Configuring Siebel Business Applications > Transferring Data Between Databases > Overview of Transferring Data Between Databases >

About Interface Tables

Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM) is a server component in the Siebel EAI component group that uses interface tables to transfer data between the Siebel database and other corporate data sources.

An interface table is an intermediate database table that provides a staging area between the Siebel database and other databases. It includes the following qualities:

• A Siebel administrator uses it to perform bulk imports, exports, updates, and deletes.
• The name of an interface table begin with the EIM_ prefix.
• The Type property of an interface table is set to Interface.
• A database administrator typically uses a third-party tool to enter values in an interface table. SQL Loader is an example of a third-party tool.

To use EIM to enter values in custom extension tables and extension columns, you create mappings between the new columns and EIM interface tables. You use the EIM Table Mapping Wizard to create these mappings. For more information, see Mapping a Custom Table to an Interface Table.