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Understanding the Business Object Search and Quick Create Process

These topics discuss:

When users create a transaction in PeopleSoft CRM and do not know the specific value for a business object that the transaction uses, they can invoke a business object search to find the field value. The system determines the information that is needed depending on the page where the business object search was initiated and searches for the business object.

If the business object is not uniquely identified from the information that the user enters, a search page that contains both a list of objects that are potential matches and additional search fields appears.

The customer identification framework uses business object search to provide an easy and consistent way to identify the customer—company, consumer, contact, or site—for a transaction.

Each transaction page has one or more subpages that contain the fields for entering customer, contact, and other information such as phone, site, identification number, or account number.

The subpages that appear and fields that appear on each subpage vary depending on the information that each transaction needs. For example, the customer information fields for order capture are Customer, First Name, and Last Name while the fields for creating a support case are Company, First Name, Last Name, and SIN (Service Identification Number). The customer information subpage might have one or two columns, depending on the needs of the page layout.

The user enters information in one or more fields and initiates a search. If a business object that uniquely matches the criteria that are entered is found, it is returned to the customer information subpage. If not, a page containing additional search criteria and a list of potential matches appears. The user can:

  • Select a record.

  • Refine the search criteria and search again.

  • Create a new object using quick create.

The quick create functionality in PeopleSoft CRM enables users to create business objects quickly and easily without navigating to the business object components. This functionality is available either from within a PeopleSoft CRM application or by using the standalone Quick Create component.

Quick create definitions that are set up in the system and associated with transactions enable users to enter the subset of business object information that is required to define a business object and save it to the database. The business object information that is created is returned to the application so that the business process can continue. Some quick create definitions are set up to create more than one business object and the relationships between the business objects at the same time. For example, the The Company with Contact definition creates both a company and a contact.

You access the Quick Create component:

  • As a standalone component by selecting Customers CRM.

  • From the business object search page within a PeopleSoft CRM transaction.

  • Directly from a PeopleSoft CRM application component, such as the Create Order transaction.

For example, a call center agent might receive a call from a contact named Larry Hill who represents a customer company named MMA Property Management. The agent opens a case and searches for a company name of MMA with a last name of Hill.

If the information that the agent enters does not uniquely identify a customer and contact, the advanced search page appears. This page contains both expanded search criteria fields and a search results section that lists all companies whose name begins with the letters MMA that are represented by a contact with a last name of Hill. The agent can then:

  • Select the correct company and contact combination.

  • Enter additional search criteria, and search again.

  • Define a new company with contact.

    This option uses the quick create feature.

BO Search System Processing

The following tasks occur without the user being aware of them:

  • The transaction adapter determines, based on the transaction, what fields appear on the customer information subpage and the criteria definition that defines the advanced search page.

  • The criteria definition determines what criteria fields appear on the advanced search page, how they appear, and the search definitions to invoke.

  • The search definition determines the roles to search for the criteria fields, the fields that appear in the search results, how the search results appear, and the quick create definition that the user accesses to create a new business object.

  • For each role that is searched, the search role determines the security that is applied, the relationships for the role, and whether fields appear in the search criteria or results that are set for the role.

  • The field definitions determine how the search fields appear on the page, the database records that are searched for each field, and how the user can search for the field.

Quick Create System Processing

The following tasks occur without the user being aware of them:

  • The quick create definition determines which quick create templates to display to the user.

  • The quick create template definitions determine both the fields that appear on the quick create page and the criteria that are used to search for existing objects of the type that is defined.