Integrating and Configuring Siebel Environments with Enterprise Data Quality

Before You Begin

This 15-minute tutorial shows how to integrate and configure the Oracle Enterprise Data Quality Customer Data Services Pack Siebel Connector with a Siebel server.

The EDQ Siebel Connector is a small footprint application that resides on the Siebel server and enables communication with EDQ for real-time (as records are inserted and updated into Siebel) and batch (for running regular data quality jobs on data in Siebel) data quality services. To enable real-time services, the EDQ Siebel Connector translates Siebel function calls into web service requests for EDQ. For batch jobs, EDQ jobs are called from the Siebel Data Quality Manager and a shared staging database is used to pass data between Siebel and EDQ.

Background

Enterprise Data Quality Customer Data Services (EDQ-CDS) provides pre-configured data quality services which can be modified or enhanced by editing the underlying EDQ processes that implement their functionality. This is a ready-to-use feature.

The connector and associated files are shipped with EDQ rather than as a separate product download. It is available in the siebelconnector.zip file in /edq/oracle.edq.

Use of the Siebel-specific staging tables has been replaced by the new EDQ default staging tables, which are created automatically by the RCU when EDQ is installed.

It is assumed that you have a basic understanding of application server and web technology and have a general understanding of Linux, UNIX, and Windows platforms.

This is an example of an optional image in the Background section.

What Do You Need?

• EDQ-CDS 12c with a 12c release of EDQ Siebel connector (included with EDQ 12c).
• Siebel CRM or UCM version 8.1 or later, with a Siebel Data Quality license.
• The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 7 or later must be installed on the Siebel server.
• The version of JRE deployed must match the architecture of the server supported by Siebel. For example, Siebel only supports 32-bit versions of Windows so the 32-bit version of JRE must be installed.
• EDQ-CDS pack installed EDQ server.

Integrating Enterprise Data Quality Siebel Connector

This section describes how to integrate the Enterprise Data Quality (EDQ) Siebel Connector with an existing Windows Siebel server or with AIX, Linux, and Solaris Siebel servers.

Integrating EDQ Siebel Connector With a Windows Siebel Server

1. Copy the siebelconnector.zip file from the EDQ Oracle Home to the installation directory on the Siebel server.
2. Extract the siebelconnector.zip file into the installation directory specified in the dnd.parms file (the default being Siebel_Server_root\dnd\install .), then install jar files for the connector and library the jar files needed by the connector.
3. Copy the dnd.dll file to the Siebel_Server_root\bin\ directory.
4. Create a file in the Siebel_Server_root\SDQConnector\ directory with the name dnd.parms. This file will be used to point to the installation directory on the same server where the Siebel connector will run. The file must contain the following lines:

javalib: [location of the JRE]/bin/client/jvm.dll

directory: [the installation directory for the connector]

For example:

javalib: C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.7/bin/client/jvm.dll

directory: C:/SiebelConnector

5. (Optional) If detailed trace information on connector requests is required (for example, for temporary debugging purposes) add the following lines to the dnd.parms file to enable logging:

logfile: sdq%05d.log

jlogfile: jsdq%05d.log

6. The dnd.properties file in the Siebel Connector installation directory configures how the connector communicates with EDQ. In most cases, the connector is configured to connect to an EDQ server with EDQ-CDS installed. Some settings in this file will need editing to reflect your particular environment; for more information, see the following sections for detail.

Configuring Siebel to Use Customer Data Services

Perform the following steps to configure Siebel to use EDQ-CDS.

Configuring the Server

1. Log into the Siebel web client as a system administrator.
2. Navigate to Administration - Server Configuration on the Siebel Site Map.
3. Find the Data Quality component group and ensure it is enabled.
4. Check that the component group has been assigned and enabled on the Siebel server cai
5. Switch to the Parameters tab and set the Data Cleansing Type parameter to EDQ:
6. Set the DeDuplication Data Type parameter to EDQ
7. Click Servers at the top of the page, find the Data Quality Manager component and select the Parameters tab.
8. Ensure that the Data Cleansing Type and DeDuplicate Data Type parameter values are set to EDQ
9. Set the Data Cleansing Enable Flag and DeDuplication Enable Flag to True.

Note: The preceding illustration shows the values after a server restart, which is performed when Siebel configuration is completed.

10. Repeat Step 8 to Step 10 for the Siebel application components you want to use with EDQ-CDS.

Setting Data Quality Administration Options

To set the Data Quality Administration options, use the following procedure:

1. Log into Siebel as a system administrator.
2. Navigate to Administration - Data Quality on the Siebel Site Map.
3. Click Data Quality Settings and create the following options:

Enable DataCleansing = Yes

Enable DeDuplication = Yes

4. Add the following options to enable a pop-up dialog of possible duplicate records for each new record of a given type when the real-time duplicate prevention service is running. If these options are not specified, and the real-time duplicate prevention service is running, the check will still be performed, but you must actively navigate to the Duplicate Accounts, Duplicate Contacts or Duplicate Prospects tab when adding a new record:

Force User DeDupe - Account = Yes

Force User DeDupe - Contact = Yes

Force User DeDupe - List Mgmt = Yes

5. Click Third Party Administration. Add a new Vendor entry with a Name of EDQ, and a DLL Name of dnd
6. Select the EDQ vendor and add BC Operations. Additionally, add the Business Components to configure matching using multiple child addresses.
7. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and set the Field Mappings for each BC Operation.
8. With the EDQ vendor selected, select the Vendor Parameter tab in the middle section of the screen and add the parameters.

Enabling Data Quality for Users

To enable data quality for any user, use the following procedure:

1. Select User Preferences on the Tools menu.
2. Click Data Quality.
3. Set both the Enable DeDuplication and Enable Data Cleansing options to Yes.

Creating Templates to Enable Batch Data Quality Jobs

Perform the steps mentioned in this section only if you want to run batch data quality jobs.

Siebel can be configured to run batch data quality jobs from the Server Management UI. Jobs can also be run from the Siebel command line, or job configurations can be stored in files and reused as required.

To do this, some custom Job Templates must be added to Siebel.

To add a job Template:

1. Open the Siebel web client.
2. Navigate to Administration - Server Configuration on the Siebel Site Map.
3. Click Job Templates.
4. Click New to create a new Job Template.
5. Complete the fields in the Job Templates and Job Parameters.

Note: Set the Component field to Data Quality Manager for each new Job Template. If there are no options listed in this drop-down field, navigate to the Component Definitions tab on the Enterprise screen, and click Synchronize.

Configuring the Staging Database

The Staging Database is used by the Siebel Connector as a staging area for handing over data between Siebel and EDQ when running batch jobs through Siebel's Data Quality Manager.

This batch interface is most commonly used when EDQ is connected to a standalone Siebel CRM system. In Siebel UCM, the 'UCM Batch' flow does not use this interface when matching inbound data against the master data in Siebel UCM. Rather, it calls out to EDQ's real-time matching services.

However, for both CRM and UCM the Siebel Data Quality Manager service can run batch duplicate identification and health check jobs on the master data only.

When such batch jobs are run, driver and candidate records for matching and input records for the Data Quality Health Check service are written to tables in the staging database, to be read by an EDQ job. For the matching service only, EDQ then exports duplicates from the matching process to another table in this staging database to be read back into Siebel.

The tables are created by the RCU during the installation of EDQ.

Generating Cluster Keys

If the Siebel database is already populated with records (Accounts/Contacts/Prospects) then the cluster keys in the system must be generated or refreshed for the new configuration before it is used.

In Siebel, run the following jobs from the Administration > Server page:

1. Generate account keys
2. Generate contact keys
3. Generate prospect keys

Note: If is being used for key generation, these jobs will automatically call key generation web services instead of using the configured Token Expression in Siebel to generate the keys.

Testing the Account Cleaning Service

To test the cleaning service for Account records:

1. Check that data cleansing is enabled for the server by ensuring that Administration - Data Quality > Data Quality Settings > Enable Data Cleansing is set to "Yes".

Note: If this setting is changed from No to Yes, it is necessary to restart the Siebel Server.

2. Check that data cleansing is enabled for the current user profile by ensuring that Tools > User Preferences > Data Quality > Enable Data Cleansing is set to "Yes".

Note: If this setting is changed from No to Yes, it is necessary to exit the current client session and log in again as the same user.

3. Enter a new Account record with an Account Name in lower case letters.
4. Save the record.
5. Check that the Account Name has been converted to upper case to verify that the cleaning service has been called.

Testing the Batch Matching Service

To test the batch matching service for Contact records:

1. Temporarily disable real-time deduplication for the current user profile by setting Tools > User Preferences > Data Quality > Enable DeDuplication to No.

Note: If this setting is changed from No to Yes it is necessary to restart the Siebel Server.

2. Enter and save two new Contact records with the same name and email address.
3. Run the Batch contact match job from the Administration - Server page.
4. Verify that the records were matched by checking the Administration - Data Quality > Duplicate Contacts page.

Testing Real-Time Contact Matching

To test the real-time matching service for Contact records:

1. Check that real-time deduplication is enabled for the current user profile by checking that Tools > User Preferences > Data Quality > Enable DeDuplication is set to Yes.
2. Set Administration - Data Quality > Data Quality Settings > Force User DeDupe - Contact to Yes.
3. Enter a new Contact record with the same details as in Testing the Batch Matching Service.
4. Save the record.
5. Verify that the Possible Matching Contacts dialog is displayed showing matches against the two contact records created previously.

Note: An exact name and email match, as in this example, will only match if is being used for key generation (for Siebel 8.1.1.10 or later), or if the Query and Token expressions used for key generation have been adjusted to use only name, or name and email, attributes.

Want to Learn More?

• Fusion Middleware Customer Data Services Pack Guide for Enterprise Data Quality
• Understanding the Job Template Configuration
• Understanding the Field Mappings for Business Components
• Understanding the Vendor Parameters