Assignment Manager Concepts Overview

Siebel Assignment Manager allows sales, service, and marketing organizations to assign the most qualified people to

specific tasks. Assignment Manager accomplishes this function by matching candidates (that is, employees, positions, and organizations) to predefined and user-configurable assignment objects. To assign the most qualified candidate to each object, Assignment Manager applies assignment rules that you define to each candidate. For you to define assignment rules, you select:

Assignment object or objects to which each assignment rule applies A rule group to which each assignment rule belongs Candidatesperson (employee or position), organization, or bothfor each assignment rule Criteria for each assignment rule Values for each assignment criterion For rules that match attributes of an assignment object with attributes of the candidates, you define: Skills to match assignment rules or objects to employees, positions, and organizations (Optional) Expertise levels to weigh skill scores (to measure competency in a certain area for each candidate) (Optional) Scores for each assignment rule, criteria, and value and a personal score for each individual candidate If you want to distribute the workload rules evenly between the candidates or if your business logic includes limits on the maximum amount of work that can be handled at one time, you define: Workload rules to balance work among the candidates For example, in a sales organization, you can create an assignment rule that scores positions (candidates) based on territory definitions (criteria) for an opportunity (object). In a service organization, you can create an assignment rule that scores employees (candidates) based on product expertise (criteria) for a service request or product defect (object). Using the sum of scores at the assignment rule level, Assignment Manager assigns the best candidate for each rule and thebest candidates for the object. You can also customize the way Assignment Manager makes assignments by: Defining how attributes are matched by using: Different comparison methods Making criteria required (compulsory) or optional Inclusion and exclusion methods Scores weighted based on expertise levels Wildcard values Defining how assignment rules are matched by using: Assignment rule groups Assignment rule sequencing Defining how candidates are assigned by using multitiered assignment Creating and configuring your own components, including:

 Assignment objects Assignment criteria Assignment attributes Running Assignment Manager in different operation modes to process assignments: Interactively, in real time using Assignment Manager (AsgnSrvr) server component Dynamically, when object rows are created or attributes on object rows are changed by connected or mobile users Assigning objects in batches using the Batch Assignment (AsgnBatch) server component Defining which servers are used to run selected groups of rules Checking availability before assigning employees to objects

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Assignment Rules and Assignment Criteria

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An assignment rule is a logical collection of business conditions, and Assignment Manager evaluates potential candidates based on these rules. Below is the description of the Assignment Rule Creation. Navigation: Site Map > Assignment Administration > Assignment Rule list Create Rules Select the Assignment Object(s) to be assigned by this rule Set Person Candidate Source to All People Add rule to a rule group 1. Either copy an existing assignment rule with the similar criteria and objects as defined in the service request and modify the criteria accordingly or Click New to create a new assignment rule. 2. Give the objects as required in Objects to be assigned eg:Account 3. Add the new users new Position in the Primary Position field. Verify that this Position is now the only Position related to this Rule.

Define Criteria Drill down on the rule to add Criteria Select the Rule Criterion to be used to assign data Select the Comparison Method to specify what the criterion is being compared to Give the following values for criteria unless specified explicitly in the Excel sheet 1. Comparison Method: Compare to Object

2. Inclusion: Include 3. Required: Always 4. Set Person Candidate Source to From Rule 5. Select the Assignment Object(s) to be assigned by this rule 6. Give the Values for the criteria in the lower applet. 7. Click on the Position Candidate tab. Delete if any existing position. Click on New and add the position for the user in assignment rule.

Specify Candidates When the Person Candidate Source is set to All People, every one is a candidate Instead of specifying a list of candidates for the rule Assignment Manager uses Compare Object to Person and Compare to Person criteria to assign data to skilled candidate(s)

Release Assignment Rules Release the rules once they are defined Click the Release button to refresh the list of rules used by Assignment Manager Assignment Manager acts on activated released rules Rules are considered inactive if they have an expiration prior to, or an activation after, the current time If you modify rules, you must release them again

Points to remember:

 Every rule must belong to one and only one rule group For implementations that do not utilize rule groups, all rules can be in the Default Rule Group

Assignment Policy
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Introduction to the Assignment Policies Siebel applications include predefined assignment policies for each of the predefined assignment objects. You should use these predefined assignment policies, however, you can also create new assignment policies for dynamic assignment. If you plan to use the predefined assignment policies, you must first activate them. A Workflow Monitor Agent detects when a user changes data related to objects, and each Workflow Monitor Agent can monitor one or more assignment policies. You can use a single Workflow Monitor Agent to monitor all assignment policies by placing all assignment policies in the same workflow group (the predefined assignment policies are defined this way). You can also place the assignment policies in separate workflow groups and dedicate Workflow Monitor Agents for each workflow group. The Assignment Manager Workflow policy actions you can use for an assignment policy are:

Assignment Request (In Process). This action assigns rows in its own process and does not use the AsgnSrvr server component. Assignment Request. This action routes the requests to an AsgnSrvr process running in default mode.

If we want to use the rule group feature in dynamic assignment, create a workflow process that submits requests to the Assignment Server (AsgnSrvr) server component using a business service. Creating Assignment Policies for Dynamic Assignment Assignment policies are specialized workflow policies used for dynamic assignment. Siebel applicationsinclude predefined assignment policies for each of the predefined assignment objects. We should use these predefined policies for setting up dynamic assignment, however, we can create new assignment policies. If we create a new assignment object for dynamic assignment, we must also create a new assignment policy for that object. To create an assignment policy for dynamic assignment 1. 2. 3. Navigate to the Administration Assignment screen > Assignment Policies view. In the Assignment Policies list, click New. In the new assignment policy record, enter the relevant information. Name: The name of the assignment policy. Workflow Object: The assignment object to which the assignment policy belongs. Policy Group: The workflow group for the assignment policy. The default for the predefined assignment policies is Assignment Group. Any new policies you create for use with Assignment Manager should use the Assignment Group policy group.

Activation: The start date of the assignment policy.

Expiration: The end date of the assignment policy.

By default, every assignment policy has an action. Use the following procedure only if you accidentally remove an action or create a new assignment policy To create an action for an assignment policy for dynamic assignment 1. 2. 3. 4. With the newly created assignment policy still selected, in the Actions list, click New. In the Assignment Action field, click the drop-down arrow and select Assignment Request (In Process). In the Assignment Mode field, click the down-arrow button and select Match Assign. (Optional) Add a sequence number, if so desired.

Activating Assignment Policies to Enable Dynamic Assignment To enable dynamic assignment for an assignment object, activate the assignment policy for that object. 1. 2. 3. 4. Navigate to the Administration Assignment screen > Assignment Policies view. In the Assignment Policies list, select the assignment policy you want to activate. In the Expiration field, click to either null the existing value or set the value to a later date. Workflow components process only active assignment policies that have not expired.

After activating an assignment policy, you must generate triggers again for the changes to take effect.

Assignment Manager An Overview

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Introduction of Assignment Manager : Siebel Assignment Manager routes business entities and work items to the most appropriate candidates by enforcing business rules set by sales, service, and marketing organizations. Assignment Manager does this by matching candidates (that is, employees, positions, andorganizations) to predefined and user-configurable assignment objects. To assign the most qualifiedcandidate to each object, Assignment Manager applies assignment rules that you define to each candidate. Three major terms used in Assignment manager 1. 2. 3. Assignment Objects Candidates Criteria

Assignment Objectsthe data that need to be assigned. Identify the types of data being assigned, such as accounts, opportunities, and service requests. An assignment rule may be used to assign one or more assignment objects Candidatesthe people, positions or organizations that will be assigned to that data. Assignment Managerassigns data to: Employee candidates, Position candidates, Organization candidates. An assignment rule may

Contain a list of candidates who are assigned if the rule passes Match data to candidates based on their skills

Criteriadefine which data will be assigned to which candidates. There can be multiple criteria per rule. Examples of criteria:

Does the Position Type = Sales Person? Does the candidate have a skill with the product associated with this service request?

Below figure shows the entities in Siebel that are used in Assignment Rules

To define assignment rules, we need the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Objectsto which each assignment rule applies Rule groups to which each assignment rule belongs Candidates.person (employee or position), organization, or both.for each assignment rule Criteria for each assignment rule (Optional) Values for assignment criteria

For the Assignment rules we can also mention the below Scores for each assignment rule, criteria, and value and a personal score for each individual candidate For example: In a sales organization, you can create an assignment rule that scores positions (candidates) based on territory definitions (criteria) for an opportunity (object). We can also customize the way Assignment Manager makes assignments by: 1. Defining how attributes are matched by:

Using different comparison methods Making criteria required (compulsory) or optional Using inclusion and exclusion methods Using workload distribution rules

2. Defining how assignment rules are matched by using:

Assignment rule groups Assignment rule sequencing

3. Defining how candidates are assigned based on person and organization relationships using multitiered assignment. 4. Creating and configuring your own entities, including:

Assignment objects Assignment criteria Assignment attributes Dynamic candidates and candidate teams that are assigned dynamically assigned depending on the object row

5. Running Assignment Manager in different operating modes to process assignments:

Interactively in real time Dynamically when object rows are created or attributes on object rows are changed by connected or mobile users for example as soon as a Service Request is created it gets assigned to a resource depending on the skills or workload etc.

Periodically assigning objects in batches(Manually running the batch assignment to assign objects for example Accounts )

6. Checking availability before assigning employees to objects

__________________________________________________Siebel SmartScript Administration Guide > Extending Scripts with Siebel VB and Siebel eScript >

Invoking Siebel Assignment Manager

You can invoke Siebel Assignment Manager from SmartScripts using Siebel eScript or Siebel VB. How you invoke Assignment Manager depends on the mode in which Assignment Manager is operating. If Assignment Manager is executing in interactive mode, you require a user (for example, a service representative) to perform some action (for example, assign a record to an employee) to advance the script. If Assignment Manager is executing in dynamic mode, you can invoke it from a SmartScript by triggering certain events. A user is not required to invoke the Assignment Manager from the SmartScript. The following example procedure demonstrates how to invoke Assignment Manager executing in dynamic mode on a newly created service request record.

To invoke Assignment Manager NOTE: This procedure is an example of how you can invoke Assignment Manager from a SmartScript.

1.

Create assignment rules for the service request object.

For more information about assignment rules configuration, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide. 2. Create a SmartScript with values similar to those in the following table. Attribute Name Answer Type Answer Control Save Business Object Save Business Component Save Field Translations Question 2 Name Answer Type Answer Control Translations Page Name First Question Translation Label Next Question Value SRDescription String Default Service Request Service Request Description English-American TestQuestion2 RDsr2 RDsr2 English-American TestPage1 SRDescription English-American TestPage1 TestQuestion2

Element Question1

SmartScript

Name Type Active First Page Translation Label

SmartScript_AssignSR Pick any value (Other) Yes TestPage1 English-American SmartScript Assign SR

3. 4.

Navigate to Administration - SmartScripts screen > Scripts view > Programs subview. In the Programs list, select Script_Finish, and add the following code:

NOTE: When assigning an object, it must exist in order to match the assignment rules, criteria, and so on. To make sure that a newly created record exists in the database, users can run the following event:

BusinessComponent.WriteRecord() function Script_Finish() {

before calling an Assignment Manager method in the SmartScript event.

var sFirstQuestion = StartQuestion(); var SaveBC = sFirstQuestion.GetSaveBusComp(); TheApplication().Trace(" \n the value of sFirstQuestion = "+sFirstQuestion); SaveBC.ActivateField("Area"); SaveBC.SetFieldValue("Area", "Upgrade"); //***************** var myid = SaveBC.GetFieldValue("Id"); SaveBC.WriteRecord(); var bsAmgr = TheApplication().GetService("Synchronous Assignment Manager Requests"); var psInput = TheApplication().NewPropertySet(); var psOutput= TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

psInput.SetProperty("AsgnObjName","Service Request"); //Assignment Object Name psInput.SetProperty("ObjRowId", myid); //Object Row ID bsAmgr.InvokeMethod("Assign", psInput, psOutput); //***************** }

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ASGN_USR_EXCLD_FLG in Assignment manager processes.

This column present in tables like S_CONTACT, S_ORG_EXT,S_ASSET, S_EVT_ACT,S_OPTY,etc can be used to exclude certain contacts, accounts, activities, assets, opportunities from being considered for assignment to employees or to prevent change of assignment. 'Y' value to this column indicates to Assignment Manager that this row should be excluded from assignment evaluation. If previously assigned, this locks the assignment i.e. the assignment of this object cannot be changed. Setting to 'N' indicates to Assignment Manager that this row should be assigned (or re-assigned). A particular use of this flag in the ePharma application is when we have to consider only contacts(doctors, nurses, pharmacists) to be assigned to the sales reps. Since both employee as well as external contacts information is stored in S_CONTACT table, even employees will be considered for assignment which should not happen To prevent this we need to set this flag to 'Y' for all records with EMP_FLG='Y'.

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