Integrating Collections Manager with Custom Client Applications

About Integrating Collections Manager with Custom Client Applications

To enable a custom client application to manage collections activities:

Configure BRM to send collections notification events to your custom client application. See "Sending Collections Notifications to Custom Client Applications".
Customize your client application to call the Collections opcodes. See "Collections Opcode Workflows" in BRM Opcode Guide.
(Application Integration Architecture systems only) Configure the pin_collections_process utility to publish a CollectionsInfoChange business event.

See "Creating CollectionsInfoChange Business Events".

Collections Manager can be integrated with a custom client application, such as Siebel CRM, so customer service representatives (CSRs) can track and manage collections activities directly in the custom client application.

The custom client application manages collections activity, such as preparing dunning letters or applying late fees, by calling the Collections FM. Collections Manager notifies the custom client application when a collections activity occurs, such as an account entering collections, by using the BRM event notification system. Figure 11-1 shows how data is passed.

Figure 11-1 How Custom Client Applications Communicate with Collections Manager

Description of "Figure 11-1 How Custom Client Applications Communicate with Collections Manager "

To integrate Collections Manager with a custom client application:

Configure the custom client application to call the Collections Manager opcode. See "About Calling the Collections Manager API".
Configure Collections Manager to notify the custom client application when collections information changes. See "About Notifying Custom Client Applications when Collections Activity Occurs".

About Calling the Collections Manager API

CSRs need to perform the following collections tasks in their custom client application:

Manage the collection of overdue balances
Retrieve information about collections activities
Perform manual collections activities
Prepare dunning letters for customers

To perform these tasks, you must configure your client application to accept the required information and pass it to the Collections Manager opcodes. You can determine the information required by looking at the target opcode's input flist. For more information, see "Using the Collections Manager API" in BRM Opcode Guide.

Note:

You can pass information to Collections Manager opcodes either directly from the custom client application or through Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA). For more information about Oracle AIA, see "Using BRM with Oracle Application Integration Architecture" in BRM Developer's Guide.

About Notifying Custom Client Applications when Collections Activity Occurs

Collections Manager uses event notification to alert custom client applications when collections activities occur, such as an account entering collections or a dunning letter being sent. Collections Manager sends an alert in the form of an /event/audit/collections/action notification event, which includes information about the collections action, such as:

The POID of the /collections_action object
The action type: manual, custom, or system
A description of the action
The action status

To notify custom client applications when collections activity occurs:

Configure BRM to publish /event/audit/collections/action notification events. See "Sending Collections Notifications to Custom Client Applications".
Customize your client application to retrieve notification events from the database queue.

Sending Collections Notifications to Custom Client Applications

To configure BRM to send collections notifications:

Install the EAI Framework on your system. See "Integrating BRM With Enterprise Applications" in BRM Developer's Guide.
Install the Synchronization Queue DM on your system. See "Installing and Configuring the Synchronization Queue DM" in BRM Synchronization Queue Manager.
Configure the Synchronization Queue DM to publish the CollectionsAction business event to the database queue. When configuring the system, make sure you perform the following:
- Merge the BRM_home/sys/eai_js/payloadconfig_collections.xml file with your existing EAI payload configuration file.
- Verify that the BRM_home/sys/eai_js/Infranet.properties file points to the correct EAI payload configuration file. You set the path and file name in the infranet.eai.configFile entry.
- Merge the BRM_home/sys/data/config/pin_notify_collections file with your existing BRM_home/sys/data/config/pin_notify file. Load the merged file into the database by using the load_pin_notify utility.
- Uncomment the CollectionsAction business event in your BRM_home/sys/dm_aq/aq_queuenames file.
For more information, see "Installing and Configuring the Synchronization Queue DM" in BRM Synchronization Queue Manager.
Start the Synchronization Queue DM. See "Starting and Stopping the Synchronization Queue DM" in BRM Synchronization Queue Manager.

BRM publishes the CollectionsAction business event to the database queue whenever an /event/audit/collections/action notification event occurs.

Creating CollectionsInfoChange Business Events

If your custom application connects to BRM through Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA), the Oracle Advance Queue (AQ) needs to be notified with a CollectionsInfoChange business event when a collections job has run.

To create a CollectionInfoChange business event:

Open the pin_collections_process configuration file (BRM_home/apps/pin_collections/pin.conf) in a text editor.

Add a publish_run details entry and set it to 1:

- pin_collections_process publish_run_details 1

Save and close the file.