Siebel Order Management Guide > Working with Sales Orders >

About Orders

An order is a commitment on the part of the customer to purchase products and services at a specific price. Orders can be generated from quotes or created directly by sales people, call center agents and sales administrators. Orders can be created and placed all at once, or developed in stages as the customer clarifies the configuration of the items, requests availability, payment information, shipping information, and other details. When the order is complete, the end user submits it.

After the order is placed, a call center agent can monitor the order, proactively informing the customer of order status and delivery information. In the case of a customer inquiry, an agent can use the Get Status business service to obtain the latest information and determine the status of the order, if the order is being processed by the back office. In the event that post-order service is required, service requests and returns can be created against the order.

Orders are identified as either sales orders or service orders. Sales orders are generally for new products, while service orders are used to support service parts processing, including part locator, repair depot, and so on.

End users work with sales orders and service orders in very similar ways, however some features are specific to each type. This chapter focuses primarily on sales orders. For details about working with service orders, see Siebel Field Service Guide.

For information about creating a new order, see Creating a Quote or Sales Order.