Siebel Customer-Centric Enterprise Warehouse Installation and Configuration Guide > Configuring Common Components of the Siebel Customer-Centric Enterprise Warehouse > Configuring Conformed Dimensions >

About Cross-Referencing Entities in the Siebel Customer-Centric Enterprise Warehouse

The Siebel Customer-Centric Enterprise Warehouse contains several dimension tables that store information about entities, which are companies and individuals who come in contact with your business. Because one entity can play multiple roles in your business, the Siebel Customer-Centric Enterprise Warehouse includes a cross-reference table, IA_XRF_ENTITIES, to maintain cross-reference information.

For example, assume that a vendor, who is defined in your Suppliers dimension table, IA_SUPPLIERS, also plays the role of a customer (and is therefore also defined in your Customers dimension table, IA_CUSTOMERS). The multiple roles of this customer or vendor would be tracked in the Cross Reference Entities table, IA_XRF_ENTITIES.

Table 24 provides the columns in IA_XRF_ENTITIES that are updated by means of a flat files. As new references come in from a flat file, the ENTITY_KEY column is updated, while the ORIG_ENTITY_KEY column retains its original value.

About Flat Files That Update Cross-Reference Entities Tables

Table 25 depicts the flat file columns that are used to update the IA_XRF_ENTITIES table. The sample shows that Supplier1 is the same entity as Customer1, and that the same is true for Employee1, indicating three separate roles for one individual. The sample flat file is structured correctly because the Reference Dimension ID column uses Customer as its reference all three times. If there were an additional record with EmployeeX as the Base Dimension and SupplierY as the Reference Dimension, that record would go into a separate file for upload so that every uploaded file uses only one dimension in its Reference Dimension ID column. This consistency allows the IA_XRF_ENTITIES table to update correctly.