Siebel OpenUI - "Process is the key to Success"
Siebel Open UI Project - Checklist
- · Upgrade to Siebel 8.1.1.11 - ✓
- · Start-up new Object Manager for OpenUI - ✓
- · Send out new URL to Siebel users - ✓
- · Tell users they can use the browser of their choice - ✓
So you’ve spent time, effort and money on upgrading
Siebel to the latest version because… (And this is where it gets tricky!),
(a)
The users disliked IE7/8 and wanted the option to use their favourite browser.
(Good luck with supporting that!)
(b)
Siebel OpenUI looked cool and promised a much-improved UI, (“But it looks the
same”)
(c)
The business wanted corporate colours and fonts applied to Siebel and you know
all about CSS files and a bit of JavaScript.
(d)
This is just the first step in a long-term plan to improve the User Experience
(UX) for the end user. We have plans to map the key business processes to
improve usability and user adoption. We
have hired experienced web designers to ensure we are building a world-class
user experience. We are enlarging our
Siebel team to ensure that we have the necessary Web developers and JavaScript
skills to build the new UI.
Of course, no one would ever answer a, b or c …would
they? Well yes, my colleagues and I have
heard these (and more) reasons for going ahead with a Siebel OpenUI upgrade. To the Siebel users, who have been yearning
for years to be able to upgrade the UI, any reason will do, but unless you can
answer (d), then what value is this bringing, what problem is being solved and
what reaction are you expecting from the users?
Siebel OpenUI is just the tool, the catalyst, the
means to be able to re-design Siebel for your company’s specific needs. It can now become tailored to your business
processes, perfected for different lines of business, or for different business
roles. It can become totally
unrecognisable as Siebel.
But here’s the kicker, it can also end up worse. UI
designed by developers who think they know the business, implemented by the
Siebel team who know a bit about CSS and are reading up on JavaScript programming. We are already seeing the consequences.
Siebel OpenUI has unleashed a huge amount of
potential, but it needs to be used wisely.
Let me give you an example;
A Siebel customer has major problems with their
Product Models. They are very large, very complex and hard for even the most
experienced sales rep to use. So we get
engaged to try to improve the models, simplify them and improve the
usability.
As always with this type of engagement we are tightly
bound by the terms of reference and it’s hard to ask ‘why?’. ‘Why are we doing this?’, ‘Why does it have
to work like this?’, why?, why?, why?. With
some persistence we managed to get in front of the Sales Director, a couple of
Sales Reps, and call centre staff in the service centre, to take us through
their processes. As it turned out, the
Siebel Open UI Quote is only a small step in the sales process. Their
sales engineers use a drawing package to layout and design the solution, export
the images and build a proposal document, and then enter the solution into
Siebel with the Siebel product configurator after the customer has signed-off
on designs and what they would need installed. Three very time consuming steps,
especially if the Siebel product configuration rules says ‘no’ and the design
has to be changed.
We recommended combining these 3 steps into one
visually configured quote.
We developed a visual product configurator for Siebel,
utilising the rules within Siebel, providing drag-and-drop features to place
components within the solution, creating the proposal document from those
designs and creating the quote automatically within Siebel.
The visual product configurator has been built using
Responsive Design principles and works well inside Siebel Open UI, Siebel HI
UI, mobile devices, and web portals.
This has yielded significant other benefits such as supporting the web
self-channel, especially MACD operations.
The cost savings on the self-service side are very substantial. (Please get in touch if you would like to a
demo)
This process wasn’t going to be fixed with pre-built
UI templates; it had to be a custom design specific to their business
needs.
