Contents

• Introduction
• Standard Reporting Methods in Siebel
• Report Despatcher for Siebel

Introduction

Actuate is the standard reporting tool supplied with Siebel. Actuate is powerful and its integration in Siebel is such that almost any reporting requirement can be met. However, it can be difficult to release new reports into a live Siebel application. Report Despatcher is a product from Customer Systems that addresses this problem.

To include a new report in the standard Siebel application a change must be made to the Siebel application repository file (SRF) using Siebel Tools. Before releasing the new repository file the release team must be confident that the only change is the addition of a new report. With ongoing development and maintenance of the Siebel application this is rarely, if ever, the case. At best, this process is time consuming, error-prone and can be costly if new reports must be released at frequent or regular intervals.

If there are remote users then the problem is compounded. In addition to the SRF problem there is a requirement to distribute a new Actuate executable file for each report released into the application.

Additionally, report users do not have easy access to previously generated reports. To view a report a second time the user must run it again. If the data in the Siebel application has changed then this will be reflected in the report.

Report Despatcher from Customer Systems is a set of technologies that integrate Actuate into Siebel in such a way that it is possible to:

• Add new Actuate reports to the Siebel application without releasing a new repository file.
• Maintain a history of previously generated reports.
• Automatically distribute new reports to remote users when they synchronise.

An extra benefit of the Report Despatcher approach is that it is possible to release reports to specific groups of users rather that to every user who has access to the view to which the report is attached.

Standard Reporting Methods in Siebel

The Conventional Style of Siebel Reports

The main reporting tool in Siebel as standard is based on technology from Actuate Corporation.

Actuate reports are activated from the ‘Reports’ menu in the Siebel application. These reports are tied to specific views in order to limit their scope (for example, ‘My Opportunities’ rather than ‘All Opportunities in the Organization’). Each report accesses Siebel data through the Siebel Business Component layer.

By accessing the Business Component layer, the report has access to the current user query, sort specification and other real-time information, and will retrieve only the records to which the user has access.

Releasing New Reports in Siebel The Conventional Way

Using the conventional linkage of Siebel and Actuate, once a new report is developed in Actuate, there is a two - stage process required to make the reports available to the Siebel users:

• From Actuate, a report executable file is created which must be placed on the report server and be distributed to each remote Siebel client.
• The Siebel application must be modified to attach the new report to a particular Siebel view. This change is then compiled into the Siebel configuration.

Report Despatcher for Siebel

What is it?

Report Despatcher for Siebel is a set of technologies developed by Customer Systems that integrates Actuate and Siebel, eliminating the problems commonly associated with the rollout of new reports.

There are two distinct parts to Report Despatcher for Siebel. The first is a run time component that shows users reports appropriate to their current Siebel view, allows them to run new Actuate reports and allows them to view previously generated reports. This part of the product has the major benefit that the addition of a new report does not require the compilation of a new Siebel repository file. Here the users also have the ability to view reports files they have generated previously and control which reports are saved in the Report Despatcher.

The second part is a new Siebel screen that allows an administrator to quickly add a new report to the Siebel application and assign it to an appropriate view. This is a simple administrative task that needs to be done only once per report for all Siebel users to have access to the new report. As part of this process, the report definition and its executable file are stored in the Siebel application and, therefore, the manual distribution of report executable files to remote Siebel users is no longer required.

Report Despatcher for Siebel - End User

With Report Despatcher for Siebel, when the Reports menu item is selected in Siebel, a new ActiveX component is launched which determines the current view and shows the user the Actuate reports appropriate to this view. The user can then select one of these reports and launch Actuate.

The ‘Reports’ menu item in Siebel launches the Report Despatcher interface

The user selects any report from the left - hand list box and clicks the ‘Run Report’ button in order to launch Actuate for the chosen report. The Actuate report then retrieves data from Siebel and displays it in the normal way. Only the data defined by the user’s current query is returned, thereby preserving the relevant context of the user's current view, and respecting the security/authorisation rules.

Additionally, reports generated previously are automatically saved and listed in the right - hand list box. The user can select any of these reports and click ‘View Report’ to view in the Actuate viewer. This is a significant new advantage of this technology and is not available in Siebel as standard.

The Actuate viewer application has been enhanced to include the following functionality:

  Send Report - Email the report directly from the Actuate viewer
  Table of Contents - Open to view and navigate within the entire contents of the report
  Navigation - Navigate between pages in the report
  Searchable Contents - Search for specific contents within the report and additionally export this content or all contents to a separate file and / or spreadsheet

Actuate Viewer application launched from the Report Despatcher interface

Report Despatcher for Siebel - Administrator

The purpose of the Report Despatcher is to deploy new Actuate reports in a fast and effective manner. The administrator’s view developed for Report Despatcher for Siebel is designed so that:

• No access to Siebel Tools is required.
• New reports can be deployed without the need to compile a new Siebel repository file.
• New report executable files do not need to be manually distributed to remote Siebel clients.
• Distribution of report executable files can be controlled so that they are only available to specific sub-sets of users.

When the Siebel administrator accesses this view, he/she is presented with a list of Actuate reports currently deployed within the application. The columns in this view define the report executable name, the view or views from which it is available, the display name the user sees and the set of users for which it is available.

The Report Administration view in the Siebel client application

To add a new report to the Siebel application, the administrator simply adds a new record to this view. The report executable file can be selected through a Windows Explorer browser and is attached to this record. The administrator then defines the list of views from which the users can access this report.

Adding a new record to the Report Administration view for the Report Despatcher