Customer Asset-Based Ordering

This chapter provides information about customer user tasks in asset-based ordering for industry applications. Employee users perform many order management tasks, such as creating accounts, creating quotes, placing orders, and changing orders. Customer users can perform many of these same tasks on the Web. This Web user interface is suitable for customer use. This chapter includes the following topics:

About Customer Asset-Based Ordering

Using asset-based ordering, customer users can perform all the tasks employee users commonly perform using Siebel eSales, including:

Creating new addresses for an existing account
Adding items to a shopping cart
Customizing an item
Saving a shopping cart as a quote or quote template
Processing an order checkout
Converting a quote to an order
Adding quote template items to the shopping cart
Entering shipping information
Using payment methods
Reviewing and submitting an order
Revising an order

For more information about the tasks users commonly perform using Siebel eSales, see Siebel eSales Administration Guide. In addition, customer users can perform the following tasks that are specific to asset-based ordering:

Scenarios for Customer Asset-Based Ordering

These scenarios provide examples of processes that customers of a telecommunications company perform. Your customers might follow a different process according to the business requirements of your company.

Create a Quote and Convert It to an Order

A telecom analyst for a small corporation wants to establish 10 local telephone lines for a new company office. He accesses the GCI Telecom Web site and enters a username and password to see the account information for his company. He creates a new location and enters details for the new service account for the new company office.

He finds that the GCI Small Business Enabler bundle is the most cost-effective solution for his company. This bundle offers five to twenty local telephone lines with voice mail and call waiting for $5.99 for each month for each line and one additional optional feature in the base price. The bundle base price is $25 for each month and includes consolidated billing.

Using Configurator, the analyst customizes the GCI Small Business Enabler bundle of products. He specifies a quantity of 10 and selects caller ID as the optional feature. He sets up all 10 lines with the same features and clicks Done.

In the shopping cart, he clicks the Checkout button and creates a new sales order.

Place a Supplemental Order

A residential customer receives an email message about a GCI marketing campaign. The message explains the advantages of the local phone service offered by GCI, and suggests that the customer consider switching from her current phone company to the GCI Oregon Local Breakthrough package. She clicks on the link in the email message to access the GCI Web site.

At the Web site, she sees that the package offered by GCI includes a local telephone line, caller ID, and call forwarding. She decides to place an order, selects the package, and configures the service.

She provides a forwarding number to forward calls to her office number after six rings. She also adds voice mail service to the base package for an additional $6.95 for each month. She clicks Checkout, enters new account and payment information, and confirms the order.

The Siebel application sends the order request to the GCI provisioning system and sends the customer a confirmation email message summarizing the purchased service. Twenty minutes later, the customer reads the email message and decides that $6.95 for each month is too much to pay for voice mail service, so she clicks the link in the email message to access the GCI Web site again.

At the Web site, she reviews her order. All the order line items are still open, so she can click the Revise button to create a supplemental order.

The Siebel application marks the original order as inactive and copies original order information to a new active order with a status of Pending and a revision number of 2. The customer selects the GCI Oregon Local Breakthrough package, and clicks the Customize button. In the configuration view, she deletes the voice mail feature.

She also wants to change the call forwarding number (that she provided earlier) to her cell phone number, so she selects the forwarding number attribute of the call forwarding service and changes the number. Then, she saves the new configuration for the supplemental order and submits the order. She receives an email message indicating her order confirmation.

Adding Bulk Items to the Shopping Cart

Business customers working on the Web frequently order customizable items in bulk. For example, a business customer might order 20 customizable phone lines for installation at the same location. Rather than configure each phone line separately, the customer can configure one phone line and apply that configuration to all the phone lines. The customer can then adjust as needed the configuration of individual phone lines.

To add bulk items to the shopping cart

Add a customizable product to the shopping cart.
Navigate to the shopping cart.
In the product Qty field, enter the quantity.
Click Update Quantity.
If necessary, select the product record.
Click Customize.
Selection pages display the customizable components and attributes of the item.
Select components and attributes, and then click Done.
The shopping cart appears.
Verify that the product record is selected, and then click Ungroup.
One record is created for each instance of the customizable item.
To adjust the configuration of an ungrouped instance of the item, click the item record, and then click Customize.

Modifying a Service Item

A customer working on the Web can change a service item. The customer can change product attributes, features, and components of the service item.

Note: In Oracle’s Siebel eSales for Communications, Media, and Energy, orders and services are the same. When you select Service Items under the Products & Services tab, you access screens to work with existing orders.

To modify an existing service item

In the My Account screen, in the Products & Services list, click Service Items.
The Service Items screen appears.
In the Select Account list, if necessary, select the account with service items to change.
You might have to select an account for this service if you have multiple accounts.
In the Service Items list, select the item to change.
Click Modify.
When the selection pages appear, change the product attributes, features, and components, as needed.
Click Done.
When the shopping cart appears, you can see the changed action codes.

Disconnecting a Service Item

A customer working on the Web can disconnect a complete service item and all of its components. This task disconnects the parent product and all child products on lower levels of the hierarchy. You cannot disconnect a child product without disconnecting the parent product.

Note: In Oracle’s Siebel eSales for Communications, Media, and Energy, orders and services are the same. When you select Service Items under the Products & Services tab, you access screens to work with existing orders.

To disconnect a service item

In the My Account screen, in the Products & Services list, click Service Items.
The Service Items screen appears.
In the Select Account list, if necessary, select the account with service items to disconnect.
You might have to select an account for this service if you have multiple accounts.
In the Service Items list, select the item to disconnect.
Click Disconnect.
When the shopping cart appears, you can see the product and all of its components with delete action codes.
Click Check Out.