Usage of Siebel EIM is guaranteed as soon as a Siebel project is to be implemented, in most cases. The only exceptions that I can think of are the Siebel Upgrade projects in some cases, or in case the client never had any information organizing of Contacts and Leads for this line of business before (Rare, and highly unlikely!!).

EIM, or the Enterprise Integration Manager, is the primary Siebel Server Component which is used to transfer data from another system into Siebel CRM Database.

The baseline is, when a client decides to be prudent enough to set up a Siebel CRM System, he must already be using some mode or mechanism. Most generally, this is in the form of Excel sheets for Small and Medium sized businesses before they get organized. On a slightly advanced level, they may be using some of the other CRM system like Sage Systems’ ACT!, Sugar CRM, vTiger, maybe even SAP, SFDC or CRM OnDemand!!

In any case, the data which was organized differently in the original CRM System needs to be migrated to the new Siebel CRM System. There would be data about Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Products, their Prices and many more. Siebel Database is highly Normalised (though Denormalized examples are not uncommon) with nearly 4,500 different tables in Siebel Database. The data from legacy database needs to be migrated into Siebel Database, and the data must conform to the Siebel Data Model of Normalization, and also, the restrictions of User Keys, Required columns, etc. which may not have been the case originally.

This would need a pragmatic approach from the EIM Architect to extract data and intelligently map it into the Siebel Database, something with needs for high skills, and hard work.

The basic process in its simplest representation involves extracting data from legacy systems in a TXT or CSV file, importing it into the Siebel EIM_ tables (also referred to as Staging, performed using tools like SQL Loader), and finally running the Siebel EIM process to import the data into Siebel Base Tables (S_ tables). The entire gamut of Foreign Keys resolution, Duplicate Data, User Keys, Required Columns and the like come into the picture at this stage.

EIM, through its elaborate architecture allows us to Import, Update, or Delete data in a Siebel Database.

Major Pain Areas:
1) Long Working hours in initial Designing phase. This is a pain when you see colleagues from other modules laughing it off when the project has barely begun. Also, at the time of final migration in Production, it may involve sleepless nights as the Production environment may be brought down for a very limited time only.
2) High amount of documentation needed in the mapping initially. You can also expect multiple rounds of reviews and corrections.
3) Most of the work is related to creating CTL and IFB files in Text files. You may feel it getting monotonous at times.
4) Mostly related to Databases. So, it is more of a personal inclination and choice.

Advantages of being a Siebel EIM Expert:
1) Well paying. Simple concept of supply and Demand. Siebel EIM professionals are usually in high demand, and can expect excellent renumerations.
2) Excellent architectural skills. Any Siebel EIM expert will be extremely well versed with Siebel Data Model, and thus, the Siebel Architecture.
3) Excellent Database handling skills. Extensive use of DB. Make sure you like working with RDBMS, SQLs and the like before jumping into it.
4) Interesting work. This is more of a personal choice I would say. Even then, with the requirements varying from project to project, EIM Architects are generally at the top of their life. Not to mention the frequent client Interactions.
5) Excellent Networking Opportunity. You would need to involve almost everybody in the team such that the data migrated confirms to the requirements of all individual modules.
6) I have noticed very few changes in Siebel EIM process as such moving from 7.7, 7.8, 8.0 and finally to 8.1 as yet. Changes in Data Model must be very clearly understood though. For the ones looking for stability in life, and complaining about ever changing softwares in the market, this could just the thing!

All in all, a very challenging domain, very interesting, and highly paying to work in.

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