A Success Year for Oracle CRM

Oracle today announced that Oracle’s Siebel CRM On Demand has been heralded by end users as providing unrivalled choice of application deployment scenarios and integration options for organisations of all sizes across Europe, Middle East & Africa. In the last year, Oracle expanded its relationships across the region to include leading brands such as, Amazing Global Technologies, Ambu A/S, Experian, Hôtels B&B, Netstore and SAS Cargo Group A/S.

With more than 12 years experience in delivering CRM solutions, Siebel CRM On Demand was identified by leading independent analyst firm, Forrester Research, as having a unique offering with over five crossvertical and industry specific CRM editions. In the April 2007 report “Oracle’s Siebel CRM On Demand is a Leader in Sales Force Automation”, Liz Herbert, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research wrote, “The vendor understands the needs of a range of industries and can provide best practice expertise in addition to prebuilt industry editions. Siebel CRM On Demand currently sells five vertical editions, which is five more than many of its SaaS CRM competitors.”

“This has been a particularly strong year for Oracle’s Siebel CRM On Demand, as demonstrated by the number of positive analyst reports and the growth of our customer base,” explains Loïc le Guisquet, Senior Vice President for Applications, EMEA. “One of our main differentiators is that customers can operate the Siebel CRM On Demand solution as part of a hybrid strategy that includes Siebel on-premise or other Oracle products. It provides them with a lot of flexibility, which delivers value in their business. Listening to our customers has shown us that on-premise and On Demand is not always a straight choice and that many organisations can benefit from using both solutions in different areas.”

Author: Fiona McGoldrick @ www.irishdev.com

Read more ...

Oracle's Prescription for Pharma Contact Centers

Oracle connects its Siebel Contact Center application to its Oracle Adverse Event Reporting System, targeting pharmaceutical companies. Software conglomerate Oracle Corp. has added a vertical-specific solution to its contact center options for the pharmaceutical industry. The Siebel Contact Center Integration Pack (CCIP) for Oracle Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), available now, is designed to aid the capture, reporting, and management of adverse events and product complaints, a mission-critical effort in that sector.

The CCIP is designed not only to help pharmaceutical companies streamline the handling of adverse events, but also to bolster data integrity. Oracle AERS is the company's solution for product-safety monitoring and compliance for the medical-device and pharmaceutical industries. The CCIP is the latest addition to the company's Oracle Application Integration Architecture (OAIA), a set of products that integrate proprietary, third-party, and custom applications, and leverages the Oracle Fusion Middleware services-oriented architecture (SOA) suite.

"Siebel Contact Center Integration Pack for Oracle AERS seamlessly passes customer, product complaint and potential adverse event information from Siebel Contact Center to Oracle AERS, automatically escalating reports, as appropriate," says Neil de Crescenzo, group vice president of healthcare and life sciences at Oracle. "These capabilities drive faster event processing to help pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers promptly report accurate adverse event and complaint information to the appropriate safety and regulatory [groups] for further evaluation."
The integration pack's closed-loop solution facilitates compliance and more effective management, according to de Crescenzo. "To help ensure product safety, [companies in this sector] are required by regulatory agencies to track and report potential product issues and adverse events both during clinical trials and after a product is introduced to the market," he says. "Rapid detection of events and issues is critical to safety and compliance. Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers receive [this] information...from many different channels. Without a closed-loop solution, information on potential product issues or adverse events coming into a contact center has to be collected and then re-entered into an organization's [AERS] -- a process that can be time-consuming and costly."

In addition to its benefits in helping ensure public safety and reducing compliance expenses, the CCIP automatically loads event-related information from Siebel Contact Center into Oracle AERS and updates it to reflect changes, facilitating faster and more efficient reporting, de Crescenzo says. "The solution reduces duplicate data entry and provides life sciences organizations with complete, accurate, and synchronized information, helping to reduce costly conflict resolution and reconciliation."

"Pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers are challenged to cost-effectively ensure compliance within an increasingly complex web of regulations, while working to improve overall operational efficiency and accelerate delivery of safe and effective products to market," says Eric Newmark, research manager at Health Industry Insights, an IDC company. "Automated adverse-event and product-complaint systems can facilitate faster and more efficient reporting, which, in turn, helps to ensure public safety, reduce organizational liability, and contain the cost of compliance."

Author: Coreen Bailor @ destinationCRM.com

Read more ...

Oracle buys compliance vendor LogicalApps

Oracle sees a growing market for compliance monitoring and has bought LogicalApps, whose compliance software is already optimized for use with Oracle apps. Oracle plans to expand its governance and compliance offering with the acquisition of LogicalApps, announced on Tuesday.

LogicalApps' software helps companies manage compliance with complex regulations. Its technology enables real-time detection, prevention, monitoring, and reporting of financial and operational risk. The software is embedded in enterprise applications and can prevent the misuse of customer data or financial fraud by, for example, preventing employees from processing unsigned requisitions or ensuring they don't inappropriately change financial information.

According to Oracle, a growing range of companies must comply with an increasing number of regulations, in addition to the financial requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, creating demand for compliance products.

LogialApps' software is already optimized for use with Oracle applications, and the company has made "hundreds" of deployments of the software, it said.

The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal, which is expected to close next month.

Oracle will continue to support LogicalApps' customers after the acquisition and plans to continue to invest in development of the software, Oracle said.

The acquisition is in line with a strategy Oracle discussed when it released financial results in September. At the time, Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison said the company plans to look for continued growth in its applications business by selling a wider array of products mainly to existing large customers. The strategy is different than that of some of Oracle's competitors, which instead appear to be chasing smaller businesses with scaled-down versions of existing products, he said.

Author: Nancy Gohring @ IDG News Service

Read more ...