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Scenario for Using Work Orders in Siebel Communications

This topic gives one example of how work orders might be used. You might use work orders differently, depending on your business model.

A customer service representative (CSR) has just completed an order for a customer, requiring three mobile phones, two pagers, an Internet connection, and an addition to their local service (voice mail). The order that the CSR created contains at least seven line items: one for each of the mobile phones, two for pagers, one for the Internet connection, and one for the local service. The CSR has given a quote for the order to the customer, who has accepted it and asked that the order be placed.

In the Order Line Items view, the CSR submits the order to the provisioning system. Since your company is a reseller of communications services (in this example), the action of submitting the order creates three work orders. A service provider applies to each of the line items. The following list shows the work order allocation:

• Three mobile phones—provided by a wireless services company
  Two pagers—provided by a wireless services company
• An Internet connection—provided by an Internet service provider
• Local service (voice mail)—provided by the local phone service provider

The work orders were created for the service provider for each of the line items associated with the order. In this example, there are three unique providers: a wireless services provider, an Internet service provider, and the local phone service provider. The work order is separated into three separate work orders, which are then submitted to the various providers for activation.

A week later, the customer calls to check on the status of his order because he has not received his equipment. His call is directed to a different CSR, who is able to search through his company account to find any open orders. When the CSR has found the most recent order, he can use the hyperlink to find the specific work orders associated with the order. When he does this, he notices that each of the work orders is complete, except the one for the mobile phones and pagers. When he drills down into that order, he finds some notes and activities indicating that the particular pager ordered by the customer is on back-order. The estimated delivery date is two days from now. The CSR adds an activity to the work order to indicate that the customer wants to be notified by email when the status of the order has changed to complete.

Figure 15 shows the sequence of procedures that an end user might follow to manage work orders.

Figure 15. Example of Sequence for Work Orders