Oracle Announces New Integration Between Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 and Oracle Customer Hub

Oracle Fusion Middleware Integration Delivers Value Through Synchronized Master Data Management and CRM Data for Better Customer Experience.

Oracle today announced out-of-the-box Oracle(r) Fusion Middleware based integration between Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 9 and Oracle Customer Hub. PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM customers can now take direct advantage of the state-of-the-art MDM capabilities for data quality management, data enrichment, and customer mastering capabilities, enabling an even better customer experience through deep customer data integration that keeps incremental changes to customer records within PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM synchronized with the Oracle Customer Hub in real-time.

The need to better understand customer data and keep it up-to-date throughout the enterprise is a constant challenge, often leading to expensive and time-consuming implementations. With the new integration between PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM and Oracle Customer Hub, users can easily cleanse and remove customer information duplications across systems and realize effective customer information consolidation, data quality management, governance and sharing of data across the enterprise. The integration helps eliminate costly undertakings and deliver all the benefits of customer insight, reduced data management & marketing costs, and effective compliance with regulations.

Key functionality for the new integration includes:

* Real-time, bi-directional sync of customer data between PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM and Oracle Customer Hub through Oracle BPEL Process Manager.
* Enhanced "fuzzy" search capabilities in PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM customer search screens using data quality management (DQM) configurable match rules.
* Duplicate prevention in real-time from PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM customer entry screens.
* Identification of duplicate customers within PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM and merge of duplicate customers using the Oracle Customer Hub Data Steward. Customer records are merged in the Oracle Customer Hub and PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM.
* Real-time and batch customer data enrichment using out-of-the-box connection services to Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).

The PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM integration to Oracle Customer Hub is standards-based and provides the framework for customers to integrate other third-party customer data hubs and data quality tools that they may already have in place. Implementing Oracle Customer Hub as part of PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM is one of the first steps to start benefiting from Oracle Fusion architecture today.

"PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM customers need the ability to cost-effectively determine a single version of customer data across the enterprise," said Oracle Vice President of MDM Strategy Pascal Laik. "The integration helps the enterprise clear a major hurdle for data management and experience even further value and insight into their customer data."

Source: www.crm2day.com

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The five biggest Oracle headlines of 2007

The headline-generating machine known as Oracle Corp. didn't miss a step in 2007.

But amid the flood of daily Oracle press releases about products and minor acquisitions, five news stories stood out and made serious waves within the IT industry.

Those five stories, which among other things included a major Oracle business intelligence (BI) acquisition, the release of Oracle Database 11g, and a high-profile Oracle lawsuit against SAP, are sure to continue making news throughout 2008. Here's a rundown of those stories:

1. Oracle sues SAP

Oracle's decision to sue SAP -- specifically, SAP's TomorrowNow arm -- over copyright infringement was perhaps the biggest Oracle story of 2007.

The lawsuit alleges that TomorrowNow, a third-party business application support provider, repeatedly gained unlawful and unauthorized access to Oracle's customer support website and illegally provided customers with proprietary Oracle information.

SAP, which eventually requested mediation in the case and admitted to inappropriate downloads, says that any wrongdoing was confined to its TomorrowNow division.

Not surprisingly, SAP has since expressed interested in selling TomorrowNow to the highest bidder. The case is still making its way through the legal system.

2. Oracle buys Hyperion

Oracle made a big BI splash in March when it announced that it would acquire Hyperion Corp., a BI vendor that specializes in corporate performance management, in a deal worth $3.3 billion.

Oracle, which has been on an acquisition spree over the last several years, buying up more than 30 companies since 2005, immediately told the world that the Hyperion buy meant that Oracle was now the leader in BI software.

"This extends our business intelligence strategy of a year ago, when we launched Oracle business intelligence. That's been one of our highest-growth product lines," Oracle president Charles Phillips said at the time. "We now have the most comprehensive BI product line."
3. Oracle debuts Database 11g

The latest version of Oracle's flagship database management technology, Oracle Database 11g, was released last summer after years of anticipation on the part of Oracle users.

The new release, which includes hundreds of new features and enhancements, left some experts wondering whether Oracle should revise its patching policies to help users better manage all of the newly added functionality. Oracle had come under fire in recent years for sitting on patches for longer than some would like.

"I know that Oracle has to spend an inordinate amount of time testing each patch or each bug fix before they release it in a patch," Brian Peasland, an independent Oracle consultant, said at the time. "But it seems that some of these bugs have been known for two years or even longer before they get patched, and that's just quite disturbing, actually."

4. BEA rejects Oracle takeover bid

Oracle tried to buy enterprise infrastructure software provider BEA Systems Inc. back in October. But like an unpopular kid looking for a prom date, Oracle got summarily rejected.

Oracle initially offered to buy BEA for about $6.66 billion, but BEA's board of directors said the offer was too low. Oracle later refused to increase its bid for the firm.

"We believe our all-cash offer provides the best value for BEA's shareholders and the best home for BEA's employees and customers," Oracle president Charles Phillips said. "This proposal is the culmination of repeated conversations with BEA's management over the last several years."

5. Ellison unveils first Oracle Fusion apps

For years now, Oracle has been touting its Oracle Fusion plan, which will combine "the best" spoils of its many acquisitions onto a brand-new, service-enabled platform. And at Oracle's OpenWorld event last October, Oracle founder Larry Ellison finally gave users a look at what the first Fusion applications will be like.

According to Ellison, the first Oracle Fusion Applications are called Sales Prospector, Sales References and Sales Tools, and they're likely to be released during the first half of 2008.

The three salesforce automation applications, which are based on existing Siebel tools, are not designed to be replacements for applications provided by the likes of Salesforce.com, Ellison said. The key difference between the new applications and Salesforce.com-type applications is that the older tools are designed primarily to help the salesperson forecast, while Oracle's upcoming Fusion tools are designed to "help the salesperson sell."

Author: Mark Brunelli @ searchoracle.com

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Oracle helps Manchester Airport lift baggage rule

Manchester Airport has implemented Oracle's BI service to enable it to become one of the first airports in the UK to lift the one item of hand baggage per person regulation.

The rule had been in place since August 2006, and was applied in response to security fears. A recent ruling by the Department for Transport (DfT) means airports can now apply for permission to lift the ban.

In order to lift the ban, airports had to demonstrate that check-in times and passenger movement would not be affected by having extra baggage and security checks.

Oracle's BI service has provided Manchester Airport with interactive dashboards containing flight information and passenger and baggage movements. Oracle's software analyses passenger and baggage information with the aim of identifying trends.

It is hoped this will give Manchester Airport the ability to cope with screening extra bags as well as helping the management team at the airport to plan in advance to employ extra staff or install additional X-ray machines during busy periods.
Martin Bell, Business Consultant, Information Services, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), owners of Manchester Airport, said that the core team of 12 workers who will be using the software required two days of training. "We received customised training and support from a dedicated team. The integration was reasonably easy because we're using Oracle's BI Enterprise edition which helps with third party database integration."

Although MAG did consider other proposals, previous dealings with Oracle persuaded them to use Oracle's BI software for this project. "We did review other companies but our knowledge of Oracle meant there was no need to go elsewhere," Bell said.

MAG has plans to install the software at its other airports, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside. Bell said: "We hope to install this at East Midlands Airport within the next six months, certainly within the next year. Hopefully, the other airports will follow."

Author: Steve Evans @ www.cbronline.com

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