Scenario for Using Accounts in Siebel Energy

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

A customer service representative (CSR) receives a call from a prospective customer. The inbound call is arbitrarily routed to the CSR, since IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is unable to locate the account.

The caller explains that he is the owner and CEO of a small company that develops specialized software for the high-tech industry. He wants to use the CSR’s company as its sole provider.

The CSR first verifies that no account currently exists for the caller and then gathers the following information about the caller’s company:

It has the following service locations:
- The headquarters or administrative office is located in Newcastle, England.
- A development office is based in York.
- A sales office is located in Birmingham.

All services for the Northern England offices (Newcastle and York) are to be billed on a single invoice. However, each location is to receive a statement.
The Birmingham site is to receive its own invoice.
The caller wants a discount that is based on all the services he has at all three locations, and he wants to receive a statement for all services.

The following image shows the account hierarchy that the CSR creates.

Account Hierarchy for Business Scenario. Account Hierarchy for Business Scenario. Customer Master Account has the following children: Newcastle Service Account, York Service Account, Birmingham Service Account and Billing Aggregator Account. Billing Aggregator Account has the following children: Birmingham Billing Account and Northern England Billing Account. Birmingham Service Account is linked to Service Items A, B, and C. York Service Account is linked to Service Items D, E, and F. Newcastle Service Account is linked to Service Items, G, H, I, J, and K. Northern England Billing Account is liked to Service Items, D, E, and F. Northern England Billing Account is also liked to Servcie Items G, H, I, J, and K.

Using this hierarchy, the CSR must set up the following information to establish service for the caller:

One customer account for the entire company
Two billing accounts (one for Northern England and one for Birmingham)
Three service accounts (one for Newcastle, one for York, and one for Birmingham)
One billing aggregator account for both billing accounts so that a complete statement can be invoiced

Next, the CSR receives a call from a customer who has noticed that some oil is leaking from a box in her backyard. The CSR accesses the customer’s account to determine what equipment might be malfunctioning and when it was previously checked.

The following image shows the sequence of procedures an end user might perform to manage accounts. The steps in the sequence are as follows:

Create Accounts.
Create Account Hierarchy.
Review Account Hierarchy.
Access or Update Account Information.
Monitor infrastructure, Equipment or Usage.

This image is described in surrounding text.