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DOAG SIG Day - Siebel Business RulesAlexander Heinze

Principal Sales Consultant

Copyright ©2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle Confidential

The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remain at the sole discretion of Oracle.

Topics Covered


Siebel Business Rules

• The Business of Business Rules

• Scenario

• Business Rules Concepts

• Siebel Business Rules

• Summary

• Demo


What are Business Rules?

• Wikipedia: “Business rules or business rulesets describe the operations, definitions and constraints that apply to an organization in achieving its goals.”

• Business perspective:– A directive intended to influence or guide business’s behavior in the

application

– Guidance that there is an obligation concerning conduct, action, practice, or procedure within a particular activity or sphere.

• IT perspective:– A statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business

– It is intended to assert business structure or to control or influence the behavior of the business.


What are Business Rules?

• Declarative• Expressed in Natural Language

• Follow an If-Then Syntax

• Atomic – a Single Rule is Either True or False

• Examples:– If the customer has spent more than $1,000.00 in the past year Then the

customer’s status is Premium.

– If the customer has spent more than $5,000.00 in the past year Then the customer’s status is Premium-Super.

– If the customer’s status is not Premium or Premium-Super Then the customer’s status is Regular.


Traditional Sequential Solutions

• Traditionally, business rules like these are recorded by business analysts. Developers than implement a sequential algorithm that sets customer status by using code, script, or another sequential approach.


Business Rules Approach

• Business Rules are stored in their business analyst, If-Then, natural language representation.

• During execution, the Business Rules Engine uses an algorithm known as RETE to determine the rules that apply and the order they need to run in.


Siebel Application ServersSiebel Application Servers

Business Rules Approach

DatabaseDatabase

Haley Haley

Inference Inference

EngineEngine

EAIEAI

Web Web

ServerServer

Object ManagerObject Manager

Data LayerData Layer

Rules AdminRules Admin

Bus LogicBus Logic

LayerLayerProxy Proxy

ServiceService

Haley Knowledge BaseHaley Knowledge Base

Rules Authoring


Benefits of Business Rules

• Increased Quality– Business Spec to Implementation translation errors removed

– Becomes rare to break existing logic by making a change!

• Increase Agility– Time to market/deployment is significantly reduced

– Business specification is the implementation

– Elimination of key time consuming operations

• Where does this change need to be made?• What has been broken by making this change?

• Increase Transparency & Traceability– Reduce “black-box” behavior of business applications– Retain link between application logic and business policies

– Business can see and understand the current logic

Topics Covered




• Scenario



• Summary

• Demo


Usage Scenarios

• Dynamic business processesBusiness processes are frequently dynamic; that is, their requirements and parameters can change. For example, insurance application approval, credit card approval, and insurance claim processing prerequisites can change over time.

• Complex business processesBusiness processes frequently contain branches that depend on results of previous steps. By processing data with rules in order to provide input to branching logic, changes to the business logic can be made declaratively instead of relying on entirely scripted solutions.

• Field validationsBesides easier implementation and maintenance during the life of a Siebel release, basic field validations that are implemented with a rules engine are more easily and directly maintained across a Siebel upgrade than scripts used to do validations.

• Auto-populating field valuesYou can declaratively populate fields that depend on other field values, instead of doing such populating with scripting.


Sample Scenario

• Siebel customer has concept of “Pods” for Service Request types– Pods are assigned based on the Service Request’s area/sub-

area/geo/topic.– Pods are dynamic!

– Sudden increase in volume of types of SR’s drive the creation of new Pods to manage the situation.

• Siebel customer wants to assign SR Priority from Profitability and potentially Customer Status.

– Profitability is tracked as Low, Medium or High

– Customer Status is currently tracked, not yet used for Priority.

Skip


Scenario

SRSR’’s entered and Rules s entered and Rules determine Pod and Prioritydetermine Pod and Priority SRSR’’s Managed and Resolveds Managed and Resolved

Trend Analysis Trend Analysis –– Product/Geo/TopicProduct/Geo/TopicNew Business RulesNew Business Rules


Scenario


Scenario

SRSR’’s entered and Rules s entered and Rules determine Pod and Prioritydetermine Pod and Priority SRSR’’s Managed and Resolveds Managed and Resolved

Trend Analysis Trend Analysis –– Product/Geo/TopicProduct/Geo/TopicNew Business RulesNew Business Rules


Scenario Summary

• Siebel Business Rules support custom logic on any Siebel data• Logic can be rapidly changed, tested, and deployed

• Changes to SRF, Database, not required.

• Complex scripting is avoided.

Topics Covered




• Scenario



• Summary

• Demo

Skip


Terminology

Rete is several or many times faster than any known, alternative algorithm.

Efficient pattern matching algorithm for implementing rule-based systems used by the Business Rules Engine

Efficiency is asymptotically independent of the number of rules.

Rete Algorithm


Terminology

Link concepts

• Entities to Entities (Account_Opportunity)• Entities to Values (Account_Name)

Relations

The Business Rules Engine Object Model – types are:

• Entity – maps to Siebel BC• Value – maps to BC field

Concepts

A logical grouping of Rules statementsModules

DB to hold rules metadataKnowledge Base (KB )


Terminology (cont)

Natural language syntax created for Concepts and Relations.

Account Concept:

• “Account”

• “Accounts”• “Account’s”

Account_Name Relation:

• “an Account’s Name is”

• “an Account has a Name”• “the Name of the Account is”

Account_Opportunity Relation:

• “an Account has Opportunities associated to it”

Phrasing is the core of natural language syntax that is used to define Rule Statements.

Phrasings


Terminology (cont)

Used in the “then” clause of the rule definitions

Performs callbacks to the Siebel application

Actions

validateValidate the input:

set – currency – field – valueset – currency – field – value –literalset – field - value

Set a field in Siebel BC:

raise – error - textPass back an error text to UI:

invalidate – with - reasonInvalidates the input:

add – currency – literaladd – currency – valueadd - value

Returns list of values:


Terminology (cont)

Special type of Function that returns True or False

Predicate

Procedural relation that returns values:• large number of standard functions

• Siebel specific e.g. GetProfileAttr

Functions


Mapping

RelationsBC and Field BC and Field

relationshipsrelationships

RelationsBC relationshipsBC relationships

Concept (Value)FieldsFields

Business Rules EngineBusiness Rules EngineSiebel MetadataSiebel Metadata

Concept (Entity)Business ComponentBusiness Component

Topics Covered




• Scenario



• Summary

• Demo


Value Prop Across Modules and Industries

• Data quality rulesSiebel UAN/UCMSiebel UAN/UCM

• Loyalty promotions managementSiebel MarketingSiebel Marketing

• Partner entitlement rulesSiebel PRMSiebel PRM

• Service and order management rules

• Product eligibility and compatibilitySiebel PharmaceuticalsSiebel Pharmaceuticals

• Quote and order approval

• Product eligibility and compatibilitySiebel ISS/Communications*Siebel ISS/Communications*

• Automated response to customers

• Validation of warranty claimsSiebel AutomotiveSiebel Automotive

• Eligibility determination for case processingSiebel Public Sector Siebel Public Sector

• Insurance approval rules

• Claim processing

• Research distribution rulesSiebel Financial ServicesSiebel Financial Services

• Declarative Data validation rules

• Personalization

• Assignment manager

• Workflow branching rules

Siebel TechnologySiebel Technology

Business RequirementBusiness RequirementApplication groupApplication group

• SR escalation based on contracts

• Validation of warranty claimsSiebel Field ServiceSiebel Field Service


Why? Rules Engine Supports Specialized Applications

Rules provide a declarative alternative to writing code for creating and managing custom applications

Script Implementation Rules implementation

Your Height

Height Preferred Plus Preferred Standard5'7" 176 192 2255'8" 182 197 2305'9" 188 203 2355'10" 193 209 2425'11" 199 215 2516'0" 205 221 2566'1" 211 227 2636'2" 216 234 271

Maximum Weight

Height and Weight GuidelinesUnderwriting

CriteriaPreferred Plus Preferred Standard

History of Cancer Depending on company, only available on certain types of

skin cancer.

Only available on certain types of skin cancer.

Available depending on type and duration of cancer.

Aviation Commercial airline pilots accepted. Private pilots - may qualify with aviation exclusion.

Commercial airline pilots accepted. Private pilots- flat

extra may apply depending on experience.

Commercial airline pilots accepted. Private pilots- flat

extra may apply depending on experience.

Hazardous Activities (i.e. Skydiving, Hanggliding, Rock climbing, Scuba diving etc)

Available only if no flat extra premium would be required.

Available; however, may have flat extra.

Available; however, may have flat extra.

Medical Guidelines


20-50% of customer scripts canpotentially be replaced by Rules*

• * Data based on analysis of 10 real customer repositories

Reasons for Writing Business Component Scripts

31%

10%

7%

50%

2%

Auto-propagation offield values

Dynamically read-onlybusiness component

Dynamically requiredfields

Dynamically read-onlyfields

Other

Why? Rules Engine Can Reduce Scripting

• Rules engine will reduce configuration costs by 5-15% by reducing scripting (saving of 80K-240K for $1.6M project)

• Customers can rely on a Business analyst instead of a more expensive consultant or developer

• Reduce expensive production downtime for updating business logic. No srf compile necessary.

• Reduce upgrade costs by replacing scripts with declarative rules


Architecture Overview Basic

Infe

renc

e E

ngin

e

Siebel Object ModelSiebel Object Model

• Integrate with industry leading Business Rules Management vendor. Haley Systems.

• HaleyAuthority the authoring tool for rules. Natural English language editor

• Plug-in to HaleyAuthority to import Siebel metadata definitions

• Integrated via Proxy BS

• Haley Inference engine for runtime integration with Siebel

EAIEAI

Siebel Application Server

Business Business Logic Logic LayerLayer


EAIEAI

UI LayerUI Layer


Siebel Application ServersSiebel Application Servers

Architecture Overview Detailed

Import Wizard Import Wizard

PlugPlug--inin

Master RepositoryMaster RepositoryRuntimeRuntime TablesTables

Haley Haley

Inference Inference

EngineEngine

Rules InvocationRules Invocation

1.1. Runtime EventsRuntime Events

2.2. ScriptScript

3.3. WF/Task UIWF/Task UI

EAIEAI

Web Web

ServerServer

Object ManagerObject Manager


Rules AdminRules Admin

Bus LogicBus Logic

LayerLayerProxy Proxy

ServiceService

DeployDeploy

ment ment

PlugPlug--inin

Haley Knowledge BaseHaley Knowledge Base

Master RepositoryMaster Repository

HaleyAuthority

MS SQL Server/Oracle/DB2/Access

Unicode Support

Supported on all Siebel Server

platforms (AIX, Windows etc)


Object Importer

• Plug-In to the Siebel Metadata objects

• Invoked via File->Import->Siebel Object

• Allows importing of Siebel business objects, business components, and fields into the Haley Knowledge base to be represented as Haley metadata allowing an analyst or developer to create business rules.


Authoring

• Leverage HaleyAuthority to define rules statements

– Identify business outcomes, or actions to be taken. Write this as an English statement.

– Compose if-then-else constructs via definitions of rules statements

• Apply appropriate applicability conditions

– if conditions – at least one must be true (“or”)

– only if conditions – all must be true (“and”)

– Unless conditions – must all be false (“not”)


Authoring

• Identify under what conditions does some conclusion hold

• Determine if there are exceptions when the conclusion does not hold.

• Define Modules to organize rules statements that contain similar decisions.

• Modules that makes decisions• Modules that specify actions


Test Harness

• Plug-In to simulate your rules in the standalone HaleyAuthority tool.

• HaleyAuthority has its own “Test’s and Case’s” tab you can choose when testing rules

• Can create standalone test case that run individually

• Can create regression tests where can run many test cases at once

• Manually provide examples and the facts that the rules will use.


Deployment Plug-in

• Siebel Plug-in within HaleyAuthority that allows Rule Modules and Statements to be compiled into and deployed to the Siebel runtime environment.

• Explicitly choose the rule Modules that you wish to deploy to the runtime environment

• Has ability to synch Siebel metadata definitions to Haley


Rules Administration

• New Screen Business Rule Administration

– Rule Module List View

• Assign the appropriate business object and the relationships your rule modules require when invoked at runtime


Rules Invocation

• Runtime Events

• Task UI/Workflow• Programmatic

Topics Covered




• Scenario



• Summary

• Demo


Summary

• Siebel Business Rules will makes a business more agile in changing business logic without requiring a new srf

• Reduces downtime costs by allowing dynamic deployment• Reduces maintenance cost since logic stored in single location• Empowers the business analyst to write business logic in natural

English language• Incorporates powerful simulation features to test rules before

deploying to an environment• Tightly integrated plug-ins for importing and deployment that insulate

a analyst/developer from the object model mappings between Siebel and Haley.

• Flexible integration within Siebel as a business service to allow invocation from any application touch point whether it’s a runtime event, a workflow or task ui, and from scripting.


Pro’s and Con’s

• Upsides– Overall, you can use Siebel Business Rules to

• validate• raise an error message• set a business component field value• set a User Profile Attribute

– Potentially very powerful, reduces scripting needs– Easy to change without re-compiling– Easier for BA / Customer to design & maintain

• Possible Downsides– Not simple – will require thorough training, not just on how to use it, but to decide

when (or if) it should be used (i.e. during Design)– Complementary skills areas are necessary – Task UI, Workflow, Business Services,

Runtime Events, Scripting, etc.– First time use on a project will be a steep learning curve

Topics Covered




• Scenario



• Summary

• Demo


Create a new knowledge base


Start the Siebel Object Import Wizard


Connect to Master Repository


Select Runtime Database


Choose Business Object


Select (child) BusComps


Select BusComp Fields needed for rules


Create new module to hold the rules


Define rule applicability ( if, only if, unless)


Define submodules and applicability


Add rule statements to submodule


Rule examples – „invalidate“

• Check for a value’s existence – whether it is filled in or not

– if an opportunity's account is unknown then invalidate the opportunity with “…”

• Work with simple numbers (less than/greater than)

– if an opportunity's primary revenue win probability is less than 70 then invalidate the opportunity with “…“

• Work with currency values

– if an opportunity's primary revenue amount is less than 1 in "USD" then invalidate the opportunity with “…”

• Work with dates (special keyword: “Today”)

– if an opportunity's primary revenue close date occurs before today then invalidate the opportunity with “…"

• Check for sub records

– if an opportunity does not have an opportunity product then invalidate the opportunity with “…"


Deploy module to Siebel


Siebel runtime – Register new Rule Module


Register all BusComps and activate Module


Define action set...


...and associate it to a runtime event


Test Rules


Rule example: Set field values based on rules


Rule example: Override rules

Siebel Business RulesSiebel Architecture Technology Overview

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