Overview on Interaction History

Posted by Apurva at 2:54 AM

What Are Interactions?

An interaction is a point of contact (touch point) between an agent (human resource or automated) and a party such as a customer, customer system, or potential customer. An interaction is timed and has an outcome and result that can be tracked. A closed interaction is a historical record. When closed, an interaction is read only and cannot be altered or modified.

A single interaction can include multiple forms of communications between the customer and the agent.

For example, an interaction could be a customer call into an agent to request a printed quote. The activities would include the agent obtaining a quote and sending a fax. Hence, multiple activities are related to a single interaction.

With the above example, the interaction activities are: calling into the agent, the agent obtaining a quote, and the agent sending fax. For the first activity the media is the telephone, and the media item is a telephone call. For the second activity the media is a fax machine and the media item is a fax.

Interaction History Key Terms

The following terms are used in Interaction History:

•       A touch point is an act or state of being in communication.

•       An interaction is a touch point that occurs between a customer, a customer system, a resource, or a resource system. An example of a touch point is a phone call between an agent and a customer.

•       Media represents the communication channel through which an activity takes place, for example, the telephone, the fax machine, ATM, or a cell phone.

•       Media item is an instance of a type of media. Some examples might include a phone call, email, or fax.

•       A media item lifecycle segment refers to a unit of time associated with the handling of a media item. For example, a call that was in queue for 10 seconds, worked by an agent, John Smith, for one minute, and then another agent, Rhonda Abbott, for two minutes. The call has three segments in its lifecycle.

•       An activity is the event that takes place related to a media item and an interaction. It can be a transfer as in the situation of transferring a phone call or an email. It can also be business related action performed by an agent such as creating an order, sending a fax, or updating a service request.

Interactions and Interaction History

Interaction History answers the question: “Who is contacting us and why?” Interaction History tracks all customer-agent interactions and serves as a repository for interaction data. Use Interaction History to reference historical information and view traceable history of all customer contact.

For example, if a customer calls into a contact center and is upset with the resolution progress on their problem, the agent can review all interactions between the customer and the company. Because all communication with the customer has been recorded, the agent can provide better customer service.

More examples of customer interactions include:

•       A salesperson enters a sales order for a customer.

•       The receivables department contacts a customer by phone when the    customer’s account or payment is past due.

•        A customer calls the service department to report a product defect.

Media and Media Items

•          Media

Media represents a communication occurrence that is handled by a CRM application or a user. It can be generated by a customer directly, by the agent, the system, or a CRM application. Media are various types of communication that can be associated with an activity or multiple activities.

Examples of media are telephone calls, e-mails, faxes, or Web chats.

•          Media Items

A media item can be generated by a customer, agent, system, or an application. It can be inbound (such as an e-mail from a customer or a call from a prospective client) or outbound (such as an email to a customer or call to a prospective client). It is not required that the media item be related to a known customer within the system. For example, an agent receives a wrong number call.

Activities

•      An activity is a business act performed by an agent as part of a customer interaction. Interaction activities typically relate to the communication channel (media) by which the activity occurred. Customer to Agent interactions contain activities. These activities are recorded in Interaction History and can be viewed by using the Interaction History module.

•      For example, a business action of sending an e-mail to a customer gets recorded as an “outbound e-mail sent” activity.

•      The activity of the interaction can involve how a media item was handled. In other words, you could say that the media (the phone call) was a transferred call. The activity can also include details about the activity as it pertains to the CRM application such as a request for product information or a balance inquiry, or providing pricing on a product.

•      Examples of activities include: an agent transfers a call, an agent e-mails a marketing brochure, or a customer places an order.

Interactions, Activities, and Media Items

•          Interaction History can be viewed as a container or bucket for a set of activities that can have a relationship with a media item. For example, an interaction can have an “order” activity that is related to an inbound phone call (media item) between the customer and the agent. The interaction created was an inbound phone call (how customer contacted us) to the agent (who they contacted) for 10 minutes (how long it took) and activities included the agent placing an order for supplies. Upon initiating a touch point, an interaction is created to serve as a repository for a set of business activities that will occur during the lifetime of the touch point. After all business activities for the interaction are completed, the interaction is closed and becomes a historical record.

Interaction History

•      For example, if a new note is created and associated with a service request, a new interaction activity is recorded stating that the service request was updated. Interaction History records the occurrence of the interaction and the timestamp when it occurred. The details of the note are accessible from the Workbench tab or Tool menu of the Service Requests window.

•      Interaction History provides a common framework for capturing and accessing all interaction data associated with customer contacts.

•      By tracking all contacts between human or automated agents and existing or potential customers and customer systems, Interaction History supports the development of the 360 degree customer view for the user organization. Interaction data provides the agent with a detailed history of the business’s relationship with the customer, enabling agents to serve each client more effectively.

•      Types of interactions and activity data tracked include customer, account number, agent, campaign, date and time, activity type, outcome and result of interaction or activity, along with duration and notes.

iStore- Steps to create a Basic Store

Posted by Apurva at 1:30 AM

Steps to Create a Basic Store

Note: All of the following steps are performed in the Store Administration UI as the iStore Administrator.

Step 1: Enter basic store information

This step involves entering:

•          Store Name --- This should be your company’s internal name by which the store is known; this name will not appear to customers.

•          Store Code --- Store code functionality is reserved for future use. Currently, any value you enter here would be used for your company’s own internal purposes.

•          Description --- This should be an internal description; this description will not appear to customers.

•          Start Date --- Using the calendar icon, select the date when the specialty stores of this store should first be active and available to customers in the Customer UI. This will default to system date. The start date of a specialty store can also be controlled by setting the supported responsibility (specialty store) start date.

•          End Date --- Optionally, use the calendar icon to select the date the specialty stores of this store should no longer be active and available to customers in the Customer UI. To remove a store from operation, end-date it. The end date of a specialty store can also be controlled by setting the supported responsibility end date.

•          Default Language --- This textbox will display the current default language for the store. To select a different default language: Select the flashlight icon to launch the Select: Languages page, where you can select from a list of installed languages. Except for the default language known as the base language, languages must first be installed and then set up in Oracle Applications before they appear in the Store Administration UI.

•          Default Currency --- Select a default currency for the store. This is a mandatory field. The default currency can be changed using the store Pricing page. Select the flashlight icon to launch the Search and Select: Currencies page, where you can select from a list of implemented currencies. Currencies are set up during implementation of Oracle General Ledger. Until they are set up, currencies will not appear in the Store Administration UI.

•          Default Walk-in Price List --- Select a default price list for walk-in (guest) users of the store. This is a mandatory field. The price list assignment can be changed using the store Pricing page. Use the flashlight icon to launch the Search and Select: Price Lists page, where you can select from a list of implemented price lists within your organization.

•          Catalog Root Section --- In this step, you select the parent node (or browsing section) under which this store resides. This is a mandatory field. Use the flashlight icon to launch the Search and Select: Sections page, where you can select a parent section for the store. The default parent section also can be changed using the Update Store: Details page.

This step also involves determining whether to enable the following features:

•          Allow un-registered users to browse the store --- Selecting this checkbox allows unregistered users (also called guest users and walk-in users) to navigate within this store’s specialty stores. Guest users cannot place orders, but can add items to the shopping cart. If you do not select this box, then guest users will not see the specialty stores within this store on the Specialty Store Page.

•          Allow customers to check item availability ---  Selecting this checkbox allows users to check Available to Promise (ATP) information for products. Do not select this unless you have set up either Regular or Global ATP.

•          Restrict customer access by responsibility --- Selecting this checkbox makes all specialty stores within this store check user responsibility when customers enter the specialty store. If you select this, then specialty stores within this store will only grant access to those users whose responsibilities are supported by the specialty store.

•          Enable Threshold for Payment Types --- Selecting this checkbox begins the enabling process for Payment Threshold feature in all specialty stores within this store. This feature allows you to set a monetary amount and then select which payment types can be used when users place orders below that amount. There are additional steps to set up this feature; it is covered fully later in this lesson.

Note: Upon creation, your store will be given a unique number, which you can view in the Store ID field in the Update Store: Details page. The Store ID is the same as the Minisite ID.

Step 2: Assign Languages

In this step, you select additional languages for the store. This is optional. To enable additional languages, you must first install and then set up the languages in Oracle Applications. In addition, your implementation must be multi-org enabled.

Step 3: Assign Currencies

In this step, you select currencies for the store. Currencies must be set up in Oracle General Ledger before they can be selected in the Store Administration UI.

Step 4: Assign Price Lists

In this step, you select price lists for the store.  Price lists must be set up in Oracle Order Management Basic Pricing module or Oracle Advanced Pricing before they can be selected in the Store Administration UI.

Step 5: Assign Payment Types

In this step, you select the payment types that the store will support. Payment types must first be set up in Oracle Applications before they can be selected in the Store Administration UI.

Step 6: Assign Shipping Methods

In this step, you assign the shipping methods supported by the store. Shipping methods must be set up before they will display in the Store Administration UI. Only the shipping methods supported by a store will display in the Customer UI.

Step 7: Assign Responsibility/Enter Name

You must assign at least one Oracle iStore customer responsibility to a store. Each iteration of a store plus a responsibility makes a specialty store. The display names you select in this phase of the store building process appear in the Customer UI as the specialty stores’ display names.

Oracle iStore ships with a default responsibility for the Customer UI. This responsibility is IBE_CUSTOMER. When you create a store, Oracle iStore automatically maps this responsibility to the store. If you wish, this responsibility assignment can be removed in the Responsibilities page.

Step 8: Build Catalog

After creating a store, you can begin building the store section hierarchy and assigning products to the catalog.

Overview on Oracle iStore

Posted by Apurva at 12:58 AM

What is Oracle iStore?

Oracle iStore allows businesses from all industries to establish a comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) presence.

Oracle iStore provides merchants with an easy-to-use interface for setting up Internet stores that capture and process customer orders.

In addition, integration with other Oracle applications provides a broad range of e-commerce capabilities. Fully integrated with the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle iStore is a powerful tool that allows businesses to create and manage online stores.

Oracle iStore Key Features

Implementing Oracle iStore lets you:

•          Build, test, and launch sophisticated online stores in multiple languages  and currencies with multiple price lists

•          Leverage powerful Oracle Inventory and Oracle Order Management on  the back-end

•         Target different customer segments and/or organizations, including or  excluding customers by organization affiliation

•          Deploy stores in both B2B and B2C scenarios

•          Capture and track customer information and activities

•          Provide a full range of online purchasing capabilities for customers,  including shopping carts and lists, quote retrieval, shared carts and  quotes, express checkout, order tracking, and customer information  storage

Store Administration UI and Customer UI

Oracle iStore key features include the friendly interface of the Store Administration application allows you to configure stores which are then presented as specialty stores in the Internet-enabled, customer-facing application known as the Customer UI.

Highlights include:

•           Create and maintain of any number of online stores

•           Easily duplicate stores, catalogs, and content

•           In Preview mode, immediately preview the stores

•           Set the display order of Customer UI store names

•           Utilize powerful search utilities

•           Access business and operational reports

•           Set store-related rules

•           Set up e-mail notifications

•           Configure content and display templates

•           Each store can have its own: Name ~ Product catalog ~ Section      hierarchy ~ Target users ~ Currency ~ Language ~ Price lists ~  Payment types ~ Shipping terms ~ Access restrictions ~                Effective dates ~ Product and section exclusion rules

Catalog Management

A full catalog management application is provided in the Store Administration UI, giving you a highly configurable Internet product presentation. Leveraging the powerful Oracle Inventory on the back-end and Oracle iStore’s section building tool in the Store Administration UI, the Catalog is a flexible tool which supports multiple languages and currencies.

Highlights include:

•          A section hierarchy that can be as simple or complex as your business requirements necessitate. Sections are created in parent-child relationships. Products "hang" on nodes of the section hierarchy.

•        Ability to control the browsing experience of the customer through section and subsection presentation.

•        Cross-sell capabilities using the seeded Related items relationship, as well as support for a variety of other relationships between products, sections, and Inventory categories.

•        A built-in search utility which allows you to locate a product by entering several criteria, including product name, number, category, description, as well as searching by stores that contain the product.

•        Product search can support both Section Search and Category Search for different applications, simultaneously. 

•        Optional integration with Oracle interMedia allows you to set up a powerful product search in the speciality stores.

•        A Display Template gallery which lets you quickly pick, in WYSIWYG fashion, the layout of sections and products.

•        Targeted catalogs in the form of speciality stores for unique customers.

•        The ability to exclude products and sections from specific stores.

•        Product auto-placement feature which allows the populating of sections with products through a single batch job.

Content Management

A content repository and reusable content components allow you to store, easily retrieve, and configure content to display in the online stores.

Highlights include:

•         Hundreds of configurable Display Templates present the Customer UI. This rich display environment presents a multitude of possibilities for altering the look and feel of the speciality stores.

•        Re-usable content components and media objects.

•        Easy-to-use interface for mapping source files to the media objects.

•        Components and objects that are organized by type of display they effect.

•        Display a single source file in any number of speciality stores.

•        Easily update files which display in the speciality stores.

•        Optional integration with Oracle Content Manager to provide content item creation, versioning, approvals, and a translation interface.

Store Reports and Bins

Within the Store Administration application, business and operational reports give you valuable real-time data about your stores. Updated through a concurrent program, operational reports provide a variety of information about published and unpublished products and sections, while the business reports give you important financial and customer data.

Highlights include:

Business Reports and Bins present the following data:

•          Number of orders placed for a given time period

•          The types of users making purchases and the top customers

•          Top product sales for specific time periods

•          Number of shopping carts converted to orders

Operational Reports and Bins present the following data:

•          Product assignment and published/unpublished status reports

•          Section assignment and published/unpublished status reports

Automated User Communications

Users automatically receive e-mail notification of various events, such as:

•          Registration

•          Orders placed or cancelled

•          Contract negotiations

•          Shared carts and shared quotes

•          Forgotten passwords and login assistance

In addition, e-mail messages can be configured by organization, store, and user type, giving you immense flexibility in communicating with your customers. This functionality is provided through iStore’s integration with Oracle Workflow.

Background Data Management

Several supplied concurrent programs in Oracle iStore automatically refresh data between business objects. These include:

•          Lead import concurrent program pulls customer data from orders and expired carts into database tables for use in other Oracle applications

•          Product search concurrent program automatically populates necessary tables with product updates for use in the Customer UI product search

•          Reports refresh concurrent program supplies automatic updates of transactional and operational data about the stores

•          Express Checkout concurrent program converts Express Checkout shopping carts into orders.

User Management, Registration and Customer Information

Oracle iStore offers a full user management and registration interface in the Customer UI.

Highlights include:

•          For B2B users, seeded roles and permissions offer personalized features for different customer segments and business partners. Automatic user registration enables self-service access to the stores. Highlights include:

•          Business-to-Business (B2B) functionality allows management of complex relationships with corporate customers in a self-service environment, including the ability to restrict access by organization. The seeded Primary User role allows organizational users to set up and manage a community of business users.

•          Business-to-Consumer (B2C) functionality allows you to quickly launch an online presence to the buying public.

•          Supplied integration with Oracle’s customer data storage model, the Trading Community Architecture (TCA), provides the ability to maintain customer information and complex party relationships.

•          Address Book and Payment Book functionality in the Customer UI allows users to maintain their own data.

•          Ability to mandate the entry of B2B user contact information.

•          Optional integration with Oracle Quoting allows interactive selling and online user assistance.

Globalization and Localization Support

Oracle iStore supports a global product catalog and infrastructure, allowing you to launch and maintain an international online presence.

Highlights include:

•          Global accounting through Oracle General Ledger allows you to set up multiple sets of books and business calendars.

•          Oracle Multiple Organization Architecture gives you the ability to create and manage multiple organizations, inventory units, and warehouses internationally.

•          Multiple currency support allows you to deploy stores --- with targeted products and prices --- in any country.

•          The globally-oriented Specialty Stores Page is the default landing page for the Customer UI. It displays all stores in your implementation, with separate links for each supported language.

•          Seeded media objects for specific languages, allowing you to display country-specific images for each language.

•          Templates which can show taxes, payment and shipping methods, and address formats which are particular to a country for which the store has been set up.

•          E-mail notification messages leveraging Oracle Workflow can be provided in all languages, and configured by organization, user type, and store.

Interactive Selling and Ordering Options

Oracle iStore provides numerous options for interactive selling, user assistance, and ordering options for customers in the Customer UI application.

Highlights include:

•          Sales assistance

•          Online contract negotiation

•          Collaborative quoting

•          Call-me-back functionality

•          Sophisticated pricing

•          Shared shopping carts

•          Guided selling and product configuration online

•          Order tracking

•          Opt in/opt out capabilities

•          Real-time inventory checks and reservations

•          Shopping lists

•          Order cancellation

•          Automatic e-mail notifications

•          Express checkout

Order Management and Fulfillment

Integration with the Oracle Order Management Suite’s powerful combination of order processing tools provide a complete range of order management and fulfillment functions.

Highlights include:

•          Instant order transmission and fulfillment through Oracle Order Management

•          Online automated payment processing through supplied integration with Oracle Order Capture

•          Order cancellation abilities

•          Optional integration with Oracle Financial applications can provide accounting support

•          Order tracking, including the ability to view invoice, shipping, and payment details

Marketing and Customer Tracking

Oracle iStore features a number of marketing and customer tracking options through its integration with other Oracle applications.

These options include:

•          Lead import functionality which allows the capture of valuable customer information from Oracle iStore shopping carts. Oracle Sales applications then can use the data in marketing efforts.

•          Ability to post advertisements into Oracle iStore Customer UI bins, an option which leverages integration with Oracle Marketing.

•          Customer event tracking through the optional Oracle Marketing integration.

•          Ability to create deep link advertisements to the iStore Customer UI in other web pages.

What is Oracle iStore?

Posted by Apurva at 12:50 AM

Oracle iStore allows businesses from all industries to establish a comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) presence.

Oracle iStore provides merchants with an easy-to-use interface for setting up Internet stores that capture and process customer orders.

In addition, integration with other Oracle applications provides a broad range of e-commerce capabilities. Fully integrated with the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle iStore is a powerful tool that allows businesses to create and manage online stores.

A highly configurable Java application, Oracle iStore employs Oracle foundation and back-end applications along with its own comprehensive Java and PL/SQL programming and logic to deliver a high-end application that responds to the growing need for online commerce in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic scenarios.

Oracle iStore contains 2 user interfaces:

Store Administration UI:

•        The Store Administration UI is a web-based application that allows store administrators to create and maintain multiple stores, catalogs, and related business rules, as well as access business and operational reports. Highlights include:

-          Create/manage stores

-          Set up business rules

-          Build product catalog

-          Reports and analytics

-          Change store look and feel

-          Configure email messages

Customer UI:

•          The Customer UI is the customer-facing application that features shopping carts and lists, order capture, order processing and tracking, cart sharing, e-mail notifications of user events, quote submission and retrieval, marketing, guided selling, and more. Highlights include:

-          Shop online

-          Save carts & lists

-          Share carts & quotes

-          Retrieve quotes

-          Track orders

-          Access personal info

Overview on Multi-Org Structure

Posted by Apurva at 4:00 AM

What is Multi-Org

Multi-Org is an enhancement to Oracle applications that enables you to model multiple business units in an enterprise using a single installation of Oracle applications. In a multi-org architecture you can keep data secure and separate from each business unit.

The following are the benefits of multi-org:

•          You can use a single installation of any Oracle Applications product to support any 
         number of business units, even if those business units use different set of books.

•          Secure access to data so that users can access only information that is relevant to them.

•          You can define an organizational model that best suits your business requirements.

Organization Model

The multi-org model provides a hierarchy that dictates how transactions flow through different business units and how those business units interact. You define the organizations and the relationships between them.

Business Group

This is an Organization that represents the consolidated enterprise, a major division, or an operation company and has no accounting impact. The Business Group partitions Human Resources information and the Purchasing Approval Hierarchy. If you request a list of employees (in any module) you will see only those employees in the Business Group of which your Operating Unit is a part. Multiple Legal Entities can relate to a single Business Group.

You must have at least one Business Group. For a new installation, Oracle Applications provides a default business group called Setup Business Group. You can define additional business groups as required for your enterprise.

Set of Books

A set of books (SOB) is a financial reporting entity that shares the three Cs: a particular chart of accounts (accounting flexfield structure), functional currency, and financial accounting calendar. You create sets of books using the Set of Books window in Oracle General Ledger. You define all other types of organizations using the Organizations window.

Legal Entity

A legal entity represents a legal company for which you prepare fiscal or tax reports. You assign tax identifiers and other legal entity information to these types of organizations.

Operating Unit

An operating unit represents an organization that uses any Oracle subledger application, for example, Order Management, Payables. It may be a sales office, a division, or a department. An operating unit is associated with a legal entity. Information is secured by operating unit for these applications. Each user sees information only for their operating unit. Responsibilities are linked to a specific operating unit by the MO: Operating Unit profile option.

Oracle One to One Fulfillment Server Setup

Posted by Apurva at 3:57 AM

One to One Fulfillment Server Setup

Fulfillment Server needs to be set up for sending Emails through Oracle Marketing specially for the email campaigns.

Please Note that it is a one time setup.

 The setup steps to be followed are mentioned as below:

Navigation: One-to-One Fulfillment Administrator -> Server

1. Click on Server Tab. The Servers page opens.

2. Click on RAPID which is a seeded server. The following screen opens.

3. Click on continue. The following screen opens up.

4. Enter the following Return Address (Return Email Id) and the Form Address (From Email Id). Scroll down the page.

5.  Click on the Add Email Server tab.

6.1. Enter the Email Server Name (Name of the Mailing Server).

6.2. Enter the Outgoing Mail Server (IP or Name).

6.3. Enter the Port Number.

6.4. Enter the description. This is an optional field.

6.5 Click on save. The following screen opens up.

7. Click on continue. The following Screen opens up.

8. Click on continue. The following Screen opens up.

9. Click on done.

10. The Fulfillment Server is setup. This is a one time setup to enable fulfillment.