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Distributor Facilitated Registration Tool

User Guide for the Distributor Facilitated Registration Tool

Table of Contents

About this Guide

What You Will Find in this Guide

Helpful Resources

Getting Started

Log into the Distributor Facilitated Registration Tool

Searching for and Registering Partners

Communicating the Benefits of the Partner Relationship

Searching for Existing Partners

Registering a Partner

Sending Invitations to Your Partners

Sending Multiple Invitations

Downloading the Template

What Your Partners Need to Do

Tracking Your Invitations

Reminder Emails

About this Guide

This guide provides an overview of the general processes and step-by-step instructions for using the Distributor Facilitated Registration (DFR) tool.

The DFR application was developed to provide a fast and easy way for you to register your Partners and glean more value out of these business-critical relationships. This tool empowers you as a Cisco Distributor to do the following:

  • Register a Partner
  • Upload a Partner contact list to inviteyour Partners to register with Cisco
  • View the status of your registration invitations

Helpful Resources

Have questions along the way? Not a problem. Check out these helpful resources.

  • The DFR User Guide

This informative how-to guide provides detailed instructions on using the DFR tool.

  • Frequently Asked Questions

The FAQ list provides detailed answers to a wide variety of frequently asked questions.

  • Partner Relationship Team

Still have questions? Contact the Partner Relationship Team.

Figure 1.1 (Distributor Facilitated Registration Home Page – Support Content)

Getting Started

The DFR tool was designed to enable you to register your Partners quickly and easily. Be sure to have the following information handy when you get started. This will speed up the registration process.

  • Your Partner’s business address
  • Your Partner’s contact information
  • If your Partner does business in the U.S. or Canada, a Federal Tax Identification Number or VAT Number (optional)
  • If your Partner does business in the European Union, a Value-Added Tax Identification Number (VATIN) (optional)

FYI: A Value-Added Tax Identification Number (VATIN) is a unique identifier of a business entity used in the European Union for taxation purposes.

Log into DFR

You must have a valid Cisco.com user ID and password to log into DFR. To log in, go to

To register for a Cisco.com user ID, go to: You’ll receive an email confirming your registration.

Figure 2.1 (Distributor Facilitated Registration LoginPage)

Searching for and Registering Partners

You will see the information in Figure 3.1 when logging into DFR. The DFR home page displays the steps and options available to you to search for and register a Partner.

Figure 3.1 (Distributor Facilitated Registration Home Page)

Communicating the Benefits of the Partner Relationship

Help your Partners understand the value of entering into a Partner relationship with Cisco. View the benefits of a Cisco Partnership in one downloadable PDF by selecting the “Partner Registration Benefits” link.

Figure 3.2 (Partner Registration Benefits)

Search for Existing Partners

If you are not sure whether or not your Partner is already a registered Cisco Partner, you can search for their company before registering. To search for an existing Partner, choose“Search for Existing Partners”at the bottom of the home page and enter the Partner’s company name and country location.

Figure 3.3 (Search for Existing Partners)

The following search methods can assist you in locating your Partner’s company information:

  1. If you choose “Exact Match,”companies will be displayed that match the “Company Name” field exactly. If no match is found, you will be asked to modify your search criteria.
  2. If you choose “Begins with,”companies will be displayed that start with the entered text. If no match is found, you will be asked to modify your search criteria.
  3. If you choose “Contains”, companies will be displayed that contain the text entered. If no match is found, you will be asked to modify your search criteria.

Figure 3.4 (Search Screen)

If a Company is Found

If a match is found, the system will display a list of companies that closely match the information you provided in your search criteria. If the Partner’s company is included in the displayed list, they are already a Cisco registered Partner. You do not need to take any further action.

Figure 3.5 (Search Results – Company Match Found)

If a Company is Not Found

If no matches are found, you should select the “Begin a Registration”tab and register the Partner.

Figure 3.6 (Search Results – Company Not Found)

Registering a Partner

Once you begin a registration, by either selecting the“registration” link or the“Begin a Registration” tab, you will be asked to provide the following Partner information:

  • Email address
  • Cisco.com ID
  • Address including City/State/Country/zip
  • Partner account number
  • Other optional information

Choose“Submit”to complete the registration and the system will validate the information.

Figure 3.7 (Partner Registration)

That’s all you need to do. Your partners will be sent an email invitation, which requires them to log in to the Partner Registration tool and sign the Indirect Channel Partner Agreement (ICPA) to accept the invitationand affiliate themselves with you or another distributor.

Sending Invitations to Your Partners

The DFR site provides a simple way for you to invite Partners to register with Cisco. You can register individual Partners or multiple Partners of your choice using a file upload. Invitations will be sent to each Partner on your list.

Inviting Multiple Partners

The process of simultaneously sending invites to multiple Partnersincludes the following steps:

  • Select the “Invite” tab.
  • Choose“Browse” to locate the file on your local hard drive or network drive.
  • Locate the file and choose“Upload”.
  • The system will then upload the file and validate the input parameters.
  • If the file contains all necessary data in a template format you will receive an email stating that your part of the process is complete and your Partners will be emailed the invitation.
  • If the file contains missing data or the data is in an invalid format, you will be alerted with an error message and asked to make corrections and re-submit.
  • Upon successful submission, your Partners will receive an email with a link to the invitation.

Figure 4.1 (Distributor Invites)

Downloading the Template

You can also download an excel template for your contact list by selecting the “invitation template” link.You can use this template to manage your Partner information and save it as a local file in a valid format. Field details include the following:

  • Partner Account Number
  • Partner email address
  • Address line 1 and 2
  • City Name
  • Zip code
  • State
  • Country
  • Fed Tax Number (Optional)
  • Vatin Number (Optional)

FYI: A Value-Added Tax Identification Number (VATIN) is a unique identifier of a business entity used in the European Union for taxation purposes.

Figure 4.2 (Distributor Invites – Template Download)

What Your Partners Need to Do

After receiving the email, your Partners need to click on the included web address and sign the ICPA. This will confirm the registration with Cisco and the affiliation with you, the distributor. There are a number of contingencies to keep in mind:

  • A Partner can choose to decline the invitation or just take no action on the email.
  • The system gives the Partner 30 daysto take action. During that period of timethe status is considered “Pending”. After 30 days, the invitation request is automatically deleted.
  • If Partners have been invited by multiple distributors, they will be asked to select a distributor to be affiliated with.

Tracking Your Invitations

You can view the status of all the invitations you’ve sent and the actions taken on those invitations, by both the system and your Partner by choosing the “My Registrations” tab.Use the dropdown menu to view a list of all pending, confirmed and denied registrations with tracking numbers and details.

Figure 4.3 (My Registrations)

Reminder Emails

You can choose to send up to three reminder emails. The first reminder can be sent a week after the completion of the initial registration. The second and third reminders can be sent at later intervals.

Reminder emails can be sent only for pending registration requests. Once the status changes from “pending” to “confirmed” or “denied,” this option is no longer available.

Figure 4.4 (Invite Reminders)