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Requirements for Using Siebel Smart Answer

To set up Siebel Smart Answer Servers and the Siebel Smart Answer knowledge base files and model, perform the following steps:

• Install and start the Siebel Smart Answer Servers. For instructions, see Installing and Administering Siebel Smart Answer.
• Gather and analyze the data that you want Siebel Smart Answer Manager to categorize. This data is the source data for the corpus file that you use to generate the knowledge base file.
• Determine the categories to use in your knowledge base for classification and training.

  Choosing categories is one of the most important steps in building an initial knowledge base file. A category is a classification that you assign to each type of inquiry or request that you receive from customers. You define your own categories based on your business requirements during the Siebel Smart Answer planning process. Categories might represent actual content or intent, or might identify another attribute of the text, such as the name of the sender. Examples of categories are product complaint, service complaint, and order status.

  Siebel Smart Answer Manager returns category names and their scores to your Siebel application. Siebel Email Response can use this information to automatically respond to emails, suggest categories of response to agents, route emails, and perform other workflow tasks. Siebel Smart Answer Manager stores all the data that it needs to correctly identify intents and concepts in the knowledge base, including information about the individual categories. This information is the foundation for the concept models.

  Siebel Smart Answer for employee applications uses the content items associated with the category to display various content types like solutions, decision issues, literature items, and resolution items.

  You need the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool 1.0 to create and train the knowledge base model and build the knowledge base file. This tool replaces the Knowledge Base Editor, the RME Jumpstart, and the Banter Workbench used in previous releases of Siebel Smart Answer. The installation file (SmartAnswerInstall.zip) is located My Oracle Support SmartAnswerInstall.zip.

• Choose an installation location for the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool. All the Siebel Smart Answer Server and Administration Tool software will be installed in a folder named smart_answer_admin on your local computer in that location.
• Install the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool. Follow the instructions in the Chapter entitled Installing and Administering Siebel Smart Answer Servers.

  NOTE:  The Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool allows you to create or import a corpus of texts, train and test a knowledge base file, and analyze the performance of the trained knowledge base file. This program also contains a Category Editor which helps you to create the structure of the knowledge base file. For simplicity, use a flat knowledge base file at first, unless you are creating a multilingual knowledge base.

• If your knowledge base file grows to contain a large number of categories, you may have to convert it to a hierarchical knowledge base file to increase the accuracy of Siebel Smart Answer feedback.

  NOTE:  You can use the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool to convert a flat knowledge base file into a hierarchical knowledge base file. The conversion is a manual process. You use the Category Editor to add parent branches for each group of categories. If you change the structure of a knowledge base or the entries assigned, you must train and test the knowledge base again. It is always a good idea to periodically test your knowledge base as feedback accumulates in Siebel Smart Answer.

  Note the following points relevant to a hierarchical knowledge base:

  • To use a multilingual knowledge base, you must create a hierarchical knowledge base.

    For more information about multilingual knowledge bases, see Using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

  • When you create a hierarchical knowledge base, you must assign categories unique names.
  • The maximum length for category names is 128 characters.
• Define the corpus.

  When you import a corpus, the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool will detect all the available fields that are part of each corpus entry and use those for training your knowledge base. By default, Siebel Email Response sends the Body field and the Subject field to the categorization engine. If you want Siebel Email Response to send more fields, then specify them in the Siebel Smart Answer Server Component.

• Create and edit your corpus file.

  A corpus contains your texts for training the categories that are part of your knowledge base. A corpus can be created in a number of formats. For more information about the supported formats, see Using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

• Build a new knowledge base model in the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

  For information about how to start building a new knowledge base model, see Using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

• Generate the knowledge base file for Siebel Smart Answer Manager by exporting the categories from the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool. This will produce the knowledge base file which you import to your catalog, and it resides in the Siebel File System.