Need to transfigure Siebel?
Siebel 8 Solutions
A white paper from the CRM Centre of Excellence, HCL Technologies Limited.
Why Upgrade?
Every application upgrade an organization undertakes is an attempt to catch up with the growing demands of stakeholders to make the application serve them. The nature and complexity of the upgrade is a function of the gap between what the application currently provides, and what is expected of it in the near and mid term. The nature of the upgrade is also a function of the context in which the current application exists today. This context is defined by several factors like the extent of customization, the number of integration points, the age of the application, the business processes being followed, and the product roadmap of the product vendor, and so on. The need gap and the context go a long way in answering questions like – What version should I upgrade to? Do I need functionality enhancements? Do I need to rebuild my screens? What about user adoption? -- These questions and more like these, present a range of choices and decisions to be taken around a Siebel Upgrade.
An Upgrade, without doubt, is a great way to access the enhanced functionality of Siebel’s latest offering, which in turn can result in great customer service, effective marketing, and result oriented sales performance. As the world’s foremost CRM solutions provider, Siebel is finding innovative ways to make its products better and more effective, by applying features like analytics, service capabilities, and industry focused solutions to its new releases. It is therefore logical for any organization to make the most of it, by adopting the latest solutions to derive business value.
However, on the flipside, a complete upgrade can take months to scope out, authorize and deploy, and can cost thousands of dollars. So it is important to completely understand Siebel upgrades and realize the upgrade objectives to the fullest. A good starting point is to understand why organizations upgrade in the first place.
Siebel is
finding
innovative
ways to make
its products
better and
more effective,
by applying
features like
analytics,
service
capabilities,
and industry
focused
solutions to its
new releases.
A Business Case for Upgrading to Siebel 8.0
Siebel 8.0 offers several enhanced features and best practices in the horizontal application space as well as industry specific solutions (like automotive, communications, financial services, Hi-tech, Life Sciences to name a few). While all the featured enhancements may not directly be relevant to an organization’s current business processes, an upgrade is often an effective way to future-proof the application capabilities to meet growing business needs over the next couple of years. In this context, with Fusion CRM, which is a best of the breed consolidation of all the CRM products from the Oracle family, organizations will find themselves with multiple benefits.
Siebel would be the cornerstone of Oracle’s CRM initiatives in the Fusion era, while the basic architecture for Siebel 8.0 would not be completely different from Siebel 7.7 or 7.8. Further, organizations can experience substantial productivity benefits by having the database and application server running on a single platform, by choosing to leverage current Oracle Fusion middleware and database options. The new enhanced features like task-based UI and enterprise search capabilities are few of the compelling reasons for considering a Siebel 8.0 upgrade.
In addition, an enhanced product feature set offers the additional advantage of reducing application maintenance costs (by providing more out-of-the-box functionalities vis-à-vis customizations) and consequently improved application performance and user productivity.
It would become increasingly expensive for organizations to run their applications prior to Siebel version 7.5.x; infrequent product updates and stoppage of support for operating system and database from third party vendors being two important reasons. In this context, aligning the organization’s applications and platforms with the currently supported versions assures a high level of support commitment and in turn reduces operational costs.
Aligning the
organization’s
applications
and platforms
with the
currently
supported
versions
assures a high
level of
support
commitment
and in turn
reduces
operational
costs
Why upgrade to Siebel 8?
This is a very important question because the answer to this lays the foundation of the approach towards a Siebel 8 upgrade. This also defines the metrics on which the success of an upgrade can be measured, once the upgrade is complete. If, however, there is no articulate answer to this question at this point, browsing through the following sections will provide you clear insights to arrive at a decision for an upgrade.
We have observed that enterprise customers can typically upgrade to Siebel 8 for the following reasons.
Functionality - When the customer’s business demands deeper functional features.
This probably is the most common and most obvious reason why Siebel users upgrade. The new features are typically viewed as a need by the customer, because the current version does not support a specific business process effectively, or it could be a fresh business possibility that is “discovered” because the new version has something very compelling to offer.
For example, prior to Siebel sales 8.0, sales representatives and managers could either view forecasted revenue and product quantity line-by-line or the total revenues and product quantities for the forecast period. The details were difficult to manage, especially in cases of large numbers of opportunities and the Summary view did not provide enough details. With the new product quantity forecasting functionality, provides more granular forecasting schemes for sales managers to easily view product revenues and quantities grouped by different dimension such as product line or product which provides a greater insight into how the total product revenue and quantity are aggregated – enables companies to understand the future demand for their products at product level.
Adoption of best practices – When the customer wants to adopt Industry
Best Practices and is looking for a solution to enable that – This is
especially true when upgrades happen to industry-specific solutions. Siebel has invested significantly in creating industry-specific solutions that are exclusive to the specific business area.
For example, Siebel 8 introduces new significant enhancements designed to optimize territory realignments and clinical trial activities specific for pharmaceutical industries.
Usability – When the customer’s business users can do more with enhanced usability
The extent to which an application is able to deliver value is dependent on the value that is derived out of the application by the business users. This is a usability function of the application -- in terms of how easy it is
The extent to
which an
application is
able to deliver
value is
dependent on
the value that
is derived out
of the
application by
the business
users.
to perform a task through the application. A lot of enhancements made to Siebel 8.0, both functional and technical, primarily focus on reducing TCO, thus improving ROI. This is a leading indicator of user adoption. The Siebel 8 new release accelerates user adoption, enhances business responsiveness and delivers increased value to the enterprise with a new task-based user interface, enterprise search capabilities, Business rule engine used to replace complex scripts with simple business rules and embedded intelligence, driving real-time insight at the moment of customer interaction.
Total Cost of Ownership – Performance and Scalability Improvements Siebel 8.0 includes several enhancements to the Siebel Enterprise server infrastructure, to significantly reduce hardware resources to support all sizes of deployments, which in turn drives down the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). These new enhancements such as effective management of Siebel server shared memory and sophisticated database connection pooling, enables effective utilization of the CPU and frees valuable database server resources, delivering better scalability with the same hardware and improving DBMS server TCO (reduction in DB connection by 20 – 40 per cent, as compared with prior Siebel 7 releases). In addition to this, the enhanced features like fix and go which increases the productivity of the developer and the new task-based user interface significantly contributes in standardizing the business processes across the organization and reducing the training cost as well.
Customers who have Siebel 8 with Oracle 10G RAC, can start with a modest configuration consisting of 1 or 2 nodes and expect good scaling with each node added. For Example, scaling from a single database node to a two-node configuration results in 80% scaling with minimal change in average response per transaction. The 4-node configuration delivers the same 80% scaling versus the single node configuration.
Siebel 8.0
includes
several
enhancements
to the Siebel
Enterprise
server
infrastructure,
to significantly
reduce
hardware
resources to
support all
sizes of
deployments,
which in turn
drives down
the Total Cost
of Ownership
(TCO).
Who should Upgrade to Siebel 8.0 and Why?
Customers using Siebel Version 7.0.4 and below:
Siebel 8 features more advanced functionalities and enhanced out-of-the- box business processes which reduces the customization enforced in the versions 7.0.4 and below. Current Siebel 7.0.x customers facing difficulties with user adoption, screen navigation, or general usability should consider themselves prime candidates for upgrading to 8.0.
Unlike prior versions of Siebel 7.0.x, which are deployed as fat clients, by using Siebel 8, which is a zero foot print deployment, customers can save on huge costs that involves hardware and software resources. Besides, the need for application maintenance through complex customization and extended support fee for the unsupported vendor products is evaded. Especially for the versions prior to Siebel 7.0.4, the maintenance and support fee is comparatively higher as the complete platform (O/S, Database & Apps) is only covered under the extended support category. Enhanced security is enabled in Siebel 8.0 through single sign on feature, which ensures authentication to the users in a more secure manner. It also enables an organization to maintain consistent security policies across applications.
Siebel 8, with customer facing web services model, offers customers the ability to ensure readiness for fusion CRM. Also, with its dynamic features and in built intelligence through enhanced business processes customers can take the full advantage of their CRM application.
For customers running on Siebel 7.0.x or lesser, the initial investment for the upgrade could be on a higher side, primarily because of the overall hardware and software upgrades, and the Siebel 8.0 upgrade itself requires a two step approach, viz.
§ Step 1: Upgrade to Siebel 7.8
§ Step 2: Upgrade Siebel 7.8 to Siebel 8.0
Customers using Siebel Version 7.5.x:
Out-of-the-box Siebel 8.0 provides robust functionalities and best of breed industry specific business processes, which can meet common business requirements, thereby avoiding ‘reinvention of the wheel’ usually achieved through complex customizations. For example, customers using order management functionalities with complex customizations can be benefited by upgrading to Siebel 8.0 to leverage world-class order management functionalities enforced in the application.
Out-of-the-box
Siebel 8.0
provides
robust
functionalities
and best-of-
breed industry
specific
business
processes,
which can
meet common
business
requirements,
thereby
avoiding
‘reinvention of
the wheel’ that
is usually
achieved
through
complex
Siebel 8.0 extends SOA support further by taking high-value application engines and exposing their flexible component functionality as Web Services. As an example, Siebel 8.0 delivers several new pre-built Web Services for critical business functionality areas such as Customer Order Management, wherein customers can take advantage of these SOA infrastructure enhancements to improve cross-functional business processes as well as support a custom or composite user interface.
Siebel 8 is better scalable to accommodate more number of users with the same hardware due to better management of shared memory in the Siebel Servers and mature database connection pooling. This results in significant cost savings for organizations going for global deployments. Note: Customers running on Siebel 7.5.x upgrade directly to version 8.0. Customers using Siebel Version 7.7 and above:
Siebel 8.0 features "industry specific solution sets," pre-bundled best practices, which ensure that the most common business processes are met using the out-of-the-box application.
The central facet of Siebel 8.0's shored up functionality is its task-based user interface, which will be specifically used to support either casual users or for handling more infrequent tasks where users tend to struggle. This will reduce training and help-desk costs in supporting user adoption. Change management is another main focus area. Siebel 8 features a drag-and -drop environment that requires no coding. This feature allows line-of-business personnel to create and manage line-of-business rules in real-time. As for search enhancements, Siebel 8 provides New and enhanced search capabilities which improves the usability, information discovery and enhances end-user productivity through the ability to retrieve information both in and outside of the CRM application. Siebel 8.0 enables customers to effectively use SOA to rapidly compose applications that cross areas of business, technologies and data stores. Furthermore, with the extended Web UI DDK, like the pre built web services, developers can now create custom Web user interfaces displaying Siebel content.
Siebel 8 is bundled with features that make the business cycle relatively easier than ever. We’ve listed out a few:
§ Business Rule Engine
§ Centralized Read / Write Audit Trail Administration § Extended integration with Microsoft Products
§ Siebel Customer Data Integration § Enhanced Siebel Mobile Solution
Siebel 8 is
scalable to
accommodate
more number
of users with
the same
hardware due
to better
management
of shared
memory in the
Siebel Servers
and mature
database
connection
pooling.
This results in
significant cost
savings for
organizations
going for
global
deployments.
Note: Siebel supports direct upgrade to version 8, for customers running on Siebel 7.5.x and above.Upgrade Readiness
QUESTION DESCRIPTION
Have you prepared Siebel
Upgrade business plan? It is a very good idea to have one that represents CRM’s baseline regardless of whether management requires such a document. What are the business
drivers for a decision to upgrade to 8.0?
You should perform a detailed analysis on what exactly are the main drivers for going in for an upgrade – is it corporate driven, or contract driven, or to take advantage of new features, reduce operational costs etc?
Is it really worth investing in
an upgrade to Siebel 8.0? If your organization plans to continue using Siebel for the next 2-3 years, with an acceptable and tangible return on investment, it definitely justifies an upgrade, since you will be able to take advantage of the advanced functionalities, availability of new technology, and a clear and easy migration strategy to Fusion. Have High level business
requirements been defined? In Siebel Upgrade this activity should be separate from the formal developments project for two reasons: § Business requirements will dictate whether the Upgrade
program moves forward,
§ They require involvement from stakeholders who might not be available during the upgrade process
Have success metrics been
established? This is required to measure the success of upgrade? Although many companies don’t require success metrics to be implemented, they’re an effective safety net for after the system is upgraded
Is the expected user behavior
agreed upon? This would help build a consensus on how you want the users to behave differently is important. Can you map the new
functionality to upgrade solution?
Customer data is complex more often than it’s straightforward. This usually means defining data requirements along with business requirements. At some point you’ll need to know whether future business requirements could be implemented in the upgraded
external system interfaces and is there an integration plan?
external systems before and after the upgrade
Do systems of your upgraded Siebel users support the new version?
The user IT infrastructure (desktop applications, OS, Browser) needs to be compatible with the new version
Has the hardware sizing
being done? This is important from both the perspectives of procurement as well as cost discovery. Are you facing increased
support costs because of using a Siebel version 7.0 or earlier?
Earlier versions cost higher to support because either the vendor has discontinued support or the customized applications are expensive to maintain or enhance. Siebel 8.0 with its out of the box functionalities and committed support from Oracle, assures customers of continued support and a lower operational cost. It would be a sensible option to upgrade to 8.0 since it provides a migration path to Fusion, if eventually needed.
Have you done extensive customization on your Siebel application and facing
application support issues?
Many end-user functionalities and administrative tasks as well have been enhanced in 8.0 thereby reducing the need for customizing the application and leveraging out of the box functionalities to a large extent.
Have you done an application audit and analysis to justify going for an upgrade?
The organization should involve the IT support teams, key stakeholders, and third party consultants (if needed) to analyze and confirm that Siebel 8.0 does contain added functionality which complements their current or proposed business processes, and would be possible to implement with a positive ROI.
Although this is not a comprehensive checklist, it does cover the most important elements on which organizations can assess their Siebel upgrade readiness.
Conclusion
Siebel 8.0, OOTB provides enhanced functionalities based on customer driven best practices and offers greater value for the business with its enhanced features and capabilities. By upgrading to Siebel 8.0, customers can be assured of maximum returns on their CRM investment. Siebel 8 offers 366 enhancements that extend Oracle's investment in industry-specific CRM and enables companies to propel business growth through customer-driven business transformation.
Apart from the various benefits which have been discussed in the earlier sections, Siebel 8.0 is the only version to move forward to fusion CRM. Hence organizations using Siebel CRM aiming to align with the market trends and having a roadmap to fusion CRM should consider upgrading to Siebel 8.
Siebel 8.0 and the move to Fusion
Organizations considering an eventual migration to the Oracle Fusion applications should upgrade to a version of Siebel that will be supported through 2012 when the Fusion applications are expected to mature to the point where they match Siebel 8.0. The most compelling reason to move to Siebel version 8.0 is that to upgrade from Siebel to Fusion CRM, customers will have to be on Siebel 8.0. From a functionality perspective, Oracle Fusion will be a combination of the most mature/appropriate modules of the applications owned by Oracle. Migration from later versions of Siebel CRM (version 8.0 and future 8.x releases) to Fusion will also be easier than earlier releases.
Siebel 8.0 is the
only version to
move forward
to Fusion
CRM.
Hence
organizations
using Siebel
CRM aiming to
align with
market trends
and having a
roadmap to
Fusion CRM
should
consider
upgrading to
Siebel 8.
Fusion CRM Applications 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006First Set of Composite Applications based on OFM Applications V 1
Fusion CRM Applications
Siebel V 8.0, EBS R 12, PeopleSoft Enterprise V 9 Certified with Oracle Fusion Middleware (OFM)
Siebel Acquisition by Oracle
* Applications Unlimited *
Native SOA, Cross Industry Functionality
Fusion
CRM
Road
Map
Some of Oracle’s key initiatives while moving towards Fusion CRM would involve:
§ Certifying applications and upgrading them on Fusion Middleware.
§ Delivering packaged composite applications and processes.
§ Developing CRM Fusion Applications using Fusion Middleware tools. (SOA enablement)
§ Focusing on Siebel CRM as the primary design point.
§ According to Gartner, “By 2010, 80% of Oracle's Fusion CRM application functionality will be based on Siebel CRM functionality”.
Oracle will continue to enhance Siebel 8.0, Oracle EBS r.12 and PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 beyond the introduction of Fusion CRM as part of its "Applications Unlimited" initiative. The enhancements will include further service enablement of these applications, including\ coarse-grained services; although Oracle has not stated that these services will match the Fusion CRM business service definitions.
According to
Gartner:
“By 2010, 80%
of Oracle's
Fusion CRM
application
functionality
will be based
on Siebel CRM
functionality”
HCL Upgrade Service offering
HCL offers a wide range of Siebel upgrade services to cater to all possible needs and customer situations.
Our Siebel upgrade service offerings are -
1. Upgrade Assessment Service – Our team of Siebel upgrade experts
works with our customers to assess the need and readiness of their Siebel application upgrade from an organizational, change management, functional, and technology perspective.
Our avant-garde Upgrade Assessment Framework – ‘Upgrade PAPER’ (Plan, Assess, Prepare, Execute and Roll-out) aims in envisioning the upgrade roadmap by bringing together the comprehensive and vital information required for an upgrade. The ‘Upgrade PAPER’ can help customers in assessing the existing Siebel CRM application and analyze new product functionality thereby suggesting the right upgrade path, evaluating complexities, identifying common upgrade issues and estimating the cost and effort required to upgrade your Siebel application.
2. As-is Upgrades – Our team helps in executing upgrades from older
Siebel versions to newer versions with minimal data migration and enhancements. These upgrades typically enable organizations to take advantage of the new key features in the later versions of Siebel, erstwhile not available in earlier versions.
3. As-is Upgrades with Data Migration – This service is intended for
customers with huge volumes of data being managed by their Siebel application and can afford very low server down time, and for customers with multi-site Siebel deployments requiring phased roll outs for specific geographies due to business constraints.
4. Upgrades with Application Enhancements – Our team of Siebel experts
works with our Customers to not only upgrade to the higher version but also use this opportunity to create additional functional enhancements as per the customer’s unique requirements.
5. Guarantee based upgrades – We also offer guarantee based upgrades
where we not only provide Siebel upgrade services but also assure post upgrade support for a defined duration.
We realize that each of our customers exists in unique situations; hence we work with them to evolve the most optimum service that can be provided to them.
HCL’s team of
Siebel upgrade
experts works
with customers
to assess the
need and
readiness of
their Siebel
application
upgrade from
an
organizational,
change
management,
functional, and
technology
perspective.
well as the more recent releases like Siebel 7.5.x, 7.7.x, 7.8.x and 8.0. Apart from this we also specialize in Siebel Analytics, Order Management, ICM, ERM as well as Siebel Integration with Computer Telephony (CTI) and ERP systems (SAP etc.)
How can we help?
First of all, we thank you for having read right up to here. We hope you enjoyed reading about our perspective on a successful Siebel upgrade. However, we realize that this paper might have still left quite a few queries in your mind – What is the right methodology for an upgrade? What are the best in Industry tools that one can deploy to create successful upgrades? How have organizations executed successful Siebel upgrades and what learning’s can be derived from them? If you are even remotely thinking about a Siebel upgrade for your organization then we are sure that speaking with us should be of help. We can help you by walking you through our experience as a Siebel upgrade specialist.
Some of the ways in which we can help are –
§ Methodologies – We would love to introduce to you our robust
methodologies around different phases of Siebel upgrade and the overall approach
§ Tools Orientation – Tools can play an important role in
enhancing productivity as well as improving consistency in a Siebel upgrade. We would love to tell you more about our proprietary tools and how they can help.
§ Success Stories – Success stories are a great way to learn from the
past and adopt best practices, and we have lots of them. Completely understanding our approach towards our past successful Siebel upgrades will help you uncover the “Must Dos” in a Siebel upgrade project.
§ Siebel Upgrade services – Our best-in-class methodologies, smart
tools and experienced consultants can work with you and help you execute your Siebel upgrade and deliver on your short and long term expectations.
Alternately we may just chat around “Executing a Successful Siebel Upgrade” and would be happy to field any query that you may have around your Siebel upgrade, so please do get in touch with us.
You can email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you at the earliest with an answer that would pleasantly surprise you.
We look forward to sharing your Siebel objectives. Thank You.
HCL’s Siebel
expertise spans
legacy Siebel
versions like
Siebel 4.x, 5.x,
6.x as well as
the more
recent releases
like Siebel
7.5.x, 7.7.x,
7.8.x and 8.0.
Apart from
this, we also
specialize in
Siebel
Analytics,
Order
Management,
ICM, ERM as
well as Siebel
Integration
with
Computer
Telephony
(CTI) and ERP
systems (SAP
etc.)
Hello there, I’m from HCL Technologies, We work behind the scenes, helping our customers to shift paradigms and start revolutions. We use digital engineering to build superhuman capabilities. We make sure that the rate of progress far exceeds the price. And right now 30,000 of us bright sparks are busy developing solutions for 493 customers in 15 countries across the world.
HCL Technologies, Tel: +91 -44-2231 8321 – 25
Fax: +91-44-2231 8320
www.hcl.in
©2007 HCL Technologies. HCL Technologies and the HCL logo are registered trademarks of HCL Technologies. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of their respective owners.
About HCL’s Siebel Center of Excellence
HCL has been a key Consulting Partner for Siebel Systems. HCL’s relationship with Siebel dates back to 2000 and its Siebel CoE has successfully executed over 35 engagements - most of which have been for Fortune 1000 companies. HCL has offered Siebel CRM services to a vast customer base across diverse verticals such as Hi-Tech / Manufacturing, Financial Services, Life Sciences, Telecommunications among others, across all functional areas of Siebel i.e. Marketing, Sales, Service and Call Center and Siebel Analytics for intelligent data analysis. HCL offers end to end services across the entire Siebel Solutions lifecycle – ranging from Consulting Services (to assist customers efficiently utilize their Siebel Solutions), Implementation (to ensure Siebel can understand & function effectively to manage your business processes), Upgrades / Migration & also Siebel Application Care Services.
Some of the key highlights of our Siebel CoE include: § 6 + year Consulting Alliance with Siebel
§ 6000 Man–Months across successful Siebel project experience (HCL’s Siebel Team strength is 250+ , with over 35% certified)
§ More than 35 successful Customer engagements across various industries (from Telecom, Hi-Tech / Manufacturing, Financial Services among others) § Delivering Value Added Services across various
Siebel Modules (Sales, Service & Marketing) & different versions (Siebel 6.x, Siebel 7.x) and over 10+ upgrades in the past three years.
§ Case Study: Reference able Siebel 7.8 Implementation for a Global leader in providing Industrial Automation Solutions.
About HCL
HCL Technologies is one of India’s leading global IT Services companies, providing IT-led software solutions, remote infrastructure management services, and BPO. Having made a foray into the global IT landscape in 1999 after its IPO, HCL focuses on Transformational Outsourcing, working with clients in areas that impact and re-define the core of their business. The company leverages an extensive global offshore infrastructure and its global network of offices in 16 countries to deliver solutions across select verticals including Financial Services, Retail & Consumer, Life Sciences, Aerospace, Automotive, Semiconductors, Telecom, and MPE (Media Publishing & Entertainment). For the 12 month period ended 30th June 2006, HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had revenues of US $976 million (Rs. 4,388 crores) and employed 32,626 professionals. For more information, please visit www.hcl.in
