Siebel Consumer Sector Guide > Products > Administrator Procedures for Products >

Defining Products

Use the Product Administration view to enter products into the Siebel database by creating product records. The only required field in the product record is the product name. However, you should also associate the record with a product line, category, and price list.

In the standard Siebel Consumer Sector applications, once a product record is created it cannot be deleted. To prevent a product record from being displayed in picklists and dialog boxes, edit the product record by deselecting Orderable, Sales Product and Service Product check boxes. You can also control display of the product by setting Effective Start and Effective End dates.

Your company may also choose to configure the application to allow administrators to delete products, or to delete products as part of the batch Enterprise Integration Management (EIM) process, or both. For more information on EIM processes, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

To create a product record

1. Navigate to the Product Administration screen.
2. Create a new product record.
3. In the Type field, click the select button, and select either AF (for an apparel and footwear product) or CS (for a consumer goods product), or any additional type that may have been configured for your company's implementation of the application.
4. Complete the necessary fields.

   Some fields in the Products list are described in the following table.

   NOTE:  Note that the fields that are displayed may depend on the Type of product chosen. In order to see all appropriate fields, drill down on the Name field in the Product Administration view, and click the first More Info link in the More Info link bar.

   Field	Comments
   Account Channel	Specifies account channel distribution type, such as Apparel Specialty, Athletic Specialty, or Department Store. For more information, see Setting Up Personalization Attributes.
   Accrual Rate	The accrual rate at which market development funds are accrued per case.
   Allocate Below Safety	Check the box to show the condition of allocation (below safety).
   Auto Allocate	Check the box if you are using automatic allocation by the Order Fulfillment engine of a particular product during the fulfillment process.
   Auto Substitute	Check the box to show whether auto-substitution is on. Auto-substitution is the automatic use by the Order Fulfillment Engine of a substitute product when the product ordered cannot be found in inventory.
   Case Conversion Factor	The value to multiply by the actual cases shipped to get standard or statistical cases shipped. Different products are compared using equivalent cases.
   Case Pack	The number of individual selling units in a case.
   Color	An individual product attribute. Typically used with those products that are classified as Type AF.
   Distribution Code	In order for accounts to be subject to the distribution hierarchy, they must be assigned Distribution Codes, just as products are. For more information on setting up account distribution profiles, see Adding or Modifying Accounts. For more information about controlling product distribution to accounts, see Product Distribution.
   Equivalent Product	The names of your equivalent products. The names you enter determine which products are compared in the Product Comparison list on the Product Details view. This field supports multiple values.
   Gender	Targeted gender (male or female) for the product. In the standard Siebel Consumer Sector application this applies only to products of Type AF.
   Lead Time	The standard lead time for ordering the product.
   LOB	Line of business.
   Model Product	Check this field if a configurator model is associated with a product. You must also select a model in the Configuration Model Name field. For more information on configuration models, see Product Administration Guide.
   MTBF	Mean time between failures. A measure of the dependability of the instrument.
   MTTR	Mean time to repair. A measure of the time required to repair an item.
   Organization	Allows you to associate a product with an organization, and limit who can see it.
   Name	The name of the product. This is a hyperlink to Product Detail Key Features Administration View by default.
   Product Differentiator	Describes the type of products within any category that the account should carry. This value is used by Siebel Personalization to help determine the account's market segmentation. LOV Type: PRODUCT_DIFFERENTIATION
   Product Level	Optional indicator of products in relation to each other.
   Product Line	The product line with which the product is associated. For information about creating product lines and associating products with product lines, see Defining Product Lines.
   Product Resource Flag	Select this field if the product is a service for a project. This determines if the product will be available in the rate list.
   Revision	Describes version or revision of a product, and can be used in association with an internal employee position for routing request related to the product. For example, for Product "X" Version 7, service requests are initially assigned to the product line manager for Product "X." LOV Type: SR_PROD_VERSION
   Sales Product	Indicates whether or not the product is a sales product. Specifies whether the product can be sold. If this flag is not checked, the product will not show up on the product picklist.
   Serialized	Check the box to record whether a product is serialized. This notation is typically used for managing assets and their specific attributes. The default is unchecked (not serialized).
   Carrier	Allows users to predefine a preferred carrier for a product. LOV Type: FS_CARRIER
   Shipping	Allows users to predefine a preferred shipping method for a product. LOV Type: FS_SHIPPING_METHOD
   Targeted Country	Products can have target countries designated as their target market. LOV Type: COUNTRY
   Targeted Industry	Products can have target industries designated as their target market. LOV Type: INDUSTRY
   Type	The type classification of the product. The application name, Consumer Sector, drives the dynamic Detail Product Form. In the standard product, if your company is using personalization attributes to determine the products that are available to accounts, you must select the Type AF. To configure your own Types, see Siebel Tools Reference. For more information about using personalization attributes or product distribution lists to control product distribution to accounts, see Product Distribution. LOV Type: PRODUCT_TYPE Action: Drives dynamic Detail Product Form.
   UoM Unit of Measure	Unit of measure. The measure by which the product is sold. LOV Type: UNIT_OF_MEASURE
   Unit Conversion Factor	The value to multiply by the actual units shipped to get equivalent or statistical units shipped. Different products are compared using equivalent units.

   NOTE:  To allow for viewing of competitor products, for example, in conducting retail audits, the competitor products must be present in the distribution list of the account. For a competitor product to be available to distribution lists, you must add it to your products list and then it can be associated with the account to be audited. For information on conducting retail audits, see Retail Execution.

   For descriptions of additional fields that can be made visible using Siebel Tools, see Product Administration Guide.