Introduction

This article shows PqW administrators how to register your organization's Cisco Business Entities and record a Partner Value Index (PVI) score for each Cisco Portfolio. PqW uses these scores to decide which rebate rate applies when it estimates the Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI) LAND Rebate on a quote—so getting them right makes every user's estimate accurate.

You enter PVI scores for a specific duration, and PqW keeps each one as a dated record. That way, a quote is always valued using the score that was applied at the time, even months later.

Key Terms Used

Why This Is Needed & Where It Fits in the PqW Journey

Cisco 360 is Cisco's unified partner incentive program, replacing the many separate programs Cisco previously ran. When you sell Cisco products, Cisco pays you a rebate, and how large that rebate is depends on your Partner Value Index (PVI) - a score Cisco assigns per Portfolio that reflects your organization's value to its ecosystem. This first release covers the Land Rebate (on new-business deals).
PqW uses PVI to work out which rebate tier applies when it estimates the Land Rebate on a quote. Because Cisco doesn't feed these scores into PqW automatically, an administrator records them here — which is why this configuration is the foundation for every rebate estimate your users see.
Where it fits: This is admin-only setup on the Cisco 360 CPI Config tab, not part of building a quote. PqW reads what you configure here at calculation time, so it sits behind the quoting flow rather than inside it.

What to keep in mind as an admin:

• Access is restricted: Only PqW administrators can open the Cisco 360 CPI Config tab; other users can't reach it, even by direct URL.
• Business Entity first, then scores: PVI is stored per Portfolio per Business Entity, so each entity must exist before you can record its scores.
• Scores are dated and monthly: You enter PVI with effective dates, and PqW applies the score that was active on each quote's CPI Effective Date, so keeping scores current matters

Prerequisites

• You need the PqW Admin permission to set up the entities and PVI values.
• Cisco assigns a PVI (a number from 0 to 10) for each Portfolio, per Business Entity. You can find these in the Cisco Partner Experience Platform (PXP); PqW does not pull them automatically, so you enter them by hand.
• Know which Business Entities your organization holds with Cisco. Each is identified by a BE GEO ID (Business Entity Geographic Grouping ID). A single partner can have several — for example, a company might have separate entities registered in the UK, the US, Singapore, and Australia.

Step-By-Step Process of Configuring Entities and PVI Score

Step 1: Create or Find a Business Entity

Business Entities are managed on the Business Entities tab. Open it to see the entities that already exist, and create a new one if the entity you need is not there.

1. Click on 9 dots menu to open the App launcher and type “Business Entities” in search box.
2. If the entity you need already exists, open it to check its details. If it does not, create a new Business Entity record.
3. Complete the fields on the record.
   • Name: a recognizable name for the entity (for example, Aone BE1).
   • Partner: the partner account this entity belongs to.
   • Business Entity ID: the identifier for the entity (for example, BE_1234).
   • Own Account: see the note below to know about this field.
   • Is Active: keep this checked so the entity is available for use.
   • Remarks: optional notes 
4. Save the record.

   

   Important: The Own Account checkbox controls whether the entity can be used for PVI. If Own Account is left unchecked, the entity will not appear in the Business Entity dropdown when you set a PVI score on the CPI Configuration page. Check Own Account for any entity you intend to score. Creating and editing Business Entity records, including this field, requires PqW administrator access.

    

Step 2: Open CPI Configuration Tab in PqW

1.  In PqW, click on the 9 dots menu to open the App Launcher.
   
2. Search CPI in the search box, and you will see CPI Configuration listed in the options.
3. Click on the option to open the Cisco 360 CPI Configuration tab.

The page has two areas you'll use: a place to manage your Business Entities, and a form to enter a PVI score for a Business Entity, Portfolio, and month.

Step 3: Enter a PVI score

A PVI score is always recorded against a specific Business Entity, Portfolio, and duration. You set that context and enter the score.

1. In the Business Entity dropdown select the Business Entity this score applies to.

   

2. Click on the Add or Update PVI button, next to Business Entity dropdown.
   
3. A dialog box opens to add or update PVI values where you can add or modify value of the following fields.
   1. Portfolio - select the Cisco Portfolio this score applies to (for example, Cisco Networking or Cisco Security).
   2. Applicable PVI- type the score Cisco assigned for this Portfolio and Business Entity. You can enter a value from 0.00 to 10.00, with up to two decimal places.
   3. Effective Start Date- select the month the score applies to (shown newest first, formatted like Mar FY2026).
4. Click on the Save button in the dialog box to proceed.

In the Applicable PVI field, type the score Cisco assigned. You don't choose the tier yourself — PqW derives it from the score. After you save, you can see the result in the Tier column of the PVI configuration grid, where each row shows Not Eligible, Partner, or Preferred Partner.

Important: You can store only one PVI record per combination of Business Entity, Portfolio, and month. If a record for that combination already exists, PqW rejects the save and shows: "A PVI record for this entity, portfolio, and month already exists. Please use the Edit function to modify existing records." To change a score for a month that already has one, edit the existing record instead (see Edit a PVI score below).

 

Repeat Step 3 for each Portfolio and each Business Entity you need to cover.

How PVI Scores Map to Rebate Tiers

The score you enter decides which rebate rate PqW applies for that Portfolio:

The thresholds (5.0 and 7.5) are set by Cisco and are fixed for this program period.

Why is PVI Stored by Effective Dates

Each score you save is kept as a dated record rather than overwriting the previous one. When PqW estimates the rebate on a quote, it looks up the PVI that was active on that quote's CPI Effective Date, so older quotes keep using the score that applied at the time, and new quotes use your latest score. Building up a score for each month gives PqW the history it needs to value any quote correctly.

Edit a PVI Score

There are two ways to change a PVI score, depending on why you're changing it.

Inline Editing

If a score was entered incorrectly, you can use inline editing to update the PVI or effective date.

1.  Double-click on the Applicable PVI (or Effective Start Date) column in the PVI table, update the value in place, and press Enter.
   

   

2. The edited row is highlighted in yellow and Save/Discard button appears on top of the table.

   

3. Click on Save to save the changes or the Discard button to go back to previous values.

Use this when you're fixing a mistake in an existing record for the same date.

Add or Update PVI 

To record a new score for a new period, use Add or update PVI. When your PVI changes going forward, open Add or update PVI, select the Portfolio, enter the new Applicable PVI, and set a new Effective Start Date. PqW keeps the earlier record and closes its end date automatically. You cannot reuse the effective start date of a record that's already active for that Business Entity and Portfolio — if you try, PqW shows: "A PVI record for this Business Entity and Portfolio is already active on the supplied Effective Start Date." Use a new effective start date instead.

Assigning a Business Entity on a Quote

Business Entities are configured centrally on the Business Entities tab, but a Business Entity can also be set directly on a quote. Unlike the central configuration, this is available to both administrators and standard users. On the quote, in the Estimated CPI Information section, use the Business Entity field:

• Select an existing entity from the dropdown, or click to create a new one if the field is empty.
• If you leave the Business Entity blank, the quote uses the entity set on the related Opportunity.

The Business Entity assigned to the quote is what tells PqW whose PVI scores to use when it estimates the rebate for that quote.

System Configuration Settings

The System configuration area of the Cisco 360 CPI Configuration page controls how PqW calculates estimates across quotes. It has two settings:

• Enable Automatic Rebate Calculation: When on, PqW estimates rebates automatically as quotes are built and updated. When off, automatic estimation is paused and rebates are calculated only when run manually.
• Mark Existing Rebates as Invalid when PVI Changes: When on, changing a PVI score flags any existing quotes that used the old score as Invalid, so a user knows to refresh them. When off, changing a PVI does not flag existing quotes.

Summary

With your Business Entities and PVI scores in place, PqW has everything it needs to estimate the CPI LAND rebate on a quote. It matches each quote to the PVI that was in effect on its CPI Effective Date and applies the right rebate rate automatically, so the estimates your team sees are grounded in the standing you've configured here. Keeping these values current is what keeps those estimates accurate.

What's Next

Your PVI scores set the rebate rate, but the CPI estimate also depends on which Specializations your organization holds; that's what adds any specialization bonus on top. Next you will learn to set those up in How to configure Portfolios and Specializations to complete your Cisco 360 configuration