Profiles in Siebel Energy

This chapter explains some basic concepts regarding profiles and includes procedures for creating them. It also describes the interrelationship among profiles, business functions, and back-office applications. It includes the following topics:

About Profiles in Siebel Energy

Administrators, such as call center administrators, sales administrators, and sales managers, benefit from reading this chapter. It shows where customer service representatives (end users) enter information for these profiles and which information might be critical for smooth integration with back-office applications. After becoming familiar with the end-user procedures, you can customize the software to fit your company’s needs.

A profile stores information required to perform a business function. For example, a billing profile contains the information needed to invoice the customer for products and services.

Profile Types

The following describes the account profiles available within Siebel Energy.

Profile	Comments
Address Profile and MSAG Profile	Allows for validation of an address against a master street address guide (MSAG) data source or other external database. You can also use the MSAG Profile as an example for creating other profiles relevant to your company.
Billing Profile	Captures the bill run characteristics needed to invoice the customer for products and services. It is generally associated with a billing account. An account has one billing profile that can be used in multiple billing applications to produce a bill for the account.
Customer Profile	Contains information about an account when the customer is an organization rather than a residential account. Much of the profile information can be added automatically if your company imports this data intoSiebel Energy from its billing software or customer information application.
Energy Exemption Profile	Provides information about the special status of a customer, such as if the customer has life support, is a senior citizen, or has a credit problem.
Energy Statement Profile	Records billing statement preferences, including number of copies, media, and contact requesting the statement, as well as energy supplier and aggregator information.
Financial Profile	Contains information used to perform a credit check on the customer.
Fraud Profile	Contains information about the fraud status of an account. It allows end users to set fraud thresholds that, when exceeded, trigger a fraud alert.
Loyalty Profile	Contains information needed to predict customer churn, estimate debt risk, and identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities. When integrated with a third-party predictive modeling package, it displays scores generated by that software.
Site Profile	Contains detailed information about an account’s location.

Note: The order management module no longer uses the Service Profile view. If you used the Service Profile view in the 6.x or earlier versions of Siebel Energy, then you want to use the new MSAG Profile view instead.

Profile Roles and Responsibilities

The following information lists the employees who generally perform the procedures related to profiles.

Position	Description
Customer service representative	Focuses on call center activities, primarily responding to customer inquiries and sales order requests. Understands account hierarchies, including the required key information for a profile. Creates profiles for new customers, modifies and adds profiles for existing customers.
Sales representative	Focuses on outside sales and customer relationship management. Understands account hierarchies, including the required information for profiles. Creates profiles for new customers, modifies and adds profiles for existing customers.

Scenario for Using Profiles in Siebel Energy

This topic gives one example of how profiles might be used. You might use profiles differently, depending on your business model.

For a new customer, the customer service representative (CSR) has already created an account hierarchy, added a contact for the account, and entered an address for the account. This scenario continues the Scenario for Using Accounts in Siebel Energy.

Now, for each service account in the hierarchy, the CSR wants to validate its address against the MSAG (master street address guide) database or a similar external database.

After submitting each new address for validation, the CSR chooses the correct match from the list the database sends back. She checks to see that the validated field has been automatically updated to indicate the procedure was completed.

Next the CSR creates unique profiles associated with individual accounts. Each profile stores information necessary to perform a business function.

Starting with the first-level parent account, the CSR creates a financial profile and a statement profile as follows:

The CSR creates a financial profile for the first-level parent account because the customer’s company has financial responsibility for all its accounts. The financial profile includes all necessary information to perform a credit check on the company.
The CSR also creates a statement profile for the first-level account because the customer wants to receive a statement at the corporate level that summarizes all charges for products and services.
The statement profile contains information, such as the address, number of copies of the statement required, statement media type, frequency of statement, contact person, and so on. Each statement profile is given a unique identifier within the CSR’s company’s billing application. All the profile information is required by the billing application so that the statement can be processed.

The CSR then moves on to the billing subaccounts in the hierarchy and creates separate billing profiles for those subaccounts. Each billing profile stores information, such as the mailing address, contact, billing frequency, and debit or credit card data for that account.

She then creates statement profiles for several subaccounts so that those offices can receive informational statements for the amount of service used.

Next she creates an exemptions profile when subsidy and tax exemption information applies. For example, a charitable organization has a tax exemption status. Exemption profiles can be created for any level of the account hierarchy and are usually part of the initial account setup. They contain information that can also be passed to the billing application.

Then she creates a site profile for each service account, which specifies how many floors the site has, where equipment is located within the site, and so on.

The following image shows the accounts and profiles needed for the customer’s account hierarchy in the business scenario.

Note: Siebel Energy does not restrict how end users build hierarchies. If you want to enforce certain rules, then you must set the rules up within Siebel Business Applications. This diagram shows one recommended use of profiles for specific account classes.

The following image summarizes the interrelationship among accounts, profiles, and back-office applications in the business scenario.

Note: For simple residential customer accounts (those not separated into billing and service accounts), all profiles are directly associated with the customer account and not with subaccounts as shown in the following.

Creating and Updating a Profile in Siebel Energy (End User)

At each level in the account hierarchy, end users can create one or more account profiles. However, administrators must make sure the application supports the specific type of profiles they want end users to maintain. For example, if the billing application does not support exemption plans, then an exemption profile is not necessary.

Topics in this chapter describe the various profiles you can create using the procedure in this topic and the unique fields required for each.

Note: This topic pertains to all profiles except Address (MSAG) Profiles. For information about working with MSAG profiles, see Creating and Updating an Address Profile in Siebel Energy (End User).

To create or update a profile

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Drill down on the name of the account.
Click the Profiles view tab.
In the link bar of the Profiles view, click a profile type.
In the forms or lists that appear for that specific profile, update the information.

About Billing Profiles in Siebel Energy

End users create a billing profile to invoice the customer for products and services. A billing profile contains such information as billing frequency, payment type, bill media, bill type, and the customer’s email address for sending a bill electronically. This information can be submitted to a back-office application for bill processing.

A billing profile is generally associated with a billing account and can represent the legally binding agreement between the customer and the service provider. A billing profile might contain information synchronized from an external billing application.

Creating Billing Profiles for Bill Recipients

To create a billing profile for a bill recipient, follow this procedure.

To create a billing profile for a bill recipient

Follow the steps of Creating and Updating a Profile in Siebel Energy (End User).
In the link bar of the Profiles view, click Billing Profile.

In the Billing Profile list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.

Some fields in are described in the following table.

Field	Comments
Name	Type a name for the billing account.
Primary	Select this check box to identify the billing account and billing account address as the primary bill recipient.
Payment Method	Select the payment method. The payment method determines additional fields to update.
Contact Last Name	Select a contact to associate with the billing profile. It is not required to associate a contact with a billing profile.
Address	Select an address to associate with the billing profile. This address is generally used as the primary address to which bills are sent under the billing profile. This address is used in the integration of Siebel Energy and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. For more information, see Customer Data Mapping from Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Siebel Energy.
Email Bill To	Type the email address to which the customer bill is sent electronically.
External Billing Account #	Displays the number for the external billing account. This field is populated when Siebel Energy sends a preconfigured call to the back-office application to request an account number. The account number then serves as a reference for the external application.
Budget Billing Flag	Select this check box to indicate that budget billing collection is required.

Using the value you select in the Payment Method field, add further information as follows:
- For a Credit Card value, go to Step 5.
- For non-credit card values such as Automatic Debit, Check, or Monthly Statement, go to Step 6.

Scroll down to the Credit Card Payment form, and complete the necessary fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Comments
Blocked	Displays a check in the check box to indicate that a card is blocked. This field value is determined when you run the credit card through a check using an external application.
Blocked Reason	Displays the reason for a payment card blockage. This blockage applies only to one particular payment card. If the client has several payment cards, then the client can use another card.

Scroll down to the Automatic Debit form, and complete the necessary fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Comments
Bank Routing #	Type the routing number used for direct debit from the bank branch.
Bank Name	Select the name of a bank from which automatic debits are withdrawn.
Bank Branch	Type a bank branch from which automatic debits are withdrawn.

You can enter bank information manually, or select bank records from the list maintained in the Administration - Data screen, Banks view. For more information, see Entering Bank Information in Siebel Energy.

Note: Some utility companies might maintain a master list of verified, valid bank information in the Administration - Data screen and configure the Siebel application to constrain the lists of values in this view, thus preventing users from capturing invalid bank information. Other utility companies might maintain valid bank information in an external application and integrate the information into the Siebel application.

About Customer Profiles in Siebel Energy

End users create a customer profile for accounts when the customer is an organization rather than a residential account. Much of the profile information can be added automatically if your company imports this data into Siebel Energy from its billing software or customer information application.

The customer profile allows end users to capture relevant customer information, such as financial and sales information about the customer, and to record information about the customer’s partners and competitors.

About Energy Exemption Profiles

End users create an energy exemption profile to store information about the special status of a customer, such as if the customer has life support, is a senior citizen, or has a credit problem.

The following describes some fields in the Energy Exemption Profiles form.

Section	Field	Comments
LIFELINE	Eligible	Customer’s eligibility for Lifeline assistance.
	Received Date	Date when Lifeline documentation is received.
	Effective Date	Date when Lifeline assistance is effective.
	Renewal Date	Date when Lifeline renewal is required.
TAX EXEMPTION	Federal Id State Id County Id City Id	Identification numbers to show eligibility for a federal, state, county, and city exemption for tax.
TAX EXEMPTION	Tax Exemption Number	Number of the certificate that is issued for temporary exemption from tax.
SPECIAL CUSTOMER		Categories that apply to the customer.

About Energy Statement Profiles

End users create a statement profile to record statement preferences, including the number of copies, the media, and the contact requesting the statement, as well as the energy supplier and aggregator information. These statements can serve a variety of purposes. End users can create multiple statement profiles for an account if the billing application supports this functionality.

Setting Up Statement Profiles for Secondary Bill Recipients

In addition to the primary bill recipient listed in the Billing Profile, you can designate one or more contacts as secondary bill recipients for an account, by setting up a statement profile record for each recipient. If your Siebel application is integrated with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing through the customer data synchronization PIP, then updates made to the statement profile records in your Siebel application are synchronized to Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. For more information about PIPs, see About Integration of Siebel Energy with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

To create a statement profile for a bill recipient

Follow the steps of Creating and Updating a Profile in Siebel Energy (End User).
In the link bar of the Profiles view, click Statement Profile.
In the Statement Profile subview, perform one of the following steps:
- In the Statement Profile History list, add a record.
- In the drop-down list, select Statement Profile and add a record in the form.

Complete the fields as necessary.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field	Comments
Contact Last Name	Select the name of the statement recipient.
Address	Select the address to which the statement is sent. The contact that you select determines the street addresses that are available for selection.
Bill Type	Select the type of statement to send to the recipient. Selection options are Detail and Summary.
Email Bill To	Type the email address to which to send the statement.
Bill Media	Select the media for the statement.
Vendor	Type the organization that might issue the statement.
Language	Select the three-letter code for the language in the statement.

Repeat Step 4 for each secondary bill recipient you want to associate with the account.

Verifying Statement Profiles for Secondary Bill Recipients

To verify the statement profiles for secondary bill recipients, follow this procedure.

To verify the statement profiles for bill recipients

Follow the steps of Creating and Updating a Profile in Siebel Energy (End User).
In the link bar of the Profiles view, click Statement Profile.
In the Statement Profile History list, verify the completeness and accuracy of the bill recipient records associated with the account.

About Financial Profiles in Siebel Energy

End users create a financial profile to perform a credit check on the customer. To verify a customer’s credit,Siebel Energy submits a request to a back-office application or credit bureau. The back-office application or credit bureau sends back a response that includes a credit score that determines whether the customer is authorized by internal credit policy to subscribe to services. These back-office applications perform credit checks for incorporated businesses or individuals.

The following describes some fields in the Financial Profiles form. However, different fields can appear according to the value you select in Account Type field of the account record.

Section	Field	Comments
PROFILE	Contact Last Name and First Name	Contact for the account. When you create a new record, this field is automatically populated with the name of the contact in the Primary Contact field of the account record.
	Corporate Number	Business number that is provided by a state, county, or city government.
	Legal Entity	Legal name of the company or corporation.
	Tax Profile Code	Code from standard tax categories that classify companies according to their tax aspects. This information is stored in an external billing application or an external credit and tax application.
BANK	Account Name Account # Bank Name Bank Branch	Customer’s bank information for a credit check.
CREDIT RATING	Rating	Credit rating of the customer.
	Source	Group that performed the most recent credit rating.
	Last Update	Date the last credit check was performed.
	Update By	User ID of the person who last requested a credit check.

Running a Credit Check

To run a credit check, the financial profile information is sent to an external application that reports a credit rating. The credit rating is typically produced by a credit bureau and indicates the customer’s ability to pay. This credit rating helps companies to assess their risk before agreeing to credit terms with a potential customer.

Note: Credit check data for an incorporated business or an individual includes business name, billing address, corporate ID, and tax ID. For an unincorporated business, credit check data includes name, social security number, and driver’s license.

To run a credit check

Set up the financial profile.
For more information about creating a profile, see Creating and Updating a Profile in Siebel Energy (End User).
In the Financial Profile form, click Credit Check.
The financial profile information is sent to an external application that reports a credit rating.

About Fraud Profiles in Siebel Energy

A fraud profile contains information about the fraud status of a customer account. End users can set up thresholds that, when exceeded, trigger the creation of a fraud alert.

The following describes some fields in the Fraud Profiles form.

Field	Comments
Max Duration of Calls	Maximum time that is allowed for a call.
Max Number of Calls	Maximum number of calls that the customer can make in a given period.
Max Value of Calls	Cost of the calls, in the appropriate currency.
Daily Threshold	Threshold limit for the calls the customer can make in a day.
Domestic Threshold	Threshold limit for the domestic calls the customer can make.
International Threshold	Threshold limit for the international calls the customer can make.
Credit Threshold	Amount of credit the account is allowed.
Sensitive Number Threshold	Threshold limit for calls that the customer can make to sensitive numbers. Sensitive numbers might include high-priced calls, such as calls to 900 numbers.
Overflow Value	Overflow allowed for the threshold limits in the Calculator, expressed as a percentage.

About Loyalty Profiles in Siebel Energy

The Loyalty Profile view contains scores generated by a back-office predictive modeling application. It helps predict customer churn, estimate debt risk, and identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

About Site Profiles in Siebel Energy

A site profile contains detailed information about an account’s location. The following describes some fields in the Site Profiles form. To access all fields, click the show more button in the form.

Field	Comments
Servicing Company	Energy service company or local distribution company that provides the energy service.
Supply Characteristics	Indicates wether the site is inside or outside your company’s standard service territory.
Open Market	Indicates whether the site is either in an unregulated energy market or in a regulated market.
Cogeneration	Indicates whether the site can generate its own energy but can also purchase electricity from an energy provider.

Creating and Updating an Address Profile in Siebel Energy (End User)

End users can enter addresses without tight restrictions on formatting. However, when provisioning services, tighter formatting restrictions might be required by a back-office application.

To guarantee proper formatting, the address needs to be validated against a back-office data source. In Siebel Business Applications, Address Profiles allow multiple formats of one address to be stored. The MSAG (master street address guide) format is available with the shipped product, but other formats can be added using Siebel Tools. When setting up additional formats, use the MSAG Profile as an example.

Obtaining the proper address format is important in performing the following key business processes:

Validating service addresses or mailing addresses against an external standard to guarantee a unique location for finding facilities, activating services, or mailing materials through the Postal Service.
Determining the existing services and service provider at the address.

Each address profile format requires an external data source for validation. Your company can either own the data outright or subscribe to a service that provides the data.

After validating an address, end users can change some address fields. To edit those fields, end users must revalidate the address.

Validating an Address

To validate an address, follow this procedure.

To validate an address

Navigate to the Accounts screen, then the Accounts List view.
Drill down on the name of the account.
Click the Address Profile view tab.
The Address list appears with the MSAG Profile form beneath it. The Address list shows all of the addresses associated with the account.
In the Address list, select the address you want to validate.
Scroll down to the MSAG Profile form, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.
In the Validated field, select Y.
If the address validation is integrated with an external data source, then selecting Y begins a search for possible addresses.

Note: This behavior differs from the default behavior of the shipped product, which supports manual address validation. In the manual state, selecting Y marks the MSAG Profile as validated.
In the dialog box containing addresses, select the address that matches the customer’s address.
After the address is validated, the MSAG profile becomes read-only with the exception of the Access Instruction and Descriptive Location fields. To update the profile, you must revalidate the address.

Revalidating an Address

To revalidate an address, follow this procedure.

To revalidate an address

Follow the procedure for validating an address, but click ReValidate after Step 4 in Validating an Address before continuing with the procedure.