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Siebel Order Management Guide > Using Asset-Based Ordering > Basic Concepts of Asset-Based Ordering > Quote and Order Concepts in Asset-Based OrderingThis section describes quote and order concepts that are specific to asset-based ordering. Account and Contact Based OrderingYou can base a new order on the assets owned by either an account or a contact. Orders based on accounts are created in the Accounts screen, Account Summary view. Orders based on contacts are created in the Contacts screen, Contact Summary view. New Quotes and OrdersA new quote or order identifies products and services that are first-time acquisitions for a customer or that are repeat orders such as additional software licenses. After being processed and fulfilled, new orders result in new assets that become part of a customer's profile. A line item from an order becomes an installed asset if it is marked as a trackable asset in the product record. Multiple Open OrdersMultiple orders may be in progress for a particular customer or even a particular installed asset at any given time. Siebel asset-based ordering supports order stacking. Order stacking occurs when order lines are future-dated or lines take a long time to fulfill. If an order to change an asset has not yet been fulfilled and the customer calls to place another order to change the same asset, then the version of the asset changed during the second order includes the changes from the earlier order. It is vital to include changes from the earlier order so the system can ensure that the second change does not break the validation rules for the overall service and to ensure that the customer receives accurate pricing. If a customer has multiple pending orders for a single asset (for example, for the telephone service to a large office complex), the system supports inserting a new order between the due dates of the two pending orders. After an order has been placed, the end user can change it in the following ways: This is handled by two processes, Modify Order and Supplemental Order. Creating a supplemental order does not actually create an additional order; it revises an existing order. Modify Quotes and Modify OrdersA modify quote or order is created when the customer asks to make a change to an existing product or service. For example, the local telephone company provides local phone service to a residential customer. After the service has been installed, customers may want to make additions and changes to the services they receive, such as adding call waiting or changing the number to call when forwarding a call. Each of these changes is a modification to the current asset. When the customer inquires about these changes, the sales representative issues a modify quote for the change. After the customer accepts the modify quote, it becomes a modify order. When a modify order is placed, it does not modify the asset listed in the customer's profile, because it has not been fulfilled yet. The customer profile is only changed when the order is fulfilled. Supplemental OrderA supplemental order is created by revising an open order. A supplemental order overrides an order that has already been sent to the fulfillment system, but is still in process and has not yet been fulfilled. Supplemental orders are useful when a customer wants to make further changes to an order while it is in transit— that is, before its status is Complete in the fulfillment system. The following is an example of using a supplemental order. A customer currently subscribes to a wireless plan and now wants to change the call-forwarding number associated with the plan. In the Account Summary view, Installed Assets list, the call center representative selects the plan, clicks Modify, and creates a quote for the change. With the customer's approval, the sales representative then converts the quote to an order and submits it. The order is then sent to a fulfillment system. There is now an open order for this item. An hour later, the customer calls again and wants to back out the change. The call center representative again goes to the Account Summary. In the Orders list, the call center representative drills down into the open order and reviews the order. The representative selects the appropriate line item, makes a change during the configuration session that returns the call-forwarding number to the previous number, and clicks Done to add the change. The representative then submits the supplemental order. In this case, the change the end user submits is supplemental to the original order. NOTE: Some fulfillment systems do not support supplemental orders. Others only support a limited set of allowed changes. To support the widest possible set of fulfillment systems, your Siebel application supports these types of changes to an order: Add, Delete, Update, and No Change. Follow-On OrderA follow-on order is a future-dated change to an asset before the asset is fulfilled. It can be created at any time. Follow-on orders allow you to make a change after an order has reached the point of no return, so it is not possible to create a supplemental order. You can create a follow-on order for a customer, which allows the customer to place a new order for the same service using the original order as a starting point. NOTE: Contact-based ABO does not support Follow-On Orders. Action CodesAction codes for line items on quotes and orders help to keep track of changes made through modify orders and supplemental orders. These codes are:
These action codes appear next to the line items on quotes and orders to show which items will be affected, and which will not. Action codes are extensible using the SIS OM PMT user properties. Auto Asset ButtonYou might see an Auto Asset button on the Orders screen. This button is used for demonstration purposes, to show how order line items can be converted into assets that display in the Installed Assets view of the customer's service profile. In actual deployments, a workflow is used to create assets automatically from completed order line items, so this button is not used. Ungrouping or Exploding Quote Line ItemsWhen a quote is converted to an order, line items with a quantity greater than one can be ungrouped to become multiple items, each with a quantity of one. This automatic ungrouping is referred to as exploding the items. Each line item becomes an individual asset when the order is fulfilled. When this feature is turned on, you can automate the ungrouping of multiple quantities of products that will become assets, so that each can be given a unique integration ID. NOTE: Ungrouping or exploding items is only required when the items will become trackable assets, and therefore require integration IDs. Items that will not become assets may remain as an order for a multiple quantity, without being ungrouped. The Ungroup feature can simplify the process of creating bulk orders, as shown in the following example:
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