Managing Access Exceptions

This chapter is about managing access exceptions for literature. It includes the following topics:

About Managing Access Exceptions

This chapter describes the procedures necessary to set up and create access exceptions for literature in Siebel Finance. An access exception is an instance in which a contact, investor, or list that has purchased a basic level of service or research is provided with a premium level. Organizations generally provide different levels of service to their customers and therefore expect to generate different amounts of business based on the level of service purchased. For example, Premium customers receive higher levels of service for higher fees, and Basic customers receive lower levels of service for lower fees.

Premium levels of service could include access to premium pieces of research literature and invitations to premium events. On occasion, Basic customers are given Premium services to entice them to sign up for the Premium level. In these instances, executives do not want to stop relationship managers from sending premium pieces of literature to the basic customers or from inviting them to premium events. However, the managers want to record every instance as an access exception so that they can review all the premium services received by the basic level customers, and follow up with them to persuade those customers to sign up for the premium level of service.

Use these procedures to perform the administrator tasks of setting up:

An access level for an existing piece of literature or a list, using the Administration - Business Process screen to monitor and generate access exceptions.
A workflow policy for literature or distribution lists.

End users use these procedures to add an access exception, set access levels for contacts, investors, or distribution lists, and view access exception charts.

For more information about creating and managing literature, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Scenario for Analyzing Access Exceptions

This scenario is an example of a workflow performed by a financial institution’s investment bankers or sales representatives. Your company might follow a different workflow according to its business requirements.

A relationship manager at an institutional brokerage firm receives a phone call from a customer who is a nonpremium contact. The contact requests the latest piece of research, which happens to be premium research that has been published by the relationship manager’s brokerage firm. The relationship manager uses Siebel Finance to email this piece of literature to the customer.

When the literature is sent, a workflow created by the Siebel administrator automatically creates an Access Exception, allowing the relationship manager to track every time that premium literature has been sent to this particular contact.

Account managers can analyze access exception information at regular intervals to determine which customers are causing the most access exceptions, and try to persuade these customers to sign up for a higher level of service. Because access exceptions are tracked by employee as well as by customer, account managers can also monitor which employees are generating the most access exceptions and make sure that premium research distribution is properly executed.

Administering Access Exceptions

The following administrator procedures are described in this topic:

Setting Access Levels for Literature and Lists

Administrators can use the appropriate administrative screen to set an access level for a piece of literature or a list.

Note: Only those with the required administrative responsibilities, such as Siebel administrators, can set the access level for a piece of literature or a list.

To set an access level for an existing piece of literature

Navigate to the Administration - Document screen, and then the Literature view.
In the Literature list, select the piece of literature for which you want to set the access level.

Note: If the piece of literature that you want does not exist, you can create it. For more information on creating a piece of literature, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
In the Access Level field, select a value.

Setting the Access Level for a List

You can also set the access level for a list.

To set the access level for a list

Navigate to the List Management screen, and then the Lists view.
In the Lists list, select the list for which you want to set an access level.
In the Access Level field, select the access level for the list.

Activating Access Workflows for Distribution Exceptions

To generate access exceptions, you must activate two workflows, as shown in the following table.

Workflow	Description
Literature Access Workflow	Use the Literature Access Workflow when distributing literature. If the access level of the literature is higher than that of the contact, the application generates an access exception record.
List Access Workflow	Use the List Access Workflow to generate access exceptions while adding contacts to a list. If the access level of the list is higher than the level of the contact, the application generates an access exception record.

For more information about activating workflows in Siebel, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide on Oracle Technology Network (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html).

Reloading Runtime Events

When you activate the Access workflows, your runtime events automatically reload. However, you can manually reload them if necessary.

To reload runtime events

Navigate to the Administration - Runtime Events screen, and then the Events view.
From the menu, select Reload Runtime Events.

Using Access Exceptions

The following end-user procedures are described in this topic:

The Access Exceptions screen and views allow end users to view or add information about access exceptions. End users can also view access exceptions associated with a piece of literature in the Literature screen or a list in the List Management screens.

Adding Access Exceptions

End users can add access exceptions for literature using the Access Exceptions screen.

To add an access exception

Navigate to the Access Exceptions screen, and then the Access Exceptions list view.

In the Access Exceptions list, add a record, and complete the fields that correspond to the type of access exception you want to record. These fields are described in the following table.

Field	Comments
Access Exception Type	Types include List and Literature.
Contact Name	The contact name for which the exception was made.
Employee Name	The employee who created the exception.
Investor	The investor for which the exception was made.
List Name	The list for which the exception was made.
Literature Name	The literature item for which the exception was made.

Note: If your Siebel administrator has set up a workflow, data automatically appears in the appropriate fields.

Setting Access Levels

Siebel Finance uses access levels to grant customers access to different levels of research and literature. Setting a contact’s access to a specific level allows that contact access and visibility to items and services that have the same or a lesser access level.

To set a contact’s access level

Navigate to the Contacts screen, and then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, click the drop-down list in the Access Level field and set the level.

Note: If the contact does not exist, add it. For more information about adding contacts, see Adding Contacts.

You can see access levels for companies and investors by navigating to the Companies screen and then the Companies List view, and setting the Access Level field as in Step 2.

Setting an Access Level for a List

You can also set an access level for a list.

To set an access level for a list

Navigate to the List Management and then the Lists view.
In the Lists list, select an access level in the Access Level field.

Viewing Access Exceptions Charts

End users can view access exceptions by employee or investor. They can also view a chart showing access exceptions by type (list or literature).

To view access exceptions by type

Navigate to the Access Exceptions screen.
Click the appropriate view tab:
- Access Exceptions By Employee
- Access Exception by Investor
- Access Exception by Type
  The Access Exceptions view appears with a chart showing access exceptions broken down by employee, investor, and type.

Viewing Access Exceptions Associated with Literature

The following procedure shows how to view all the access exceptions for a piece of literature. You can view access exceptions associated with literature by contact, employee, investor, or date.

To view an access exception associated with a piece of literature

Navigate to the Literature screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select All Literature.
Select the literature for which you want to view access exceptions.
Navigate to Literature, List, and then the Access Exceptions.
The Access Exceptions list shows all access exceptions associated with the piece of literature.

Viewing Access Exceptions Associated with a List

The following procedure shows how to view all the access exceptions associated with a list.

To view an access exception associated with a list

Navigate to the List Management screen, and then the Lists view.
In the Lists list, drill down on the list for which you want to view an access exception.
Click the Access Exceptions view tab.
The Access Exceptions list appears, showing all access exceptions associated with the list.