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About Eligibility Rules and Configuration Rules for Siebel CRM Version 7.7 and Earlier


In Siebel CRM versions 7.5 and 7.7, you may have used configuration rules, linked items, and scripting to create rules controlling which customers could buy a product. In version 7.8 and later versions, you can do this much more efficiently using eligibility rules.

For example, you want to limit the availability of a product named 104 USB Keyboard to customers who have a type of Commercial:

  • In version 7.5, you may have done this by creating a linked item to bring the customer type into the Siebel Configurator session. Then you write Siebel Configurator exclude rules to exclude this product if the type is not Commercial. You must write these rules many times, once for every product that can use this keyboard as a component.
  • In version 7.5, you may also have done this by assigning all component products are assigned a Siebel Configurator UI property named Commercial Only with values of Yes or No. Then, you modify the JavaScript code that displays the available selections to evaluate the condition: Is customer type NOT "Commercial" and does this "Commercial Only" UI property for this product equal "YES." If this condition is true, the JavaScript does not display that product or displays it differently.
  • In 7.8 and later versions, you can do this by creating an eligibility rule. You write this rule once, and it applies to all configuration models. By setting the Eligibility Display Mode, you can control whether ineligible products are displayed in red, as a warning, or not displayed at all. You do not have to use any scripting.

Without configuration, compatibility rules do not necessarily substitute for Siebel Configurator requires and excludes rules. The difference is that the compatibility rules would work against the Projected Asset Cache, which includes all assets for the customer, all open orders for the customers and the current quote for the customer. This broad scope may be unacceptable if you want the scope of the rule to just be the components within one customizable product instance, as it is for configuration rules. For more information about the Projected Asset Cache, see Siebel Order Management Infrastructure Guide.

By default, the Projected Asset Cache, with its extended scope, is used in workflows, whereas configuration rules apply only to the loaded product. If you want workflows to have a more limited view, identical to configuration rules, you must change the default Eligibility and Compatibility Procedure by modifying the Projected Asset Cache query. As an example, see the step Initialize PAC and the following steps in Eligibility and Compatibility Workflow Reference.

However, if you are using linked items and attributes and configuration rules to control product eligibility, then eligibility rules are a preferred replacement for these configuration rules.

By using eligibility rules instead of the modeling approaches used in earlier versions, you achieve:

  • Greater scalability
  • Faster performance
  • Simplified administration
  • Less customization, easier upgrades
  • More consistent behavior across the application
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