By Misha Vaughan and Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience

This is the first in a series of blog posts on the user experience (UX) highlights coming in various Oracle product families. You’ll see themes around productivity and efficiency, as well as a thoughtful approach to pushing UX capabilities into the underlying tooling. Of course, you can also expect to get an early look at the latest mobile offerings coming through these product lines.

Today’s post is on Siebel. To learn more about what’s ahead, attend Siebel OpenWorld presentations. Our first interview is with George Jacob, the Group Vice President for CRM Applications.


George Jacob

Q: How would you describe the vision you have for the user experience of Siebel?
A: Contemporary: Siebel runs in all browsers and all browser-capable devices using the latest web technology standards, such as Javascript, CSS, and HTML 5.
Productive: Siebel is designed for a user experience that reduces clutter and user keystrokes.
User-sensitive: The user experience enables Siebel to adapt easily to site and user preferences.

Q: How are the UX features you have delivered so far resonating with customers?
A:  Customers are very excited about our refresh of the Siebel user interface framework; the Siebel roadmap and user interface sessions at Oracle OpenWorld last year overflowed. We have had to turn back customer requests to participate in the early adopter program because we had more than we could handle. Customers are calling this a game-changer for Siebel.

Q: So the UX highlights are popular?
A: Yes, the UX highlights are very popular, although to a certain extent we expected this! 

Q: What’s coming in Siebel on a mobile platform?
A: Our current mobile offering is based on Windows Mobile (native application), and is fairly mature (over 5 years). The new Siebel Open User Interface Framework, by virtue of working on all browsers, will run – when it is released this year – on tablets and smartphones. This is one of the reasons a number of customers are most excited about our UX changes.

Views of Siebel data on mobile devices

Q: What are you working on now that you think is going to be exciting to customers at OOW?
A: We are working on the Siebel Open User Interface Framework, to be released this year in the Siebel 2012 8.1.1.9 & 8.2.2.2 innovation packs. We are also working on Connected Mobile applications for Sales, Service, Consumer Goods and Pharmaceuticals, and Disconnected Mobile applications for Pharmaceuticals in the same release. We are building specialized applications that exploit the new UI framework for Telco Order Capture and for Life Sciences healthcare professional visits. Our 2012 delivery will be the foundation for further user experience enhancements, next year and beyond.

Q: What do you want Siebel customers to know?
A:  We are excited to be focused on improving the user experience of Siebel applications, and it is encouraging to see the positive feedback from Siebel customers and partners.

If you would like to see more in the Siebel user experience, be sure to check out these sessions at OpenWorld:

CON9700 - Siebel CRM Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap

CON9703 - User Interface Innovations with the New Siebel “Open UI”

CON9705 - Unleash the Power of “Open UI”

CON9697 - Mobile Solutions for Siebel CRM