Bookshelf v7.8: Running Batch Assignment

Running Batch Assignment

Batch assignment executes Assignment Manager in batch mode. In batch mode, Assignment Manager can take an Object WHERE Clause and other appropriate parameters that determine candidates for chosen objects

You typically use batch assignment for importing new records from a legacy system or when an assignment rule changes, such as when a sales representative no longer manages a specific ZIP CODE.

When You Must Run Batch Assignment

You must run Assignment Manager in batch mode if you change nonobject data that can affect assignments. Such situations occur whenever you:

Modify assignment rules and want these changes to affect existing objects. You modify assignment rules when you:

Add or remove employees, positions, or organizations
Add, remove, or update assignment criteria or criteria values
Associate a rule with a different rule group or change the rule sequence number
Change scores
Change activation and expiration dates
Change exclusive mode

Modify the list of employees, positions, or organizations and you want these changes to affect existing objects.

Change the Assignment Manager configuration in Siebel Tools and you want your changes to affect existing objects. You change the Assignment Manager configuration when you:

Change Assignment Attribute definitions
Change Assignment Criteria definitions
Change Assignment Object definitions
Change Workflow Policy Object definitions

Use EIM (Enterprise Integration Manager) to perform initial loads (if you do not run Generate Triggers to create the appropriate triggers).

NOTE: When using EIM to load assignment rules, make sure the column ASGN_TYPE_CD includes a value. If it is left NULL, which is permissible in EIM, the rules are loaded but Assignment Manager fails.

Feel that existing assignments may not be accurate. Assignment Manager does not change assignments if the existing assignments are correct.

NOTE: When batch mode is run on correct assignments, although there are no changes to the team or primary, an update of the record occurs. This situation can disturb other workflow policies relying on various record fields. For example, a workflow policy relying on PR_POSTN_ID field to trigger an action does not work properly if this field is updated from a new batch assignment. If your deployment uses SQL Server, this note does not apply.

You can configure the Batch Assignment server component for your implementation by adjusting the appropriate parameters. Table 45 lists the batch server component parameters used by Assignment Manager that you can change.

Use the following procedure to run batch assignment.

CAUTION: For performance reasons, do not run batch assignment while running dynamic assignment. This is because batch assignment can activate dynamic assignment with adverse effect due to triggers created in the database required to run dynamic assignment. For more information, see About Running Batch Assignment.

To run batch assignment

Navigate to the Administration - Server Management screen > Jobs view.

In the Jobs list, click New.

A new record appears with a system-defined ID automatically populated with a status of Creating.

In the new record, enter the relevant information for the new job.

In the Component/Job field, select Batch Assignment.
In the Requested Server field, type the name of the server on which you want to run this batch request.
(Optional) If you want to run a specific rule group for this batch, type the row ID of the assignment rule group for which you want rules processed for the AsgnKey parameter.
Complete the rest of the fields for the new record, if needed.

In the Job Parameters list, click New to create a new record, and enter relevant information for the assignment object that you want to assign as part of this batch request.

In Name field, click the select button.
In the Job Parameters dialog box, select Assignment Object Name, and then click OK.
In the Value field, enter the name of the assignment object for the parameter.
Use the exact name found in Siebel Tools, such as Service Request or Order (Sales Credit Assignment).

NOTE: Because batch assignment cannot run more than one assignment object per batch, you should run batch assignment on only one assignment object for each batch.

While still in the Job Parameters list, click New to create a new record so that Assignment Manager uses the Object WHERE clause to limit the number of rows processed at one time.

In Name field, click the select button.
In the Job Parameters dialog box, query for ObjWhereClause, click Go, and then click OK.
In the Value field, enter a WHERE clause to select the object instance that you want to process; the WHERE clause can include up to 100 characters.
For example, to select object instances beginning with ibm, type:

WHERE name like 'ibm%'

NOTE: If you leave the value field blank, all object instances are selected. However, it is strongly recommended that you limit the number of rows that Assignment Manager processes to make sure that sufficient rollback space is available.

For more information about using the Object WHERE clause, see Setting the Log Level of Assignment Manager Events.

(Optional) If you want to enable Contact Denormalization for batch assignment, add two more component job parameter records with values from the following table.


Parameter Name	Value
Assignment Object Name	`Contact Denormalization`
Assignment Mode	Denorm

(Optional) If you want to save changes to the database during batch processing, add another component request parameter as follows:

In Name field, click the select button.
In the Job Parameters dialog box, query for Batch Size, and then click Go.
In the Value field, enter the number of objects to assign before committing each batch.

In the Job Detail form, click the menu button and choose Start Job.

NOTE: You should monitor the performance of batch assignment and increase or decrease the number of running tasks to obtain optimal performance.

Running Batch Assignment

When You Must Run Batch Assignment

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