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Communications Drivers and Third-Party Systems

By means of communications drivers, Siebel applications can work with a variety of third-party CTI middleware and email servers. The Siebel communications infrastructure can work with several types of communications systems, in these scenarios:

• Several communications drivers are provided to support Siebel communications modules or third-party communications systems.
• Third-party vendors write communications drivers, using the Adaptive Communications API, to support additional communications systems. (Alternatively, vendors can write a driver to extend a communications driver provided with Siebel Business Applications.)

For updated information about third-party products supported by Oracle or validated to work with Siebel Business Applications, see:

• My Oracle Support Certifications
• Version 8.1.1.x Siebel Release Notes on My Oracle Support (Article ID 557191.1)
• Version 8.2.2.x Siebel Release Notes on My Oracle Support (Article ID 1050792.1)
• Article ID 477861.1 on My Oracle Support (previously published as Siebel FAQ 2270)

For more information about third-party communications solutions, see the Partners section of the Oracle Web site.

NOTE:  For detailed requirements and procedures for installing and configuring third-party products, see your third-party vendor documentation.

The capabilities of your communications system (such as the combination of CTI middleware and switch) partly determine which functionality you can implement. For example, some switches do not support automatic call forwarding. In addition, some features supported in the communications system might not be supported in the corresponding Siebel communications driver. Consequently, information in this guide about certain features might not apply to your implementation. Consult your vendor documentation for information about supported functionality and features. For information about integrating with email servers, see Siebel Email Administration Guide.

About Error Messages Related to Communications

For agents using session-based communications such as Siebel CTI, the Siebel client might sometimes receive error messages relating to communications functionality.

Some messages might originate from CTI middleware or from the communications driver. Messages are presented without modification, whether they originate from external communications systems or from Siebel modules. Such messages are prefaced with Communication: and appear at the top of the application area in the browser, to the right of the application-level menus. For more information, see Using the Menu Commands for Displaying Error Messages.

The same error messages might also be logged, if logging is set for the Communications Session Manager component. For more information, see Parameters for Communications Session Manager.

Nonsupported Communications Systems

If your existing communications system is not supported by the communications drivers provided with Siebel Communications Server, then consider the following options for custom communications drivers:

• Use a communications driver developed, using the Siebel Adaptive Communications API, by a third party, such as a CTI middleware vendor. For information about third-party communications solutions validated by Oracle, see the Partners section of the Oracle Web site.
• Develop your own communications driver, using the Siebel Adaptive Communications API, to work with your communications system.

NOTE:  Communications drivers developed by customers or third parties are not supported by Oracle, but by their respective developers or providers.

A Siebel Communications Server implementation using a custom communications driver developed using the Siebel Adaptive Communications API can take full advantage of standard features such as the communications toolbar, screen pops, communications commands, automatic creation of activities and logs, and user interface for administration and configuration.

You can optionally create a communications driver to use with an existing driver. Such a driver, known as an aggregate driver, extends the capabilities of the existing driver, enabling additional functionality. For more information, see Developing a Communications Driver.