1. Scenario overview
Agent management is a core channel capability on the IoT SIM platform. It centers on purchasing at an agent price, and it sits beside distributor management, which allocates inventory and splits the payment. You publish an agent price list, let agents buy IoT SIMs and data plans at that price, and they sell on to end customers. The loop covers price-list setup, online purchasing, purchase traceability, sales attribution, and revenue-share settlement.
The agent self-service portal is where an agent checks prices, places orders, and reviews purchase history, sales attribution, and revenue-share detail in one place. It supports regional agents, industry agents, and multi-level agents. Volume tiers on purchases and revenue-share rules on sales can both be configured.
2. Core capabilities
Onboarding and qualification review
An agent applies online with company credentials and a contact. After your operations team approves the application, you open agent access and set the agent price list, revenue-share rate, and purchase limit.
Agent-price purchasing
You maintain an agent price list, priced by data plan or by purchase-volume tier. Agents see the list and order in the portal. Every purchase stays traceable, and settlement can be a prepaid balance or payment terms.
Sales attribution
When an agent sells a purchased SIM to an end customer, the order is attributed to that agent automatically. Rules can key off SIM number, order, or customer, so the revenue-share calculation has a clean source.
Revenue-share settlement
Revenue share is calculated from purchase volume, sales amount, order count, and similar measures. Rules include a fixed rate, a tiered rate, and banded shares. Monthly or weekly settlement produces a statement you can export, and payout records can be archived.
3. Business flow
4. Agents and distributors
Agents and distributors are two channel models. The differences:
| Dimension | Agent | Distributor |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Purchase, then periodic settlement | Allocate inventory, then split the payment |
| How inventory is obtained | Buy at the agent price, with no quota cap | Allocated by quota; a new request is required when the quota is used up |
| How the share is paid | Periodic settlement (monthly and similar), paid manually or automatically | Split to each level as soon as payment succeeds |
| Where it fits | Company → agent → end customer | Company → multi-level distribution → end customer |
| What the channel wants | A clear purchase price and a settlement that can be traced | Share on payment, without a manual payout |
Both can run together. A company can keep an agent program and a distributor program, and pick the model by channel type.
5. Where teams use it
- Regional agents: Split coverage by geography. Each agent buys and sells in its region, and revenue share is totaled from that attribution.
- Industry agents: Split by sector, such as connected vehicles, shared equipment, and industrial IoT. Agent prices and revenue-share rules can differ by sector.
- Multi-level agents: First- and second-level agents are supported. A lower-level purchase is attributed to the parent, and the share is split by level.
6. What changes in daily operations
The SimtoLink IoT Cloud Platform gives channel teams a defined way to buy at an agent price and settle the share. Price lists stay transparent: agent prices and share rules can be configured and traced. Self-service purchasing cuts the back-and-forth with operations and speeds channel work. Settlement is automated: purchase records, sales attribution, and the share calculation sit in one digital trail for compliance and audit. Used with distributor management, channel funds stay under a consistent process.
7. How to put it in place
Set the agent levels and the price steps first, then a clear share rate and a settlement cycle. Monthly settlement is the usual starting point. Onboarding can require a business license and similar credentials before access is opened. Volume tiers encourage larger purchases, and a share on sales encourages sell-through. The self-service portal takes a large share of the operational load. Each statement lists purchase lines, sales lines, and the share amount, which is what finance needs to reconcile and to file the payout.