Enhancing your Siebel CRM Self-Study Environment to 8.1.1.10

Dears,

Many of my dear readers have followed this popular article in order to install a Siebel 8.1.x self-study environment on their laptops or workstations. A self-study environment consists of the following:

• Siebel Developer (or 'Mobile') Web Client
• Siebel Tools
• Siebel Sample Database

It provides a lot of benefits for the ambitious Siebel professional. Having all "vanilla" applications along with plenty of sample data (iHelp, anyone?) at your fingertips makes learning, evaluating and prototyping so much easier.

Now the winds of change are in full force with Siebel 8.1.1.10 just having been released last week.

Today I would like to point out the major steps to "upgrade" your self-study environment to the latest release.

These are the steps:

1. Download and extract the installation archives
2. Create the installation image
3. Install the patch
4. Copy the new sample database and SRF files (optional)
5. Test

1. Download and extract the installation archives

Log on to Oracle's Software Delivery Cloud (aka E-Delivery) and accept the export restrictions. In the Search form, choose Siebel CRM as the Product Pack and Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) as the Platform. Then hit the Go button.

In the result list, locate the entry named "Siebel Business Applications (with Translations) Media Pack 8.1.1.10/8.1.1 for Microsoft Windows" and click on it.

Scroll down to the second list (below the language pack list) and download the following files:

• Siebel Industry Applications Version 8.1.1.10 Maintenance Release Guide
• Siebel Industry Applications Version 8.1.1.10 Siebel Client
• Siebel Industry Applications Version 8.1.1.10 Siebel Tools 
• Siebel Business Applications Version 8.1.1.10 Sample Database Files 
• Siebel Business Applications Version 8.1.1.10 Siebel Repository Files 
• Siebel Business Applications Version 8.1.1.10 ImageCreator Files 

Files to be downloaded from Oracle's Software Delivery Cloud for patching a Siebel CRM self-study environment to 8.1.1.10 are highlighted in red.

Extract the contents of the Client, Tools and ImageCreator archives into a single folder as usual. Keep the other archives for later use.

While on E-Delivery, you might want to download the Base and Thirdparty archives and any language pack you need for server installations as well but for the self-study environment you won't need them.

2. Create the installation image

If you haven't been involved in the last patches for Siebel CRM, you might be searching for the Siebel Network Image Creator executable a while. Since 8.1.1.8, we use the snic.batfile to invoke it.

Before you run the snic.bat file, ensure that the JAVA_HOME environment variable points to a valid Java SDK.

Proceed through the dialogues as usual, choosing the following options:

• Create a new image
• Create only a patch image
• Location: Choose a target directory
• Platform: Windows
• Products: Siebel Web Client and Siebel Tools
• Languages: ENU and any other you might need

When the wizard completes, you will find the Siebel installation image files in the target directory.

3. Install the patch

Befaure launching the patch installer, ensure that you have exited all instances of Siebel Developer/Mobile Web Client and Siebel Tools. Just to be on the safe side, close all instances of Internet Explorer too.

To install the patches, navigate to the installation image folder for the respective product and open the Disk1/install subdirectory. Launch the setup.bat file.

This will bring up Oracle Universal Installer. The only thing you need to watch out for is to select the proper Oracle Home and Oracle Location. If you have only one instance of Siebel 8.1.x client and tools on your machine, it'll be probably alright with the defaults.

The installer will back up the existing installation and then applies the patch. Wait for the installer to display a completion message.

4. Copy the new sample database and SRF files (optional)

A big difference to earlier maintenance releases is that the good people at Oracle have decided to create a new sample database which supports all enhancements of 8.1.1.10 (that is the repository contains all 'ACRs' since 8.1.1.1 and the database schema changes are applied).

In addition, you can also download a set of SRF files which match the content of the new vanilla repository with all cumulative enhancements.

So the good news is we can simply extract the Repository Files and Sample Database Files archives to a location of our choice and copy the SRF files (there's one for each language pack) to the respective /OBJECTS folder (don't forget to copy it to the Siebel Tools folder as well) and copy the new sse_samp.dbf file to the SAMPLE\UTF8 folder of the client installation directory.

In case you have done some prototyping in your "old" sample database, you might want to rename your previous versions of SRF and DBF files so you can still access them using a copy of your existing .cfg files.

As you might be aware, the new Incremental Repository Merge feature provides for a secure way to apply the innovation pack features into an existing customized repository but is for server databases only.

I tend to archive my prototypes as .sif files on a regular basis and so I can inject them into the new vanilla repository if need be.

5. Test

Launch your Siebel shortcuts to ensure that everything is in place. If you want to evaluateOpen UI or the new mobile applications you might need to set the parameterEnableOpenUI to TRUE in the .cfg file and use the /b switch in your shortcuts to open the Siebel Web Client in a browser of your choice.

Siebel 8.1.1.10 sample database on Open UI in full glory, complete with reports panel.

Reference :

 http://siebel-essentials.blogspot.in/2013/03/upgrading-your-siebel-crm-self-study.html?spref=bl

Best Regards 

DC*

Deciphering Oracle Fusion Applications Architecture

Dears,

Before we start this fusion series ,My many thanks to Alex for enlightening us with his simple but powerful thoughts around Fusion Apps.I have taken the privilege to share this in my blog post.

The unique and highly anticipated product offering that Oracle has in its portfolio - namely Oracle Fusion Applications - is a complete enterprise application suite ranging from CRM over Financials, SCM and HCM, just to name a few of the modules available.

We all know the story. Fusion Applications is both old and new, having been in the making for almost 8 years and having been released not much more than a year ago as version 1. It kind of reminds me of Aesop's fable "The Tortoise and the Hare" which teaches us that slow and steady wins the race.

Many a myth ranks around the still young software which will (a truly personal opinion of mine) slowly but steady make its way into enterprises around the world over the next decade (and evolve further with that, of course). One of these myths is that the architecture of Fusion Applications is complicated or even frightening.

I'll try to bust that myth today with a diagram I derived from insight gained in a class I'll  finish today as a student.

click to enlarge

This is not the simplest diagram I could have concocted but it's a bit less frightening than this whopper. 

Source: Oracle Enterprise Repository

So let me quickly explain the pieces of the first diagram:

Oracle Identity Management

On the left of the diagram you find all the nice acronyms for the modules that make up Oracle Identity Management (OIM). Being the central instance for user authentication and authorization within the Fusion Applications architecture, it consists of:

• Oracle Internet Directory (OID)
• Oracle Virtual Directory (OVD) (optional)
• Oracle Access Manager (OAM)

OID can connect to a variety of authentication directories, which of course translates to "LDAP" or "Active Directory (AD)" most of the times.

All components of OIM are implemented as applications deployed in two separate WebLogic domains and have their own database (schema) for storing data.

Oracle HTTP Server and WebGate

Connections are routed through the web tier which is comprised of Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) with the WebGate extension.

Fusion Application Server

As you can see from the diagrams above, the Fusion Application Server is quite a beast, a true workhorse having to carry the load - albeit balanced across physical machines - of dozens and dozens of applications which are packed into WebLogic domains.

When you open the hood using Enterprise Manager, you can get a glimpse of what goes on:

The above screenshot shows the content of the Common Domain which contains the common modules such as Help, Functional Setup Manager etc. Quite impressive, isn't it?

Conclusion

As many of us will only have contact with Fusion Applications as a cloud offering, many pieces of this architecture will lay beyond reach behind firewalls. Because of the sheer amount of hardware needed to instil  (pun intended) and run a Fusion Applications environment, it is quite challenging to setup a self-study or evaluation system and stick your nose into it like we are used to from Siebel or other "ancient" systems.

I hope this post helps a bit to lift the veils which shade the truth about the Oracle Fusion Applications architecture. When you look at it from the stratosphere it doesn't look so frightening at all, ain't it? ;-)

Thank P&C

DC*

Latest Innovations for Oracle’s Siebel CRM - Interesting Post

 Oracle's Aaron Shidler on Latest Innovations for Oracle’s Siebel CRM

Oracle’s Siebel CRM continues to deliver innovative new solutions to customers—including six major releases and a newly published product roadmap highlighting planned annual innovation packs through 2015.

We asked Oracle's Aaron Shidler, vice president of CRM product strategy and management, to provide insight into Oracle's ongoing commitment to Oracle's Siebel CRM solutions—including the latest round of product innovations.

Q. Please give us a big-picture look into Oracle's commitment to its Siebel solutions.
A. The track record speaks for itself. Since the acquisition, Oracle's Siebel team has delivered six major releases, containing 39 new products and more than 525 enhancements across 21 industry-specific solutions. Such a commitment makes sense when you have thousands of customers and millions of users—including many very large companies relying on Oracle’s Siebel products for their CRM needs.

Q. What does Oracle's Siebel team have planned for 2013 and beyond? 
A. We've made a clear commitment to Oracle's Siebel customers via our product roadmap and statement of direction to deliver new and innovative solutions on a regular basis. We are currently planning to introduce these solutions in our annual innovation packs and fix packs. And we expect these innovations to be shaped by our regular customer advisory board meetings, where customers are partnering with Oracle to deliver mobile, social, and customer experience solutions that are easy for their customers, partners, and employees to use.

Q. Everyone is talking about customer experience (CX) these days. How is Oracle's Siebel team addressing the CX imperative?
A. Oracle's Siebel is innovating in several areas to drive excellent customer experiences: usability, cross-channel enablement, and mobile.

The main driver for creating a great customer experience is usability—enabling simplicity and productivity for all types of users. To support this in a modern way, we needed to deliver a solution that could be accessed by any browser, via any device, and that leveraged the latest, greatest UI controls. With our latest release, Siebel delivers on all this with a user interface that is

• Contemporary. Siebel runs in all browsers and all browser-capable devices using the latest Web technology standards, such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML 5, while providing a native application user experience.
• Productive. Siebel is designed for a user experience that reduces clutter and user keystrokes.
• User-sensitive. The user experience enables Siebel to adapt to the needs of users—their preferences, their devices, and their desire to complete processes efficiently and effectively.

In terms of cross-channel enablement, Siebel supports a complete set of buy-and-own processes that span multiple channels and leverage multiple Oracle assets. Siebel has lowered the total cost of ownership for customers by providing more than a dozen integrations, including

• Oracle Commerce Solution (formerly ATG) for cross-channel Web commerce
• Oracle Knowledge Management (formerly InQuira) for integrated contextual knowledge used for contact center and self-service capabilities
• Oracle’s Social Relationship Marketing tools for social campaigns and lead generation

Finally, Siebel’s open UI delivers support for mobile platforms across a full range of browsers and devices, including support for device integration, location services, and phone, URL, and contact integration. The same solution customers enjoy in a variety of channels today can be delivered on mobile devices by leveraging out-of-the-box templates or creating your own look and feel. We plan to add disconnected mobile operations in 2013.

Q. Oracle recently acquired several social relationship management (SRM) solutions, including Vitrue and Collective Intellect. How can these acquisitions benefit Oracle's Siebel customers? 
A. We have several plans to leverage our new social capabilities in 2013.

First, we are in the process of delivering an extended schema to support the collection of social attributes that augment customer profiles. This will enable customers to not only know and segment their customers by their transactions, but also create new segments of customers based on social attributes.

In addition to social listening, we are enabling the creation of service requests and leads from our social listening solutions. This will enable our customers to respond to unhappy customers using the power of Siebel Service to resolve the issue and notify the customer directly or through the origin of the complaint. Additionally, companies can listen for customer issues with their competitors’ solutions and create a lead to track to gain market share.

Finally, integration of Oracle's Siebel marketing solutions with Oracle social relationship management solutions will enable marketers to combine traditional and social channels to maximize reach, relevance, and revenue—plus deliver a rich cross-channel customer experience.

Q. Besides CX and SRM, what other strategic areas is the Oracle Siebel team focused on?
A. The Oracle Siebel team is also delivering value for customers in industry innovations and improved total cost of ownership (TCO). For example, key innovations in our December 2012 release include the following.

Industry Innovations

• Next-generation connected mobile solutions for consumer goods and life sciences will enable key industry processes such as retail merchandising and rep sample drops with a fresh and intuitive user interface that leverages the capabilities of modern mobility to simplify and enhance the day of the sales representative.
• For the public sector, we continue to enhance support for complex citizen self-service. We are streamlining the user experience and accessibility for employees, as well as updating eligibility determination for multiple benefit plans and the latest version of Oracle Policy Automation.
• Order-to-bill customer and product integration for utilities companies will enable a productized and supported software integration approach, facilitating a robust integration between Siebel CRM and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing.

TCO Innovations

• Standardization on high-performance Oracle technology for Web services deployment, business analytics reports, and secure enterprise search, including Oracle Exalogic and Oracle Exadata servers.
• Oracle Enterprise Data Quality enables organizations to measure, improve, and manage the quality of data from any domain, including customer data. Oracle Enterprise Data Quality is now integrated with Siebel CRM and Oracle Customer Hub to provide reliable customer data within CRM or across the enterprise. New abilities include matching customer information based on any attribute or child entity, address validation, and standardization, along with better performance.
• Optimized marketing campaign performance created by generating and assigning source code—wave IDs—in dynamic batches greatly reduces time to launch for large multiwave outbound campaigns, and helps organizations improve marketing effectiveness.

Find out more about Oracle's Siebel CRM.

This content is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.