What Is in an Oracle BRM system?

The BRM system is an integral part of your business. Below Figure shows how BRM components work with your other software components.

In this figure:

• BRM clients interface to your services and capture data about customer service usage. For example, RADIUS Manager collects information from your terminal server about the customer's session. BRM clients also include BRM applications, such as Customer Center and Pricing Center.

• BRM Connection Managers (CMs) process the data collected by BRM clients. For example, when a customer logs in, the Connection Manager determines how to validate the login name and sends a validation request to the BRM database.

• BRM Data Managers (DMs) translate BRM operations into a language that databases can understand. For example, a request for a login validation or credit card verification is translated into a database query.

• The BRM database stores customer account data and business data, such as your price list, G/L data, and records of all events that occur in the BRM system.

For more information about the BRM system, see "BRM System Architecture".

How the BRM Database Stores Data in Real Time

The BRM database stores data in objects. For example, there are objects that store information about accounts, events, bills, services, and price list elements such as products.

Each object includes fields; each field contains a specific piece of data. For example:

• The account object includes fields that contain the customer's first name, last name, and account status.

• Event objects include fields that contain the start and stop times of the event, the account that generated the event, and the balance impact of the event.

• Configuration objects contain data used by the system. For example, the /config/glid object includes the L/G IDs used for collecting L/G data.

Developers who create custom applications, or customize BRM source code, must know about objects and fields.

If you implement BRM, but are not a developer, it sometimes helps to know about objects and fields to understand how BRM works