Modifying the Customer Dashboard

This chapter provides an overview of the Customer Dashboard. It describes how you configure the SmartScript Player applet to invoke the Customer Dashboard and display it to the user. It includes the following topics:

For more information about modifying and configuring the Customer Dashboard, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.

About the Customer Dashboard

The Customer Dashboard provides employees with persistent access to customer data, such as contact name, phone number, and interaction history. This data remains in the same location in the screen at the start, as long as the session is active and the Customer Dashboard is not closed. The Customer Dashboard can also be active when the Search Center or communications channels that Oracle support are active.

Example

The employee on an outbound telemarketing campaign logs in to a predictive dialer using the Siebel Communication toolbar. On logging in to the campaign, the predictive dialer begins contacting individuals and filters out answering machines, no answers, and busy signals.

While the employee is greeting the caller, Siebel SmartScript opens, and the appropriate SmartScript for the campaign appears. By the time the employee has concluded greeting the caller, the initiated SmartScript page is read and the employee has the appropriate data to continue the interaction.

If at any point, the employee forgets key information about the customer or contact (for example, name, phone number, and so on), the employee can refer to the Customer Dashboard.

If a call center employee regularly needs additional information about the contact, the Customer Dashboard can be customized to provide access to different views, so that the employee can navigate to information related to the active customer.

If an employee regularly wants to search information, the Customer Dashboard can be customized so that the results of the search populate the Customer Dashboard. With the customization mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the employee can then navigate to information related to the search results.

If the caller is disconnected accidentally, the employee can initiate an outbound call to reestablish the connection.

Overview of Configuring the Customer Dashboard

The Customer Dashboard is configured to capture and display information about the contact with whom communication is taking place, such as the contact name, phone number, address, and account. You can set the values in the Customer Dashboard using Communications Server events (such as CTI events), the Search Center, Siebel SmartScript, or directly through Siebel VB.

The typical tasks to configure Customer Dashboard include:

Designing the Customer Dashboard layout with Siebel Tools. The Customer Dashboard displays an applet based on a special Virtual Business Component (VBC).
Linking business component fields to the Customer Dashboard fields, using Siebel Tools.
Integrating the Communication Server with the Customer Dashboard. Communications Server administrators use the Communications Administration screen, which involves working with communications commands and events.

For more information about working with Siebel Tools, see Using Siebel Tools. For more information on Siebel Communications Server, including information on using CTI to configure the Customer Dashboard, see Siebel CTI Administration Guide.

Overview of Upgrading to the Customer Dashboard

The Customer Dashboard replaces the SmartScript Dashboard from previous releases. The Customer Dashboard can be automatically updated from a SmartScript by following these steps:

Make sure the SmartScript Player applet is configured to notify the Customer Dashboard. The default state of the SmartScript Player applet is TRUE, allowing for this notification. For more information, see the section about accessing the SmartScript Player Applet object.
Make sure that the updated parameters are configured in Siebel Tools to reflect the updated changes. For more information, see the section about making sure the updated parameters are configured in Siebel Tools.
Update the Customer Dashboard by saving answers to the Customer Dashboard variables. For more information, see the section about updating the Customer Dashboard.

To update to the Customer Dashboard

Navigate to Administration - SmartScript screen > Questions view.
Select a question, and then click the More Info view tab.
In the Save User Parameters field, enter the name of the parameter as it appears in the list of user properties for the Persistent Customer Dashboard business service in Siebel Tools.
For example, “Fname”.
Navigate to the Scripts view > Translations list.
In the Dashboard Text field in the Translations list, enter the names of the variables from each question enclosed by brackets ([ ]), for example, [Fname].
This notifies the SmartScript to pass this parameter to the Customer Dashboard. Enter only parameters that have been configured in the dashboard business service in this field. You must also make sure that the SmartScript Player applet is configured to notify the Customer Dashboard. The default state is TRUE. For more information see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.

To access the SmartScript Player applet object

Lock your project in Siebel Tools.
In the Applets list, select Smart Script Player Applet (Tree Only).
Navigate to the Applet User Property list, and select Notify DashBoard.
Do one of the following:
- Set the value for Notify Dashboard to Y if you want the SmartScript Player applet to update the Customer Dashboard.
  This is the default value.
- Set Notify Dashboard to N if you do not want the SmartScript Player applet to update the Customer Dashboard.

To make sure the updated parameters are configured in Siebel Tools

Lock your project in Siebel Tools.
In the Business Service list, select Persistent Customer Dashboard.
Navigate to the Business Service User Prop list.
This list displays the current configuration of the Customer Dashboard.
Make sure that the parameters you entered in the procedure for updating the Customer Dashboard match the values in this list.
This list is specifically used for updating the Customer Dashboard from a SmartScript. You can also update the Customer Dashboard from a SmartScript using Siebel VB or Siebel eScript. You must call the Persistent Customer Dashboard business service, and pass the appropriate parameters.
Deploy your changes to the Siebel runtime repository.