Essentials (Siebel 7.

7)

Module 47: Assignment

Manager Configuration
Module Objectives

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Describe the assignment methodology
 Describe scoring
 Configure Assignment Manager behavior

Why you need to know:

 Assignment Manager provides a robust toolset for
assigning data

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Assignment Methodology
 Refers to the steps followed by Assignment Manager to assign
candidates to objects
 Simplified representation (does not contain all steps)
 Identify rules that apply
 Identify a list of qualified candidates for the applicable rules
 Determine primary assignee and assign candidates

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Identify Rules that Apply
 Assignment Manager evaluates all rules that apply to the object
 Eliminates rules that fail required Compare to Object criteria

Always: Rule qualifies if, and only if, State = CA

Never: Rule qualifies regardless of state
When Available: Rule qualifies if state not specified or State = CA

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Exclusive Rules
 Multiple assignment rules may exist for the same assignment
object
 Rules may have overlapping criteria
 Rules can be marked Exclusive to prioritize them
 If an exclusive rule passes, non-exclusive assignment rules are
not evaluated

Mark a rule Exclusive

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Identify Qualified Candidates
 For each rule that passes, Assignment Manager generates a list
of qualified candidates:
 Evaluates the candidates specified in the rule using criteria
 Compare to Person/Organization
 Compare Object to Person/Organization
 Scores each candidate
 Applies the Assignee Filter

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Assignee Filters
 Each rule uses an assignee filter to determine which
candidate(s) to assign
 Rules may also specify a minimum score for the rule to pass

Determines how to
process qualifying
candidates for the rule

Specifies a minimum score for the rule

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Assignee Filters Continued
 Assignee filters include:
 All, Above Minimum
 To assign all candidates with a score > = rule minimum score
 All, Must Assign
 If minimum score is used, highest scoring candidate is assigned (even
if candidate’s score < minimum)
 One, Best Fit
 The best (highest scoring) candidate from this rule is assigned
 One, Random
 Assigns one random person
 If minimum score is used, random assignee with score >= minimum
score is candidate for assignment

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Scoring
 Assignment rules can use scores to rank candidates and select
potential assignees
 Assign higher scores to more important criteria and lower scores
to less important criteria

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Defining Scores
 Define scores for:
 Assignment rule: To apply the score to the candidate’s total
score when the candidate meets the rule criteria
 Criteria: To rank criteria from the most important to the least
important
 Criteria values: To rank criteria values from the most important to
the least important
 Candidate: To rank the best candidate from a group of qualified
candidates
 Workload Distribution: To distribute workload across all
candidates
 The higher the candidate’s current workload is, the lower their score is

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Workload Distribution
 Prevents users from being overloaded with work
 Consists of:
 Workload Distribution Rule
 Maximum Workload
 Score

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Assign Candidates
 Assignment Manager:
 Uses the assignees filter from the rule with the highest scoring
assignee
 For team-based assignment, the highest-scoring qualifying
candidate from the highest-scoring rule is made primary

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Service Scenario
 Business Rule: Assign service requests to agents based on
product skill and current workload

… to best candidate

Employee: Craig
Skill: Network
Workload: 18 SRs

Employee: Ellen
Assign incoming service requests…
Skill: CPU
Workload: 10 SRs

Employee: Jack
Skill: Network
Workload: 20 SRs

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Workload Distribution Rules
 Balance workload across candidates
 Assign a score to candidates based on:
 Maximum load: the maximum number of records that a
candidate should own at any time
 Score: the weight assigned to workload in comparison to other
criteria

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Calculating Scores for the Scenario

Assign incoming service request… …to candidate

Service Request Employee: Craig

Product = Network Skill: Network
Workload: 18 SRs

Employee: Ellen
Skill: CPU
Rule Workload: 10 SRs
scores
Employee: Jack
Skill: Network
Workload: 20 SRs

Employee Product Employee Workload Score Total

Score Score * [1 - (Current Workload / Max Load)] Score
Craig 20 45 * [1 – (18 / 20)] = 4.5 24.5
Craig is
Ellen 0 45 * [1 – (10 / 20)] = 22.5 22.5
assigned
Jack 20 45 * [1 – (20 / 20)] = 0 20

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Configuring Assignment Objects
 Assignment Objects can be configured to control specific
aspects of assignment behavior
 Default Candidate
 Keep Creator
 Assignment Mode

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Default Candidates
 Are the candidates assigned in the case of conflicts
 Are properties in the Assignment Object definition
 Default Employee
 Default Group
 Default Org
 Default Position

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Default Candidates Continued
 These conflict scenarios are handled as follows:
 Conflict between two rules with same score
 Assigns candidates for both rules and assigns the default candidate to
the team
 Makes default candidate the primary for team-based assignments
 Conflict between two exclusive rules with the same score
 Assigns default candidate to the team as primary
 Rules do not identify any candidates to assign
 Assigns default candidate to the team as primary

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Keep Creator
 If this property is set to TRUE, Assignment Manager keeps the
creator on the team regardless of which rules pass

Assign
positions/employees
Assign
to data
positions/employees
to data

Keep creator
on team

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Assignment Scoring Mode
 Controls the order in which candidates are assigned
 Is used to coordinate the owner of a record with its organization
 Values include:
 Independent
 Organization-oriented
 Person-oriented
 Org and Person-oriented

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Assignment Scoring Mode: Independent

 Assignment Manager assigns potentially unrelated

organizations and people to the same object
The organization The person Lee in the
Europe matches; Asia organization matches
does not

Organization Match Person Match

Europe Y Johansen N
Asia N Lee Y

Assigned Assigned
Organization Person
Europe --
-- Lee
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Assignment Scoring Mode: Organization-Oriented

 Assignment Manager assigns organizations first, then

evaluates candidates from those organizations

Person in
Organization Match Match
Organization
North America Y Conway Y
Europe Y Johansen N
Asia N Lee Y

Assigned Assigned
Organization Person
North America Conway
Europe --
-- --

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Assignment Scoring Mode: Person-Oriented

 Assignment Manager assigns persons or positions first, then

evaluates the organizations they work in

Person’s
Person Match Match
Organization
Conway Y North America Y
Johansen Y Europe N
Lee N Asia Y

Assigned Assigned
Person Organization
Conway North America
Johansen --
-- --

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Assignment Scoring Mode: Org and Person-Oriented

 Filters all persons and organizations that satisfy the criteria,

then assigns only those that have corresponding persons and
organization that meet the criteria
Person in
Organization Match Match
Organization
North America Y Conway Y
Europe Y Johansen N
Asia N Lee Y

Assigned Assigned
Organization Person
North America Conway
-- --
-- --

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Summary

This module showed you how to:

 Describe the assignment methodology
 Describe scoring
 Configure Assignment Manager behavior

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Lab
 In the lab you will:
 Configure Assignment Behavior
 Test using Batch Assignment

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