Technical Support Scope in Regards of Siebel CTI, Communication Server & Email Response, CCA, SmartScript, Brightware, SSSE, Email Marketing Server and CRM Desktop (Doc ID 984085.1)

Last updated on FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Applies to:

Details

This document explains the scope of service that Oracle Global Customer Support provides for issues related to the following Siebel Product lines:

1) Communications Server & Email Response
2) Email Marketing Server (EMS)
3) Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
4) Siebel Server Sync for Exchange (SSSE)
5) Smartscript
6) CRM Desktop

By defining this scope we ensure to deliver service of high quality in an efficient manner.

• the product is not behaving as designed or documented
• the customer requires product enhancements to the product
• the Siebel Bookshelf, other documentation, or knowledge base solutions need to be clarified or enhanced
Basically what Global Customer Support can be engaged to do is to test or attempt to test in-house any reported customer problem with the use of the vanilla product, on a standard Siebel application environment and installation, for the same version and release that the customer is using, on a similar OS platform. Global Customer Support will do this in the attempt to try and reproduce the cases, which customers have reported. In general Global Customer Support will not undertake in-house testing involving customized cases on highly configured environments.

Global Customer Support also expects customers to perform the same tests using their own test environments and additionally using standard un-configured Siebel.

In general Global Customer Support advise customers how to trace the problems that they have reported. Global Customer Support expects customers to review those logs before submitting them to Global Customer Support via a Service Request and to assist in the debugging process.

Essentially the problems which customers report must be replicable using a standard vanilla Siebel installation for Global Customer Support to be able to review the cases in depth. If the case is not independently replicable then Global Customer Support may be only to gain a limited understanding of the case: and generally there is little scope for Global Customer Support to be able to advise technically what might be wrong in such matters. In these latter situations customers may need to engage an alternative service provider whether that is Advanced Customer Service (ACS) or Oracle Consulting Services or a Siebel Product Integrator to provide further assistance in such cases.

Global Customer Support also provides advice and support for customizations to the Siebel products, where the customer is following standard customization methods such as those documented in Siebel training, Siebel Bookshelf, and My Oracle Support knowledge base solutions. Customizations should also follow best practices as documented in the above sources.

Global Customer Support can help with the mechanics of customization for customers implementing standard methods and best practices for customization. Global Customer Support considers an issue to be outside the scope of their service, if the service request (SR):

1. needs a more complex level of customization than is covered in the standard methods and best practices for customization;
2. involves customization methods which diverge from the standard methods and best practices for customization;
3. involves a highly customized application or insufficiently documented customization, where the detail is difficult to communicate to an engineer situated remotely;
4. is seeking advice on analysis and design;
5. is asking for risk analysis of custom design or implementation approaches;
6. is seeking advice on performance tuning after the application functionality has been customized;
7. is one where the customer is not able or does not have sufficiently skilled resources to take an active role in working with Siebel Technical Support to debug and resolve the issue.

In the above situations, Global Customer Support will gather information to categorize the issue, check for the existence of previously recorded causes, and provide generic advice per the standard methods and best practices for customization. If these actions do not resolve the issue they will ask Advanced Customer Service (ACS) to work with the customer from that point onwards, using information researched by Global Customer Support. Global Customer Support will communicate as early as possible to the customer and to the Customer Service Delivery Manager (if involved) , that the SR may need to be transferred to another group so that scheduling of Advanced Customer Service (ACS) can be initiated.

Global Customer Support reserves the right to refuse any proposal or suggestion for enhancement of the product, using its best professional judgement to accept only those cases it agrees as being feasible and valuable suggestions. In coming to its professional judgement the TSE may take advice from colleagues, Product Management and Software Engineering. Technical Support does not have to give reasons for the refusal. Even after accepting and putting forward an Enhancement Request by logging as a Change Request, the suggestion may still be refused by Oracle Product Management and Software Engineering.

Advanced Customer Service (ACS) is a group within Oracle Advanced Customer Services that offer customers industry and technology advice and assistance for a fee. Advanced Customer Service (ACS) advises customers on how to deploy Siebel to optimally meet business requirements, optimize application performance for end users, and strategies to minimize ongoing maintenance costs. These services are billed to the customer separately from that of Global Customer Support. Advanced Customer Services Sales can provide information regarding the cost and necessary steps to engage Advanced Customer Service (ACS) to work with an Oracle customer.

Please note that while this document uniformly refers to "Advanced Customer Service (ACS)", this term may also refer to Professional Services, especially if the question is related to design issues or to evaluating the feasibility of a particular approach.

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Examples of Supported and Unsupported Customization Questions

The remainder of this document aims to give customers real life examples of the types of questions that fall within the boundaries of product support supported customizations and explain why certain types of questions may be referred on to other groups.
Support topics other than customization, such as installation, administration, integration technologies, or standard application functionality, are not covered by this document.

The next topics are examples of boundaries of product support related to the following Siebel Product Lines covered on this document:

1) Communications Server & Email Response
2) Email Marketing Server (EMS)
3) Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
4) Siebel Server Sync for Exchange (SSSE)
5) Smartscript
6) CRM Desktop

1. Communications Server & Email Response

Definition:

This topic covers the functionalities related to processing of inbound and outbound requests. These functionalities are defined and configured under the Siebel Administration – Communications screen.

Global Customer Support Scope of Service:

1. Review customer cases where customer has configured in their Communications Requests any of the pre-defined Recipient Groups as listed in Bookshelf Communications Server Administration Guide: Table of Predefined Recipient Groups.

2. Advise in very general terms the main steps in how customized Recipient Groups are configured.

3. General support assistance for F9 (Send Email) functionality:

a. Support all out of the box uses of F9 (File > Send Email) Siebel native email , F9 MS Outlook integration with DISA on standard applets in the standard application.Issues related to contact matching , etc. described in Bookshelf.

b. Support the operation of sending email to configured SMTP MTA Server. Advise customers how to trace this operation, and assist in the review of the logs captured.

c. Advice on some of the features of F9 as described in Bookshelf Communications Server Administration Guide, such as Joined and Non-Joined Generic recipients and the Messaging Recipient business object, and the use of Communications Profiles and Simple and Advanced Templates.

d. Advise on the use of the Address Book feature and other similar ancillary features, but not on reconfiguration or customization of these latter features.

e. If there are issues with F9 functionality support recommends first to test and prove those issues exist standard/vanilla Siebel application. If the problems do not exist at that stage support advise customers how they may proceed, that might include engaging Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS).

 f. The same applies also for CTRL-F9 (File > Send FAX) and ALT-F9 (Send Wireless Messages)

4.  General support assistance for F9 (File > Send Email) Microsoft Outlook integration using DISA integration outlined in our Bookshelf, Siebel Email Administration Guide: F9/Outlook Client integration (e.g. “Configuring Email Client Integration with Microsoft Outlook”).

5. Support all uses of F9 (File > Send Email) using MS Outlook integration on standard applets in the standard application. Support inasmuch as that use is conformant with the use and configuration as described in Bookshelf. The supported versions and releases of the latter products are described in the Supported Platform Guide.

6. Review Siebel Server and SMTP transmission issues, and give advice on these, usually third party involvement may be necessary. 

7. In connection with inbound and outbound email processing or other communications server operational functionality, Technical Support will neither undertake hardware and architectural performance reviews, nor the sizing of a customer operations and business needs.

8.  Technical Support will not undertake any testing or problem reproduction, which involves the transmission and receipt of large volumes of mail inbound or outbound, or those problems are only manifest over an extended period of time.

9.  Email Response workflows running in the Real Time mode. Technical Support will require, that the issue being tested by customers using Response Groups with input argument ‘Real Time’ set to TRUE.

10.  Debug and trace the Email Response workflows to identify the root cause while processing the inbound email messages. Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) engagement will be suggested in case Technical Support identifies the Email Response issue is caused due to customized steps introduced in the standard Email Response workflows.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Global Customer Support:

• Invoking F9 is taking a long time under the standard screen, e.g.Activities
• Outbound requests are getting queued 
• Some inbound email messages have not been processed by some Response Groups configured for Email Response

Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

1. General cases where customers have modified or want to modify the scripts used by the Communications Server & Email Response features to provide different product functionality.

2. In-depth advice on how to configure and set up customized Recipient Groups. Or if cases involving significant problems arise from the use of such customized configurations.

3. Special customization or reconfiguration of hard coded F9 (Send Email) functionality or Email Response is strongly advised to seek the assistance of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS). F9 is largely hard-coded functionality, not directly amenable to customer reconfiguration.

Note that F9/Outlook integration was re-designed using DISA integration. Please refer to our Bookshelf, Siebel Email Administration Guide:  F9/Outlook Client integration (e.g. “Configuring Email Client Integration with Microsoft Outlook”).

4. Performance issues related to F9 functionality originated from customizations. Please refer to our Bookshelf recently documented Email Response performance tuning guidelines in our Bookshelf, Siebel Email Administration Guide (see “Guidelines for Siebel Email Response Tuning”).

5. Overall architecture revision and recommendation/configuration for custom inbound and outbound processing according to customer business requirements.

6.  Investigations requiring tracing and diagnostic methods, not specifically listed on My Oracle Support or listed in the published documentation.

7. Customers evaluating to use Non-RealTime processing within Email Response are strongly advised that they should engage Advanced Customer Service (ACS)
8. /Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) to design the overall architecture of their enterprise and to validate the need for this type of processing.

9. Within Email Response to use Smart Answer functionality to build custom Knowledge Base.

10.  Revise and suggest modifications in the customized Email Response workflows to address specific customer requirements

11.  Modifications or custom changes in the Communications Screen and its set of applets, as it is using specialized classes to handle inbound emails.

Note in case customer implements modifications in some of the BCs associated to this screen or code customizations in the respective views/applets, some unpredictable behavior could occur, like:

-  read-only applets/fields,

-  data display issues,

-  query related issues,

-  email activity status not changing  etc.  within Communications Screen and its applets for all or just some users.

Also, please note customized Communications Screen requires maintenance upon every upgrade as modifications can alter the standard behavior. Therefore usually these screens are not suitable for customer customization and support highly recommend to use out of the box solution only.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS):

• After modifying the Comm Outbound Email BC the outbound activities generated after applying F9 functionality have some fields not populated correctly.

•   I have cloned the Opportunities BC and added some fields to this cloned BC, configured a customized Recipient Group based on this cloned Opportunities BC, but this recipient group is not populated under the Administration – Communications screen.

•   Modify the Communications screen to show some additional fields like Activity Parent Id, etc.

2. Email Marketing Server (EMS)

Definition

This topic covers the functionalities related to Installation and setup issues of three Email Marketing components - ESD, BHD, and CTD deamons and issues related to the above three components only.
Note that any issues related to configuration of eMail Marketing offers and campaigns are not handled by Interaction team.

Global Customer Support Scope of Service

1. Installation and setup issues of three Email Marketing components - ESD, BHD, and CTD after the above components were validated and tested by Advanced Customer Service (ACS) Team, covering the following:

a. General questions on ports used by ESD,CTD and BHD.

b. ESD, CTD and BHD services not starting or hanging.

c. Issues related to Exchange Servers.

d. Post installation expired license related issues of the Email Marketing components

2. Email Marketing Stand Alone issues in Siebel 7.5.3 related to Communication Server Manager (as there is no ESD daemon in this release), BHD and CTD components.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Global Customer Support:

• CTD (or ESD, or BHD) component does not start 
• Installing CTD (or ESD, or BHD) component throwing different errors 
• CTD (or ESD, or BHD) component are not able to connect to the server 
• CTD (or ESD, or BHD) is not working as expected 
•  CTD (or ESD, or BHD) component’s log level and logs locations

Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

1. It is essential to engage Advanced Customer Service (ACS) to make sure customers have a fully validated, tested and working environment of Siebel Marketing Enterprise and Siebel Marketing Server systems.

2. Architecture and Design planning for Email Marketing Server installation, which includes:
a. Sizing the enterprise for the hardware required.

b. Initial installation of ESD, BHD and CTD components and consultation with all necessary third parties Internet Service Provider, DNS setups, firewall administrators, mail administrators etc.

c. Initial configuration and recommended settings for Email Marketing components -ESD, BHD and CTD.

d. Setting up domains for MX records for tracking bounces

e. Recommendations about bounce domains to avoid block listing or any CTD security related issues.

f. Implementing any customized solutions or changes in regards to Apache/Tomcat engine that is part of ESD and CTD daemons. (like changes on server.xml to change out of the box Apache/Tomcat functionalities)

g. Implementing any customized solutions in regards to to CTD response landing pages like FTF, ListSub,One Click Unsubscribe,etc..

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

• ESD, BHD and CTD installation questions within the customer network infrastructure. 
• Sizing hardware related to questions including the Siebel Server/Email Marketing Server benchmarks questions for email delivery and how to setup ESD, BHD and CTD components for optimal performance.

3. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

Definition:

This topic covers the functionalities related to processing multichannel interactive communications for contact center agents who use the communications toolbar to Make or receive Inbound voice calls, chat, emails through CTI supported by third-party CTI middleware packages.

Global Customer Support Scope of Service

1.  CTI Configuration as documented in Siebel Bookshelf>Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide.

2.  Usage of Communications Session Manager and Communications Client methods documented in Siebel Bookshelf>Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide.

3.  Siebel Communications Management component wrong behavior.

4.  Siebel CTI Toolbar not working properly. 

5. Since customers and partners can use the new client-side SCAPI to create custom communication drivers, develop their own CTI toolbar/softphone, and/or embed their custom softphone into Siebel CRM application – Siebel Technical Support provides the out-of-the-box API library support, making sure the new API supports standard CTI integration with Siebel Contact Center

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Global Customer Support:

• Communications Session Manager component is exiting or freezing
• CTI Toolbar buttons are all disabled
• I have created some event handler and event responses but they are not executing what I expected 
• CTI screen pop sporadically does not work

Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

1. General recommendation about hardware sizing and CTI architecture for attend customer business requirements.

2. Recommendation or issues related to build a Siebel CTI Driver using the Siebel Adaptive Communications API (SCAPI) for both server-side and client-side SCAPI

4. Seeking for CTI Middleware Server installation and configuration with 3rd Party Hardware Switch including CT Connect/CIM.

5. Recommendation on performance tuning after the application functionality has been customized.

6. Requires a more complex level of customization that is covered in the standard methods described in Siebel Bookshelf and our best practices for customization, or help related to CTI Toolbar customization (adding buttons, fields, changing display in it)

7. Asking for risk analysis of custom design or implementation approaches.

NOTE: Validation for any CTI Driver or 3rd Party Software should be done by 3rd Party CTI Vendors or Partners ,  Oracle/Siebel CRM team does not validate 3d party CTI drivers. You can refer for details on this process in the below Document on our support portal: Where Can You Get Product Validation Information for CTI Drivers? (Doc ID 477861.1)

For any general questions related to CTI vendor driver support and validation process, customers should work with Oracle Alliance team who approves third-party CTI drivers through Oracle Validated Integration (OVI) program.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

• I have installed 3d party CTI Middleware but it does not start or does not connect with my PBX (Switch).
• I have some doubts about how to implement the functions described in scapi.h. 
• I have developed a custom Business Service method triggered by a CTI event to execute the screen pop since the standard events parameter does not attend my business requirement and now I'm having some issues. 
• I have added some custom code to Communications Client and Communications Session Manager Business Service and performance now is not good. Can you help to review the customer code to optimal performance?
• How can I add a new control box to Siebel CTI Toolbar to show messages or change the size of the buttons

4. Siebel Server Sync for Exchange (SSSE)

The purpose of this topic is to attempt to clearly define the areas that should be in place to separate the SSSE Technical Support issues from the SSSE issues that should be handled by a Oracle Advanced Customer Support or a System Integrator. This document will mainly cover issues that are not already clearly covered in other area definition documents.

Note: All new SSSE installations, and their overall architecture and sizing are handled by Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS)

Global Customer Support Scope of Service

1. For issues where the customer has already received a complete and formal installation for SSSE undertaken by Oracle Advanced Customer Support (ACS), but is having problems getting it to start, or an instance where a standard feature as defined for SSSE is not working as specified in Siebel Bookshelf.

   2. For issues where the customer has already received a complete and formal installation for SSSE undertaken by our Oracle ACS/OCS or an experienced System Integrator, but is having issues with synchronization.

   3. For any formally documented feature, which it is not operating as expected.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Global Customer Support:

• Users appointments, tasks or contacts are not synchronizing
• Users appointments, tasks or contacts are only synchronizing in one direction
• Updates made to appointments in Siebel are not synchronizing outbound through to Microsoft Exchange
• The Embedded Outlook Client is not loading for a given user
• Field in the Outlook Add-in does not show the properties that we have selected correctly
• Appointments are synchronizing through but are not showing up with the correct user in the owner field
• Appointment records deleted in Outlook still exist in Exchange
• Recurring appointments have all the fields are greyed out in Siebel
• Synchronization with Calendar doesn't work
• SSSE is crashing
• Unexplainable error messages are appearing in the log files

Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

1. SSSE sizing and performance testing for new implementations. The formal sizing exercise for SSSE workload will need Oracle ACS/OCS services.

2. Attempting to install Outlook Add-In feature with customizations that do not seem to be working, or are causing a problem with the synchronization process.

3. Issues that require fine-tuning of certain settings, which could affect the entire system and which are not formally documented, including customizations.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

• We want to address the following installation issue that has just occurred 
• We are upgrading SSSE to another version and we would like to have more information about what has to be done to achieve this 
• We want to add custom objects or fields to the Outlook Add-in 
• We need assistance with inbound calendar filtering 
• We decided not to hire ES and we have poor performance

5. SmartScript

Definition

This topic covers the functionalities related to SmartScripts functionality, such as configuration, SmartScripts review. SmartScript scripts are defined and configured under the Siebel Administration – SmartScripts screen.

Global Customer Support Scope of Service

1. General SmartScripts setup and configuration related questions, such as creating questions, pages and SmartScript scripts.

2. Troubleshooting SmartScript issues like performance, crash, and error message related issues.

3. Issue with SmartScripts and CTI integration.

4. Issues related to file system and SmartScripts.

5. Importing/Exporting SmartScripts.

6. Customizing a SmartScript User Interface: answer controls, implicit page break rules, HTML formatting capabilities. Controlling the Questions Displayed on a Page.

7. For scripting reviews, scripting product area experts should be engaged via another SR.

8. For SRF related configurations (e.g. adding SmartScripts in a custom applet or view) Siebel tools configuration product area experts should be engaged.

9. If the same issue with BusComp, BusObject and BusComp field is reproducible outside of SmartScript, then it should be addressed via another SR with other product ares experts.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Global Customer Support:

• It is taking too long to run SmartScripts in SmartScripts player view. 
• Not able to import/export SmartScripts into a file. 
• Application crashes when executing SmartScripts. 
• Not able to invoke SmartScripts from CTI.

Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

1. Design and implementation considerations of the SmartScripts functionality based on the customer’s needs.

2. Questions with customized scripts (VB, eScript).

3. Review and modification of complex SmartScripts.

4. Siebel view customizations by introducing SmartScripts applets in them.

5. If the issue only happens in customized environment and customer is not able to reproduce the same behavior using standard Siebel application.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

• Customer has very complex SmartScript with complex scripting in it. And, all questions are based on the custom business components. 
• TSE can review script and ask customer to reproduce it against vanilla environment. Otherwise, it may be a candidate for Advanced Customer Service (ACS) review.

6. Siebel CRM Desktop

Definition

This topic covers the functionalities related to Siebel CRM Desktop.

Global Customer Support Scope of Service 

1. Synchronization issues between Siebel and Microsoft Outlook using the out-of-the-box metadata packages and Repository configuration
2. Configuration performed consistent with the documentation is not working as documented
3. Error messages or conditions encountered by the development team or end users not related to customization
4. Requests for missing documentation

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Global Customer Support:

• Custom field not appearing in Outlook, even though configuration steps match documentation
• Missing instructions for performing a particular type of customization contemplated by the product (e.g., configuring an MVG, configuring a constrained pick list, etc.)
• Published package not being recognized by client machines                                                                                                                                             

Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS) Scope of Service:

1. Recommendations about hardware sizing
2. Recommendations on performance tuning
3. Determining which data should be synchronized to meet your business needs (for example, application of filters)
4. Risk analysis of custom design or implementation approaches.
5. Help on how to customize or configure the CRM Desktop metadata
6. Assistance with deploying CRM Desktop to clients using third-party automated installation tools (e.g., Microsoft SCCM, Marimba, etc.)
7. Customer is not able or does not have sufficient skilled resources to take an active role in working with Siebel Technical Support to debug and resolve the issue.

Examples of Issues within the Scope of Advanced Customer Service (ACS)/Oracle Consulting Service (OCS):

• “How to” questions which are not covered in Bookshelf or the available training courses
• Debugging customized metadata that does not work as expected
• Impact of CRM Desktop on existing server infrastructure’s performance
• Synchronization problems after customizing metadata (i.e., issues not present in the out-of-the-box metadata)
• Synchronization issues due to configuration performed in Siebel Tools (i.e., issues not present in the out-of-the-box repository)
• Step-by-step instructions for deploying CRM Desktop to end-user laptops in a “locked down” environment

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