| Siebel CRM Assignment Manager Administration Guide Siebel 2018 E24725-01 |
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| Siebel CRM Assignment Manager Administration Guide Siebel 2018 E24725-01 |
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This topic contains the following information:
"Adding Employees, Positions, and Organizations to Assignment Rules"
"How Siebel Assignment Manager Determines the Sequence in Which Rules Are Evaluated"
"Defining Assignment Rules to Use a Single Criterion for Multiple Objects"
"How Siebel Assignment Manager Uses Server Key Mappings to Load Rules to a Particular Siebel Server"
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
There are several preparatory tasks to perform before using Siebel Assignment Manager and creating your assignment rules.
Before defining your assignment rules:
Review the Assignment Manager planning guidelines and best practice information. See Chapter 3, "Planning Your Siebel Assignment Manager Implementation."
Have a good understanding of how Assignment Manager assigns candidates to assignment objects. See "Assignment Methodology and Examples for Creating Assignment Rules".
Modify assignment object property settings to suit your business requirements using Siebel Tools. See "Configuring Assignment Object Properties".
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
The process of defining assignment rules varies depending on how much you reconfigure or customize Siebel Assignment Manager. This topic provides a typical process flow for defining and releasing assignment rules that you can use as a guide. Your process might differ, depending on your business model.
Figure 5-1 provides a sample process flow for defining and releasing assignment rules as follows:
To start the process, Business Teams (Sales, Service, Campaigns, and Marketing Managers) do the following:
Provide logical business operating boundaries and the conditions and people associated with those boundaries.
Assignment Administrators do the following:
Create rule groups.
Create assignment rules, criteria, and criteria values.
Set up static and dynamic candidates.
Set up employee, position, and organization skills.
Define and apply workload distribution.
Set up dynamic assignment.
Deploy assignments.
Delegated Administrators do the following:
Inherit assignment rules.
Apply criteria and candidates to assignment rules.
Create child rule groups and mark rules inheritable to the owners of those child rule groups.
Table 5-1 lists the various tasks that you perform when defining new assignment rules. The steps represent a typical order of execution when defining a new assignment rule. However, many tasks are optional and might not be applicable for your deployment.
Table 5-1 Administrative Tasks for Defining Assignment Rules
| Task | Required |
|---|---|
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1. "Creating Assignment Rule Groups" Note: You must apply a rule group to each assignment rule. If you do not want to define your own rule groups, then you can use the predefined rule groups or the Default Rule Group. |
Yes |
|
Yes |
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|
No |
|
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4. "Adding Criteria Values to Assignment Criteria" or "Adding Criteria Values as Skills to Assignment Rules Using Expertise Codes" |
No |
|
No |
|
|
6. "Adding Dynamic Candidate Teams to Assignment Rules" Note: The assignment seed data provides two dynamic candidate teams: Activity Account Team and Activity Asset Team. There is no organization dynamic team seed data provided. You might have to configure your own teams according to your business needs. |
No |
|
No |
|
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8. "Associating Skills with Employees, Positions, and Organizations" |
No |
|
No |
|
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10. "Applying Assignment Workload Distribution to Employees, Positions, and Organizations" |
No |
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11. "Process of Defining Assignment Policies for Dynamic Assignment" |
No |
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
This topic explains how to create new assignment rule groups using the assignment administration views. This task is a step in "Process of Defining Assignment Rules".
An assignment rule group is a logical grouping of assignment rules, and assignment rules are logical business boundaries associated with individuals or a team of people to achieve a business goal. Assigning rule groups to assignment rules allows you to partition rules based on organizational or corporate goals, or some other grouping, such as email response.
Table 5-2 provides sample rule groups and their descriptions.
Table 5-2 Sample Rule Groups
| Assignment Rule Group Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
North America-USA |
Assignment rules related to the United States are associated with the North America-USA rule group. |
|
Service Products |
Assignment rules related to service products are associated with a single rule group. |
|
Email Response Group |
Assignment rules related to Siebel Email Response are associated with a single rule group. |
You can set up Assignment Manager to process only specific assignment rule groups and not others. See "How Siebel Assignment Manager Uses Server Key Mappings to Load Rules to a Particular Siebel Server".
Before applying rule groups to your assignment rules based on your particular business needs:
Decide whether you want to use rule groups.
Create rule groups if you want a separate set of assignment rules that you can apply to different business scenarios. Alternatively, you do not have to create rule groups if you want all of the rules processed every time that you run Assignment Manager. In this case, use the Default Rule Group that is provided as part of the Assignment Manager seed data.
Decide whether you need rule group hierarchies.
If you plan to use delegated assignment, then you need rule group hierarchies.
For more information about the Default Rule Group, see the description for assignment rule groups in "Essential Building Blocks of Siebel Assignment Manager". For more information about delegated assignment and rule group hierarchies, see Chapter 8, "Assignment Rule Administration for Delegated Assignment."
To create an assignment rule group
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Rule Groups List view.
In the Rule Groups list, click New.
In the new record, click in the available fields to enter relevant information.
The new rule group appears in the Rule Groups list as well as in the Rule Group Explorer.
Table 5-3 shows the predefined fields.
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Tip: All fields might not be visible by default in this list. You can use the Columns Displayed feature to make fields visible. For more information, see Siebel Fundamentals for Siebel Open UI. |
Table 5-3 Assignment Rule Group Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Name |
Name of the assignment rule group. |
|
Parent Rule Group |
A rule group that directly precedes another rule group in the hierarchy. |
|
Owner Position |
The owner of the rule group. Each rule group has an owner (and potentially designees who also have owner rights). For more information about owners and designees as it relates to delegated assignment, see "About Assignment Rule Group Hierarchy". |
|
Owner Login |
The login of the owner position. The owner position has visibility from the delegated administration views for rule groups and each of the child rule groups. |
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Activation |
Start date of the assignment rule group. By default, rules within a group inherit the activation date from the group date. However, if you specify an activation date for a particular rule, then it overrides that date. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Expiration |
End date of the assignment rule group. By default, rules within a group inherit the expiration date from the group date. However, if you specify an activation date for a particular rule, then it overrides that date. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Key Based |
Indicates that the rule group is intended for key-based routing and usually has a corresponding server key mapping. By checking this flag, even if there is no server key mapping defined for the rule group, this makes sure that the rules that belong to this rule group are not processed when running Assignment Manager in default mode. Tip: The Key Based field might be a hidden column in this list. You can use the Columns Displayed feature to make fields visible. For more information, see Siebel Fundamentals for Siebel Open UI. For more information about key-based routing and server key mappings, see "How Siebel Assignment Manager Uses Server Key Mappings to Load Rules to a Particular Siebel Server". |
|
Organization |
The organization in which this rule group belongs. |
If you plan to use delegated assignment, see also "Creating Child Assignment Rule Groups".
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
The information in this topic provides detailed descriptions of the following assignment rule fields:
The value in the Assignee Filter field of an assignment rule determines how candidates are evaluated as potential assignees to the object. Table 5-4 shows the filters used by Assignment Manager to determine which potential assignees are assigned to the object for each assignment rule.
Table 5-4 Assignee Filter Field Values
| Assignee Filter | Description |
|---|---|
|
Use assignees with an assignment score greater than or equal to the assignment rule's candidate passing score. Assigns one or more assignees. |
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Same as the All, Above Minimum value, except that the highest-scoring candidate is a potential assignee even if all candidates fail to meet the candidate passing score. Assigns one or more assignees. |
|
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Use the highest-scoring assignee with an assignment score greater than or equal to the candidate passing score. Assigns one assignee. |
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|
Choose a random assignee whose score is greater than or equal to the candidate passing score required for this assignment rule. Assigns one assignee. |
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Note: If you do not use scores, then the candidate passing score on the assignment rule and all qualifying candidate scores are treated as zero. Therefore, every qualifying candidate (every candidate that passes all required criteria) is assigned depending on the assignee filter. |
For each assignment rule, the administrator determines whether Assignment Manager takes candidates directly from the assignment rule (statically) or dynamically from the object row by indicating the candidate source. There are two candidates source fields: person candidates and organization candidates.
For the Person Candidates Source field, assignment rules apply as follows:
From Rule. The candidates are the people (positions and employees) defined for an assignment rule and are statically assigned. This setting is the default value for person candidates.
All People. The candidates are all the people (positions and employees) in the database and are statically assigned.
Teams. The candidates are persons (positions and employees) from dynamic candidate teams that you defined in Siebel Tools. In Siebel Tools, you choose either positions or employees as the value of the Team Type property in the Dynamic Candidate object to indicate that the person candidates for the assignment rule will come dynamically from the relevant attribute on the object row.
Two teams (Activity Account Team and Activity Asset Team) are provided as seed data, but you can add your own teams using Siebel Tools. In addition, several teams are predefined for use with territory management.
For more information about the Team Type property, see Table 7-4.
For the Organization Candidates Source field, assignment rules apply as follows:
From Rule. The candidates are the organizations defined for an assignment rule and are statically assigned. This setting is the default value for organization candidates.
All Organizations. The candidates are all the organizations in the database and are statically assigned.
Teams. The candidates are organizations from dynamic candidate teams that you defined in Siebel Tools. In Siebel Tools, you choose organization as the value of the Team Type property in the Dynamic Candidate object to indicate that organization candidates for the assignment rule will come dynamically from the relevant attribute on the object row.
No dynamic candidate team seed data is provided for organizations. You must configure your own teams according to your business needs.
For more information about the Team Type property, see Table 7-4.
For dynamic candidate teams, the value (Employee, Position, or Organization) of the Team Type property of the Dynamic Candidate object in Siebel Tools determines what appears in the candidates source LOV fields in the assignment rule, as shown in Figure 5-2.
For each assignment rule, the administrator can designate whether Assignment Manager checks the employees' calendars when determining assignment eligibility. By checking the Check Employee Calendar field in the Assignment Rules List view, Assignment Manager checks for employee availability.
The Check Employee Calendar feature is used only for employee-based assignment objects, and requires the installation of the Siebel Field Service application. This feature depends on the Appointment Booking System in Siebel Field Service. You must first configure the Activity and Service Request assignment objects using Siebel Tools before this feature is available.
For more information about the Check Employee Calendar feature, see "About Availability-Based Assignment".
For each assignment rule, the administrator can designate whether that rule is exclusive.
If a rule is exclusive and has assignees, then all assignees from other rules are discarded. If there are no exclusive rules, then the primary rule is the rule with the highest-scoring assignee and the primary assignee is the highest-scoring assignee. In this case, no assignees from the other rules are discarded; however, if the assignment object does not allow for more than one assignee, then only the primary assignee is assigned.
If there are multiple exclusive rules, then the exclusive rule with the highest-scoring assignee is chosen as the only exclusive rule. However, if multiple exclusive rules with equal scores qualify, then the default employee, default position, or default organization is assigned, because Assignment Manager is unable to determine the winning rule. For more information about assigning a default employee, default position, or default organization, see "Assignment Methodology".
You make an assignment rule exclusive by checking the Exclusive flag for the assignment rule.
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
Each assignment rule has an activation date and an expiration date that you can use to denote a range of dates for when the rule must be active. If you specify an activation date and no expiration date, then the rule is active from the date denoted by the activation date onwards. If you specify an expiration date and no activation date, then the rule is active until the date denoted by the expiration date. If you do not specify either the activation date or the expiration date, then the rule is always active.
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Note: Siebel Assignment Manager uses the database time to determine whether a rule is active. |
Use the following procedure to create your assignment rules. This task is a step in "Process of Defining Assignment Rules".
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, click New.
In the new record, click in the available fields to enter relevant information for the new rule.
Table 5-5 shows the predefined fields.
|
Tip: All fields might not be visible in the initial view. You can use the Columns Displayed feature to make fields visible. For more information, see Siebel Fundamentals for Siebel Open UI. |
Table 5-5 Assignment Rule Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Name |
Name of the assignment rule. |
|
Rule Group |
Assignment rule groups applied to this rule. Each rule must be associated to an assignment rule group. |
|
Objects to be Assigned |
A multivalue group (MVG) field that allows you to select one or more assignment objects to apply to the rule. Note: These objects are the business entities chosen by the assignment administrator, such as accounts, contacts, and so on. |
|
Sequence |
Sequence number for this rule. Assignment Manager uses this number to prioritize the execution of a set of rules. By default, assignment rules do not have a sequence number; one must be assigned by the administrator, if needed. For more information about rule sequencing, see "How Siebel Assignment Manager Determines the Sequence in Which Rules Are Evaluated". |
|
Activation |
Start date of the assignment rule. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Expiration |
End date of the assignment rule. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Score |
Score eligible for the assignment rule if qualifications are met. For more information about scoring, see "About Assignment Scoring". |
|
Exclusive |
If selected, then the candidates for this assignment rule supersede candidates that qualify for any other nonexclusive assignment rules. For more information about the exclusive feature, see "About Some of the Assignment Rule Fields". |
|
Person Candidates Source |
Determines whether the employee or position candidates for this rule are specified on the assignment rule (statically) or are chosen dynamically using predefined dynamic candidate object definitions. The choices are From Rule, All People, and whatever other dynamic person candidate team records that you defined in the Dynamic Candidate object using Siebel Tools. For more information about this field, see "Candidates Source Fields". |
|
Organization Candidates Source |
Determines whether the organization candidates for this rule are specified on the assignment rule (statically) or are chosen dynamically using predefined dynamic candidate object definitions. The choices are From Rule, All Organizations, and whatever other dynamic candidate team records you defined in the Dynamic Candidate object using Siebel Tools. For more information about this field, see "Candidates Source Fields". |
|
Assignee Filter |
Filters used by Assignment Manager to determine which potential assignees are assigned. Choices for assignee filters are:
Defaults to All, Above Minimum when creating new assignment rules. For more information this field, see "About Some of the Assignment Rule Fields". |
|
Candidate Passing Score |
Minimum score required for candidates to qualify for this assignment rule. Defaults to 0 (zero) when creating new assignment rules. |
|
Check Employee Calendar |
If selected, then this activates Assignment Manager to check employees' calendars when determining assignment eligibility. Used only for employee-based objects. For more information about this field, see "About Some of the Assignment Rule Fields". |
|
Primary Employee |
Primary employee for this assignment rule if the rule passes and is the highest scoring rule for that object. Typically used for service-related assignments. Applicable only if this employee qualifies from the assignment rule (either from the rule itself or from dynamic candidates). However, if the AddScores parameter is set to TRUE, then the primary employee is ignored. This parameter overrides primaries on the rule, merges scores for each candidate across the rules, and then calculates the primary based on the highest total scoring employee that passes for that object. Note: If the assignee filter type is One, Best Fit, then do not select a primary employee, because the highest-scoring employee is still selected and the primary employee is excluded. For information about assigning a particular employee as the primary assignee on a specific assignment rule, see "Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee". |
|
Primary Organization |
Primary organization for this assignment rule if the rule passes and is the highest scoring rule for that object. Applicable only if this organization qualifies from the assignment rule (either from the rule itself or from dynamic candidates). However, if the AddScores parameter is set to TRUE, then the primary organization is ignored. This parameter overrides primaries on the rule, merges scores for each candidate across the rules, and then calculates the primary based on the highest total scoring organization that passes for that object. Note: If the assignee filter type is One, Best Fit, then do not select a primary organization, because the highest-scoring organization is still selected and the primary organization is excluded. For information about assigning a particular organization as the primary assignee on a specific assignment rule, see "Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee". |
|
Primary Position |
Primary position for this assignment rule if the rule passes and is the highest scoring rule for that object. Typically used for sales-related assignments. Applicable only if this position qualifies from the assignment rule (either from the rule itself or from dynamic candidates). However, if the AddScores parameter is set to TRUE, then the primary position is ignored. This parameter overrides primaries on the rule, merges scores for each candidate across the rules, and then calculates the primary based on the highest total scoring position that passes for that object. Note: If the Assignee Filter type is One, Best Fit, then do not select a primary position, because the highest-scoring position is still selected and the primary position is excluded. For information about assigning a particular position as the primary assignee on a specific assignment rule, see "Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee". |
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
This topic provides procedures for adding employees, positions, and organizations to assignment rules.
This task is a step in "Process of Defining Assignment Rules".
Siebel Assignment Manager can assign employees, positions, and organizations based on their association with their parent organization. For example, only employees or positions associated with a specific organization can be assigned to an assignment object even if other employees or positions associated with other organizations qualify. Positions assigned to an assignment object can also have their associated organizations assigned. This functionality is called multitiered assignment, and you must configure the appropriate assignment object before implementing.
For information about configuring assignment objects for multitiered assignment, see "Reassigning Accounts to a Different Primary Position".
Alternatively, you can set a default employee, position, or organization for assignment objects. For example, if you want records for a given assignment object assigned to a certain employee, then you can change the Default Employee property on the assignment object using Siebel Tools. For more information about the Default Employee, Default Position, and Default Organization properties, see Siebel Object Types Reference.
For more information about setting these properties, see "Configuring Assignment Object Properties".
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Note: Assignment Manager does not prevent you from adding employees to an assignment rule that performs position assignments. If a particular rule is set for position assignment and the rule has employees associated with the assignment rule, then Assignment Manager considers only the position candidates. |
Use the following procedure to add employees to an assignment rule.
To add employees to an assignment rule
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, drill down on the assignment rule for which you want to add employees, and then click the Employee Candidates view tab.
In the Employee Candidates list, click New.
In the Add Employees dialog box, select the employees to include for this assignment rule, and then click OK.
In the new employee record, click in the available fields to enter or edit the relevant information.
If new candidates are added, then make sure that you release the assignment rules for the changes to take effect.
For more information about releasing assignment rules, see "Releasing Assignment Rules".
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Note: If the All People value is selected in the Person Candidates Source field for the assignment rule, then all candidates are evaluated even if they are not listed in the Employee Candidates list or the Position Candidates list. Any new candidate is only evaluated only after the rules are released. |
Table 5-6 shows select predefined fields available for editing.
Table 5-6 Employee Candidates List Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Activation |
Start date of the assignment rule employee. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Expiration |
End date of the assignment rule employee. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Score |
An initial score for each employee is permitted in this field to differentiate between other employees for potential assignment. |
|
Note: For assignment purposes, an employee's organization is the organization corresponding to the employee's primary position. For example, if Employee A holds Position A, where Position A is in the Sales East organization, then Employee A's organization is the Sales East organization. |
Use the following procedure to add positions to an assignment rule.
To add positions to an assignment rule
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, drill down on the assignment rule for which you want to add positions, and then click the Position Candidates view tab.
In the Position Candidates list, click New.
In the Add Positions dialog box, select the positions to include for this assignment rule, and then click OK.
In the new record in the Positions list, click in the available fields to enter or edit the relevant information.
If new candidates are added, then make sure that you release the assignment rules for the changes to take effect.
For more information about releasing assignment rules, see "Releasing Assignment Rules".
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Note: If the All People value is selected in the Person Candidates Source field for the assignment rule, then all candidates are evaluated even if they are not listed in the Employee Candidates list or the Position Candidates list. Any new candidate is evaluated only after the rules are released. |
Table 5-7 shows select predefined fields available for editing.
Table 5-7 Position Candidates List Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Activation |
Start date of the assignment rule position. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Expiration |
End date of the assignment rule position. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Score |
An initial score for each position is permitted in this field to differentiate between other positions for potential assignment. |
After you add positions for an assignment rule, only the active employees for each position are available. If Assignment Manager assigns the position, then employees for the position have visibility to the assigned object.
To delete system-assigned positions from individual assignment objects, or to manually assign other positions, see the procedure in "Maintaining the Manually Assigned Primary Position".
You can configure Assignment Manager to define additional fields for Positions associated with an assignment rule. For more information about defining fields for Positions, see "Configuring Assignment Objects to Copy Additional Columns to the Team Table".
Use the following procedure to add organizations to an assignment rule.
To add organizations to an assignment rule
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, drill down on the assignment rule for which you want to add organizations, and then click the Organization Candidates view tab.
In the Organization Candidates list, click New.
In the Add Organization dialog box, select the organizations to include for this assignment rule, and then click OK.
In the new record in the Organizations list, click in the available fields to enter or edit the relevant information.
If new candidates are added, then make sure that you release the assignment rules for the changes to take effect.
For more information about releasing assignment rules, see "Releasing Assignment Rules".
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Note: If the All Organizations value is selected in the Organization Candidates Source field for the assignment rule, then all candidates are evaluated even if they are not listed in the Organization Candidates list. |
Table 5-8 shows select predefined fields available for editing.
Table 5-8 Organization Candidates List Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Activation |
Start date of the assignment rule organization. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Expiration |
End date of the assignment rule organization. Note: By default, Siebel Business Applications use Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). For more information, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. |
|
Score |
An initial score for each organization is permitted in this field to differentiate between other organizations for potential assignment. |
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
This topic explains how to add sequence numbers to assignment rules.
To add a sequence number to an assignment rule
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, select the assignment rule for which you want to define rule sequencing.
In the Sequence field, enter a sequence number.
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
When you assign sequence numbers to assignment rules, Siebel Assignment Manager evaluates those rules in ascending order of the sequence numbers. Assignment rule sequencing provides a means for you to prioritize the rules that apply to any given assignment object by order of importance, thereby limiting the number of rules that Assignment Manager processes for assignment.
For example, you might want to run Assignment Manager only for your higher priority rules first. If those rules pass, then stop processing additional rules, because candidates are already successfully matched.
If none of the rules have a sequence number, or if all of the rules have the same sequence number, then Assignment Manager processes all the rules. However, if some of the rules in the group have sequence numbers and other rules do not, then the rules with no specified sequence number are considered to have a sequence number of 0 and are evaluated first. Therefore, it is recommended that you give every rule a sequence number if you use sequencing.
After processing every assignment rule within a sequence number, Assignment Manager checks to see if each rule was successfully assigned. When a rule results in successful assignment, Assignment Manager processes the rest of the rules having the same sequence number and then stops processing. Subsequently, the rules with higher sequence numbers are not processed.
As shown in Table 5-9, Assignment Manager identifies the beginning and end of a segment within a sequence by the change in sequence number. For example, Assignment Manager first evaluates rules with a sequence number of 1, then evaluates rules with a sequence number of 2, and so on. It does not matter, however, how rules within a segment are evaluated.
At run time, Assignment Manager evaluates the rules in the first segment (Segment 1) first, and then stops to find out whether an assignment has been made. If it has assigned, then Assignment Manager does not continue. If it has not assigned, then Assignment Manager continues to the next sequence (Segment 2).
Table 5-9 Example of a Rule Sequence
| Segment | Assignment Rule | Sequence Number |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Assign Sales Rep West |
1 |
|
1 |
Assign Sales Rep North |
1 |
|
1 |
Assign Sales Rep East |
1 |
|
2 |
Assign Sales Rep West |
2 |
|
2 |
Assign Sales Rep North |
2 |
|
3 |
Assign Sales Rep West |
3 |
|
3 |
Assign Sales Rep North |
3 |
|
3 |
Assign Sales Rep East |
3 |
If Assignment Manager is running in default mode and there are multiple rule groups defined, then Assignment Manager evaluates the rules as if they are part of one big group.
For example, assume that there are two rule groups loaded by the same Assignment Manager server, with the sequences shown in Table 5-10.
Then, this is the order Assignment Manager evaluates those rules:
A1
A1
A1
B1
B1
A2
A2
B2
B2
A3
A3
B3
B3
B3
Sequence numbers can be assigned to assignment rules when creating new assignment rules or can be added to assignment rules at a later time.
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
In some cases, you might want to create an assignment rule that assigns candidates to two or more objects while using only one object's criteria. This topic uses a specific scenario as an example in which you create an assignment rule to use only an Opportunity criteria to assign candidates to both the Opportunity and Account objects. This rule can be used to assign candidates to opportunities and their associated accounts.
To create assignment rules that assign two objects using only one object criteria, you must create and map workflow policy components using Siebel Tools after defining the assignment rule.
To define an assignment rule to use a single criterion for multiple objects
Create an assignment rule and specify the assignment objects that are assigned using this rule.
For this example, create an assignment rule called Account/Opportunity and add the Account and Opportunity objects to this rule. For more information about creating assignment rules, see "Creating Assignment Rules".
Create an assignment criteria that applies to only one of the assignment objects in this assignment rule.
For this example, configure the Lead Quality Code assignment criteria (an Opportunity object criteria). For more information about creating assignment criteria, see "Creating Assignment Rules".
After the assignment rule is defined, create a workflow policy component that maps to both objects.
For information about creating a workflow policy component, see "Using a Single Criterion for Multiple Assignment Objects".
Map the workflow policy component that you created with the column.
For information about mapping a workflow policy column, see "Mapping Assignment Attribute Columns to an Assignment Object and a Workflow Policy Component Column".
Map the workflow policy component that you created to the assignment attribute.
For information about mapping a workflow policy component to assignment attributes, see "Mapping Assignment Attribute Columns to an Assignment Object and a Workflow Policy Component Column".
Figure 6-8 shows an example of defining an assignment rule for the Account and Opportunity objects using only the Lead Quality Code assignment criteria.
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
Siebel Assignment Manager provides the ability to influence a particular candidate to act as a primary assignee for a specific assignment rule. You do so by picking an employee, a position, or an organization from the Primary Employee, Primary Position, or Primary Organization pick dialog box in the Assignment Rules list. This primary assignee represents the candidate (employee, position, or organization) that is assigned as the primary owner of the assignment object if the candidate passes the criteria for that rule.
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Note: Typically, you choose a primary assignee when creating an assignment rule, however, you can add a primary to an existing assignment rule at any time. You must release the rule for the change to take effect. |
This task is a step in "Process of Defining Assignment Rules".
To choose a candidate as the primary assignee
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, select the assignment rule for which you want to assign a particular candidate as the primary assignee.
In one of the following fields, click the select button.
Primary Employee. If you want to assign a particular employee, then query for that employee, and then click OK.
Primary Position. If you want to assign a particular position, then query for that position, and then click OK.
Primary Organization. If you want to assign a particular organization, then query for that organization, and then click OK.
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Tip: The Primary Employee, Primary Position, and Primary Organization fields might be hidden columns in this list. You can use the Columns Displayed feature to make fields visible. For more information, see Siebel Fundamentals for Siebel Open UI. |
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
This topic explains how to define server key mappings for assignment rule groups. You can at any time change a server key mapping to another rule group or another Siebel Server.
To define a server key mapping
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Server Key Mappings view.
In the Assignment Server Key Mappings list, click New.
In the new record, click in the available fields to enter relevant information.
Table 5-11 shows the predefined fields.
Table 5-11 Server Key Mapping Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Siebel Server Name |
The name of the Siebel Server that is running that instance of Assignment Manager. This field does not represent the computer name. For more information about Siebel Servers, see Siebel System Administration Guide. |
|
Assignment Rule Group |
The assignment rule group that you want to associate with a particular Siebel Server running Assignment Manager. |
If you want to exclusively mark certain rule groups for use with server key mappings, then you can set the Key Based flag to TRUE for these rule groups (using the Key Based list column on the Rule Groups List view). These rule groups are not loaded by any Assignment Manager component operating in default mode. For more information about rule group usage, see "Creating Assignment Rule Groups".
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
For each Siebel Server, you use server key mappings to define multiple rule groups that you want that server to load and process. Using server key mappings allows you to use different servers for different business purposes.
After you define server key mappings in the assignment administration views, each Assignment Manager (AsgnSrvr) process looks for the server name in the key mappings during startup and only loads rules from those rule groups. The AsgnSrvr component also registers the rule group row IDs as keys. When you submit a request to a server, you must submit the AsgnKey parameter set to one of the rule group row IDs assigned to that server.
The server key mapping process uses an internal key-based routing mechanism to route requests to a particular server, however, this is done in the background and is not apparent. You can specify multiple servers to load the same rule group. In this case, the Server Request Broker component routes requests, based on load balancing metrics, to one of the Assignment Manager components that loaded that rule group.
You can mark certain rule groups for use only with server key mappings. These rule groups are not loaded by any Assignment Manager component operating in default mode.
The server key mappings feature is supported only in certain environments when you are using specific functionality, as follows:
Script or workflow process calling a business service. You can invoke Assignment Manager through a business service from within a workflow process, or from a script, using one of the following predefined business services:
Server Requests business service. Use this generic business service to submit requests to a particular component using the Server Request Broker. With this business service, you can use the Assignment Manager server mapping feature. If you are using this business service to invoke rules based on rule groups, then pass the AsgnKey parameter as the input parameter, and pass the ReqKey parameter as a request parameter (in the child property set for the component). Then, set both the AsgnKey and ReqKey parameters to the rule group ID of the relevant rule group.
Synchronous Assignment Manager Requests business service. This business service has one method available: Assign. This method sends a request to the Assignment Manager server component using the AsgnObjName and ObjRowId parameters. All active rules in the database are processed. Use this business service:
To submit requests to assign a single object row
With the Default Group (when no server key mappings are defined)
For more information about business services, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide. For more information about scripting, see Siebel Object Interfaces Reference and other applicable documentation.
Interactive assignment. In the default configuration, interactive assignment runs in default mode. However, interactive assignment can be customized to use the server key mappings feature using the SetAsgnKey method on the business component base class CSSBCBase.
Using a script, a workflow process, or a business service, you call the method to pass the row ID of one of the rule groups as the parameter. The interactive assignment feature uses this parameter as the AsgnKey and ReqKey parameters when submitting requests to the AsgnSrvr component.
You invoke the method only once for one session, but subsequent requests in the same session reuse the rule group row ID. However, when the session is logged out or the server is restarted, you have to call the method again to set the AsgnKey parameter. Otherwise, Assignment Manager reverts to running in default mode.
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Note: When you operate Assignment Manager in default mode, rules from rule groups that have the Key Based flag checked are not loaded. |
Batch assignment and dynamic assignment do not read server key mappings.
|
Note: You cannot run default mode and server key mappings mode on the same Assignment Manager, because the two tasks are mutually exclusive functionalities. If you require the assignment functionality of both modes, then you have to run Assignment Manager components on a separate server for each mode. |
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Tip: Siebel Marketing is specifically designed to use the server key mappings and rule group features. For more information about Siebel Marketing, see Siebel Marketing Installation and Administration Guide. |
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
Table 5-12 lists the administrative tasks for preparing for and releasing assignment rules. Perform these tasks in the order provided, and in the environment indicated, where they apply to your deployment.
Table 5-12 Tasks for Releasing Assignment Rules
| Task | GUI | Siebel Tools |
|---|---|---|
|
1. (Optional) "Defining Server Key Mappings for Assignment Rule Groups". |
Yes |
No |
|
2. (Optional) Set up Assignment Manager for availability-based assignment.
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
3. (Optional) Define load splitter configuration. |
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
No |
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
After you define your assignment rules or make any changes to the rules, criteria, values, or candidates (employee, position, or organization) for the assignment rules, you must release them to instruct Siebel Assignment Manager to use these rules. Releasing assignment rules also updates the rulecache.dat file. For more information about the rulecache.dat file, see "About Siebel Assignment Manager Rule Cache Files".
The following procedure releases all assignment rules simultaneously. Do not release assignment rules while associated server tasks are running. After you have defined your assignment rules, you must release the rules and you might have to perform a few additional administrative tasks.
To release assignment rules
Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, and then the Assignment Rules List view.
In the Assignment Rules list, click the Release button.
A confirmation message appears, indicating that the rules have been released.
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Note: You can also update the rule cache by deleting the rule cache files and restarting the Siebel Server. Search for *rulecache*.dat in theSIEBSRVR_ROOT\bin folder. |
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Tip: If you want to verify that the new or modified rules have been applied, then check the timestamp of the rulecache.dat file or the Assignment Manager (AsgnSrvr) log file. |
When a new Siebel Server is installed (for instance, as part of an upgrade), pending assignment rules are released (the rule cache is re-created) on the first startup. It is recommended that you release assignment rules after installation so that servers in the deployment re-create the same rule cache.
This topic is part of "About Assignment Rule Administration".
You can migrate assignment-related data from one environment to another, such as to migrate positions, skills and skill items, or assignment criteria and criteria items, from a test environment to a production environment. You can migrate assignment-related data using Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM) or Siebel Application Deployment Manager (ADM).
You cannot directly migrate assignment rules themselves. You can export only child and grandchild data of assignment rules.
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Tip: You can also use the application user interface to export and import assignment-related data in spreadsheet files. However, this functionality is not for migrating such data between different environments. For detailed information, see "Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data". |
If you add or change assignment objects, assignment attributes, or assignment criteria, then you must also migrate the repository to the server production database.
During migration, Siebel Assignment Manager automatically updates existing assignment rules, as follows:
If All People is selected in the Person Candidates Source field on the assignment rule, then the new value in the PERSON_CAND_TYPE column is All People.
If All People is not selected in the Person Candidates Source field on the assignment rule, then the new value in the PERSON_CAND_TYPE column is From Rule.
If All Organizations is selected in the Organization Candidates Source field on the assignment rule, then the new value in the BU_CAND_TYPE column is All Organizations.
If All Organizations is not selected in the Organization Candidates Source field on the assignment rule, then the new value in the BU_CAND_TYPE column is From Rule.
For more information about migrating data using Siebel EIM or Siebel ADM, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide and Siebel Application Deployment Manager Guide.
