Bookshelf v7.5.3: Differences in the Customer Portal for CME

Siebel eService Administration Guide Addendum for Industry Applications > Siebel eService for Communications, Media, and Energy > Features Specific to Siebel eService for Communications, Media, and Energy >

Differences in the Customer Portal for CME

Siebel eService Administration Guide describes the portal that customers use to access Siebel eService.

The Siebel eService customer portal for Communications, Media, and Energy has a number of differences from the Siebel eService customer portal. The most important differences are:

Support for complex account management

Support for complex orders that include products and services

NOTE: Service requests are also known as trouble tickets in the Communications industry. The term trouble ticket is used in Siebel eCommunications for internal, agent-facing applications, but the term service request is used in the customer portal, because people who use the product through the Web might not be familiar with this industry-specific terminology. Service requests submitted through the customer portal can be viewed in Siebel eCommunications client by displaying the All Trouble Tickets view.

Support for Complex Account Management

In the communications, media, and energy industries, it is common for a single customer to have multiple accounts, representing different types of service at different locations. For example, a customer may have accounts for its electric and gas service at a number of locations.

For this reason, Siebel eCommunications and Siebel eEnergy allow you to define complex account hierarchies. For example, you might define a parent account for a customer's business, separate child accounts for each utility service at each of the customer's sites, and several billing accounts to be billed for the service at different groups of sites. For more information about account hierarchies, see the section about accounts in Siebel eCommunications Guide or Siebel eEnergy Guide.

NOTE: For a contact to have visibility to an account, either the Proxy Employee value specified in the .cfg file for eService, eSales and eCustomer, or the login name specified in the Employee Login Name field in the User list of the User Administration screen must be one of the names in the Account Team field of that account's Account record.

The My Account screen allows customers to work with multiple accounts.

Customers click the current account link of the My Account screen to display the current account view, which includes information about their current account and a Select Account list that includes all of their accounts. They can use this Current Account view to:

Change the current account. Customers can use the Current Account list at the bottom of the screen to select the current account. Siebel eService displays service requests, billing information, and other information for the current account.

Select the primary account. Customers can use the Primary Account list at the bottom of the screen to select the primary account.

Add new accounts. Customers can click the Create New Account button to create and enter information about a new account.

Add new addresses. Customers can click the Add button of the Current Account Address list to add new addresses for the current account.

Support for Complex Orders Including Products and Services

In the communications, media, and energy industries, it is common for customers to place complex orders, which include products and services. For example, a customer might order a cell phone and cell phone service. The cell phone may have a warranty that expires after a year, while the cell phone service continues until the customer ends it.

For communications, media, and energy, Siebel eService for Siebel Industry Solutions supports these complex bundles of products and services.

For communications, media, and energy, the Siebel eService for Siebel Industry Solutions home page has a link named My Products and Services, instead of the Register My Product link on the Siebel eService home page. There is also a Products and Services applet in the My Account screen. These features allow the customer to view information about the products and services for the account that they are currently logged in under.

Siebel eService Administration Guide Addendum for Industry Applications
Published: 18 June 2003