Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications > Effects of Order Management on Other Siebel Applications >

Effects of Order Management on Siebel Configurator (Server-Based)

This section describes changes to the function of the server-based version of Siebel Configurator within Siebel Industry Applications modules. For information about the baseline functionality of Siebel Configurator, see Product Administration Guide.

This section covers the following topics:

• Customizable Products Tab
• Base Themes
• Web Templates for UI Controls
• Recommended Practices

Customizable Products Tab

The subviews in Product Administration > Configuration Designer require a Configurator license. These subviews are Product Rule Manager, Product Resource Designer, Product Link Designer, and Script Designer. The UI Property Designer, a subview of Customizable Products, also requires a Configurator license.

These subviews allow you to create component-based customizable products. You can also design the selection pages the user sees during a configuration session.

Base Themes

You select a base theme and product theme in Customizable Product > Product Versions. These themes control the basic page layout and presentation method for selection pages in a configuration session.

A specific Communications and Media Customer Order Management template entitled SIS Base Theme with Auto Reprice allows you to display the MRC and NRC total pricing within the Configurator session.

Web Templates for UI Controls

In the Configurator Product UI Designer, you select a UI control for each item in a group. The UI control (radio button, check box and so on) determines how the user makes product selections during a configuration session. Web templates that define the UI controls are located in the WEBTEMPL subdirectory of the Siebel installation directory.

Siebel Customer Order Management adds additional UI-control Web templates, which all begin with the prefix SISOM.

When designing a customizable product UI in the Configurator Product UI Designer, use only the SISOM UI control Web templates.

NOTE:  SISOM UI control Web templates are not the default templates. To create selection pages that correctly display multiple price types, you must select a base and product theme, and you must select SISOM UI control Web templates. If you do not select a product theme or base theme and do not define selection pages for a customizable product, Configurator uses default themes and default UI controls.

The new UI-control Web templates add some or all of the following information to the display of the UI control:

• Service point and service ID
• Unit of Measure
• Total NRC (non-recurring charge)
• Total MRC (monthly recurring charge)
• Price totals are displayed by price type

The SISOM UI-control Web templates provided with Order Management are for only a subset of possible UI controls. To create additional UI controls for use with order management, you can create additional SISOM templates based on the original Web templates.

NOTE:  Depending on the release you are using, the dialog box that displays UI controls in the Configurator Product UI Designer may not contain the Order Management UI controls (SISOM UI-control Web templates). If not, you must add these controls manually to make them available for use with all customizable products.

Available Order Management UI Controls

Table 3 lists the SISOM UI-control Web templates that need to be added to the Pick UI Style dialog box. The description specifies the combination of controls that each template will display per product. For an explanation of each control type, see the discussion of the user interface controls in Product Administration Guide.

Adding Order Management UI Controls to the Product UI Designer

Follow this procedure to add order management controls to the Pick UI Style dialog box of the Product UI Designer.

NOTE:  In the following procedure, to display the Pick UI Style dialog box, you must have a customizable product for which you have created at least one group and for which you have selected a UI control for the items in the group.

To add the Web templates to the Pick UI Style dialog box

1. Navigate to Product Administration and select a customizable product.
2. Click the Customizable Products tab.
3. In Customizable Products > Versions, lock the customizable product.
4. In the Show menu, select Product UI Designer.
5. In the Product UI Designer Group List, click a group name.
6. In the Group Item List, click an item.

   This selects the record.

7. In the record, click the Select button in the UI control field.

   The Pick UI Style dialog box appears.

8. In the dialog box, click New and fill out the form for adding a new template:
   • Name. Enter a descriptive name. For example: SISOM Check Box.
   • Template. Enter the filename of a SISOM UI-control Web template.
   • Description (Optional). Enter a brief description of the template.
9. Click OK to save the record.

   This adds the SISOM UI-control Web template to the dialog box. It does not assign the SISOM template to the item.

10. Repeat Step 8 and Step 9 until all the SISOM UI-control Web templates have been added to the dialog box.

Recommended Practices

This section describes recommended practices, intended to minimize order problems.

Require rules and untracked assets. Avoid creating require rules that add items that are not tracked as assets to a customizable product.

For example, you write a require rule that adds a one-time charge for Installation to a customizable product. You do not set the Track as Asset flag for Installation in its product record. This means Installation does not display as a customer asset.

Then the customer requests an addition to the service. The call center agent selects the service, clicks Modify, and starts a configuration session. The Configurator engine adds Installation, because it is required by configuration rules. Installation is transferred to the quote even though it is not required by the service modification.

Multiple instances of an item. Avoid adding the same product to more than one relationship in a customizable product. If you restructure the customizable product and publish a new version, the Auto Match business service in Configurator may not pick the correct relationship for the item if transactional data (for quotes, orders, and assets) based on old versions of the product is reconfigured. For more information see Auto Match for Siebel Configurator.