| Oracle® Application Integration Architecture Siebel CRM Integration Pack for Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management: Agent Assisted Billing Care Implementation Guide Release 11.1 Part Number E21726-03 |
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PDF · Mobi · ePub |
| Oracle® Application Integration Architecture Siebel CRM Integration Pack for Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management: Agent Assisted Billing Care Implementation Guide Release 11.1 Part Number E21726-03 |
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PDF · Mobi · ePub |
This chapter provides an overview of the collections integration flows and discusses Oracle Billing and Revenue Management (Oracle BRM) and Siebel Customer Relationship Management (Siebel CRM) interfaces, industry Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA) components, and integration services
This chapter includes the following sections:
Section 8.1, "Process Integration for Collections Management Overview"
Section 8.4, "Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions Integration Flow"
Section 8.5, "Sync Collection Actions Status Integration Flow"
Collections management is a process to collect money from subscribers after the grace period provided to pay the dues is over. If payment is not made after the grace period, service providers may choose to remind the subscribers at first with a letter or a phone call. If these contact methods fail, service providers may decide to take actions such as inactivating the service.
The process integration for collections management provides synchronization of collection actions based on specified collection scenarios between Oracle Billing and Revenue Management (Oracle BRM) and Siebel Customer Relationship Management (Siebel CRM) and administration of these collection actions and credit alerts.
Oracle BRM is responsible for generating collection actions and Siebel CRM is responsible for performing these actions. But in some cases, Oracle BRM performs these actions.
The collections management business process covers the entire collections life cycle across Oracle BRM and Siebel CRM. The business administrator defines a collection scenario and associates the scenario with a sequence of actions that must be performed. The collections daily batch process identifies bill units that require some action to be taken. The collections actions are synchronized to Siebel CRM in the form of credit.
The process integration for collections management consists of these integration flows:
Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration flow.
Sync Collection Actions Status integration flow.
Figure 8-1 illustrates the overall flow for the process integration for collections management.
These are the assumptions and constraints for the process integration for collections management:
The invoice number is a mandatory attribute in the Credit Alert object in Siebel CRM.
Because the invoice number is not sent from Oracle BRM as part of the notification event to transform it into a credit alert, Siebel CRM creates a dummy invoice in Siebel CRM.
A credit alert also needs the amount and currency value. This allows a customer service representative (CSR) or a collection agent to prioritize the subscribers they must follow up on to recover money.
A default 0 (zero) amount is set in Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA) for the alerts for which Oracle BRM does not send the amount due.
While you are creating a credit alert, a default agreement association is not provided at the credit alert-level, it is provided at the account-level.
A payment arrangement plan facility (promise to pay) is not available in this release, because it is not supported in Oracle BRM.
The integration supports multiple billing systems, with the assumption that a given Siebel CRM billing profile is mapped or synchronized to a single billing system. With this assumption, the out-of-the-box credit alert status update flow from Siebel CRM to billing routes updates back to the appropriate billing system. However, the inbound Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)-based flow that synchronizes credit alerts from Oracle BRM to Siebel CRM requires some manual adjustments (cloning of ODI artifacts and other design-time changes) for each additional billing system that gets added.
For more information about configuring multiple billing systems, see the Oracle Application Integration Architecture Oracle Communications Order to Cash Integration Pack for Siebel CRM, Oracle Order and Service Management and Oracle Billing and Revenue Management, "Appendix F: Configuring Multiple Instances of Oracle BRM."
For more information, see "Understanding the Process Integration for Billing Management," Section 2.3, "Solution Assumptions and Constraints."
Comprehensive reports generation is the responsibility of Siebel CRM.
Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM) tables are intermediate database tables that act as staging areas between the base tables in the Siebel database and other databases.
To achieve and maintain high performance, the database memory area must be large enough to hold most of the frequently accessed data in the cache.
This section provides an overview of the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration flow and discusses how to:
Configure and generate data in Oracle BRM.
Pick up and transform the data.
Configure and run the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration flow.
Oracle AIA does not do a time-zone conversion when synchronizing credit alerts from Oracle BRM to Siebel CRM. Oracle BRM publishes datetimes in Oracle BRM local server time.
The Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration enables the transfer of collection data in batch mode from the Oracle BRM database views to the EIM tables. This integration uses Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) to transfer the data from Oracle BRM to Siebel CRM.
Figure 8-2 illustrates the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration flow.
When you initiate this process, the following events occur
Oracle BRM provides two database views, COLL_ACTION_IF_VIEW, which contains all the Collection Action data (for example, to send dunning letter), and COLL_SCENARIO_IF_VIEW, which contains the status of billing profiles (for example, Entered Collections or Exited Collections).
Tip:
These views are crated automatically with Oracle BRM 7.5.
When the ODI batch synchronization process is triggered, the SyncCollectionAction ODI process first reads the properties (batch size) from the AIAConfigurationProperties.xml file.
Then the SyncCollectionAction process triggers an ODI interface that reads data from COLL_ACTION_IF_VIEW and enriches the data by performing a cross-reference and domain value map (DVM) lookup and by querying Siebel base tables.
Next the process triggers an ODI interface that reads data from COLL_SCENARIO_IF_VIEW and enriches the data by performing cross-reference and DVM lookup and by querying Siebel base tables.
In the previously mentioned interfaces, the AccountID and BillingProfileID columns are enriched using cross-reference data. The Currency Code, Action Name, Priority, and similar columns are enriched using DVMs.
The enriched data is mapped to the EIM_ALERT_CUT table. For every row inserted in the EIM tables, the value of the column IF_ROW_STAT is set to FOR_IMPORT.
Another ODI interface then takes records that have Entered Collections and Exited Collections rows from the EIM_ALERT_CUT table and writes the data to the EIM_ACCNT_PROF table. This data is responsible for changing the status of Billing Profile.
| Work Location | Step |
|---|---|
|
Oracle BRM |
1. Collection actions are generated and stored in a database view. |
|
Integration Process (ODI) |
2. Integration flow reads the messages from the Oracle BRM database view. 3. Data is picked from Oracle BRM, gets enriched by cross-references and DVM lookup, and is inserted into the Siebel EIM tables. |
|
Siebel CRM |
4. Siebel CRM runs a batch job to move data from the EIM table to the Base table and creates credit alerts. 5. Update the billing profile if required. |
These are the assumptions and constraints for the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration:
Oracle BRM collection messages are stored in Oracle BRM tables, which can be queried from Oracle BRM database views.
No cross-reference for the Collections Action ID exists.
The Oracle BRM Portal Object (POID) for the collections action ID is sent to Siebel CRM as the integration ID.
This section discusses how to:
Configure the data in Oracle BRM.
Generate the data in Oracle BRM.
Create the database views and indexes on the collections tables to enable Oracle AIA to retrieve data. There are two views:
COLL_ACTION_IF_VIEW: This view contains all the Collection Action data.
COLL_SCENARIO_IF_VIEW: This view contains the status of the billing profiles.
Tip:
These views are created automatically with Oracle BRM 7.5.
Configure the pin_collections_process to generate a file with the utility's start time and end time:
Open the pin_collections_process configuration file (BRM_Home/apps/pin_collections/pin.conf) in a text editor.
Add the following entry to the file: - pin_collections_process file_name_prefix FilePrefix
Where FilePrefix specifies the file name prefix for the generated text file. The default value is pin_collections.
For more information about the pin_collections_process, see Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management Collections Manager Guide, "Collections Manager Utilities."
Save and close the file.
When you configure pin_collections_process to generate a text file, it records the start and end time in the following format:
pin_collections_process started at: StartTime pin_collections_process started at: EndTime
For example:
pin_collections_process started at: 1298592024 pin_collections_process started at: 1298592025
Configure Collection Actions in Oracle BRM using the Collections Configuration tool.
For more information, see Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management Collections Configuration Online Help.
The following steps illustrate how Oracle BRM generates the collections data:
Run the pin_collections_process utility.
One of the following collections activities occurs:
An account enters or exits collections.
A collections action object is created.
A collections action's status is updated in Oracle BRM.
A manual collections action is required.
Oracle BRM creates a /schedule object.
The views COLL_ACTION_IF_VIEW and COLL_SCENARIO_IF_VIEW are updated with the most recent collections data.
For more information, see Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management Concepts Guide, "Using BRM with Oracle Application Integration Architecture."
This process integration uses ODI to pick up the data from the Oracle BRM database view, transform it, and load it into the Siebel CRM EIM tables.
Figure 8-3 illustrates the process:
These tasks are performed as a part of the data load process:
When the ODI batch sync process is triggered, an ODI interface reads data from the COLL_ACTION_IF_VIEW BRM view.
The columns AccountID and BillingProfileID are enriched by cross-reference data. The columns Currency Code, Action Name, PriorityStatus, and SubStatus are enriched by DVMs.
The enriched data is mapped to the Siebel EIM_ALERT_CUT table.
An ODI Interface reads data from the COLL_SCENARIO_IF_VIEW Oracle BRM View.
The columns AccountID and BillingProfileID are enriched by cross-reference data. The columns Currency Code, Action Name, PriorityStatus, and SubStatus are enriched by DVMs.
The enriched data is mapped to the Siebel EIM_ALERT_CUT table.
The Entered Collections and Exited Collections rows are taken from the EIM_ALERT_CUT table and written to the EIM_ACCNT_PROF table. This data is responsible for changing the status of Billing Profile.
For every row inserted in the EIM tables, the value of the column IF_ROW_STAT is set to FOR_IMPORT.
Note:
Before ODI loads the enriched collection data into the Siebel EIM tables, it perform data cleansing. All existing records that were successfully imported into the Siebel base table are deleted from the EIM tables.
This section discusses how to:
Configure the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration.
Run the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration.
After you have installed the process integration for collections management, based on the requirement, you may want to change the default value of the below parameters to suit your implementation requirement. To change the default value, open the AIAConfigurationProperties.xml file that is available in the <AIA_INSTANCES>/config folder.
For more information about reloading updates to AIAConfigurationProperties.xml, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Integration Architecture Foundation Pack, "Building AIA Integration Flows."
These properties are specific to the collections integration process and available in the AIAConfiguration.xml file:
BatchSize
Default.SystemID
IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM_CreatedStart
IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM_CreatedEnd
IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM_UpdateStart
IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM_UpdateEnd
IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM_Error
AL_SOURCE_CD
AL_TYPE_CD
AIAHome
For more information about these properties, see Chapter 10, "Configuring the Process Integration for Collections Management."
On running the collection process in Oracle BRM, a file '<filename>_<timestamp> is created and written into the same directory. This file has the start and end timestamp of the most recent collection run, for example:
pin_collections_process started at: 1299794311
pin_collections_process ended at: 1299794315
To run the Sync Collection Scenarios and Actions integration, the following command, based on your environment, must be run at the <ODI_HOME>/oracledi/agent/bin path location on the Oracle AIA system:
In a Linux environment:
./startscen.sh SYNCCOLLECTIONACTION 001 GLOBAL "GLOBAL.Coll_StartTime=<Start_Time_Stamp>" "GLOBAL.Coll_EndTime=<End_Time_Stamp>"
In a Windows environment:
startscen.bat SYNCCOLLECTIONACTION 001 GLOBAL "GLOBAL.Coll_StartTime=<Start_Time_Stamp>" "GLOBAL.Coll_EndTime=<End_Time_Stamp>"
For this command, ODI_HOME is the path of ODI home.
To ensure that ODI picks up the collection data (new or delta) from the most recent run, Start_Time_Stamp and End_Time_Stamp in the above commands must be substituted with the timestamps that are available in the file created after the latest collection run in Oracle BRM.
Note:
Make sure that Java home is set in the path before you run this command by running the source <aia.home>/bin/aiaenv.sh command.
This integration flow synchronizes the status of a collection action from Siebel CRM to Oracle BRM. The customer service representative (CSR) can set the status of a collection action to Closed and click the Sync Status button. After this action, Siebel CRM invokes Oracle AIA web services, which in turn invokes an Oracle BRM opcode. The Oracle BRM opcode updates the status of the given collection action in Oracle BRM.
This integration flow uses the following services:
UpdateCreditAlertSiebelCommsReqABCSImpl with operation UpdateStatus
CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1 with operation UpdateCreditAlertList
UpdateCreditAlertBRMCommsProvABCSImpl with operation UpdateStatus
Figure 8-4 illustrates the Sync Collections Actions Status integration scenario.
When you initiate the Sync Collections Actions Status process, the following events occur:
Siebel CRM invokes Oracle AIA UpdateCreditAlertSiebelCommsReqABCSImpl with operation UpdateCreditAlert (fire and forget design pattern) with the following data:
Action alert ID (unique identifier for each credit alert in Siebel CRM)
Integration ID (POID of Collections Action ID)
Status (Closed)
Billing profile ID
UpdateCreditAlertSiebelCommsReqABCSImpl transforms Credit Alert Status Siebel application business message (ABM) ListOfSWICUTCreditManagementIO to UpdateCreditAlertListEBM and invokes CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1 in fire and forget mode.
CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1 routes the message to UpdateCreditAlertBRMCommsProvABCSImpl (fire and forget).
UpdateCreditAlertBRMCommsProvABCSImpl does a lookup for the billing profile Id to determine the corresponding BRM ID. This process also determines the appropriate end point of the target Oracle BRM system based on the target Id.
The Sync Collections Actions Status integration flow uses this interface of Oracle BRM:
PCM_OP_COLLECTIONS_SET_ACTION_STATUS
For more information, see See Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management Opcode Flist Reference.
The Sync Collections Actions Status integration flow uses this Siebel CRM interface:
Outbound web service UpdateCreditAlertSiebelCommsReqABCSImplServicePort operation UpdateCreditAlert
For more information, see the Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications, "Web Services Reference."
The Sync Collections Actions Status integration uses the following delivered enterprise business objects (EBOs) and enterprise business messages (EBMs):
CreditAlertEBO
UpdateCreditAlertListEBM
The industry enterprise business object (EBO) and enterprise business message XML schema (EBM XSD) files are located under the Metadata Services (MDS) repository at: $AIA_HOME/apps/AIAMetaData/AIAComponents/EnterpriseObjectLibrary/Industry/Communications/EBO/
The industry enterprise business service (EBS) WSDL files are located under the MDS repository at: $AIA_HOME/apps/AIAMetaData/AIAComponents/EnterpriseBusinessServiceLibrary/Industry/Communications/EBO/
For detailed documentation of individual EBOs and EBMs, click the AIA Reference Doc link on EBO and EBM detail pages in the Oracle Enterprise Repository (OER).
For more information about using the OER and configuring it to provide the AIA Reference Doc link, see Oracle Application Integration Architecture - Foundation Pack: Integration Developer's Guide, "Configuring and Using Oracle Enterprise Repository as the Oracle SOA Repository."
EBOs can be extended, for instance, to add new data elements. These extensions are protected, and remains intact after a patch or an upgrade.
For more information, see Oracle Application Integration Architecture - Foundation Pack: Integration Developer's Guide, "Extensibility for Oracle AIA Artifacts," Extending EBOs.
These services are delivered with the Sync Collections Actions Status integration flow:
CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1
UpdateCreditAlertSiebelCommsReqABCSImpl
UpdateCreditAlertBRMCommsProvABCSImpl
CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1 performs actions related to a credit alert such as create credit alert, update credit alert, query credit alert, and so on.
Figure 8-5 illustrates the relationship of the CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1 with the other services in the integration flow.
UpdateCreditAlertSiebelCommsReqABCSImpl is a Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) process. It performs the following actions:
Receives Siebel Credit Alert ABM containing billing profile ID, credit alert ID, integration ID, and status.
Transforms the ABM to UpdateCreditAlertListEBM, and invokes CommunicationsCreditAlertEBSV1.
Figure 8-6 illustrates the data transformation flow.
The UpdateCreditAlertBRMCommsProvABCSImpl receives the UpdateCreditAlertListEBM from the EBS and then transforms the UpdateCreditAlertListEBM to the BRM PCM_OP_COLLECTIONS_SET_ACTION_STATUS flist.
It then invokes the BRM PCM_OP_COLLECTIONS_SET_ACTION_STATUS opcode with this flist and then updates the status for the credit alert (or collection action) to Closed in Oracle BRM.
Figure 8-7 illustrates the data transformation flow.
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