Oracle Siebel CRM 8 Installation and Management Review

Oracle Siebel CRM is a powerful online tool for small businesses and enterprises. Any business setting that requires data management and interaction with customers will find this tool for CRM as a complete solution for their business processing needs. This form of customer management tool was developed by Siebel but it became part of Oracle after its acquisition in 2005.

The challenge for this type of tool is on mainly on management and installation. When done right, this CRM tool from Oracle can be used to streamline business operations without any glitch. But developers have to make sure that each function is set-up according to business process. This is the reason why installation is very important as the developers have to deal with a lot of available tools. After installation, maintenance and management naturally follows especially for enterprises that will require more than just troubleshooting of functions.

This book tries to explain in detail how to work with Oracle Siebel CRM. In general, this form of CRM will do wonders for the business but it could be very complicated and can cause problems when they are not done right. The book will try to explain how to get the best out of this tool.

About the Author

PackT has tapped Alexander Hansel to write the book which has a great background related to Seibel. Alexander Hansel was part of Siebel CRM before Oracle acquired the company. He was working with Siebel CRM in Germany and he was working as an instructor for the said tool. The author left after Oracle’s acquisition but continued working as an instructor. He is currently working as an instructor for the same tool and he is also a consultant for businesses in different sectors who wanted to employ this CRM tool from Oracle.

First Impression of the Book

With more than 500 pages of instructions, this is a very hefty book from PackT. But this should be expected since the book has 16 chapters with three appendices that would complement the instructions written in the chapters. Each chapter is related to the previous chapters but they can be treated independently. The appendices added in the book are not simple data to be used in real world but they provide extensive information on how to learn more about Oracle Siebel CRM. But there are lots of instructional data added in the book; any developer who wanted to learn more about Oracle Siebel CRM will be impressive with the book.

The Chapters

The book can be divided into four parts based on their topics:

The Installation Phase (Chapters 1 – 9)

The initial chapters of the book are dedicated on installation and configuration. The book starts with an interesting introduction about Siebel’s architecture. This will give developers a good idea on how the CRM works in the background. Other chapters provide a straightforward instruction on how and configure the server. Two types of installation and configuration is discussed based on their operating system: Microsoft and Linux. The later chapters of this phase are dedicated to client side installation and ancillary software from Siebel for proper server management.

User Management Phase (Chapters 10 – 12)

This phase deals with user management authorization and access controls for CRM. This is very important for developers as they have to make sure each user have would have the required security clearance when working with the CRM. These three chapters also discuss how the CRM protect each user to avoid data leaks.

CRM Management (Chapters 13 – 16)

These chapters are practically the gist of everything every developer should know with regards to data and applications management. This is the most challenging part of Oracle Siebel CRM as live users will start working with the application and any problem related to the CRM would require immediate solution. These chapters discuss different scenarios where problem would arise and what to do about the specific problem. There’s an extensive discussion on how CRM could be configured for remote access. This is one of the special features of Oracle Siebel CRM and they can be easily implemented with optimal security. This part of the book also discusses on how to manage the server and the online application.

Probably the most interesting part of this part of the book is on how to migrate data between environments. This should be learned by every developer working with Oracle Siebel CRM because developing CRM should require data migration. Transferring the data from test phase to actual phase should be done carefully or else some data will be lost and functions will not work as expected.

Appendices

This part of the book should never be missed by any developer working with Oracle Siebel CRM. The three appendices will provide additional information which is very helpful in real world situation.

Appendix A provides a sample planning in creating a CRM. Implementing a CRM is not just on learning what the front liners (customer service representatives) will be dealing with. A developer creating a CRM has to know the business organization inside and out. But the demand for faster development is always there so this appendix is a “shortcut” on what should be known by every developer about the business when building a CRM.

Appendix B discusses the step-by-step process on how to uninstall the online application. Developers have to know that uninstalling a CRM is not just removing the tool from the local desktop. Special consideration should be made with Oracle Siebel CRM because the interface is developed to work with the browser. This part of the book discusses how the CRM can be uninstalled from the server and the client.

Appendix C provides information on where to get additional help when working with Oracle Siebel CRM. Additional books, websites and where to get help straight from Oracle are indicated in this part of the book. There are also sources where developers can get the training they need in implementing this type of CRM.

Practical and Real World Scenarios

The book is very extensive for a good reason. The author made sure that every possible scenario is dealt with during installation and maintenance. To make sure the reader understands how to deal with Oracle Siebel CRM, the author added screenshots on how to specifically work with the tool.

But aside from screenshots, the author added visuals such as graphs which are very essential in understanding business setting. In Appendix A, the author provides information that should be sought by any developer from the business end. In the chapters, the visuals are added to show the process of the CRM when looked as a business transaction. Combining these factors resulted to an impressive book recommended for every developer who wanted to create a powerful CRM for a business.

Intended Readers of the Book

Everyone working with or about to work with Oracle Siebel CRM should read this book. It’s practically a library of tips on how to work with the CRM. Every chapter is very useful in certain situations as it can be used as a reference book. The book is also a good primer on understanding the capabilities of the CRM and on how to start building a tool for customer management for those who are not familiar with Oracle Siebel CRM.