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Basic Concepts of Order Management

This section describes basic features and concepts that are useful as background to your work with Siebel Order Management.

For concepts that are specific to asset-based ordering, see Basic Concepts for Asset-Based Ordering.

Quote and Order Header Summaries

Header summaries appear at the top of the Quote Detail and Order Detail views and remain in place even when users select different view tabs and work with subviews to perform various tasks. These two-row forms contain key information fields that users frequently need to refer to during the quote and order process, such as the Quote or Order number, name, price list, total price, and status.

Product Selection

Users can add products to quotes and orders that have been carefully defined in the Product Administration screen, so that they appears correctly in the quote or order. Product selection methods include:

• Adding an individual item in a line item record
• Adding multiple items with the Add Items button
• Browsing a catalog and selecting items
• Using Advisor, a needs analysis tool, to help select a product
• Selecting a template of products to be added at once
• Adding a series of items and then grouping them as a package to offer an appropriate package discount
• Writing in an item that hasn't been defined

For details about these different selection methods, see Adding Products to a Quote or Order.

Pricing and Discounts

When products are added to a quote or order, their prices are based on the price list associated with the order. The default price list is typically based on the account, but sales representatives can also select a price list in the quote or order. If you have Siebel Pricer, pricing rules and factors may affect the prices shown. Sales representatives can also offer manual discounts for individual line items or for the entire order instead of the pricing shown. For details about pricing and discounts, see Viewing and Recalculating Prices.

Calculating Taxes

Tax rates and tax exemption information can be entered manually, or you can integrate with third-party tax software to determine tax rates.

Availability of Products

The sales representative can check availability of products for the customer. Customers can request particular delivery dates, indicate whether partial shipments are acceptable, and specify fulfillment from particular inventory sources. The sales representative can use the availability-to-promise features include the ability to see if the items are available and to reserve them in the back office. For more information about checking availability, see Checking Availability to Promise (ATP).

Shipping and Delivery Information

Ship-to information, delivery method, and carrier can all impact total cost. This information can be detailed in the quote or order and shipping costs can be calculated by accessing a third-party system. Actual delivery information returned from a third-party or back-office system updates the order. For details, see Adding Shipping Information and Calculating Shipping Charges.

Multiple Methods of Payment

By default, Siebel Order Management includes six methods of payment—credit card, purchase order, check, wire transfer, cash, and stored value. Customers can use any of those methods or can use multiple methods of payment. For example, part of an order might be paid with a check and the remainder with a credit card. Information for each method is collected through specialized payment detail forms. For example, credit card payment detail includes credit card number, expiration date, cardholder name, and so forth. Credit cards payments can be authorized by a third party, to validate the customer's ability to pay. For details about payment methods, see Working with Payment Information for Quotes or Orders.

Activities and Activity Plans

Before submitting an order, sales representatives can review activities associated with particular line items. For example, if a product requires installation, an activity to schedule the installation can be associated with that line item. If bundles of activities are required, they can be set up in advance as activity plan templates and added all at once.

Fulfillment Status

After an order has been submitted, sales representatives can check on the order status for customers. Typically, order status information is updated in the Siebel Order Management system regularly. However, a sales representative can also check on the current status, providing the customer with up-to-the-moment information about their order and expected delivery.

Quote-to-Order

When a customer approves a quote and it becomes an order, an employee end user can convert the quote into an order with the click of a button. When the end user clicks the Sales Order or Service Order button, the following occurs:

• A new order is generated
• All line items in a quote are converted to order line items

After a quote is converted to an order, the original quote still exists and can be referenced, but it will be inactive. The quote number will appear in the order details.

Revising an Order

Revising an order allows the representative to change an order while maintaining a record of the original order. This can be used by the back office for processing modifications.

Smart Part Numbers

When interfacing with back-office fulfillment systems, it is very important that each product can be identified. Smart part numbers are used to identify each combination of product ID and product attributes. The smart part number becomes the SKU used in the back office.

You can create smart part numbers manually, or you can interface with an auto-generation system.

The smart part number for each line item appears in the Order screen, in the Line Detail subview associated with the line item.

For more information about smart part numbers, see Product Administration Guide.

Other Concepts

To administer order management, you should also understand these concepts:

• Product and Pricing. To administer order management, you should understand product and pricing administration. For more information, see Product Administration Guide and Pricing Administration Guide
  Business Process Designer. If you want to change the order management process by modifying the workflows that drive order management, you should be familiar with Siebel Business Process Designer. For more information, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide.
• Integration. To plan how to integrate order management into your other systems and processes, refer to the following books:
  • Overview: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume I
  • Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume II
  • Application Services Interface Reference