the partner or user. The list of available tasks is given in Available Tasks. Unifyr includes several default tasks and a custom task. To add a task to the plan, drag it from Available Tasks to the required group/position in Plan Tasks. Once you drop a task into the plan, set the configurable values as required: Task Name - this MUST be unique, so that progress can be tracked accurately Maximum length - 100 characters. Description (if Onboarding IQ is enabled) - more information about the task Use this field to give the user more information about a task, such as the benefits/outcomes of completing it, when the Onboarding IQ assistant suggests it to them: portal_onboarding_iq_task_context Maximum length - 1000 characters. Time Estimate (if Onboarding IQ is enabled) - the length of time you think it will take the user to complete the task, in hours or minutes. This estimate is used as guidance to the partners when suggesting tasks - Onboarding IQ doesn’t track how long a user takes to complete the task. Add the number in the Time Estimate field, then select the measure (hours or minutes) in the Hours / Minutes field Task-specific configuration User Visibility - select the user role to which the task applies You can add a task to a plan multiple times if needed - be sure that you rename each instance to something unique to have them tracked individually. For more information about Onboarding IQ, see About Onboarding IQ and Activating a Unifyr IQ Agent.

4. Click Save.

Prioritize your Onboarding Plans

Your Onboarding Plans page displays a Priority value for all your available plans. It is used to decide which Onboarding Plan is presented to the partner when they log in to the portal, as their current status may mean that they are eligible for multiple plans. Unifyr delivers the matching plan with the highest priority to the partner.

To set the priority order for your Onboarding Plans:

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Onboarding Plans.
2. In the list, drag and drop the Onboarding Plans into the required order. The Priority column is updated.

When assessing the list of plans, Unifyr starts from the top of the list and picks the first plan that the partner is eligible for.

Best Practice

We recommend also having a fallback plan at the bottom of the list, available to all partners, that a partner will match with if they're not eligible for any other plan in the list.

 

Edit an Onboarding Plan

To make changes to an existing Onboarding Plan:

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Onboarding Plans.
2. From the list, click on the Onboarding Plan you'd like to edit. The plan opens.
3. Make changes to the groups and tasks as required.

4. To make other changes, such as making the plan available to a different partner group, click the Edit icon next to the plan name to open the edit view.

    

5. Click Save.

To provide translations of custom fields, click on the Translations link in the left sidebar. This will take you to the Partner Portal > Translations > Forms & Fields page, where you can configure translations. For more information, see Translate a Custom Field.

Copy an Onboarding Plan

If you are creating similar Onboarding Plans for different partner groups, you can save time by copying a plan and making edits as required to the copy.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Onboarding Plans.
2. In the list, click on the Onboarding Plan you'd like to copy, to open it.

3. Click Copy Plan.

    

4. Enter the name of the new Onboarding Plan.
5. Click Save. The new plan opens.
6. Make changes to the groups and tasks as required.
7. Make other changes to the plan, such as assigning it to a different partner group.
8. Click Save when you are done.

Add Custom Actions to Your Onboarding Plan

Use the Custom Task to add non-Unifyr activities to a Unifyr Onboarding Plan, for example participating in an orientation call with one of your Channel Sales managers before progressing out of the initial stage. 

Custom tasks must be manually tracked/marked as completed against the partner record. For more information, see the Track Partner Completion of Custom Tasks section of this article.

Note

If the custom task includes a URL (an optional setting), it will automatically be marked as complete when the user clicks the link. This type of custom task doesn't have to be manually tracked and acknowledged.

Communicate Your Onboarding Plan(s) to Partners

There are two ways in which you can make your Onboarding Plan(s) available to your partners in the partner portal:

• Onboarding IQ

  You can enable the Onboarding IQ assistant for your partners. For more information, see these articles:

  • About Onboarding IQ
  • Automated Assistance with Unifyr IQ's AI Agents
  • Activating a Unifyr IQ Agent

   

• Custom portal page

  Unifyr includes a Partner Onboarding Plan as a drag-and-drop element in the custom page editor. To publish your onboarding plan to partners in the portal, create a custom page and add the Partner Onboarding Plan widget as dynamic content. 

  For more information, see Adding Dynamic Content to a Custom Page.

   

With either method, partners see the Onboarding Plan for which they are eligible, based on their partner group membership and the priority order in which the plans are stored in Unifyr Admin. Partner activities are tracked in the partner record. If the partner is later added to an onboarding plan, any progress they've already made against a task that's also included in the new plan will be counted. 

Publishing Multiple Onboarding Plans

When you've made your Onboarding Plan(s) available to partners, all active plans are picked up. For more information, see Communicating an Onboarding Plan to Partners.

Note

Each user only sees the Onboarding Plan that they are entitled to see, for example based on their membership of a Partner Group.

When you publish multiple onboarding plans, Unifyr selects which one is displayed to the authenticated user based on the priority order in the Onboarding Plans page and the user's visibility rights. You can modify the priorities by clicking and dragging the plans into the desired order. Unifyr will evaluate each plan in turn (starting from the top) and display the first one that the user is eligible for. 

It is best practice to have a catch-all plan at the bottom of the list that will be displayed if the user is not eligible for any group-specific plans.

 

Track Partner Completion of Custom Tasks

If you have included custom tasks that will be completed off-system in your onboarding plan, you need to manually credit the user or partner with completion in Unifyr. 

Note

If the custom task includes a URL (an optional setting), it will automatically be marked as complete when the user clicks the link. This type of custom task doesn't have to be manually tracked and acknowledged.

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Partner Explorer > Partners tab.
2. Click on the partner name in the list to open the partner details view.
3. Go to the Users tab on the left sidebar, and click on the user whose record you want to update.

4. Click ... > Onboarding Progress.

    

   The Onboarding Progress window opens, showing the user's progress in their assigned plan:

   • A checkmark means the task has been completed.
   • A grey dash represents an incomplete Unifyr task that doesn't need to be manually checked off. Once the partner meets the criteria for completion, this will automatically update to a checkmark.
   • An empty checkbox represents an incomplete non-Unifyr (custom) task that the supplier needs to manually check off for each partner or user once it has been completed. 

    

5. Check the checkbox against the custom task that the partner user has completed.
6. Click Apply.

Delete an Onboarding Plan

To delete an Onboarding Plan:

1. Navigate to Partner Management > Onboarding Plans.
2. In the list, click on the Onboarding Plan you'd like to delete, to open it.

3. Click Delete Plan.

    

4. You are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the Onboarding Plan. Note: Deleting the plan will affect any user data associated with it.
5. Click Delete.

Translate an Onboarding Plan

Unifyr provides the option to translate your Onboarding Plans into multiple languages. For more information, see Translate an Onboarding Plan.

Training

Related Topics

• Partner Onboarding 101: Tips for Building Lasting Partnerships
• 10 Best Practices for Channel Partner Onboarding
• Managing Partner Success
• About the Unifyr Partner Portal