We are attending Siebel 8 Courses from Oracle University

In order to offer an updated and 360 degrees consultancy, we have started attending all the Oracle Siebel 8 available courses (Transfer of Information series) through Oracle University affiliation.
We feel the importance of being continuously updated on the latest technologies because this enable us to support professionally our customers and it helps foreseeing the strategy and direction of the vendor, Oracle, in this case.
Being trained by Oracle itself on the Siebel 8 version is dramatically important. This is, in fact, the first release that is entirely supported and "signed" by Oracle; and this is visible.
If the passage from 7.5 to 7.7/7.8 introduced new functionalities (above all on the web application side) and some different concepts (as bringing the Workflows design into Tools), Siebel 8.0 brings brand new integrated technologies (let's think about all the Business Rules Enginy and Haley metadata repository) as well as new logical layers in the architecture (i.e. the Siebel Management Server), together with a strategic approach that is quite different from the original Siebel.
With a complete Overview of all the Siebel 8.0 enhancements it's quite easy to understand the new Oracle strategy towards the Oracle Fusion platform and it's also understood that the upgrade that many customers (willing or not) will have to face, won't be painless.

Our Oracle "knowledge update" is covering the following courses:

- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Application Deployment Manager Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Connector for SAP R3 Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Data Quality Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Test Automation Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Server Sync Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Security Enhancement Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Search Configuration and Execution Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Search Administration Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Search - Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Integration Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Scripting Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Rules Engine Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Remote Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel MS Office Integration Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Diagnostic Tool Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Handheld and Wireless Functional Overview;
- Siebel CRM Integration Pack for Oracle Order Management Functional Overview (Part1 and Part2);
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Customer Order Management - Web Services Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Pricing Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Life Sciences Marketing Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Insurance Claims Module Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Case management Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Installation and Configuration Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Multiserver Installation Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Marketing Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Universal Customer Master - Privacy Management Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Portfolio Management Process Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Forecasting Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Territory Management Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Tools Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Upgrade Technical Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Task-Based UI Functional Overview;
- Siebel 8.0: Siebel Partner Relationship Management Functional Overview.

Lack of CRM?... Even worse...

Some time ago, not so far to be honest, I was commenting the CRM consultancy scenario, underlying how poor this approach to services is among the stakeholders involved in a COTS application development and deployment.
Actually, too many times the implementation of a CRM platform is entrusted to people that, in the best cases, are technically skilled in the specific platform, but know not so much regarding the reason of CRM as a strategy that should involve all the organization levels. And, believe me, I am on the side of these technical experts (I am an IT engineer, in the end), because at least they know what they are talking about and they will surely explain you what is reasonable to be done with your brand new Package, or what is really absurd to implement. I would have much more to say regarding the so called "strategy experts", that often have never challenged themselves with concrete problems and the daily routine tasks that a lot of employees have to execute every working day.
But this consideration cannot bring me to accept what is happening in the IT scenario in relation to off-shore consultancy. Cheaper? ok; Practical? Perfect; efficient? Great... but if we arrive at the point that our European consultancy skills are evaluated by thousands of kilometers distant technical consultants.. well, no, now there's something that does not work properly.
Apart from the total lack of a European identity and, above all, the pride of belonging to the most ancient history and prestigious culture, what surprises me is some organizations' perspective.
Is it possible that a European client selects external consultancy entrusting off-shore companies that make selections evaluating European skilled consultants? Yes.. and it has already happened.
So what about quality? what about CRM? what about the ability to offer services that imply not only the specific platform knowledge, but also a good awareness of the market, of the culture, of the hidden needs that always an organization implicitly have?

At the beginning of this year I was already doing some considerations about Packaged Applications (PAs) - such as Siebel or SAP, and the relation to off-shore development. From my point of view, the raise of this kind of "development" witnesses the defeat of the PAs concept: a ready-to-be-used application that can be easily customized and that enables the internally retention of the business processes knowledge. This is the concept that have made Siebel's fortune at the end of the 90's, for example.
Then everybody has understood that all those gold promises, apart from being good marketing, had not so solid basis... Ok, it's straightforward that every organization wants to implement its own strategy, its own processes, and cannot accept to rely on the 80% of the off-the-shelf functionalities; otherwise how one company could be better than another??
But the answer cannot be now applying the old pattern of the custom development! We are returning to the old, pure, development model!
The fact that PAs have disappointed its customers, does not mean that the original idea was bad or wrong! It simply demonstrates that customization, even if not development (as Siebel initially stated), cannot abstract from a good Business Analysis, a Design Methodology or IT Engineering, otherwise who customizes the application cannot be totally aware of the original requirements!
So what has happened? That we are returning to the origins, and now a PA is treated just like a custom Java application! And that's even worse..

Personally I will continue investing in applied research, in an approach to modeling, designing and customizing, that enables my clients to walk by their own in their CRM journey, with the certainty that they base their application management on a solid methodology and that, when change happens, they can always refer to me or my methodology aware colleagues.
This has been the aim of my Ph.D. thesis and this will be my effort in the consultancy offer, together with the new approach and possibilites offered by tools like TIBCO Business Studio or the Oracle BPA suite.
Our aim must be correcting the errors and lacks of the first and second PAs generation, not overstaying on a wrong but trendy and third-parties remunerative model.