10 Configuring the Process Integration for Collections Management

Setting Up BRM

To set up BRM:

1. Specify pay types to process.

2. Set the minimum overdue balance to process.

3. Set the number of bill units retrieved during step searches.

4. Set up invoice reminders.

5. Define collections features.

6. Configure how Collections Manager determines dates.

   See the discussion of setting up Collections Manager in BRM Collections Manager Guide for more information.

7. Create views on BRM and configure pin_collections_process to record start and end time.

Setting Up Siebel CRM

For some Siebel CRM interfaces, in Siebel, you must set the process property UTCCanonical to Y.

See instructions for ACR 474 and ACR 508 in Siebel Maintenance Release Guide for more information about which Siebel CRM interfaces require you to enable the UTCCanonical process property.

The credit alert appears in the customer service supervisor's queue by default, and the supervisor assigns the credit alert to a customer service representative (CSR). Siebel CRM can also be customized to automatically assign these credit alerts to a CSR based on a set of criteria as defined by the service provider.

To set up Siebel CRM:

1. Extract and copy the .ifb files from the ACR 463/EIM folder.

2. Place the ProcessAlertsAndBillingProf.ifb file on the server path: Siebsrvr/Admin

To configure Siebel CRM:

1. Make sure that the Siebel server is running.

2. Make sure that the Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM) component is online.

3. For creation of the EIM job:

   1. Go to SiteMap, Administration - Server Management, Jobs

   2. Click the New button and select Enterprise Integration Manager in the Component/Job tab.

   3. Complete the following parameters on the Job Parameters applet: Configuration file = ProcessAlertsAndBillingProf.ifb. Enter appropriate settings for Error Flag, Trace Flag, and SQL Trace Flag

4. Click the Submit Job button.

5. Make sure that the status changes to Success for the job that you have run.

6. After the EIM job is done, query the IF_ROW_STAT column of EIM_ALERT_CUT table to ensure that all the records have been loaded in the Siebel base tables correctly.

7. Check the Siebel CRM user interface (UI) to ensure that the data appears in corresponding views of the Credit Management screen.

   See the discussion of configuring EIM interfaces in Configuring Siebel Business Applications for more information.

For Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)-based collection flows, during the transfer of data from BRM to Siebel CRM, ODI creates some temporary tables in the Siebel database. Once the data is successfully written to the Siebel EIM table, these temporary tables are dropped. Therefore, the Siebel database administer must grant create table privilege so that ODI can create the temporary tables.

See Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Data Integrator for more information on using ODI.

Setting Up Split Cross Reference Tables

To maintain performance levels when looking up values in large cross reference tables, Oracle recommends splitting the cross reference tables into multiple tables, with one table for each cross-reference object. You split cross reference tables using the XREF Migration Utility and add the custom table names to the AIAConfigurationProperties.xml file.

To set up split cross-reference tables:

1. Split the collections cross-reference tables using the XREF Migration Utility as described at the following Oracle Technology Network web site:

   http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/foundation-pack/learnmore/aiaxref-524690.html
   

2. Open AIAConfigurationProperties.xml in a text editor.

3. Add a comma-separated list of the names of your custom cross reference tables.

4. Save and close the file.

Working with DVMs

Domain value maps (DVMs) are a standard feature of the Oracle service-oriented architecture (SOA) Suite that enables you to equate lookup codes and other static values across applications, for example, FOOT and FT or US and USA.

DVMs are static in nature, though administrators can add maps as required. Transactional business processes never update DVMs-they only read them. They are stored in XML files and cached in memory at run time.

DVM types are seeded for the Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management: Agent Assisted Billing Care flows. Administrators can extend the list of mapped values by adding more maps.

Table 10-1 lists the DVMs for the process integration for collections management:

See the discussions of working with message transformations, DVMs, and cross references in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Core Extension for more information.

Working with Cross References

Cross references map and connect the records within the application network, and they enable these applications to communicate in the same language. The integration server stores the relationship in a persistent way so that others can refer to it.

Table 10-2 lists the collections management cross references:

Handling Errors

Handling BRM errors:

Error details are logged in the CollectionsErrorLog.txt file. This log file is available in the following directory:

User_Home/DISHome/CollectionsHome

where User_Home is the UNIX user home path.

Handling Siebel CRM errors:

After every EIM load, check the value of the IF_ROW_STAT column in the EIM_ALERT_CUT table. The status is imported for successful loading. If the status is not imported, errors occurred during data load from the Siebel EIM tables to the Siebel base tables. Perform the following actions for this type of error:

1. From the Jobs view in the Administration - Server Management screen, navigate to the Tasks View in the same screen.

2. Get the task number from the Task field.

3. Navigate to the Siebsrvr\Log directory in the server and locate the log file by querying with the same task number.

4. The log file contains details of every level of EIM processing and errors if any.

5. Run the EIM job with appropriate .ifb property values after modifying the values for failed records.

See the discussion of resolving import processing problems in EIM Administration Guide for more information about EIM Error handling.

For more information about the errors generated by BRM and Siebel CRM applications, see the documentation for that product.

See the discussions of using error notifications and using trace and error logs in Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure Components and Utilities User's Guide for Oracle Application Integration Architecture Foundation Pack for information on how to set up error notifications using these values.

Configuring the Process Integration for Collections Management

Configure these properties in the AIAConfigurationProperties.xml file. The file is located in Oracle_home/comms_home/source/soainfra/apps/AIAMetaData/config. Entries in the AIAConfigurationProperties.xml file are case-sensitive. See Table 10-3.

See the discussion of building Oracle AIA integration flows in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Core Extension for more information on reloading updates to AIAConfigurationProperties.xml file.