Overview of Siebel Energy

This chapter presents an overview of Siebel Energy functionality and features. It includes the following topics:

About Siebel Energy

Oracle’s Siebel Energy addresses the customer relationship management needs of the energy and utilities industry. Siebel Energy is designed to meet the sales, marketing, call center, and customer field service requirements of regulated waste management, electric, gas, and water distribution companies, and the requirements of unregulated Energy Service Providers (ESPs). Siebel Energy serves residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

Siebel Energy can support large or small call center operations. Siebel Energy integrates with legacy and packaged Customer Information Systems (CIS) and Billing solutions. Siebel Energy supports account hierarchy and premises records with their service points. Siebel Energy enables customer order and contract management. Siebel Energy also allows the tracking, sharing, and reporting of usage, billing, and other service details.

Oracle’s Siebel Business Applications are designed to work together to provide an integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Siebel Energy allows utility companies to implement Siebel application modules that include sales, service, and marketing functionality. These modules include Oracle’s Siebel Sales, Oracle’s Siebel Service, Oracle’s Siebel Call Center, Oracle’s Siebel Field Service, and Oracle’s Siebel Customer Order Management. Oracle’s Siebel Anywhere allows the Siebel system administrator to apply upgrades to Developer Web Clients, Mobile Web Clients, and Siebel Servers.

Key Features of Siebel Energy

The following describes howSiebel Energy provides solutions for key business issues.

Business Issue	Siebel Energy Solutions
Account and Premises management	Management of accounts through multilevel account hierarchies that are based on complex account relationships Independent management of service accounts and billing accounts Tracking of physical facilities and network delivery points through premises records Tracking of meters at service points Management of account and customer information through profiles
Agreement management	Automated production of agreements from accepted quotes Coordination of pricing information Assigning of standard terms, conditions, and features Tracking to make sure that agreements and service entitlements are fulfilled
Audit trail	Creation of a history of all the changes that have been made to various kinds of information Records show who has accessed an item, what operation has been performed, when it was performed, and how the value was changed Useful for maintaining security, examining the history of a particular record, and documenting modifications for future analysis and record-keeping
Billing management	Integration with back-office billing applications Query and display of billing information Management of payment information, payment plans, bill adjustments, and bill profiles
Call center optimization	Single desktop to manage multiple types of customer interactions Computer telephony integration (CTI) to connect callers with the most qualified agent Integrated Web and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) self-service functionality
Credit management	Integration with a back-office credit application Management of credit alerts Notification of customers who are delinquent in payments
Customer acquisition	Analytical tools for segmenting prospects and developing targeted campaigns Campaign management tools for developing and executing multichannel campaigns Prebuilt performance analysis tools Call scripting (providing text that uses proactive selling and retention techniques for employees to use when speaking with customers) Territory assignment, lead scoring, and routing
Customer and partner applications	Oracle’s Siebel Partner Relationship Management, which allows your company to turn channel partners into an extended, virtual sales and service organization through the Internet Oracle’s Siebel Self Service, which allows your customers to create and track their own trouble tickets and service requests, and to search for answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), through the Internet Oracle’s Siebel eSales, which allows your customers to use the Internet to browse through your company’s products and services, and to configure and purchase them
Customer retention	Customer profile that is shared throughout the enterprise Profile analysis to predict customer churn Generation of win-back actions Sales tools that increase sales effectiveness and maximize time spent building relationships Tools for marketing analysis, campaign development, and execution
Equipment and infrastructure	Management of physical assets available at a customer site Tracking of equipment sales to accounts Management of meters and assets
Fraud management	Integration with a back-office fraud management application Management of fraud alerts Definition of relevant thresholds for customer fraud profiles Classification of customer accounts to indicate the likelihood of fraud Management of customer accounts that are either late in settlement or delinquent
Order configuration and management	Oracle’s Siebel Configurator, which automates the generation of quotes and sales orders Tracking of relationships between sales, sales orders, and work orders Definition of process rules and automatic escalation of open sales orders Use of product classes and attributes, and product bundles in generating sales orders Provisioning of sales orders through work orders Multi-site quotes for orders
Pricing management	A set of tools for defining pricing adjustments and the conditions under which they are applied An engine that evaluates condition statements and determines which pricing adjustments to apply A testing area that allows assessment of the pricing adjustments Integration with end-user interfaces such as Quotes, Orders, Siebel eSales, Siebel Partner Relationship Management, and Siebel Configurator
Oracle’s Siebel Marketing	Analysis of customer information and measurement of campaign results with eIntelligence Creation and execution of targeted marketing campaigns Internet marketing with Siebel Consumer Marketing: Integrated email campaigns, customized Web offers, personalized Web pages, Internet newsletters, and Internet surveys
Third-party and legacy integration	Prebuilt Web services that provide interfaces to leading Operating System Software (OSS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications Integration mapping tools for cross-application process integration Oracle’s Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM), which allows bidirectional data exchange and synchronization Performing credit verification and address validation Maintenance of billing accounts through an external billing application
Trouble ticket and service request management	A means of logging, assigning, managing, and resolving customers’ problems, including network problems or outages affecting customers Online solutions search capability Proactive customer notifications through email, pager, fax, and Internet Automatic escalation of overdue trouble tickets and service requests Integration with external outage management applications
Upselling and cross-selling	Scripting engine that identifies upsell and cross-sell opportunities with every customer contact Product configuration that prompts the salesperson to propose high-margin services Integrated asset management that provides information about configuration at each service location
Usage, billing, and service detail	Access to customer usage and service information Summary customer data for account analysis

Product Modules and Options for Siebel Energy

Many Siebel Business Applications modules can be purchased and used with Siebel Energy. In addition, optional modules specific toSiebel Energy can be purchased to provide enhanced functionality for various business processes. For information about the optional modules that can be used with Siebel Energy, contact your Siebel sales representative.

Note: This guide documents Siebel Energy with the optional modules installed. In addition, the Sample database includes data for optional modules. If your installation does not include some of these modules, then your software interface differs from that described in some topics of this guide.

The exact configuration ofSiebel Energy screens and views depends on your company’s configuration of the application. For introductory information about using theSiebel Energy interface, see Siebel Fundamentals.

Note: The Siebel Bookshelf is available on Oracle Technology Network (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html) and Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. It might also be installed locally on your intranet or on a network location.

Business Functions of Screens in Siebel Energy

TheSiebel Energy interface includes procedure-specific screens. Some screens are used exclusively by administrators. The following information lists the most frequently used Siebel Energy screen and views and the functions of the views in those screens.

Note: The procedures in this guide assume that you do not use the Tree navigation control option to access screens and views. However, you can choose to use the Tree navigation control if required. For more information about setting navigation options, see Siebel Fundamentals Guide.

Screen	Functions	For More Information
Accounts	Create, view, and update accounts. Set up and maintain account hierarchies. Define and maintain account profile information. Query customer bills. Record bill payments, repayment plans, and adjustments.	See Accounts in Siebel Energy, Profiles in Siebel Energy, and Billing in Siebel Energy
Activities	Track personal activities and view activities for other team members. Track the progress of accounts, trouble tickets, service requests, interactions with contacts, and opportunities.	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Agreements	Create, generate, modify, approve, and track agreements.	See Agreements and Entitlements in Siebel Energy
Assets	Manage information about products sold to accounts.	See Siebel Field Service Guide
Audit Trail	Creates a history of the changes that have been made inSiebel Energy .	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Briefings	Gather and format information from a number of different sources, both inside and outside your company, including the World Wide Web.	See Siebel Briefings Administration Guide
Calendar	Create and display activities (including to-do activities) and share calendar information with co-workers.	See Siebel Fundamentals
Campaigns	Manage outbound communications with prospects targeted for a particular marketing effort.	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Contacts	Record and track business and personal contact information associated with an account, an opportunity, a trouble ticket, or service request.	See Contacts in Siebel Energy
Credit Management	Manage and monitor customer credit issues. Share data with third-party credit management applications.	See Credit Management in Siebel Energy
Entitlements	Associate entitlements with accounts, contacts, and products. Determine a customer’s eligibility for service under its entitlements.	See Agreements and Entitlements in Siebel Energy
Expense Reports	Manage expense-report information for your own expenses, or your team’s expenses.	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Forecasts	Create business forecasts that are based on opportunities or products.	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Fraud Management	Manage and monitor customer fraud issues. Share data with third-party fraud management applications.	See Fraud Management in Siebel Energy
Literature	Display company- and industry-related literature cataloged by the Siebel administrator.	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Multi-Site Quotes	Create and manage quotes for multiple sites.	See Multi-Site Quotes in Siebel Energy
Opportunities	Manage sales opportunities for business and residential customers.	See Opportunities in Siebel Energy
Orders	Create sales orders and track their status. Generate order summaries.	See Siebel Order Management Guide and Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications
Premises	Create and maintain premises. Track service points, customer premises equipment, and meters associated with a premises.	See Premises in Siebel Energy
Price Comparison	Creates quotes comparing in-house rate plans against competitors’ rates	See Price Comparison in Siebel Energy
Products	Display products, product lines, product features, and price lists.	See Products in Siebel Energy. Also see Siebel Order Management Guide and Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications
Quality	Manage information about adverse events or reactions related to products.	See Siebel Applications Administration Guide
Quotes	Create, view, and update quotes. Update opportunities and configure solutions for quotes.	See Siebel Order Management Guide and Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications
Service Requests	Create, display, and update customer requests for information about or assistance with products or services.	See Service Requests and Trouble Tickets in Siebel Energy
SmartScripts	Define the application workflow for an interactive situation in a script. These interactive situations can include inbound communications (such as customer service) and outbound contacts (such as telemarketing).	See Siebel SmartScript Administration Guide
Solutions	Search, organize, and add to a knowledge base of answers to service requests and trouble tickets.	See Siebel Field Service Guide
Trouble Tickets	Create, display, and update customer requests for information about or assistance with products or services.	See Service Requests and Trouble Tickets in Siebel Energy
Work Orders	Manage the work components associated with activating or turning off service for a customer.	See Work Orders in Siebel Energy

About Integration of Siebel Energy with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing

This topic is an overview of the integration of Siebel Energy with Oracle® Utilities Customer Care and Billing, a customer and billing application that manages billing and other aspects of customer care needed by utility companies to operate their businesses. Basic objects such as Person, Account, Premise, Service Agreement, and Service Point form the core of Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The objects hold demographic, geographic, and financial information about the customers and properties serviced by a utility company. Related to these objects are the processes that they manage, including bills, payments, meter readings, field activities, and so on.

The integration occurs through Oracle® Application Integration Architecture, a set of products that enables you to set up and orchestrate cross-application business processes so that multiple applications can work together. Oracle Application Integration Architecture runs on Oracle® Fusion Middleware.

Oracle’s Process Integration Packs (PIPs) are the mechanisms of the integration. PIPs are prebuilt packaged process integrations between Oracle applications, such as Siebel applications, and external applications. PIPs are based on Oracle Application Integration Architecture. The following PIPs enable the synchronization of customer and product Information, respectively, between Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing:

Oracle Customer Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy
Oracle Product Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy

These PIPs run the following process integrations:

Customer Data Management Process Integration. This process integration enables the synchronization of customer information between Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Siebel Energy is the customer master. In other words, customer records and customer-related information records are created in Siebel Energy and sent to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Customer information updates in Siebel Energy are synchronized to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

The Customer Data Management process integration provides two integration flows. The Create/Synchronize Customer integration flow transmits customer information that is processed during customer order management operations in Siebel Energy to create customer records in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The Update Customer process integration updates customer information such as name, address, contact, billing frequency, payment method, payment details (depending on payment method), bill media, and bill type from Siebel Energy to existing customer records in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

Product Data Management Process Integration. This process integration enables the synchronization of product and pricing information between Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy to support the Order-to-Bill process. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is the product and pricing master of the products managed by the integration. In Siebel Energy, this information is enriched and supports sales. The basic product and pricing information synchronized from Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is supplemented in Siebel Energy to create and manage bundles of products, product configuration models, product eligibility and compatibility rules, product recommendations (that is, up-sell and cross-sell guidance), promotions (that is, pricing discounts), and product catalogs.

The Product Data Management process integration provides the Synchronize Product and Pricing integration flow. This integration flow transmits product and pricing information in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Siebel Energy to create product and pricing records in the Siebel application.

This topic and the following topics provide an overview of the integration, with a focus on the Siebel application:

For more information about how to set up the integration of Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, see the Oracle Application Integration Architecture documentation and Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

Setting the System Preference for Integration

Administrators must set system preference values. The system preference described in this topic controls aspects of Oracle Application Integration Architecture integration functionality. For more information about system preferences, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

To set the system preference for integration

Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the System Preferences view.

Query for the Oracle Application Integration Architecture integration system preferences, and set the appropriate value for each.

The Oracle Application Integration Architecture integration system preference for Siebel Energy is described in the following table.

System Preference	Comments
Enable AIA Utility	Enables or disables the CC&B Customer and Product Sync PIP. The default value is FALSE. To enable the CC&B Customer and Product Sync PIP, change the value to TRUE.

Set other system preferences, if necessary.
Restart the Siebel Server.

Siebel Energy Customer Mapping to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing

This topic describes the Customer Data Management process integration that synchronizes customer information between Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. This topic includes the following information:

About Managing Integrated Customers

The Customer Data Management process integration between Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing enables the synchronization of customer information to support the Order-to-Bill process. Siebel Energy is the customer master. Customer records are created in Siebel Energy and sent to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing through the integration. For customers that have already been created in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, customer information updates in Siebel Energy are likewise synchronized to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. However, customer information updates in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing are not synchronized back to Siebel Energy. Utility companies must maintain primary customer information in Siebel Energy, thus enabling order capture in Siebel Energy.

The initial synchronization of customer information from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing occurs only during the order management integration flow. This design prevents synchronization of prospect data from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

The integration flows that manage this process function as follows:

Create/Synchronize Customer Integration Flow. A customer record is initially created in Siebel Energy as part of a sales cycle. A sales representative captures customer account information including name, address, contact, billing profile, and statement profile. The customer information is initially synchronized from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing during order processing, and not before. This synchronization is initiated through the billing account defined on the order line item.
Update Customer Integration Flow. When the customer service representative updates customer information (that is, account, address, contact, statement profile or billing profile) in Siebel Energy, these changes are communicated to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing in real-time through the customer management process integration. However, this update customer process occurs only for customers that have already been synchronized from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

Sequence for Creating Integrated Customers

The Create/Synchronize Customer integration flow sends customer information from the customer order management processing flow in Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The process of creating integrated customers includes the following steps:

The customer record is initially created in Siebel Energy as part of a sales cycle.
The sales representative captures account information including name, address, contact, and billing profile. Additionally, the sales representative might capture an account hierarchy. This hierarchy represents parent-child relationships between multiple accounts (for example, a business with multiple locations), and other information, such as marketing data that is not directly related to order provisioning and billing.
The customer information is initially synchronized from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing during order processing.
The Create/Synchronize Customer integration flow identifies the accounts to be synchronized from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. These account records are determined by the various billing accounts captured on the order line items and whether these accounts currently exist in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
From Siebel Energy, the Create/Synchronize Customer integration flow requests the customer information to send to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
The Create/Synchronize Customer integration flow sends the customer information to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
Person and account objects are created in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing from the Siebel Energy customer data.

Sequence for Updating Integrated Customers

The Update Customer integration flow sends updates of customer information such as name, address, contact, billing profile, and payment profile from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. This customer update process occurs only for customers that have previously been synchronized from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing through the customer order management processing flow. The process of updating integrated customers includes the following steps:

In Siebel Energy, a customer service representative updates demographic data or billing profile information about an existing customer.
If the customer is a billable customer, then the changes are automatically sent in real time to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
If the customer is not a billable customer, then no changes are transmitted to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
Existing person and account objects are updated in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing from the modified Siebel Energy customer data.

Customer Data Mapping from Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Siebel Energy

This topic describes the data mapping of key objects from order line items in Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The following table summarizes how values from the Siebel Energy order line items are used in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

Siebel Energy Data	Use in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing
Action	To define the Action Code that describes the requested activity.
Product	To define the Rate Schedule for the Service Agreement.
Service Account Service Point Service ID	To identify the Premises and Service Point.
Billing Account	To define the Person and Account.
Billing Profile	Not used from the order line item. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing uses the primary billing profile for the billing account.
Status	To define the Provisioning Status.
Service Start Date Service End Date	To define the Effective Time Period for the Rate Schedule on the Service Agreement.

Further details of the data mapping are described in the subtopics that follow.

Account

The integration sends the relevant billing-related account information from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, as follows:

The customer information to be synchronized to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is determined by information captured at the order line item level. In particular, it determined by the billing account of the order line item.
The billing account defined on the order line item level in Siebel Energy is an account record with an Account Class value of Customer or Billing. The integration uses the Siebel Energy billing account to create the person, account, and account-person relationship in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing if they do not already exist.
The customer account hierarchy defined in Siebel Energy is not maintained in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. A Person record in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing has only one account. However, each account can have multiple service agreements.
The account number for the billing account in Siebel Energy is passed to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, so it can be placed on customer invoices.
The account Status value in Siebel Energy is not sent to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Status is not directly tracked in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing at the person or account level. Status in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing can be determined indirectly by the status of the service agreements associated with the account. For example, if all the service agreements for an account are closed, then the account can be considered to a status of inactive.
The service account defined on the order line item level in Siebel Energy is an account record with an Account Class value of Customer or Service. Service account in Siebel Energy is not used to define the person and account within Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Instead, service account is used to indirectly identify the service point and related premises for a particular service on the order line item.

Note: In Siebel Energy, a premises is associated with a service account when the service account is created. Additionally, the service account, premises, and service point relationship (in other words, the service account and service point on the order line item) is used during order processing to define where the service is delivered.

Account Address

The integration sends the relevant billing-related address information from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, as follows:

The integration does not send all the billing account addresses from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Address information sent from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is determined by the address selected on the primary billing profile of the billing account and by the existence of any seasonal addresses for the account. In Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, address information is captured on the person and designated on the account-person relationship.
A Billing Address is required on the billing profile in Siebel Energy. Therefore, the person in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing always has one billing address.
If address information for the primary billing profile that has already been sent to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated in Siebel Energy, then the address of the corresponding person in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated in real time.

Contact

The integration sends the relevant billing-related contact information from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, as follows:

The integration does not send all the billing account contacts from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Contact information sent from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is determined by the contact information defined on the primary billing profile of the billing account. In Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, the name of the billing contact is captured as the Override Mail Name on the person record.
A Billing Contact value is not required on the billing profile. Therefore, an Override Mail Name value might not exist on the Person record in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
If contact information for the primary billing profile that has already been sent to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated in Siebel Energy, then the Override Mail Name for the corresponding person in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated in real time.

Billing Profile

The integration sends the relevant billing-related billing profile information from Siebel Energy to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, as follows:

Billing profile information (including billing type, bill medium, bill frequency, billing address, billing contact, and payment details) from Siebel Energy is primarily captured on the person, account, and account person relationship objects in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
Siebel Energy supports multiple billing profiles for a billing account. These billing profiles can be explicitly selected at the order line item level (that is, by product).
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing does not support multiple sets of billing and payment information for a service agreement. Therefore, only the primary billing profile for a billing account in Siebel Energy is synchronized to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Billing profiles other than the primary one are ignored by the integration.
If primary billing profile information that has already been sent to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated in Siebel Energy, then the corresponding information in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated in real time. These changes might include the changes described in “Account Address” and “Contact” in this topic.
Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing maintains a history of account automatic payment information. Therefore, payment information changes in Siebel Energy result in new automatic payment records in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. If payment information is changed in Siebel Energy, then the prior automatic payment record in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is updated with an end date, and a new automatic payment record is created.

Note: A billing profile must be defined in Siebel Energy for every account that is used as a billing account on order line items.

Multiple Bill Recipients

In addition to sending bills to a primary bill recipient, defined as the Billing Account Address listed under the primary Billing Profile in Siebel Energy, a utility company can send duplicate bills to specific contacts as additional or secondary bill recipients. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing supports this functionality. Each secondary bill recipient can have only one address in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

In Siebel Energy, additional bill recipients are defined as contacts in the Account Statement Profile view. The integration of customer data between Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing supports the synchronization of the Contact Address, Contact Name, Bill Media, Email Address, Bill Type, and Language fields.

Note: To allow valid integration with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, Statement Profile records in Siebel Energy must not share the same contacts. You can configure your Siebel application to prevent duplication of contacts across multiple Statement Profile records in Siebel Energy. For more information about the steps to configure Siebel Energy to prevent duplication of Contacts across multiple Statement Profile records, see Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

Seasonal Address

Utility companies can send bills to alternate addresses during specific periods of the year, as requested by their customers. These seasonal periods, recurring annually, can be captured in Siebel Energy for both the primary and secondary bill recipients. The integration to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing supports the synchronization of seasonal address information. This synchronization enabled the billing solution to send the bill to the specified seasonal address depending on the time of year.

In Siebel Energy, a seasonal address is defined as an address with the type Seasonal that has been entered for a billing account defined as a primary bill recipient, or for a contact defined as a secondary bill recipient. Address types can be defined in the Addresses view of the Accounts screen and in the Addresses view of the Contacts screen. Multiple seasonal addresses can be associated with an account or a contact.

The Start Date and End Date fields of the Address record are required fields for addresses with the type Seasonal. Because the seasonal period is a recurring annual period, only the Month and Day values of the date fields are used to define the period. These values are passed to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing for integrated customers. Users of Siebel Energy can enter any year in those fields without affecting the period definition.

In Siebel Energy, users can select an address with the type Seasonal in the primary billing profile of an account to make it the default address for the primary bill recipient. Similarly, users can select an address with the type Seasonal in a Contact record in the statement profile to make it the default address for secondary bill recipients. In this case, there is no need for a user to change the address type, because Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing makes sure that the address is no longer considered as seasonal regardless of the setting in Siebel Energy.

Although multiple seasonal addresses can be associated with an account or a contact, Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing can send a bill to only one seasonal address at any time. To prevent the creation of period overlaps in Siebel Energy, and to prevent the selection of February 29 in a leap year as either a Start Date or End Date for a period, utility companies can deploy a script. For an example script to prevent seasonal period overlap, see Oracle Customer Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy — Implementation Guide in the Oracle Application Integration Architecture documentation.

The integration of Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing does not support the use of the same address for two different seasonal periods in the year.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Product Mapping to Siebel Energy

This topic describes the Product Data Management process integration that synchronizes product information between Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy. This topic includes the following information:

About Managing Integrated Products

The Product Data Management process integration between Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy enables the synchronization of product information. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing is the product master. Product records are created in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and sent to Siebel Energy through the integration. For products that have already been created in Siebel Energy, product information updates in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing are likewise synchronized to Siebel Energy.

After products are integrated between Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, the utility company uses them as follows:

The product administrator uses Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to maintain rate and billing details and define products.
Rate and billing details and products are synchronized in only one direction, from Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Siebel Energy.
The product administrator uses Siebel Energy to create product bundles and to define other features of the product, such as product eligibility and compatibility, cross-sell recommendations, and up-sell recommendations. Product bundles can include products that are managed in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and products that are provisioned and billed in other applications.
Sales representatives use Siebel Energy to create quotes and orders for the product.
The utility company uses Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to capture the rates for products and to bill customers.

Sequence for Creating Integrated Products

This topic provides an overview of the sequence for creating integrated products. For more information about creating products in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and synchronizing product information with Siebel Energy, see Oracle Product Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy — Implementation Guide in the Oracle Application Integration Architecture documentation.

To create a new product, the company uses the integrated products as follows:

The product administrator maintains rates and billing details in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Rate and billing data include the following:
- Agreement Type
- Rate (includes Rate Schedule, Rate Version, Rate Component, Bill Factors)
- Service Agreement Type Start Option (includes Start Option, Recurring Charge Amount, Contract Rider, Contract Value, Contract Quantity, Characteristics).
  This information is used to define the Service Agreement in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing that is used for pricing and for billing customers.

The product administrator creates a new product in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing (called a product offer in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing), validates the product offer, and publishes it. To determine how to define the product, the administrator must consider the following:
- How the product must be set up in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing for pricing and invoicing
- Whether the product is part of a larger product offering, a product bundle, or a promotional offering defined in Siebel Energy
- What product attributes or characteristics have an influence on product eligibility and compatibility, defined in Siebel Energy
- What non-product attributes affect prices or trigger charges, such as contract duration with penalty, duration of promotional pricing, bundle pricing with unbundling penalties, eBilling option, and automatic payments

When the administrator publishes the product offer in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, the integration layer creates the equivalent product in Siebel Energy.
The product administrator can use Siebel Energy to associate the product with the following:
- Product Catalogs
- Configuration models
- Eligibility and compatibility rules
- Product recommendation rules
- Promotions
- Loyalty Programs
  Products must be in product catalogs to be used in quotes or orders. The other features are optional and are defined when they are needed to support utility company requirements for management and sales of product offerings. For more information, see Siebel Order Management Guide, Siebel Product Administration Guide, and Siebel Loyalty Administration Guide.

The product administrator uses Siebel Energy to release the product version. For more information, see Siebel Product Administration Guide.
After the product is released, sales representatives use Siebel Energy to create quotes and place orders. For more information, see Work Orders in Siebel Energy and Siebel Order Management Guide.
The utility company uses Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to bill customers.

Sequence for Updating Integrated Products

The product administrator updates integrated products using process similar to the one described for creating products:

The product administrator maintains rates and billing details in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
The product administrator updates the product offer in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.
When the administrator saves the product offer in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, the integration layer updates the equivalent product in Siebel Energy.
The administrator can use Siebel Energy to modify other features associated with the product, if necessary.
The administrator uses Siebel Energy to release the new product version.
Sales representatives use Siebel Energy to create quotes and place orders for the updated product.
The utility company uses Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to bill customers for the updated product.

About Inactivating Integrated Products

If a product is no longer available, then it is recommended that you inactivate that product in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, rather than deleting it. You can inactivate a product by setting its Effective End Date as the last day the product is active. When the change is published, the integration updates the Effective End Date of the product in Siebel Energy.

Caution: Products in Siebel Energy cannot be deleted or have their Active fields deselected through the integration.

Product Data Mapping from Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Siebel Energy

This topic provides an overview of the integrated product data that is created or updated in Siebel Energy. For more information about the creation and synchronization of integrated product data, see Oracle Product Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy — Implementation Guide in the Oracle Application Integration Architecture documentation.

Product Structure

The product structure created in Siebel Energy is based on the product component definition in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The product component is used to identify what dynamic values Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing expects from an external application to support rating and billing. The integration process creates different product structures in Siebel Energy to allow it to capture the dynamic values to be used by Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. The integration process creates the product structure in Siebel Energy as follows:

If the product offer in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing has no product components defined to capture a pricing-related contract value, then the integration process creates a simple product in Siebel Energy.

If the product offer in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing has one or more product components defined to capture a pricing-related contract value, then the integration process creates a customizable product in Siebel Energy. The structure of the customizable product in Siebel Energy is based on the product offer, with a child product that relates to the pricing-related product component in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

Note: Decisions about how to implement dynamic rating and pricing of products are highly implementation specific. Integration of the external, dynamic rating values related to product components in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing are outside the scope of the Product Data Integration PIP. For more information, see Oracle Product Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy — Implementation Guide in the Oracle Application Integration Architecture documentation.

Product Mapping

Some fields in the Product record in Siebel Energy are populated with product information in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, including Product Name, Product Description, Service Type, Start and End Dates, as well as any Component Product's Name and Description.

Other product fields remain with their default values or with results from the processing of the integration. For more information about product mapping, see Oracle Product Data Synchronization Integration Pack for Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and Siebel Energy — Implementation Guide in the Oracle Application Integration Architecture documentation.

Pricing

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing maintains the product rate structures and prices used for rating and billing.

The integration layer creates one price list in Siebel Energy for all products that are created by the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing integration, but this price list is not used for pricing. The List Price field on the price list is empty (blank). The price list must be created because Siebel Energy displays a product in catalogs, allowing it to be used in quotes and orders, only if the product is on a price list.

Component products are not associated with a price list, because they are not required to be visible independently of their parent products.

Rate structure and price information for the products mastered in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing can be described in the product description fields in Siebel Energy. This description provides Sales representatives with the information they need to discuss product options with a customer or prospect.