Bookshelf v7.5: Customizing the Sales, Quote, and Order Processes

Siebel Order Management Guide > Setting Up Order Management > The Process of Setting Up Order Management >

Customizing the Sales, Quote, and Order Processes

You can customize the sales, quote and order process by using:

New or Modified Workflows

Some actions in the Quote and Order screens are set up using Siebel Workflows, such as the following:

To allow users to create quotes and orders from the Account screen and the Contact screen, you enable a set of workflows.

To use asset-based ordering, you enable a set of workflows.

Some of the ASI-based functions that allow you to integrate with back-office systems also use workflows. For example, submitting an order activates a workflow, as does performing a credit check.

You can customize these workflows to carry out the specific processes required for your business. You can also create additional workflows as needed to support your business process.

Here are some examples of changes you might make to customize the order management process using new Siebel Workflows:

Quote Verification. By default, users can verify a quote manually by choosing the Verify menu option from the menu. You could create a Workflow that verifies quotes automatically.

Approval Requirements. Siebel quote and order screens include fields for required approvals which are used manually by default. For example, a salesperson might be required to get a supervisor's approval for orders above $500. Out-of-the-box, the salesperson would need to put a manager's name in the Approved By field. You could create a Workflow that would automatically route an order to the supervisor for approval when the amount exceeded $500. You would use a combination of Siebel Business Process Designer and Assignment Manager to route the approval to the appropriate supervisor.

Customer Acknowledgements. You can create Workflows to automatically send order confirmations to customers. When the status of an order changes, the Workflows sends the appropriate messages to the customer. Siebel eSales includes out-of-the-box workflows that send acknowledgements to customers, which you can use models to create similar workflows for use in order management. The eSales workflows are:

Send Order Accepted Email (eSales). Sent to all users who place an order successfully.

Send Order Awaiting Approval Email (eSales). Sent to the purchasing manager for an account when an order with a status of Awaiting Approval needs to be reviewed.

Send Order Failed Email (eSales). Sent to a user when an auction is silently closed and turned into an order, but the credit card used cannot be authorized.

Send Order Rejected Email (eSales). Sent to a corporate user when the purchasing manager or delegated customer administrator has rejected that corporate user's order.

Send Order Shipped Email (eSales). Sent to a user when that user's order has been shipped.

You can also customize Workflows that are shipped with the product, in order to add or remove steps or change the order in which steps are performed. For a reference to these Workflows, which will help you understand them so you can modify them, see Workflows for Asset-Based Ordering.

For more information about creating and customizing Workflows, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide.

Configuration with Siebel Tools

You can use Siebel Tools to configure Siebel screens and views to match the processes used in your company. For example, you can define the default view that users see when they log in, so that users start on the screen they use the most frequently. You can also add, remove, or change the names of fields

You also can use Siebel Tools to change user properties to customize some order management capabilities.

For more information about Siebel Tools, see Siebel Tools Reference.

Component Quantity Edits

Component quantity edits are an example of one possible user property change you might want to make in Siebel Customer Order Management.

Typically, a user changes the quantity of a component in the configuration session that starts after clicking the Customize button in the Line Items list. In this case, Siebel eConfigurator checks all configuration rules to make sure that the change in quantity is appropriate.

Your company can decide to allow changes to component quantities directly in the Line Items list in the Quote or Order. For this to occur, the user property Configuration ReadOnly Fields must be set in Siebel Tools.

When this user property has been set, the Qty field in line item for components of customizable products is editable. If the Qty field is read-only, then this user property has not been set.

Other User Properties in Order Management

Some other user properties that you might want to change to customize order management functionality are listed in Table 4.

Table 4. User Properties in Order Management
User Property	Buscomp or Applet	Function
Check Minimum and Maximum Price	Quote Item, Order Entry - Line Items, FS Agreement Item	Checks minimum and maximum price when making manual adjustments to line item.
Skip Loading Default Cfg Instance	Quote Item, Order Entry - Line Items, FS Agreement Item	Sets to `Y' to skip the loading if the default configurable product instance when adding a new configurable product to a quote.
Spread Discount - Use Root Product Type	Quote Item, Order Entry - Line Items, FS Agreement Item	If set to `Y' and spreading a discount by type, spreads on components if the root type is the type selected. Otherwise, spreads on the type of component only if the type of component itself matches the selected spread type.
Add Items Limit To Price List	Internal Product Popup	Limits the products that display in the Add Items dialog box to records contained within the price list.
Configuration ReadOnly Fields	Quote Item List Applet, Order Entry - Line Item List Applet, FS Agreement Item List Applet	Removes the entries for Quantity and Quantity Requested to make the quantity of configurable product components editable within the list applet.
Minimum CC Txn Amount	Payments BusComp	Sets the minimum amount payable by credit card when entering a payment line.
Minimum Cash Txn Amount	Payments BusComp	Sets the minimum amount payable by cash when entering a payment line.
Minimum Check Txn Amount	Payments BusComp	Sets the minimum amount payable by check when entering a payment line.
Minimum Purchase Txn Amount	Payments BusComp	Sets the minimum amount payable by purchase order when entering a payment line.
Minimum Stored Txn Amount	Payments BusComp	Sets the minimum amount payable by stored value when entering a payment line.
Minimum Wire Txn Amount	Payments BusComp	Sets the minimum amount payable by wire transfer when entering a payment line.
Check Mailing Address	Payments BusComp	Mailing address for check.