Oracle® Application Integration Architecture Oracle Communications Order to Cash Integration Pack Implementation Guide for Siebel CRM, Oracle Order and Service Management, and Oracle Billing and Revenue Management Release 11.1 Part Number E22651-03 |
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This chapter provides an overview of the Update Sales Order business flow and discusses updating the sales order data and status, and describes how installed assets are created or updated in Siebel Customer Relationship Management (Siebel CRM).
This chapter includes the following sections:
This business flow is enabled using the Oracle Communications Order to Cash Siebel CRM and Oracle Order and Service Management (Oracle OSM) pre-built integration options.
The Update Sales Order business flow is used for two purposes:
To update sales order data:
Updating sales order data enables Oracle OSM to enrich the sales order with data coming from downstream systems, such as provisioning. An example of such data is the service instance ID in cases when the service instance ID is determined during service provisioning.
To update sales order status:
Updating sales order status enables Oracle OSM to send order and order line-level status updates to keep the customer service representative (CSR) and self-service customer updated on the progress made as the order is fulfilled. Oracle OSM optimizes the number of updates to Siebel CRM and limits updates to those that are significant to the Siebel CRM user.
When making data updates to an order line in Siebel CRM, an order management implementation must avoid sending the data updates before the order line reaches the point-of-no-return (PONR). If a revision is created before the data update is sent to Siebel CRM and then the revision is submitted, the data updates may be lost. Fulfillment flows in order management must delay sending data updates if possible but no later than when the Complete status value is sent to Siebel CRM. If any data update occurs after the Complete status value is propagated to Siebel CRM, then the updated data is not saved for the asset.
These practices are the default behavior of the Oracle OSM cartridges for Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA).
For more information about assets, see Section 16.4, "Creating or Updating Installed Assets in Siebel CRM."
Oracle OSM facilitates configurable and streamlined order fulfillment statuses and propagation across the fulfillment systems and Siebel CRM. Decomposition of an order into order components and multiple fulfillment steps, places an extra burden on the order management system to manage the translation of fulfillment function responses to common status attribute values. Each response may contribute to different order line and order header status values, which are also the responsibility of the status management function of the order management system.
A single status attribute is not sufficient to provide comprehensive visibility into the fulfillment process. Oracle has adopted the extended set of attributes listed in the following table as part of its methodology to implement the Oracle Communications Order to Cash business process.
Table 16-1 Extended Set of Status Attributes
Functional Attribute Name | Usage |
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Order Header / Fulfillment Status |
Updates Siebel CRM on the current status of order fulfillment at a high level. This is different from the Siebel Status attribute. The Fulfillment Status attribute tracks the order status while in fulfillment. Values can include In Progress, Complete, Canceled, Failed, and so on. The Status attribute tracks the order status across order capture and order fulfillment. Only Complete and Canceled fulfillment status values are reflected (internally by Siebel) on Status. Fulfillment status values are configurable by the implementer in the OSM cartridge. |
Order Header / Status Context |
Provides details about the current status. Implementers can configure this value. The Fulfillment Status attribute tracks the order status while in fulfillment. The Status attribute tracks the order status across order capture and order fulfillment. Only Complete and Canceled fulfillment status values are reflected (internally by Siebel) on Status. |
Order Line / Fulfillment Status |
Provides a high-level update of the current status of order line fulfillment to order management and Siebel CRM, such as In Progress, Complete, Canceled, Failed, and so on. Fulfillment status values are configurable by the implementer in the OSM cartridge. |
Order Line / Milestone |
The last reached fulfillment milestone, such as Shipped, Provisioned, Installed, and so on. Milestone values are configurable by the implementer in the OSM cartridge. |
Order Line / Status Context |
Provides details about the current status. An implementer can configure this value. You can use Context Text to indicate:
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Order Line / Point-of-no-return |
Indicates if Siebel CRM should allow revisions to an order line or submission of previously created revisions to an order line. Oracle OSM fulfillment flows allow configuration of setting a hard point of no return (PONR) when a condition is met for a particular order line. When a hard PONR is established for an order line in Oracle OSM, an update is issued to reflect the same in Siebel CRM. Siebel CRM uses the PONR to block users from revising order lines. |
Order Line / Actual Delivery Date-Time |
Determines the date when the purchased product or service is considered available to the customer. This date may be the date physical goods are shipped, delivered, or their receipt acknowledged. For service-based products, this date is when the service is activated. This date is computed in the fulfillment flow. |
Order Line / Expected Delivery Date-Time |
Provides the expected delivery date for an order line. When Siebel CRM creates the order, the system provides this value by default. Oracle OSM uses this date to communicate changes for specific order line dates to Siebel CRM. |
When referring to order or order line status in this guide, it is referring to values for all of the previous attributes. Some communications service providers (CSPs) do not realize the processing complexity that is introduced when different fulfillment status values are used for different services. You may be required to configure additional status values, but it is recommended you use a streamlined set of status values across product specifications. This practice has two advantages:
Enhances understanding for both the customer service representative (CSR) and the customer.
Maximizes fulfillment flow reusability and enhances the time to market.
In addition to using streamlined statuses, you can optimize the propagation of status changes by considering the following:
Not all status changes are relevant to the CSR or the customer in Siebel CRM. Therefore, do not propagate all changes to Siebel CRM.
Not all status changes must be reflected instantly, therefore, a throttling mechanism should be provided.
Some statuses, however, must be reflected instantly, such as point of no return (PONR) being reached. Careful analysis is required to determine which status changes require instant propagation and which can wait. Too many status updates may cause performance and throughput problems.
Some status attribute values drive specific logic in Siebel CRM and must be preserved. For Siebel CRM, these values are Complete and Canceled. Both affect the asset maintenance logic in Siebel CRM.
The Complete status value drives the logic to create and update Siebel Assets. The order management implementation must turn the status value to Complete for a parent order line only after the order line and all of its subordinate order lines (within the order hierarchy) have completed fulfillment successfully.
A Canceled order status excludes the order from a Siebel calculation of the future state of the asset when creating follow-on or future-dated orders.
An installed asset is initially created when a customer orders a new service and that order is fulfilled and asseted. From then on, if the customer requests a change to the existing services, the CSR initiates what is known as asset-based ordering. An asset-based order (also known as change order or MACD order) has references to an existing installed asset and actions indicating how it must be modified to match the customer's request. After a change order is fulfilled, the installed asset is updated to reflect the new desired state.
The process integration for order lifecycle management relies on Siebel CRM auto-asset functionality. Siebel CRM is configured so that assets are automatically created or updated when the order line status is set to Complete.