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CRM and The e-Healthcare Industry An Overview: Siebel Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned Prepared by WABILITY, Inc. WABILITY Knowledge Center January 2005 SECTION I . 4 1.0 Overview: CRM and the Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Industries . 4 1.01 CRM Definition . 4 1.02 Key Issue. 4 1.1 CRM and Healthcare. 4 1.2 What You Should Expect from a CRM Solution. 5 1.3 Where CRM and Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Industries are heading . 6 2.0 CRM Solutions From ERP Software Vendors . 6 2.01 CRM: IT Requirements. 8 2.1 CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation: Sales . 9 2.2 CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation Marketing . 10 2.3 CRM Products- Criteria of Evaluation: Customer Support . 11 SECTION II . 12 3.0 Siebel and the Healthcare Industry . 12 3.1 Siebel Implementation Methodology: Challenges and Lessons Learned. 12 3.2 Siebel Implementation Approach . 12 3.3 Potential Siebel Implementation Obstacles . 13 3.4 Why

Siebel? Benefits. 13 3.5 Siebel Suggested Project Structure . 14 4.0 Siebel e-Pharma . 15 5.0 Siebel E-Clinical . 15 6.0 Siebel Life Sciences Channel Applications . 16 7.0 Siebel.com Applications for Life Sciences 16 SECTION III. 18 8.0 2 Siebel Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned . 18 Challenge 1 Real-Time Recognition of Siebel Events . 18 Challenge 2 Batch Data Loading into Siebel. 22 Challenge 3 Scalability and Integration Design . 23 Challenge 4 Error Notification/Activity Assignments . 23 Challenge 5 Data Insertion and “Update Logic”--- Standardize . 24 Challenge 6 The Need for Monitoring Scheduling and Logging Systems . 24 Challenge 7 Recycle Processing . 25 Challenge 8 Backup/Recovery Mechanisms . 25 Challenge 9 Interface Process Error Handling . 26 Challenge 10 Siebel Values Referencing . 26 Challenge 11 QA Testing . 27 3

Section I 1.0 Overview: CRM and the Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Industries 1.01 CRM Definition Gartner has defined CRM as a business strategy designed to optimize profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction. CRM should be conceptualized as an all-inclusive business strategy focusing on three key goals; optimizing profitability, growing revenue, and improving customer loyalty. Without careful planning and continuous monitoring, CRM initiatives can yield unintended results. Understanding potential negative consequences, and making pertinent queries will assist organizations in assessing potential areas of vulnerability. 1.02 Key Issue A key issue that should be considered is how healthcare organizations will leverage information architecture and emerging technologies to increase overall profitability and reduce risk? E-business enables customers to conduct business anytime, anyplace, in any language, in any currency, through any distribution channel. While

customers randomly traverse these channels, organizations must maintain a continuing dialogue with them about product selection, product use, product enhancement, and product replacement. These interactions should occur seamlessly, just as if the customer was carrying on a one-to-one dialogue with an individual sales or service representative. It is essential that an e-business solution ensures that the customer, and the customer’s history is recognized every step of the way, and that the next channel will pick up the line of communication where it was left off. 1.1 CRM and Healthcare Consumerism in healthcare is a double-edged sword for healthcare executives. Unless their customer involvement can be channeled and managed in the form of self-service, the cost of care goes up and the quality of service goes down. How does an organization make the shift from a traditional business model to an ebusiness model? Today’s leaders in healthcare organizations providing direct care,

insurance coverage, or services to the industry are called upon to control healthcare costs, improve quality of care, compete more effectively, manage more complexity, and rapidly adapt to change. The solution to these challenges lies in technology that ensures that the right information is consistently available when it is needed. 4 Controlling healthcare costs implies streamlining processes. Improving the quality of care means sharing knowledge. Competing better entails not only enabling excellence in care, but accurately forecasting growth and carefully managing the cost of doing business. Adapting to change suggests having the flexibility to add new technologies and enable existing systems. Companies are under pressure to grow earnings at a time when revenue growth has slowed, and lead times on new drug introductions are shrinking. The internet and direct to consumer advertising (DTC) are also redefining

how pharmaceutical companies interact with their customers and how the companies need to market their products. To remain successful in this dynamic marketplace, companies must: • • • • 1.2 Build stronger customer relationships in the drug development cycle. Modify their approach to leveraging the Internet. Provide convenient, personalized services for all healthcare stakeholders. Manage multi-tiered relationships such as physician affiliations with medical service groups, various hospital committees, preferred associations, and other peers. What You Should Expect from a CRM Solution Fact: Through 2003, CRM will shift its focus from in-house development and point products, and move toward packaged applications. CRM solutions should be able to allow healthcare providers the ability to capture, analyze, and distribute information efficiently, while maintaining data security and data access controls. Solutions that will make healthcare services more efficient, helping

providers deliver the appropriate level of care at a lower cost while reducing the number of denials. Solutions such as these will allow healthcare providers to improve customer service while controlling labor costs. Traditional health plan technology forces customer service representatives to juggle multiple desktop applications in order to find all the information needed to respond to customer requests and provide support. A viable CRM product should: • • • • • • 5 Provide access to 360-degree views of patient enrollment, benefits, and medical claims processing information. Respond quickly and efficiently to customer inquiries, helping to promote loyal and profitable customer relationships. Reduce the amount of time servicing customers and also enhance operational efficiencies. Be able to improve customer responsiveness. Complete all of the customer interactions in a single contact. Reduce agent-training time.

• • 1.3 • • • 2.0 Integrate with the patient care cycle Integrate with the overall workflow. Where CRM and Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Industries are heading The e-healthcare market is expected to reach 37% of the total healthcare market by 2003 according to Forrester research. E-healthcare is a rapidly evolving virtual marketplace where businesses can achieve unprecedented connectivity and loyalty between patients, physicians, payers, and other members of the community. E-business solutions that can e-enable business service events and help to increase profitability and return on relationships which ultimately translate into loyal customers, repeat sales, and increased revenue opportunities. CRM Solutions From ERP Software Vendors Meeting the demanding needs of the pharmaceutical, clinical, medical/surgical device, and diagnostic industries is difficult. Through a fully integrated product line, such as Siebel e-pharma and Siebel e-clinical,

organizations are able to manage, synchronize, and coordinate all customer touch points over the web, in the call center, by field sales and service, and through channel partners. This coordinated approach helps organizations dramatically increase productivity, enhance customer satisfaction, and maximize revenue and profit. SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, and Oracle have begun to offer products in the CRM space However, Siebel is the only CRM software vendor that has a product that addresses the demand chain needs (sales, marketing, service, support and channel partner management) of global enterprises. Smaller companies with departmental requirements, as well as those seeking best-ofbreed point functionality or deep industry specific functionality requirements and workflow with back-end systems, may be better served by solutions other than those from Siebel. The potential solutions to the following issues should be considered: • • 6 Does mySAP.com offer a true integrated e-business

solution? No, SAP does not offer a truly integrated e-business solution and relies on marketing relationships with CRM and Supply Chain vendors to round out their ebusiness story. Only Oracle offers a truly integrated e-business solution • • • • • • 7 Has SAP transformed themselves to an e-business? As of yet SAP has not moved to a true e-business environment. What’s more, there have been no announcement that SAP plans on using their own software to transform themselves to an e-business. Oracle utilizes its own e-business software and has saved over $1 billion doing so. Can you tell me how Clarify and Commerce One are integrated with R/3? There is no seamless integration between Clarify and SAP, or Commerce One and SAP inhibiting the flow of transactions and requiring costly integration projects to implement, upgrade and maintain. Oracle offers a completely integrated solution from front to

back office- one simple and complete suite. How flexible is R/3? R/3 is highly inflexible. For example, it is very difficult to add to or change GL hierarchies, something that is easily accomplished with Oracle. Can I import non-SAP data into the SAP Business Information Warehouse (BIW)? The SAP BIW can only facilitate the storage and management of SAP data from SAP applications, limiting the user’s ability to view external and nonvendor specific information. Oracle enterprise data warehouse (EDW) is designed to facilitate the management of data from multiple vendors, enabling a true enterprise-wide view. 2.01 CRM: IT Requirements CRM is an enterprise wide business strategy whose major goals are to maximize revenue, profitability and customer satisfaction. To achieve a successful CRM, managed care organizations must encourage behaviors and implement processes and technologies that support coordinated

customer interactions throughout all channels. CRM is a multitier, phased strategy which typically begins as separate initiatives, in disparate lines of business whose overall goal is to provide a set of customer-focused processes across all departments and communication channels. Customer Relationship Management IT Requirements Required to Support CRM: Contact Center – E-business Initiatives E-business requires the deployment of many tools and technologies including ecommerce, healthcare vertical portals and e-mail response management systems. Data Sharing and Integration As managed care organizations deploy all of the IT requirements for CRM, the must identify sharing and integration as core requirements that will link all components. Data sharing and integration form the centerpiece for CRM and will inevitably determine whether a managed care organization has successful CRM capabilities. Medical Management Medical Management requirements vary by market and stakeholder; as a

result, applications must be flexible to adjust to business rules and clinical guidelines, and offer capabilities to create customized workflows and integrate with foundation applications. Administrative Implementing effective foundation applications is critical to set the stage for successful CRM by providing timely and quality data. MCOs must optimize the performance of customer service processes by ensuring administrative efficiencies and evolving their call center into a contact center. 8 2.1 CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation: Sales Product Opportunity Territory, Activity Management System Content Management Interactive Selling Selling Channel Partner Contact Center Inside Sales Tele SalesTele Marketing Sales Configurator Sales Compensate Software Siebel 2000 X N/A X X X X N/A BAAN X PeopleSoft (Vantive) X X X X Oracle iR11 SAP JDA X X X X Point of Sales Software X 2.2

CRM Vendors- Criteria of Evaluation Marketing Product Campaign Order Advanced Tracking Surveys Management Planning Customer Profitability Predictive Event Segmentation analysis Marketing Modeling Personalization Reporting Siebel 2000 BAAN X PeopleSoft (Vantive) X Oracle iR11 10 Next Next Version Version X SAP X JDA X X X X X X X X X X 2.3 CRM Products- Criteria of Evaluation: Customer Support Product Transaction Management E-services F S/D Contact Center X X X X Siebel 2000 BAAN PeopleSoft (Vantive) X Oracle iR11 SAP JDA 11 X Section II 3.0 Siebel and the Healthcare Industry Siebel healthcare applications deliver comprehensive, out-of-the-box e-business functionality that is uniquely tailored to healthcare. Siebel solutions enable organizations to manage, coordinate, and synchronize, all customer touch points, including, the web, call centers, field sales, and

retail channels. Siebel products include: • E-pharma • E-clinical 3.1 Siebel Implementation Methodology: Challenges and Lessons Learned. Overview Siebel defines a successful e-business project based on the achievement of these outcomes: • Increased Revenue. • Increased Profits. • Customer Satisfaction. • Increased Productivity. In order to achieve the above, the implementation team must: • Address and understand business requirements. • Complete implementation on schedule and within budget. • Gain acceptance by the user community. 3.2 Siebel Implementation Approach The Siebel approach consists of the following 4 elements: 1. Understanding and adhering to Siebel e-business critical success factors, including: • Aligning business requirements with IT. • Obtain executive sponsorship. • Define business benefits clearly. • Leverage Siebel functions. • Involve users. • Used a phased implementation approach. • Define end-user training. 2. Divide the

overall project into key phases 3. Follow Siebel e-roadmap methodology • Definition Stage. • Discover Stage. • Design Stage. • Configuration Stage. • Validation Stage. • Deployment Stage. 4. Utilize a production pilot for the implementation of each phase 3.3 Potential Siebel Implementation Obstacles 1. 2. 3. 4. Requirements not defined, (Can add 2-3 weeks during discovery phase). Complex interfaces to ERP systems Interfacing with existing logic “outside of Siebel environment”. Implementing Siebel Quotes Module, (depends on the gap between the current quote system and Siebel quote functionality, about 2 – 3 weeks extra). 5. e-configurator: Implementation time depends on the number of product combinations which is based on: • Business Rules. • Relationship between products and services. 6. Siebel Reports- additional 7. Data cleansing and conversion 3.4 Why Siebel? Benefits 1.

Transformation of the business into a customer-centric organization by consolidating customer-facing process around a single customer relationship management platform. 2. Migrating multiple customer databases will enable sales and marketing personnel to exchange contact and lead information. 3. Provide customer information to field sales personnel 4. Provide accurate, timely, consultative answers to questions 5. Increase customer loyalty and staff effectiveness by building a knowledge base, which can be referenced by both support staff and customers. 6. Provide sales staff with more information about customers/accounts 7. Enable cross selling and up selling of products and services 8. Track customers and prospects more accurately 9. Improve management decision-making 10. Avoid duplication of effort 11. Develop better control of territory assignments 12. Improve sales pipeline, contact, and visit report 13. Provide a single solution for corrective action when problems occur 13

14. Provide a framework for information sharing among the business groups 15. Provide a consistent level of service Note: In order to secure a customer’s lifetime value, successful companies are offering their customers optimum products, perfect communication channels, and comprehensive services along every step of the business relationship. 3.5 Siebel Suggested Project Structure The benchmarks for the average Siebel implementation, (based on the Siebel Approach) is approximately 13 weeks, utilizing 12 people, 5 of which are consultants. Stearing Committee Sponsors Project Managers PM 1 PM2 Project Advisors TAM Technical Account Manager (From Siebel) Siebel PMO For Quality Review Expert Services (Siebel) For Archetecture and Configuration Review 14 BA Team Configuration Team System/Data Training Archetecture Deployment 4.0

Siebel e-Pharma Siebel e-Pharma is the only comprehensive multi-channel e-business software designed to meet the unique needs of the pharmaceutical industry. This application provides bestin-class functionality, including management, and telesales Market consolidation, the growing acceptance of managed care plans, advances in medical technology, and the Internet are changing the competitive landscape of the healthcare industry. 5.0 Siebel E-Clinical Clinical trials are being influenced by a number of factors including increasing competition, expanding clinical pipelines, increasing development cycles, the high cost of drug development, and a more stringent regulatory environment. Companies as a result are faced with the tremendous challenge of coordinating clinical trials in a expeditious and cost –effective manner while maintaining the highest quality standards. The key criteria for successful clinical trial management are: • Real-time access to status of clinical trials. •

Ready access to historical information both financial and clinical. • Excellent relationships with clinical investigators and highly productive clinical research associates. Siebel e-Clinical is a comprehensive Web-based e-business application that can be quickly deployed for both internal and external users, allowing them to make better decisions throughout the clinical trial process, leading to a more effective use of resources and providing a faster time to market. Other benefits include: • Seamlessly sharing real-time information across teams, better manage sites, and provide superior on-going services and support to clinical investigators. • Fully integrate with sales force automation, sales and marketing analytics, and marketing campaign management, enabling life science companies to maximize the full value of each doctor as they move from site investigator to prescribing clinician. 15 6.0

Siebel Life Sciences Channel Applications Life Sciences Channel Applications provide a comprehensive partner relationship management (PRM) solution. These applications allow companies to manage contract sales organizations, joint marketing and strategic alliance partners, as well as clinical sites and other channel partners via the web. Some features include: • • • • • • • 7.0 Personalization- The product offers a multi-channel presentation engine. This is important because it will allow organizations to tailor content, information and business processes based on customer profiles. Remote Capabilities- Scalable data synchronization solutions for mobile clients and server-to-server replication. Workflow- To allow organizations to visually model business processes and apply workflow automation rules across all channels of distribution. Development Tools- Visual development tool suite that will allow organizations to customize the user interface and business rules, and

to capture data without compromising the support or upgrades of the applications. Enterprise Integration Tools (EAI) An integration solution that seamlessly integrates e-business applications with middleware products such as IBM, MQ Series, SAP release 3, and credit card and claims processing systems. Full Life Cycle Management- The product features should include fully automated application upgrades and remote software distribution capabilities that greatly reduce the time and expense of managing the full application life cycle, (Configure once and deploy everywhere). Global Market Support- Support for global deployment to include support for global languages, multiple currencies, automatic currency conversions including EMU standards for euro support and real-time exchange rates. Siebel.com Applications for Life Sciences When specifically tailored for the life sciences industry, Siebel.com applications enable organizations to immediately leverage the Internet to acquire new

customers and enhance all customer relationships. With Siebelcom applications, life sciences companies can create and execute Internet-based marketing campaigns, provide 24 X 7 customer service, and manage channel relationships to ensure optimum effectiveness. 1. Siebelcom Applications for Pharma: Siebelcom applications for Pharma provide out-of-box, personalized Internet solutions for marketing, customer services, and distribution of health related information directly to medical professionals and consumers. By implementing this functionality, companies can create and execute personalized Internet-based marketing campaigns to identify 16 and acquire new customers, develop custom product and service offerings, facilitate unassisted selling over the Internet, provide customer service and support, and manage channel relationships to ensure optimum efficiency. 2. Siebel eService (physician Portal and Customer

Portal): Siebel eService consists of two Web-based portals, which provide physicians and customers with complete Internet self-service functionality. The physician portal gives professionals a secure, personalized way to order samples online, view interactive product details, create and track their own medical information requests and product complaints, request office visits, and register for medical education sessions. The customer portal provides consumers with answers to commonly asked questions and the appropriate level of access to product and disease state information. 3. Siebel eSales: Siebel eSales allows pharmaceutical companies to rapidly establish an on-line selling channel that complements and extend their field, call center, and indirect selling channels. With Siebel eSales, companies gain a comprehensive, re-built pharmacy solution that enables customers to search for services and products in a rich multimedia catalogue, configure products and services to meet their

needs, place orders, confirm that the orders are valid and deliverable, and check on order status. Pharmaceutical companies can use Siebel eSales Web personalization to maximize each customer interaction and dynamically suggest the right products and services based on customer profile, environment, requirements, and buying patterns. 4. eMarketing: Siebel eMarketing enables pharmaceutical organizations to create, execute, and added Web-based direct-to-consumer and direct-to-physician marketing campaigns. Siebel eMarketing allows pharmaceutical companies to use the Internet as a cost-effective, productive marketing channel. 5. Siebelcom Applications for Clinical: Siebelcom applications for Clinical provide an out-of-box portal for site coordinators and investigators to manage clinical trials effectively and interact with the sponsoring company. 6. Siebel eService (Site Portal): The Siebel eService site portal offers a complete web-based service solution that allows site coordinators and

clinical investigators to review real-time information about on-going and upcoming clinical trials, product information, and FAQ solutions. It also allows them to create and track their own medical information requests and product complaints. The site portal offers sponsoring organizations a full suite of problem resolution tools, including full-text search and troubleshooting, that enables them to more efficiently resolve customer inquiries. 17 Section III 8.0 Siebel Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned Challenge 1 Real-Time Recognition of Siebel Events 1. Events based data integration in Siebel requires a uniform mechanism of real-time event recognition that resides on the Siebel Application Server. 2. Any activities related to interface design should be constructed with a bias against client-based solutions. 3. Real-time events occur with the help of database triggers This is a solution that is

provided by middleware; tools such as Vitria for example. Another recommended way to achieve real-time data extraction is accomplished by way of polling Siebel business components at fixed intervals. Either scenario allows interfaces to operate exclusively at the server level. 4. Server-based Siebel integration processes have the following advantages over client-based processes because they: • Allow simple conversion to thin client. • Facilitate easy rolling out of process upgrades. • Operate within the scope of Siebel application server, which ensures good performance. 18 Siebel Client Based Interface 1 Interface 2 Siebel Application Server Siebel DB Interface 3 User Report Recognition: The Polling Mechanism A polling mechanism sends a query to a business component at a fixed interval in order to detect a new request. The diagrams below illustrate various polling mechanism options. 19

Option 1 Interface POLL DB Query Siebel Application Server Siebel Database Option 2 Interface POLL DB Query Siebel Application Server Siebel Database New Message Poll ID Base Table Use Triggers External Table Row ID 20 Option3 Interface POLL DB Query Siebel Application Server Siebel Database User ID Base Table Use Triggers DBMS PIPE Once a process has recognized a new request, a proper Meta database must be referenced in determining field level data extraction. If you use middleware, (publish/subscribe) all fields will generally be extracted with subscribing systems’ mining needed fields. Application logic also derived from meta data must be applied as well. This includes: • Field-to-field mapping. • Transformations. • Field look-up translations into Siebel. • External database look-ups. • Formatting into

accepted transport protocol (XML). 21 Challenge 2 Batch Data Loading into Siebel When addressing data conversion, a common pitfall is to leverage existing messaging middleware applications rather than duplicate meta data for batch processing. This is not recommended. Rather, a high-volume batch mechanism such as Siebel EIM or Informatica ETL should be configured to draw upon the same meta data. Lesson Do not use messaging middleware tools to do the job of an ETL tool. Legacy Request All Data Requests Request to Third Party Request to through TCP/IP ODS-Siebel Business Component 22 Response to Middleware Message Queue Challenge 3 Scalability and Integration Design Interface processes must be scalable in order to accommodate unexpected peeks in data volume. Integration processes must be designed and constructed with the

following capabilities: • Load Balancing---Multi-threading, Multi Processing. • High rates of throughput. • Error handling, Process Monitoring, Match Logic. Application processes should concentrate on integration tasks and allow system-wide applications handle the mundane. Lesson Though EAI tools may claim to have high speed throughput, bottlenecks will occur when processes require heavy Siebel interaction using the COM API Challenge 4 Error Notification/Activity Assignments Meta Data Database Look Up- To Assign, To Correct User ID Interface Process I Process Messages Application Interface Process II • • • 23 Error Assignment Messages Activity/ Business Component Siebel Data Insertion A primary benefit of using a Siebel solution includes the assignment of activity and error notifications to specific users. Interfaces can strategically utilize this by adhering to rules applied to erroneous transactions that do not have clear owners, (such as user name, user id).

This becomes a powerful exception handler in that human intervention can be leveraged to complete an automated process. Since many interfaces will use these mechanisms, a single process fed by a message queue should be responsible for error assignments. This will release interface processes for non-essential task. Challenge 5 Data Insertion and “Update Logic”--- Standardize Since updating in Siebel will include modifying existing records, an acceptable standard for data insertion must be followed. 1. If fields in the insertion record are null or empty, Siebel must not be updated at all, (this is to avoid deleting meaningful data). 2. When blank data is sent through the interface, update logic must translate this to overwrite Siebel fields with either null or blank. 3. When you have business specs that sometimes require field updating only after pre-existing values are confirmed for certain conditions,

(e.g, does account number in Siebel match the number from the interface?). EAI tools (or data cleansing tools) must not only have the ability to insert data into Siebel business components, but must also decipher a proper method for field updating such as: • Fields requiring simple updating. • Fields containing outdated or incorrect data. • Fields that need not be updated at all. Lesson When processing Siebel transactions includes referencing existing fields, look-ups should take place immediately before updating Siebel records. In this way excessive Siebel querying is avoided. Challenge 6 The Need for Monitoring Scheduling and Logging Systems Complex middleware infrastructures require an enterprise-wide monitoring system for processes, message queues, network traffic, system usage levels, and other sensitive points of failure. A tool is needed to define system thresholds, alert conditions, automated process criteria, and automated paging systems. Process and massage logging is

used for debugging, backup/relaying services to enable process monitoring, and to allow system administrators and developers to determine system progress relative to dependent services in order to identify bottlenecks. Application developers and system administrators must come to a consensus and appropriate logging information for mutually beneficial purposes. On-line processes that run all hours of system “up-time” generate log files, and are continually monitored by enterprise monitoring systems. However, processes that execute based on a standard timetable must generate reports that will notify administrative personnel of successful, (or unsuccessful) execution. These reports should detail unprocessed batch messages and abnormal program termination. 24 Challenge 7 Recycle Processing Messages originating from legacy systems and downloaded in a “fire and forget” fashion, that have corresponding

Siebel entries, must contain context setting fields to ensure proper data insertion. Many systems have unique keys that span multiple systems in order to secure a reliable context for integration purposes. In these environments, applying legacy transactions is as easy as matching key fields. However, in cases where uniqueness does not span multiple systems, “matching logic” must be defined that will couple transactions between legacy and Siebel. In a system that depends upon user definition for uniqueness, it is impossible to guarantee processing of every transaction. Business specs must address cases where automated legacy transactions are dependent upon manual entry into Siebel. How? • A temporary storage location must be created to house “unmatched” data. • Notifications to appropriate users must be created in order to “direct” unmatched transactions. • Recycle processes that re-invoke match rules must be created and executed at fixed intervals. • Purge criteria

must be incorporated into the recycle process in order to avoid any unnecessary build-up of garbage data. *Most recycle transactions have no appropriate location in Siebel, and are truly garbage. Challenge 8 Backup/Recovery Mechanisms A mechanism for backing up and recovering records and transactions must be created to address system outages such as system shutdown, process exceptions, middleware interruption, and Siebel errors. Backup and recovery processes must be resident within multiple layers of the integration environment. One must exist at the transport layer in the form of persistent messages, one at the application layer in the form of two-phase commit, and one at the message broker layer in the form of temporary message storage in the case of a network outage. Backup/recovery mechanisms must distinguish real-time, synchronous, asynchronous, and batch/bulk integration. 25 Challenge 9 Interface

Process Error Handling • • • Interface processes must operate based on the premise that data cannot be lost. For batch processing, this is not difficult. Records should not be committed until the batch cycle is complete, and data should not be purged until a successful transformation process has been completed. For message oriented middleware, whether processing high volume “batch” transactions, or real time synchronous/asynchronous messaging, numerous failure contingency plans must be in place to guard against the loss of transactions. Failure Scenarios Backup Mechanisms Message Transport Failure Enable persistent messaging Recovery Mechanisms Actions to take upon failure Middleware tool should Sleep, until transport resume context transmission mechanism is restored Siebel Error Handling Two-phase commit update Human intervention via method activity notification Application Server Shutdown Utilize persistent messaging Process Failure Two-phase commit update

Re-process uncommitted method transaction Transaction rollback and recycle. If Siebel shutdown, throw unhandled exception Re-process uncommitted transaction Challenge 10 Siebel Values Referencing As a result of Siebel business component development, as well as far the benefit of workflow manager, there will likely be a significant portion of metadata stored within Siebel rather than in the metadata database. As a result, interfaces are required to heavily interact with Siebel when transforming the interface to the Siebel database. In order to prevent unnecessary Siebel querying when referencing lists of values, middleware tools should have the ability to store the values in internal caches or buffers for quick reference and for limited Siebel querying. Middleware tools used for integration in a Siebel environment should have up to date adapters for the following systems: • • • 26 Databases: Oracle, Sybase, Informix, SQL Server, MS Access, Mainframe Systems, CICS, IMS, and

MVS. Message Oriented Middleware: MQ Series, COM, COBRA, and MSMQ. Data Communications: TCP/IP, IIOP, and SNA. Challenge 11 QA Testing As with any EAI implementation, a good QA testing design must be created concurrently with development. Stress Testing Each interface must be tested for maximum throughput, excessive transaction data, peak hours of operation, and data accuracy under these conditions. Regression Testing With each new release of interface processes, retesting existing features must be done. Unit Testing With each new feature developed into an interface, process testing should take place. It should be at least thorough enough to account for each central flow within process modules. Systems Acceptance End-to-end system wide testing is a prerequisite. Testing Advice • There is no such thing as too much testing. Spending more time testing today will invariably result in fewer headaches

tomorrow. 27