WebFOCUS Query Adapter for Siebel

By Peter Rosenblatt

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software manages and coordinates customer communications across multiple channels, departments, lines of business, and geographies, streamlining the process for sharing complete customer information with sales, marketing, and service personnel.

Using the web, call centers, field sales, and other networks, companies can obtain a detailed view of their many different customer interactions. Many organizations also have multiple lines of business with many overlapping customers. Using CRM software, they can examine all of these customers’ needs and concerns.

The CRM software arena has four major players, Siebel – SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle – Siebel being the market leader with an estimated share of 25 percent.

After storing valuable CRM data within Siebel, you will at some point need to generate a report to examine the data. Siebel comes bundled with Actuate reporting software to evaluate such data as sales forecasts, marketing, call center and customer service operations. However, using Actuate for Siebel can be quite burdensome.

Siebel is delivered with some Actuate canned reports, but many of them need customization to meet customer specifications. With limited report development and enhancements available through Actuate, it is a challenge to customize existing Siebel reports and develop new reports, especially those without drill-down capabilities. In addition, Actuate does not provide a zero-weight client for reporting needs. Users must log into Siebel to run all reports.

The WebFOCUS Application Systems Query Adapter for Siebel gives users easy reporting capabilities and lets them take advantage of all the functionality WebFOCUS provides. That functionality includes multiple data source reporting, drill-down capabilities and zero-weight client.

The Siebel Query Adapter is part of a suite of WebFOCUS Application System Query Adapters configured through the WebFOCUS Reporting Server’s Web Console. These include SAP, PeopleSoft, Lawson and JDE (planned). Being able to configure the Siebel Query Adapter through the Web Console allows for a quick and simple configuration (Screen 1). The adapter can be configured on Unix and Windows platforms.

Screen 1

The main benefit of the WebFOCUS Siebel Query Adapter is that it uses the Siebel Java™ API. By connecting to Siebel through this Java API, WebFOCUS can directly access Siebel application data in real time and have access to the existing Siebel business logic layer. The WebFOCUS Reporting Server does not have to be installed on the same machine as the Siebel Server. However, the Reporting Server must be installed on a network machine with the Java 2 runtime environment. It then uses a JSCOM3 listener to communicate to the Siebel Java API through the intranet. Note that the Siebel Java API is available with Siebel 6.3 and higher.

Since the Siebel Adapter can access data through the application layer, the underlining RDBMS used by Siebel is irrelevant to WebFOCUS. By accessing the application layer we can access any of Siebel’s business views called Siebel Business Objects and Business Components, taking full advantage of the implemented Siebel Business logic.

There is no need to understand the multiple database tables contained within the Business Objects complex structure. The WebFOCUS Siebel Query Adapter reads the Business Objects’ data, and Siebel’s data dictionary automatically maps all the underlining tables defined within the business logic of the Business Object (see Figure 1). This tight integration to Siebel’s data dictionary exposes all the Siebel application field names that business users or developers are familiar with.

Figure 1

Just like configuring the Siebel Query Adapter, managing metadata for Siebel takes place via the WebFOCUS Reporting Server Web Console. When creating a synonym (master file) for Siebel, a Siebel Business Object/Business Component must be selected.

From the Web Console, a list of every Business Object contained within Siebel’s catalog is displayed whether the object is a Siebel-delivered Business Object or a custom-built one (Screen 2). The relevant Business Component contained within each Business Object is then selected.

Screen 2

The benefits of using the Siebel Java API go beyond accessing the internal data dictionary. The API provides integrated security with the Siebel application. This allows our customers to leverage the Siebel-defined security rules without having to administer new security or redefine security in another application.

The first step is authentication of the Siebel user ID. Once this has been done, positional level security is enforced based upon the Siebel user ID. This allows an end user to view the same row level data available to them within the Siebel application. For example, a positional view setting of "Personal" would allow someone to see only his/her personal opportunities, not the opportunities of the whole region. Selecting different positional setting such as "All" instead of "Personal" allows end users to view their opportunities against all the opportunities of a specific region. This is all managed through the use of the VISIBILITY_MODE field that exists in each synonym created for Siebel as shown here:

FILENAME=ACCOUNT, SUFFIX=SIBIN   , $
  SEGMENT=ACCOUNT, SEGTYPE=S0, $
    FIELDNAME=VISIBILITY_MODE, ALIAS=VISIBILITY_MODE, 

USAGE=A15, ACTUAL=A15,
ACCEPT='SalesRep' OR 'Manager' OR 
'Personal' OR 'All' OR 'Organization' OR 
'Contact' OR 'Group' OR 'Catalog' OR 
'SubOrganization', $
    FIELDNAME=REFERENCE_DATE, 
ALIAS=Reference Date, USAGE=MDYY, ACTUAL=DATE, MISSING=ON, $
    FIELDNAME=REFERENCE_FLAG, ALIAS=Reference Flag, 
USAGE=A1, ACTUAL=A1, MISSING=ON, $
    FIELDNAME=REFERENCE_STAGE, ALIAS=Reference Stage,
USAGE=A30, ACTUAL=A30, MISSING=ON, $
    FIELDNAME=OUR_POSITION, ALIAS=Our Position, 
USAGE=A500, ACTUAL=A500, MISSING=ON, $
    FIELDNAME=PARENT_ACCOUNT_DIVISION, ALIAS=Parent 
Account Division, USAGE=A30, ACTUAL=A30, MISSING=ON, $