Siebel eService Administration Guide Addendum for Industry Applications > Siebel eService for Communications, Media, and Energy > Differences Between Siebel eService and Siebel eService for CME >

Differences in the Customer Portal for CME

The customer portal for Siebel eService for Communications, Media, and Energy is different from the customer portal for Siebel eService. For information about the portal that customers use to access Siebel eService, see Siebel eService Administration Guide.

The most important differences include the following differences:

• Support for complex account management
• Support for complex orders that include products and services

NOTE:  Service requests are also known as trouble tickets in the communications industry. The term trouble ticket is used in Siebel Communications for internal, agent-facing applications, but the term service request is used in the customer portal because people who use the product through the Web might not be familiar with this industry-specific term. In Siebel Communications, you can access the All Trouble Tickets view to see service requests submitted through the customer portal.

Support for Complex Account Management

In the communications, media, and energy industries, a single customer can frequently have multiple accounts for different types of service at different locations. For example, a customer can have accounts for electric and gas service at many locations.

Siebel Communications and Siebel Energy allow you to define complex account hierarchies. For example, you might define a parent account for a customer's business, separate child accounts for each utility service at each of the customer's sites, and several billing accounts for billing the service at different groups of sites. For more information about account hierarchies, see the information about accounts in Siebel Communications Guide or Siebel Energy Guide.

NOTE:  A contact can see an account if either the Proxy Employee value specified in the .cfg file for Siebel eService, Siebel eSales, and Siebel eCustomer for Financial Services, or the login name in the Employee Login Name field in the User list of the Administration - User screen is one of the names in the Account Team field of that account record.

The My Account view allows customers to work with multiple accounts.

Customers click the current account link of the My Account view to display the Current Account view, which includes information about their current account and a Select Account list that includes all of their accounts. They can use this Current Account view to perform the following tasks:

• Change the current account. Customers can use the Current Account list at the bottom of the view to select the current account. Siebel eService displays service requests, billing information, and other information for the current account.
• Select the primary account. Customers can use the Primary Account list at the bottom of the view to select the primary account.
• Add new accounts. Customers can click the Create New Account button to create and enter information about a new account.
• Add new addresses. Customers can click the Add button of the Current Account Address list to add new addresses for the current account.

Support for Complex Orders Including Products and Services

In the communications, media, and energy industries, customers frequently place complex orders, which include products and services. For example, a customer might order a cell phone and cell phone service. The cell phone might have a warranty that expires after a year, while the cell phone service continues until the customer ends the service.

For communications, media, and energy industries, Siebel eService for Siebel Industry Solutions supports these complex bundles of products and services. The Siebel eService for Siebel Industry Solutions home page has a link named My Products and Services, instead of the Register My Product link on the Siebel eService home page. There is also a Products and Services applet in the My Account view. These features allow customers to view information about the products and services for the account for which they are currently logged in.