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Scenario for Using Profiles in Siebel Energy

This topic gives one example of how profiles might be used. You might use profiles differently, depending on your business model.

For a new customer, the customer service representative (CSR) has already created an account hierarchy, added a contact for the account, and entered an address for the account. This scenario continues the Scenario for Using Accounts in Siebel Energy.

Now, for each service account in the hierarchy, the CSR wants to validate its address against the MSAG (master street address guide) database or a similar external database.

After submitting each new address for validation, the CSR chooses the correct match from the list the database sends back. She checks to see that the validated field has been automatically updated to indicate the procedure was completed.

Next the CSR creates unique profiles associated with individual accounts. Each profile stores information necessary to perform a business function.

Starting with the top-level parent account, the CSR creates a financial profile and a statement profile as follows:

• The CSR creates a financial profile for the top-level parent account because the customer's company has financial responsibility for all its accounts. The financial profile includes all necessary information to perform a credit check on the company.
• The CSR also creates a statement profile for the top-level account because the customer wants to receive a statement at the corporate level that summarizes all charges for products and services.

  The statement profile contains information, such as the address, number of copies of the statement required, statement media type, frequency of statement, contact person, and so on. Each statement profile is given a unique identifier within the CSR's company's billing application. All the profile information is required by the billing application so that the statement can be processed.

The CSR then moves on to the billing subaccounts in the hierarchy and creates separate billing profiles for those subaccounts. Each billing profile stores information, such as the mailing address, contact, billing frequency, and debit or credit card data for that account.

She then creates statement profiles for several subaccounts so that those offices can receive informational statements for the amount of service used.

Next she creates an exemptions profile when subsidy and tax exemption information applies. For example, a charitable organization has a tax exemption status. Exemption profiles can be created for any level of the account hierarchy and are usually part of the initial account setup. They contain information that can also be passed to the billing application.

Then she creates a site profile for each service account, which specifies how many floors the site has, where equipment is located within the site, and so on.

Figure 4 shows the accounts and profiles needed for the customer's account hierarchy in the business scenario.

NOTE:  Siebel Energy does not restrict how end users build hierarchies. If you want to enforce certain rules, then you must set the rules up within Siebel Business Applications. This diagram shows one recommended use of profiles for specific account classes.

Figure 4. Account Hierarchy and Profiles for Business Scenario

Figure 5 summarizes the interrelationship among accounts, profiles, and back-office applications in the business scenario.

NOTE:  For simple residential customer accounts (those not separated into billing and service accounts), all profiles are directly associated with the customer account and not with subaccounts as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Interrelationships Among Accounts, Profiles, and Back-Office Applications