Siebel Open UI - Update

So, we've just got back from the Oracle training event for Siebel Open UI.  There are definitely a number of rumours that can be quashed !


First a nice big screenshot to give you some idea of how Open UI is rendering the Siebel Views OOTB.

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So what have we heard ?

• RUMOUR: It will be available for all of Siebel.
• FACT: It will only be available for Sales and Service - No full details of what that exactly covers, but it's by no means all of Siebel.  We can then assume it doesn't cover Siebel Order Management, Agreements and other more obscure areas of Siebel (Including all the admin views)   UPDATE! : Oracle have confirmed that Siebel Order Management is included- see a new screen shot below

Siebel Open UI - Siebel Order Management on Chrome Browser

• RUMOUR: It will be release at OOW 2012
• FACT: It will be available with Siebel 8.1.1.9 and the 2012 IP (Innovation Pack) but that is now looking to be GA in Jan 2013.

• RUMOUR: There will be a price tag attached to Open  UI
• FACT: There is no licence fee associated with Open UI, but obviously Oracle is looking to use this as a stimulus for additional user licences and extending the Siebel footprint into new areas and new channels.
• There will be Native Mobile apps, but these are looking to be more involved to produce and deploy.

• RUMOUR: Open UI will be a seperate set of views in Siebel Tools
• FACT: The Open UI views will be rendered by the SWE engine at runtime, converting the views in Siebel Tools repository into HTML views for displaying through any browser.

• RUMOUR: Deployment will be long and complex!
• FACT: Deployment will be simple.. 
• Create a new Object Manager (OM) 
• Set the Open UI flag on the new OM
• Create a new URL to point to the new OM
• Login in and you're ready to rock... 
• I personally can't wait to have it running on my MacBook... oh but I need Quotes and Orders so there goes that idea..

Some other things we need to have confirmed include;

• How does it handle a process where some UI may not be in Open UI - for example a process that goes from Sales Opportunity to Quote or Order.
• How will it handle Siebel browser script in either the browser version or on a Native Mobile App
• What happens with customised views ? - Will they need to be tested or is there high confidence that these will work as before ?
• Now that it will be available across platforms, across browsers how will that complexity of options be tested and supported - as there is an almost constant stream of browsers upgrades.
• How can new and enhanced HTML views be developed and deployed ?

Siebel Open UI now adds a lot of potential, to both improved Siebel  usability within an Organisation - as well as for unscrupulous SI's to start pushing the customer into unnecessary and cost UI Upgrade projects - so beware!   There's nothing that extends a UI design project more than teams disagreeing on the shade of blue/red/green to be used !!

At CRMantra we still firmly believe it should be seen as an additional weapon in the UX arsenal, but an upgrade to Open UI without careful consideration of the costs and benefits is likely to bring little advantage to the business.

We recommend a Fact-Based determination of the scope of any CX/UX project and implementing Open UI is no different. For that we routinely use our Siebel Usage Analysis - see this blog for more details  - Siebel Usage Analysis

And as with all CX/UX projects and probably more importantly for Siebel Open UI, you need to ensure that the resulting UI is not just a set of views slapped together in a newer technology!  You need to pay close attention to the business process and clickstreams on the UI and drive process design based on facts instead of conjectures.  The Siebel Usage Analyses will provide this critical information.

We still have more questions than answers, so I'll try to update this as we hear back from Oracle on the items I've mentioned.

NEW: Post OOW update here http://crmux.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/siebel-crm-open-ui-post-oow-update.html


As always if you have any questions or comments please get in touch.
david.moorman@crmantra.com  www.crmantra.com