About Siebel EIM

Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (Siebel EIM) is a server component in the Siebel EAI component group that transfers data between the Siebel database and other corporate data sources. This exchange of information is accomplished through intermediary tables called EIM tables. (In earlier releases, EIM tables were known as interface tables.) The EIM tables act as a staging area between the Siebel application database and other data sources.

Siebel EIM is your primary method of loading mass quantities of data into the Siebel database. Use Siebel EIM to perform bulk operations to import, update, merge, or delete data. For more information about Siebel EIM, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

In the Siebel database, there are application tables (known as base tables), which Siebel CRM uses. For data to come from other corporate data sources (external databases) into Siebel application tables, the data must go through EIM tables. So, the data exchanges between the Siebel database and external databases occurs in two phases:

Load data into EIM tables.
Run Siebel EIM to import the data from the EIM tables into the Siebel base tables.

Note: While the first phase of this data-exchange process involves the intermediary tables that are called EIM tables, only the second phase involves the functionality of Siebel EIM.

When data is entered through the Siebel user interface, the application references properties that are set at the business component object type. However, when data is entered into Siebel base tables through Siebel EIM, EIM references properties that are set at the table object type.

Note: You must use Siebel EIM to perform bulk imports, exports, merges, and deletes, because it is not supported to use native SQL to load data directly into Siebel base tables (the tables targeted to receive the data). Additionally, be aware that Siebel EIM translates empty strings into NULL.