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Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - LIVE FROM SF - #5

Rosewat said, while its great to be validated by analysts our most important validation is from you - (PG:I wish that people would stop saying that. Its a tired cliche - though might even be true. Just don't say it) Ahhh. Oracle Beehive - back to Charles Philips. Yes. Integrated. Secure. Rosewat - built from scratch over 3 yrs. Collaboration Server - uses email, wiki, voice, conferencing, discussions, voicemail, blogs, chats - communications. next - joint calendar, task, tags, contacts, search, presence - collaboration. (PG: This is REALLY nice. Denis and I think that Anthony Lye has to have something to do with this). "Collaboration fragmentation" is the norm. What I did with IM and email are fragmented. They are integrated in Beehive. One integrated product - rules, preferences, groups. Users as group that apply to all apps. Apply security rules to each group if you want. One server for all forms of communications. Virtually one server - for centralized administration. This, of course, integrates with all other Oracle products. DB as a respository. Major components of Fusion middleware stack for identity management, etc. and uses Web Center. Can define user roles, security policy. Beehive is open - Can use choice of client - Outlook, Apple tools, open source from Mozilla, or other calendar clients. Infra choice - windows, linux, unix, (PG: No mention of Mac though). Can co-exist with MSFT Exchange, or Cisco Call Manager (PG: I'm going to be doing a piece on Cisco soon. Watch for it. They are major). Philips mocked Exchange of course (PG: Sigh). Open Development platform - industry standard - .NET, BPEL, Web services; Demo from two members of "Beehive colony." For demo - Rozwat - "I'm a MAC and Charles is a PC" (PG: An Oracle joke. Both PC). Can't reproduce this well. Using Outlook with Beehive server. Can store recorded audio, text etc. in a workspace, enhanced. Can become a team workspace inside of Outlook too. Can share all "buddylists" calendars etc. by being added to team space. Real time collaboration in web conference. Show collaboration on slides. Security is strong. Delete is true delete. Can have workspace access control. Easy to remove a participant. Beekeeper is the name of console. Strong audit trail. Hands on demo available. (PG: Seems to be a very cool product, though I didn't a get great feel for how it works with 2.0 technologies at all. I'll get the demo and report later) Talking about Database product. Hand rest time.

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - LIVE FROM SF - #4

videos continuing....(I'm taking a short break while they go on) Back... Philips talks of insurance and health sciences as new industry units (PG: actually a bit surprised. Thought they already had that but good move in any case) Chuck Rozwat - EVP Oracle Product Devt. - middleware and database guy. Been at Oracle 13.5 yrs. Oracle apps strategy is his bailiwick. Three elements of horizontal apps strategy.

1. Applications Unlimited - continued enhancements and lifetime support for existing products.
2. Fusion Apps - new interface, new technology for intelligence, new experience
3. Deliver the way you want it - hosted, on premise or hybrid. You pick it.

Lots of 2008 innovations - 10 new Siebel 8.0 products; 366 enhancements; E-Business Suite 12 - 1466 enhancements, 2 products. E-Business 12.1 preview out. - Adding supply chain, mfg., HR modules which 12.0 enhanced financials. Common dashboards, recruiting, etc. Social CRM is a hosted CRM offering - Web 2.0 enhancements to allow salespeople to communicate with each other and customers. Siebel 8.1 includes loyalty apps. Now onto middleware strategy which I'm going to let slide because my hands hurt. Ahhhhh. Rest is blissful.....

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - LIVE FROM SF - #3

Place is packed. Judy Sims is finishing up. 3600 Oracle staff here and 45,000 hours go into making the event worth it. 190,000 coffees served - 145,000 to me.... Charles Philips hits the stage in a nice suit. "This is the most exciting time of the year at Oracle." Have thousands of developers working - we show you it and get your feedback and validation. "Thank you for being here." "Its been a year of innovation." Oracle has 3000 products. Oracle investing $3 billion in R&D. 20,000 developers, 30,000 servers. 300,000 test scripts run every nite. (PG: Jeez). "We expect to deliver enhancements & innovations forever." "We are the largest enterprise software company in the world." 1200 patents. Now he's taking about acquisitions. Over last five years 50 acquistions. $34 billion for them. List includes PeopleSoft & Siebel. Went from 40,000 to 85,000 employees 1/3 from acquisitions. Largest one recently is BEA. 1500 BEA conference attendees. (PG: I'll keep the focus around CRM tho' mention others. Maybe I'll be nice, maybe snarky. Let's see....) Growing number of products that are "business operational" which is his way of saying vertical products; enterprise and database/middleware are the other categories. "22.4 billion dollars - 25% growth, in 2007." Over the last year stock up 18%. Philips: Strategy is "Complete. Open. Integrated." They apply to everything we do. Don't forget check out Josh Weinberger's tweets on this as its going on. Get all the components necessary to run the enterprise (PG - Complete, I presume), then standardize through web services so the components can communicate and then provide a means for other apps (non-Oracle) to communicate (Open?) and then build the integration to make them work (this one's easy - Integrate). (PG: neat little formulation tho' not that easy no matter who you are or what you do. But this is a speech not a project map). Oracle claims leadership in a lot of verticals like Retail, banking, public sector, financial services and also in CRM. (PG: like them to prove that to me though they can make that claim in CRM). Out of the blue introduced Michael Phelps to the audience. Phelps says his 8 gold medals "a fun week." Philips interviewed Phelps. He's using Phelps to talk about Oracle. Phelps describing his Olympian routine/Phelps diet. Sleep, eat, swim, sleep, eat, swim. Phelps says he's never been in front of this many (live) people. Phelps has some stage presence as but the whole thing is a bit labored - though Phelps is a nice enough guy, so not horrible all in all. But it sounded scripted. Back to Philips - "thought that we'd both wear Speedos but I didn't think it was a good idea for you." Applications area - traditional ERP/CRM horizontals are one area - we're #1. Then there are industry apps - highly specialized. Strategic to customer. (their numbers are pretty big here - claims to have for example 11/11 top Aero & Defense industry leaders; 20/20 top Banks; 20/20 top retailers) (PG: though that covers "uses our products"). Introducing the head of their Global Communications Unit - Bhaskar Gorti, SVP and GM of the Unit - "how to move from back office to front office and into telco revenue generating operations. Have put together dream team (PG- original) of leaders in innovation." They have 7 products on the screen at the moment - Siebel, TimesTen, NetCall, POrtal, MetaSolv, netsure, BEA. (PG: DOn't know much of them). (PG: Puts up a 2004 diagram and a current diagram that is so complex that it loses me). (PG: Takes a gratuitous swipe at SAP in the telecom industry. I HATE IT WHEN COMPANIES DO CRAP THAT LIKE. Just a waste of time. Oracle can make its own case for its own capabilities without swiping at SAP. For example, NetApp is a HUGE sponsor of Oracle today and yet, they have a 24,500 user deployment of SAP. Hmmmmm. Maybe they should attack Netapp for their SAP deployment). Oracle shows their AIA - Applications Integration Architecture - which is a very strong standards based integration framework. They give this platform to ISVs, hosting services, systems integrations - this is not a custom integration - but a formalization of how integration is done. (PG - good for them. Right on for this one). That way they show ordering, billing and customer care fully integrated for telco. Jan Muchoz - KPN's CIO - 35 million customers in Benelux and Germany - did a full bore project for integrating (as it says above) in 7 months. time. Time to market expected to improve 30%. Now some videos...I'll post this and set up the next one.

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - LIVE FROM SF - #2

The cellist's name is Zoe Keating, Michael Krigsman tells us and she is now done and her music is playing via recording. If she has CD, I'm getting it or I'll download from Itunes (I'll be right back....) Just bought her 1 Cello X 16 album.... ....the music for the intro with multiple GIANT multimedia displays of the world flashing..... ..."Please Welcome Judy Sim..." (she's Oracle's CMO). She says there are 43,000 and they are personalizing this to be "Your OpenWorld" - they launched Oracle Mix - the social networking site for the conference which has 25,000 members. There are 400 of the sessions (1830 in total) that were the results of the community's members. Top five feedback:

1. There are still a conference printed agenda that is one third smaller and green
2. Fewer keynotes - "we heard you" but they still have one keynote block for each of three days which is alot to me. Not one keynote but one keynote "Block" per day
3. Wanted dedicated exhibit hall hours. So they have 1.5 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday for exhibit hall only
4. More unconferences. You guys know what that is, right? They are built in every day. Moscone West on 3rd floor
5. More lounges for networking. Each of four content streams has a lounge area and hot spot wifi areas "to continue the conversation online."

. Have 110 digital kiosks for all information for conference and maps. Oracle shopping discounts at Bloomies!! (15%. Come spend $1700 to attend and get that discount). Green, stationary bikes that power cellphones and laptops!! For some reason, they have Michael Phelps coming to do a drawing for a backstage pass to meet their music headliners - Seal, Gin Blossoms, UB40, Alan Jackson, Elvis Costello and Psychedelic Furs. I scratch my head a little on that one. Okay enough. #3 will be the Philips keynote.

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - LIVE FROM SF - #1

I'm going to try something that I normally never do with this blog - a live blog from Oracle OpenWorld 2008 on the keynote of Charles Phillips. We'll see how it goes. Also, check out Josh Weinberger's tweets on it. Josh is the managing editor of CRM Magazine and a stellar writer and person. Follow him on this. I'm sitting next to him at the press/blogger tables at OpenWorld. Usually, I'm at these events as an analyst but this time they got me in as a blogger so the perspective is very different. But Oracle is doing this right. We had separate entrance so that we could miss the crowds which apparently are backed up from the inside of the Moscone Center North all the way out to Mission Street in a single line. There are close to 45,000 at this event. Which is a staggering number. Right now, the conference hall is bathed in Oracle red and there is a very good classical cellist playing solos on stage - has a punk haircut - but very good. The crowds are moving in and starting to fill the place up. It's all so weird to me because of the level of activity and the anticipation you'd think Obama or McCain was giving a very important presentation. The buzz is around Oracle Beehive which they are going to release today. Its a collaboration tool that they claim is going to make bloggers and blogging "mainstream" though I have to tell you, given the amount of attention they've given bloggers here, you have to think its a mainstream media form already. ....the cellist is playing what Denis Pombriant (who is on my right along with ZDNet star blogger Michael Krigsman - great guy BTW) primordial music and its building to this amazing crescendo - contemporary and oozing from the primordial sludge all at once..... .....the crowds keep rolling, actually given the activity levels, they are roiling not rolling. There is even a section for Oracle Gold members who are like 1K members that fly United or some superclub benefit or another..... ......I'm impressed with the crowds. There is a large smattering (rather than rousing) of applause for the cellist.... ....I'm impressed with the pomp and circumstance but we'll see how impressed I am with the keynote. Stay tuned.

Oracle Takes It To the Ballpark

A couple of days ago, Oracle announced that they had developed a "pre-built" integration between a single instance of Siebel and CRM on Demand, the Oracle version of SaaS CRM - around and refined since Siebel purchased Upshot in 2003. What it does fundamentally is simple. It provides synchronized customer data between the two applications - which starts with an instance of Siebel and extends to however many "instances" of the subscription based CRM on Demand that are linked to it.

It seems simple enough and truthfully, when I heard about it, I thought it was interesting and certainly a plus for Oracle because it made the purchase of Oracle on Demand even more appealing at the departmental level of any enterprise that had Siebel as its core system. But all in all it seemed to be something that was designed to improve the cost effectiveness of Oracle investments. The Siebel instance on the Oracle database using Oracle Application Integration Architecture and Fusion Middleware to share data between Oracle On Demand users and the Siebel instance "holder." It was a hybrid model that seemed to work well with what were likely existing investments. Which is great and good for those using the appropriate tools but it had a so what element to it.

During the pre-briefing with SVP of Oracle CRM Anthony Lye (if you don't know him, you should. Smart and a good guy), I asked a question that elevated it beyond a "good for Oracle" ho-hum thing. Two questions actually.

The one for clarification was simple. What is an "instance" of Siebel? Did it mean a single module or a total deployment. Luckily, it meant the use of however many and whichever modules of Siebel at a single site. That was a good thing.

But what made this more than interesting was the second question. If I was the brandholder and I had a single instance of several Siebel modules including Siebel Partner Relationship Management - one of the few remaining suite-level good PRM applications - could the data of a partner or channel member with CRM on Demand be synchronized with the brandholder HQ instance of Siebel?

I got the answer I was hoping for.

Yes.

This makes this a far more interesting integration - once outside the enterprise firewall. Channels don't always consist of strategic partners who have lots of resources to buy their own instances of Siebel or to developing the easiest means of integrating CRM related data with their brandholding chieftain company. As often as not, they are smaller companies hitching their wagons to the brandholder's star. As a result, they have to ordinarily depend on the brandholder to provide them with the benefits and the data which has historically not been integrated with the smaller company's system. There was no cost effective way for the brandholder to provide the data to potentially thousands of channel members nor was there a way for the brandholder to access the thousands of channel members data so that each one was protected - well, that's not entirely true. There were ways (and are ways) but it wasn't and isn't an easy working solution.

What makes the Oracle integration interesting on the face of it (I haven't seen it either as a demo or in a live situation yet) is that it can do that - provided of course that you've invested sufficiently in Oracle products. But taking it to the channel and making CRM on Demand the end of the spoke with a good PRM product, Siebel PRM as the hub is an interesting proposition that makes it well worth following. When I see it live, I'll be a happy camper if it does work as it apparently can. It has a chance of bringing back some renewed vigor to the world of PRM. Which would be a good thing.

Technorati : CRM on Demand, Oracle, PRM, Siebel, partner relationship management
Del.icio.us : CRM on Demand, Oracle, PRM, Siebel, partner relationship management

Sometimes Technology Amazes Me and I'm Not A-Skeered.

I'm of the mind that Cisco is the great hidden player in the world of the social customer. Though at this point the whole subject is getting so pervasively staggering that I'm just going to call it Sentient Being 2.0 or Gaia 2.0 or something. I think that there is so much going on at Cisco that we don't cover in our analyses and yet, I see them everywhere doing amazing things. I want all of you to just simply watch this video and though the technology is amazing and part of it all - listen to the discussion toward the end. Cisco just seems to understand. They seem to understand. They just seem to.

Technorati : CRM 2.0, Cisco, Enterprise 2.0, social customer, telepresence

I Read the (Industry) News Today Oh Boy (5 months Late)

I just found that I came in #1 on the Best ERP Blogs of 2007 list from ERP360Software.com's Julian Petersen. That's outright cool because even though I focus on the frontside, I got an award for my coverage of the backside .

I didn't mean it that way.

C'mon!!

Thank you, Julian. I'm know a little late saying that but I appreciate your honor.

Technorati : ERP