This is a high level overview of what is possible with ActivitySource, and the functionality you can expect, and also leverage for your needs.

The initiative itself can be broken up into as many stages as you want. The stages are currently named “sectors” by CrowdStrike but you can name them whatever you think makes sense.

Just tell me the name you want to use and I’ll update them for you.

There is a description that appears at the top of each stage, that explains what the partner should be focussed on for that stage. Again, if you provide me with what you want them to be, I’ll update them for you.

Within each stage, we then group content and specific activities that are relevant by assigning them to that stage.

You can’t actually link new activities to stages (we have to do that for you) — but you can update the content, add new articles and events, and also put together a plan of what you want.

Looking at the initiative team overview page you will notice that some of the activities (always at least one per stage) say “required” and are marked red.

These are special activities that don’t just earn points, they also stop the partner from continuing through to the next stage until they have completed that activity.

This allows us to carefully show content to the partner without overwhelming them — keeping their attention focussed on what we want them to think about and do for each stage.

When the partner completes all the tasks that are marked as “required” (in red), they will then see a pop-up message that invites them to continue on to the next stage.

You can think about what the mandatory activities are that must be completed before you want partners to progress. We have decided to have less required tasks so that it’s easier for partners to move forward without much effort on their part. The risk to balance, however, is that they don’t move too quickly past stages and then miss out on some key milestone point earning opportunities!

If you want to change what activities are “required” to complete a stage, we can make those adjustments for you.

We link the activities to the stages, and we also assign points to them at the same time. For all activities, the number of points awarded can be customized. As mentioned above, they can be “required” for stage progression, or just optional.

Here’s a menu of the different activity types that you can use and what partners can do for each one.

I’ve included some examples of the activity card, pages, and a real screenshot from the app for you to get an idea of how content can be customized.

Of course, you can update the articles and create the events and new articles yourself — but you can’t create the activity tiles and add them to the right stages without my help.

What you should do is create as much of the content as you can first, then write me a list of what else you want to add, and I will be able to get the team to create it for you.

If you have ideas but are not sure how to achieve them — I can also help you understand the best/clearest way to achieve this in the platform.

The Business Activity Plan is an important tool to help the partner and distributor align and agree on what their targets and goals are for the financial period, and also to emphasize the support and enablement the Partner will receive to achieve those goals. It provides partners with the framework to get specific about who, what, when, and how they’re engaging with customers to generate (and close!) business.

The admin creates a BAP for each Partner Organisation in the BAP section. The content of the BAP and the questions being asked are currently managed / set by CrowdStrike, but per Vendor Channel this can be customized to collect and monitor different information.

If you need specific questions added, or for us to customize any of the language in the BAP, please let me know, and we can investigate options and coordinate with CrowdStrike.

This layout is designed to be screen-shared with the partner on a monthly video call, and worked through together to ensure that it becomes a shared plan they’re excited about.

At the end of the BAP, the admin can send the BAP through to the partner to accept.

After the partner has generated some new deals, and registered those deals with CrowdStrike on their portal, they must also log the deal inside ActivitySource to be eligible for deal reg points.

The deal registration section is visible to both Partners and Admins, with admins having a higher level view across all the partner organizations.

Through deal registration you can:

Both Partners and Admins can add deals and add activity to those deals. The only difference is that anything added by a partner must be then approved by the Admin — whereas admin contributions are automatically approved. 🙂

The information collected for deal registration and deal activity are set by CrowdStrike globally across all their distributors, but happy to take feedback on this / what is collected for future enhancements.

How to add a deal on behalf of a partner: Adding_a_deal_for_the_partner.mp4

How to add deal activity on behalf of a partner: Adding_deal_activity_to_a_deal.mp4

Each of the partner organizations invited to this Vendor Channel are listed on the partners page for that channel. When you invite a new partner, you are first adding their Partner Organisation (even if it already exists in another channel) and then inviting their primary contact.

If these users are not yet a member of your Distributor Network (which will always be the case for you) then they will receive an invitation to join.

Adding_new_partners_and_users.mp4

For APEX, it’s important to add TWO users for the two person team, but anyone you add as a “Partner Principal” will be able to invite more users. I’d recommend you always make users Partner Principal users for now, because users are free in ActivitySource, and it removes any friction about one user adding their friends.

We often find that it is a different person than the one we thought originally who takes charge and does the most work in the partner team, so it's good to have the flexibility.

Once you have added the users, ideally they complete the registration process and create their own team.

To do this, we have to set the initiative into “registration mode” which means that the initiative allows partners to register themselves.

However, there’s also a button on the Initiative Management page that allows you to manually register partners as well. This is useful if they miss the registration window, and you want to get them in. The downside is that you’ll be the one setting their team name for them.

How to register a new partner team: Registering_a_new_partner_team.mp4

It’s a key point that getting partners invited and registered into their team should be a top priority in the early days to keep up the momentum and have a swift ramp up to BAP sign off and the start of Deal Registration.

Hopefully this is a big help for you getting started with ActivitySource, but don’t forget we are also willing and able to help out with any questions you may have.

Most of the time, even if we don’t support it now, we’ll find a creative way to get an experience to work for you.

We’re eager to get any and all feedback from you and from your partners about the app experience and the many things that could doubtless be streamlined and approved (the work is never done).

We are growing rapidly and the platform is constantly evolving, so we welcome ideas for new features, reports, tools and content that would benefit you and your partners to be more successful.

Add any other notes and questions here for this Distributor.