Understanding Siebel 8.0 Upgrade And Need For It

1. vishalgovil Understanding Siebel Upgrade
Understanding Siebel 8.0 Upgrade and
Need for it
Dinesh Chandrasekar
Practice Head – Siebel CoE
dinesh.chandrasekar@sierraatlantic.com
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Understanding Siebel Upgrade
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 ofSiebel‟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.
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.
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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.
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
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.
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 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.
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-thebox 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.
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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. 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 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
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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
QUESTIONS DESCRIPTION
Have you prepared Siebel It is a very good idea to have one that represents CRM‟s baseline
Upgrade business plan? regardless of whether management requires such a document.
What are the business You should perform a detailed analysis on what exactly are the main
drivers for a decision to drivers for going in for an upgrade – is it corporate driven, or contract
upgrade to 8.0? driven, or to take advantage of new features, reduce operational costs
etc?
Is it really worth investing If your organization plans to continue using Siebel for the next 2-3
in an upgrade to Siebel 8.0? 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 Siebel Upgrade this activity should be separate from the formal
requirements been defined? developments project for two reasons:
ther the Upgrade program
moves forward
available during the upgrade process
Have success metrics been This is required to measure the success of upgrade? Although many
established? 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 This would help build a consensus on how you want the users to behave
behavior agreed differently is important.
upon?
Can you map the new Customer data is complex more often than it‟s straightforward.This
functionality to upgrade usually means defining data requirements along with
solution? business requirements. At some point you‟ll need to know
whether future business requirements could be implemented in the
upgraded version
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Have you identified the
external system interfaces To enable consistency in the application interface with other external
and is there an integration systems before and after the upgrade
plan?
Do systems of your The user IT infrastructure (desktop applications, OS, Browser)
upgraded Siebel users Needs to be compatible with the new version
support the new version?
Has the hardware sizing This is important from both the perspectives of procurement as well as
being done? cost discovery.
Are you facing increased Earlier versions cost higher to support because either the vendor has
support costs because of discontinued support or the customized applications are expensive to
using a Siebel version 7.0 or maintain or enhance. Siebel 8.0 with its out of the box functionalities
earlier? 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 Many end-user functionalities and administrative tasks as well have
customization on your been enhanced in 8.0 thereby reducing the need for customizing the
Siebel application and application and leveraging out of the box functionalities to a large
facing application support extent.
issues?
Have you done an The organization should involve the IT support teams, key stakeholders,
application audit and and third party consultants (if needed) to analyze and confirm that
analysis to justify going for Siebel 8.0 does contain added functionality which complements their
an upgrade? 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
industryspecific 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
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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.
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.
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.
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