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Login Failed in Dedicated Web Client : MVF Issue

Himanshu Bajpai — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:18:49 +0000

Recently I have met with the Problem in form of defect. The Problem was related to Record Visibility in Activity.

There were activities created for SR as a result of Email Response and properly visible in Activity List Applet under SR. We have Pick Applet in SR Applet for fetching all Email related activities. But strangely same activities were not visible in the Pick Applet.

On investigation, we found that the Applet was based on a different BC i.e. Action Special.
Seeing Different BC It is understood there is a problem of Record Visibility.
And since BC Record visibility is controlled by BusComp View Mode, there were bound to be some issues.
We compared Action and Action Special BCs BusComp View Mode.

Following was the screenshot of BC -Action Special (click to enlarge)

Siebel BC Action-special screenshot

Following was the screenshot of BC-Action (click to enlarge)

Siebel BC-Action screenshot

Above Snapshot shows the difference clearly !!

As a Solution –
1) We made Action Special similar to Action BC and added Visibilty MVF as Organization and Visibility MVL as Organization.
2) Compiled SRF.
3) Login in dedicated Client.
Shock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was throwing error of Wrong User Id and Password while few minutes back it was working fine.
Login again- Shock again-error again.

3rd Time Login (3 is my lucky number ), but error again but this time my luck was better. So error changed to something different and is indicated below (click to enlarge) -

Siebel Error - BC MVF Configuration issue

Since Organization MVL was not present in Action Special, I was not able login into the dedicated client.
Actually I did the View Mode Change by Compare Object utility on Action and Action Special BC. This smartness and laziness created the whole issue because compare object put the MVL and MVF even though MVL/MVF was not present in BC.

If you change the Visibility MVL/MVF Manually then you would not allowed by Siebel to pick MVL/MVF that is not present in BC.

But it is really good for me. Since I have learnt a lesson and that is generic.

Conclusion-If the Reference of MVL or MVF is not present in BC then you would not able to login Siebel Dedicated Client and you can expect to get the below error.
—————————
User ID or password that you entered is incorrect.
Please check the spelling and try again.
—————————

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more articles !!

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“Managing Oracle Fusion Applications”

Nitin Jain — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:31:27 +0000

This is significant news. Even though Oracle’s Fusion Applications is not even generally available yet, there is a new book that has recently been launched that left me foxed. In fact, I looked at the title again to verify that it actually meant the *new* breed of Oracle Fusion Applications being launched by Oracle, and currently available only under Controlled Access.

Read our recent coverages on Oracle Fusion Apps..
ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS’ UNIQUE DESIGN PRINCIPLES
LET’S UPGRADE SIEBEL CRM TO FUSION APPS “RIGHT NOW” !!
INSIDE ORACLE FUSION APPS : CRM PERSPECTIVE

It seems, it was all true. Richard Bingham from Oracle has authored a new book, “Managing Oracle Fusion Applications”, through the Oracle Press.

Fusion Apps Cover page

The book is said to explain, how to use a wide range of Tools, Services and Best practices to manage Oracle Fusion Applications, the so-called next generation Enterprise Applications.

Richard Bingham, is probably a member of the Oracle team designing the support strategy for Oracle Fusion Applications, and that is how he has the inside information on Oracle Fusion Apps architecture, and how to design a Support Strategy around it !

The book claims to show readers how to achieve application uptime, improved performance, and the lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) through the effective system management principles outlined in the book.

The book is said to include both the product and technical overviews for Oracle Fusion applications, and also a wide range of toolboxes focussing on reliability, availability and more.

It’s a 352 page book which helps -

Understand the components and architecture of Oracle Fusion Applications

Plan, develop, and implement an effective application management plan

Resolve reliability issues with Oracle Enterprise Manager

Configure and deploy applications from the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console

Adjust run-time parameters using Java Management Extensions and MBeans

Generate and distribute reports using Oracle Business Intelligence 11g

Establish solid user authentication, access control, and data protection policies

Work with Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk, and Compliance Intelligence

The Table of Contents in the book are -
  Chapter 1. A Fusion Applications Product Overview
  Chapter 2. A Fusion Applications Technical Overview
  Chapter 3. Successful Enterprise Application Management
  Chapter 4. The Fusion Applications Lifecycle
  Chapter 5. A Fusion Applications Management Toolbox
  Chapter 6. A Reliability Management Toolbox
  Chapter 7. The Availability Management Toolbox
  Chapter 8. A Performance Management Toolbox
  Chapter 9. An Optimization Management Toolbox
  Chapter 10. A Governance Management Toolbox
  Chapter 11. Getting and Staying Healthy
  Chapter 12. Planning for the Future
  Appendix A. Further Reading and References
  Index

To download the complete Table of Contents (TOC) PDF, click here.

Don’t ignore Chapter-1. With our limited knowledge of the Fusion Apps, being outside the Oracle’s round buildings, it could be very insightful.
To download a sample chapter (Chapter 1) of the book, click here.

Following are the prices, and the links for the book, currently available through major online book retailers -

Cisco Press $50

Amazon $31.50

B&N $31.18

Infibeam ~$42 (1892 INR)

Richard can be found on Twitter, and Linkedin as well.

psst.. if you have tolerated me this far, you are in for a bonus!
I found a link where you can get the legit copy of the above book for just $25. It seems the Oracle employees are being offered a flat 50% off on the book directly by Oracle Press making it by far the most inexpensive option around. Click here to access the discounted order page. Alternatively, you can also use the promo code, “opress” on the Oracle Press book buy page.

Just thinking about it, are you still looking around for crm gratis tools to help you manage your applications ?
This doesn’t quite seem to be the case. The book focusses on high quality, high availability, high *cost* applications to bail you out.

Here’s the link to get all your Oracle Press titles at 50% instant discount.

Happy reading !!

For regular updates on Oracle Fusion Applications, join our Linkedin group here -
LINKEDIN : Oracle Fusion Stack – CRM, ERP, Middleware, SOA, AIA, Integration

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Let’s upgrade Siebel CRM to Fusion Apps “right now” !!

Nitin Jain — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:41:37 +0000

Great news guys. The wait is over. Oracle’s first versions of Fusion Applications is now available for use by its customers. It’s being called “Oracle Fusion Applications 11g R1 (11.1.1.5.0)”.

Some of our previous coverages on Oracle Fusion Apps include -
ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS’ UNIQUE DESIGN PRINCIPLES
INSIDE ORACLE FUSION APPS : CRM PERSPECTIVE

From the reports coming our way, the Oracle Fusion Apps is now available and easily accessible over the Oracle eDelivery network. It’s a mammoth 40 GB download, split into 11 parts. It is recommended for you to use a good Download manager to manage broken downloads, else, the complete download can be a real pain!

We understand that though it’s available for download, not everybody can download, install and start playing with it. It has actually been made available in a pretty restricted mode, in select geographies, and to a set of existing customers who are willing to experiment with it.

The customers are expected to reach out to their Oracle Sales reps in case they are interested.

Okay, I hit the download button on eDelivery Network, and it started downloading right away. So, that part is solved. Confirmed that the download is not restricted. But, I still wonder, where am I expected to get the license keys from ?

I tried reaching out on the Oracle License Codes website, and noticed that the website has not yet been updated with the License Codes for Oracle Fusion Apps. This further substantiates the claim that Oracle Fusion Apps is not for the general developer or Customer out there. It’s only been made available through their partners. Cognizant has been a major Oracle partner in the Oracle Fusion Apps, CRM Space.

Another thing I noticed is that with the Oracle’s famous “Unbreakable LINUX” push, the release is available only for the Linux platform, both 32 and 64 bit flavors.

The credit for breaking the news goes to Floyd Teter. To the best of our knowledge so far, he was the first one to break the news on eDelivery Fusion Apps downloads!

Alex has done a very good coverage on Oracle Fusion Apps on his blog, here.

Detailed comments by the UKOUG chairman Debra Lilley, are available on Computer World here.

Do share your comments and views on the new Oracle Products through the comments below.

For regular updates on Oracle Fusion Applications, join our Linkedin group here -
LINKEDIN : Oracle Fusion Stack – CRM, ERP, Middleware, SOA, AIA, Integration

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Ness Technologies bought out by Citigroup Unit

Nitin Jain — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:30:29 +0000

Jobs, jobs, Siebel Jobs. I am based in India. And, whenever I tried looking out for a new job, or whenever we invited candidates to fill in critical Siebel CRM positions, the name that invariably used to come up was “Ness Technologies”. Now, this is about to change and we may be seeing more of “Citigroup”.

US banking giant, Citigroup announced last friday, that it is acquiring the IT Services provider Ness Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: NSTC; TASE: NSTC) for about $307 million. The acquisition is expected to be financed purely by cash.

Citigroup has a Venture Capital Arm by the name of Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI). The purported terms of the deal are $7.75 per share, approximately 17.6 percent premium over the last closing price of Ness on Nasdaq on Thursday.

About CVCI -

Established in 2001, CVCI is a leading private equity investor and investment adviser in developing markets. Private equity funds advised by CVCI have made investments principally in Asia (including Greater China and India), Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and other regions where CVCI sees clear potential for growth and value creation.

With over 40 investment professionals across the globe, and with extensive local and regional networks throughout developing regions, CVCI currently manages over $7 billion in equity investments and committed capital. Our investment professionals have extensive experience in private equity investing with specific industry expertise in IT services, business services outsourcing, retailing, pharmaceuticals, telecom, renewable energy and financial services.

CVCI launched CVCI Growth Fund I in 2005 ($1.6 billion) and CVCI Growth Fund II in 2007 ($4.3 billion)

About Ness Technologies -

Ness is the right size to provide you with the deep partnership you need to realize your business and technology goals. It starts with making your goals our goals and ends with an inventive and flexible solution for your most pressing challenges. Our award-winning IT services, teams, and skill-sets scale globally as your business evolves and are delivered in the combination of on-site, near-shore or off-shore that works best for you.

The Ness portfolio of global services includes:

Software Product Engineering

Enterprise Applications & Business Services

NessPRO Software Distribution

Major parts of the operations of Ness are in North America, Europe, Israel and India, has customers globally in over 20 countries. Its strength is the strategic alliances it has with vendors like EMC Documentum, Chordiant, IBM, HP, MS, Oracle and SAP.

Ness’s share prices rose 1.4% on Friday on Nasdaq to $6.68, giving a market cap of $255 million, and reportedly rose 13.6% in early trading on the TASE today to NIS 24.95.

Whether Citigroup will now pull back its IT Implementations and support to the mega vendors in the industry, and now use Ness’s Operative divisions, or whether the Ness division continues to service clients outside Citigroup, still needs to be seen.

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Microsoft releases Windows 8 *preview*

Nitin Jain — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:09:46 +0000

Check out the video below -

What do you think? Any possibility of Microsoft making the dent with its next Windows ??

Tell us in the comments.. hang on.. your comments will appear after a while once approved..!!

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Inside Oracle Fusion Apps : CRM perspective

Nitin Jain — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:50:41 +0000

Okay, now this is bigg news. We all know about the Oracle Fusion Applications coming up, and how it is almost dreaded to eat up our jobs, viz. jobs for the technologies as we know them today.

One of the major components of the to-be-released Oracle Applications stack is the Customer Relationship Management or the CRM part.

Oracle has been building this component with a strong support, and partnership with Cognizant, or so it appears. At the time of my writing this, there is a huge event that Oracle is organizing on 1st June, 2011, at 10 AM PDT where we are due to get the first insight into this new software.

As Oracle claims, you can get the *insider’s* point-of-view on Oracle Fusion Apps and the business drivers behind it. Oracle says, the Oracle Fusion CRM component will set a new standard for CRMs today in sales performance management, enterprise integration, sales force automate, planning and business flexibility. Just has me asking, are you telling me that your current offerings are not upto the mark with the competition ?

Rest is more of Cognizant brouhaha over how many implementations it has done, or the number of man-hours of Siebel CRM experience that CTS has. Big deal. My question, how many of the consultants who worked on the CRM implementations, are still with CTS ??
In our ever dynamic IT Industry where *qualified* CRM consultants are one of the hottest commodities around, churning and the manpower turnover ratios are pretty high for nearly all the outsourcing players.

Of course, US and Europe would rather keep it simple. Just hire as-needed on contracts !

On a serious note, I would say all of us should be attending this webinar, maybe because for many of us, our daily bread depends on Oracle corp, and it would be good to know what’s coming my way.

The proposed agenda and takeaways from the event are -

Developing your Oracle roadmap and strategies to protect existing investments

Maximize revenue potential and achieve better sales performance management

Gaining a single view of your customer and harness the technical complexities of disparate systems

Some of speakers lined up for the event include -
Folia Grace, the Vice President of applications marketing for Oracle ERP and BI applications
As we know, Oracle Fusion HCM component peek-a-boo has already been offered by Oracle before. Folia has been related very closely to HCM development. Grace is helping to define and drive the market strategy for Oracle Human Capital Management, Financial Management, Project Management, Corporate Performance Management and BI Applications.

Philip Philippides is a Director and Practice Leader in Cognizant’s Customer Solution Practice
e began his career in high technology sales with over 13 years of successful sales and sales leadership. For the past 11 years has been focused on Sales Force Effectiveness strategy and process as well as Sales Force Automation (SFA) technology enablement. He has led dozens of lifecycle SFA implementations, as well as numerous customer strategy, customer experience, and sales effectiveness engagements.

Timothy Blank is a Director and Western Region Practice Leader responsible for: all Oracle CRM related business development activities, on-shore client facing delivery activities (focusing on oversight and quality assurance), personnel development, and thought leadership. He is focused on exceeding the year over year regional growth and performance metrics attributed to the organization as a whole by maintaining delivery excellence on all solution delivery opportunities. Tim is based out of Seattle, Washington and has been working with Oracle solutions for over 15 years

That’s all folks. If you may be interested, you can register for the event through the link below -
Oracle Fusion Apps : CRM perspective Registration Link

For regular updates on Oracle Fusion Applications, join our Linkedin group here -
LINKEDIN : Oracle Fusion Stack – CRM, ERP, Middleware, SOA, AIA, Integration

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Siebel Admin Mode Flag – II – Issue Log

Madhvi Arora — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:19:54 +0000

In the last post I described about Admin Mode Flag. However, the Admin mode flag is not always the Best way to go forward. It also comes with lots of perils of its own.

We faced certain problems on setting Admin Mode Flag which are:
1) Product Configurator does not work properly in Admin Mode. It throws error on loading as “Cannot load active Business Component”. So we had to remove the option of customizing products in Admin View
2) Since BC User properties do not work in Admin Mode, if you have invoked any method using Named Method, it will not work. You will need to invoke method through some other way in Admin view.
3) When we navigate from a Admin View to non-admin view in the same screen (if both non admin and admin views under same screen), BC User properties will be ignored even in non-admin view as we have navigated from admin view. So, this effects the functionality implemented for Non Admin view.
4) Related to same point above, if you are navigating from Admin View to non-admin view in the same screen, visibility settings will be ignored and all records will be visible under Non Admin view.

Please share your comments if you have faced any other problems in Admin View. Looking forward to a healthy discussion around this.

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Siebel – Admin Mode Flag

Madhvi Arora — Sun, 02 May 2010 07:51:19 +0000

In my last project,we had a requirement of Admin Views, so the admin users if required can change the data from frontend and not going to backend and running update queries.

Admin Views are those views in which all the records are visible to the person who has access to this view irrespective of the position of the person.

Admin views can be created by setting “Admin Mode flag” on the view to “Y”.

Following affects take palce on setting the Admin Mode Flag:
1.Visibility rules are disabled.
2.The user properties in the BC are ignored.
This means that the user properties such as “Field Read Only Field”, “BC Read Only field” get disable for the view on which this flag is set to true.
3.If the view is in Admin mode, then the following restrictions for the business components used by the applets of the view are ignored: no insert, no merge, and no update. However, if these restrictions are set at the applet level rather than the business component level, or if a field has a Read Only value of TRUE, the Admin mode does not affect them.

Vanilla examles of Admin View are: Account Administration View and the Opportunity Administration view.

But due to disabling of these user properties, we faced some practical problems. I will discuss these in my next post. Stay tuned !

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EAI Siebel Adapter BS – Upsert Multiple Child Records

nanpats — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:45:53 +0000

EAI Siebel Adapter finds its usage in almost all integration scenarios and business process automation. However, at times we hit upon limitations on its usage as Business Requirements become complex.

There is a bug which you must have encountered while using EAI Siebel Adapter BS. I will explain the issue with an example and a solution to resolve the issue…

Let’s say you need to upsert an entity e.g., Assets in Siebel using EAI Siebel Adapter BS. The data structure is a parent -child hierarchy which consists of Assets (primary IC) and Account (child IC).

Let’s assume that Account is resolved by the Id field (Id field being part of the 1st user key and is available in the message). There is a possibility wherein a given account would be repeated in your message instance with different attributes. Consider the following structure:

1-ABCABC Industries
1-XYZXYZ Industries
1-ABCY

In the above example, Account with Id “1-ABC” is repeated twice in the message. If the application tries to upsert this dataset using EAI Siebel Adapter, both the Accounts will be added as Child on Asset. However the data contained in the last instance of Account would be lost. This information lost might be critical for business operations.

Resolution:

In this case, you would be required to consolidate all the similar Account records into a single component before running an Upsert. The resulting message after consolidation would look something similar below:

1-ABCABC IndustriesY
1-XYZXYZ Industries

Hope you enjoyed the example above. Here, I’ll discuss some more of the limitations of EAI Siebel Adapter, and how we resolved them from practical experiences in life.

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Siebel – Upgrade Process – Part II

Nitin Jain — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:50:59 +0000

This is a continuation from the post, Siebel – Upgrade Process – Part I.

Step 5: Merge Repositories
Use Siebel Tools. In my Siebel Tools, the path is Tools -> Upgrade -> Upgrade Application…
You may need to Prepare a Repository before this.
Follow the suggested steps to merge the Current Repository to the Repository in the new release.

Step 6: Run Post-Merge Utilities
You would be able to leverage the Postmerge Utilities to Upgrade Form Applets, and to verify that Applets and Views are configured correctly, available directly in Siebel Tools. These analyze any Customizations in the existing Installation and apply changes as needed. These would now conform to the new UI in the new Siebel Application.

Step 7: Upgrade Custom Database Schema (upgphys)
Run the DB Configuration Utility in “upgphys” mode this time. It’ll further upgrade the Siebel Database with changes resulting from Repositories Merge. Basically, this takes care of the Customizations and completes the Database Upgrade.

Step 8: Perform the Post-Upgrade Tasks
Install the new Siebel Tools on the Developer Workstations and Extract Developer Databases of the Upgraded Application. Don’t forget to run Database Statistics.
Set up User Access and Visibility of Screens and Views.
Migrate Data and prepare for Testing.

Finally, Test, test and Test !!

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Siebel – Upgrade Process – Part I

Nitin Jain — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 04:48:14 +0000

If you have reached here, I assume you have already been through the Siebel Upgrade Assessment, and Planning steps.
Siebel – Why Upgrade? – Part I
Siebel – Why Upgrade? – Part II
Siebel – Upgrade Roadmap – Part I
Siebel – Upgrade Roadmap – Part II

Next step is to run the Upgrade.

Step 1: Upgrade you IT Infrastructure
Your IT Support Partner suggests upgrading to the latest version owing to the plethora of new functionality supported by it. Question: Have you discussed the expected increase on loading of your existing IT Infrastructure correspondingly?

Check out the minimum System Requirements Suggested by Oracle for the new Siebel Version that you are upgrading to. Don’t be afraid to factor in something extra. They are only the MINIMUM set of requirements, not the ideal ones!

After upgrading the Hardware, Upgrade the Siebel Enterprise Server to the new release. In the process, it also generates some files relevant in future steps of the Upgrade.

Step 2: Perform Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Prepare the Siebel Database for upgrade. Includes closing all Database Connections, Clearing pending Workflow Tasks, Disabling Custom Triggers, among others.

Step 3: Prepare Application Data
Prepare some Test Data for Migration. It is always smart to use only a small subset covering all major functionalities rather than the humongous Database that most organizations house today. You would obviously need to run the various tasks many a times over during the Upgrade, trying hit and trial in many of the cases. Time is precious. Save it!

Step 4: Siebel Database Upgrade (Upgrep)
Database Configuration Utility is one of the Best friends a Siebel Admin can have. Run it in the “Upgrep” mode. This performs a basic Upgrade of the Siebel Database Schema. Also, it loads the repositories to prepare for Repository Merge.

Stay tuned for the next part in the series..

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Siebel – Upgrade Roadmap – Part II

Nitin Jain — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:20:34 +0000

This is a continuation of my previous post, Siebel – Upgrade Roadmap – Part I.

As a part of the planning phase, feel free to:
1) Analyze the Complexity of the Upgrade
2) Be a good estimator of the level of effort needed to upgrade. Don’t mind putting in a few extra days in the plan than to crib later.

3) This is the Best type to deactivate, or phase out obsolete requirements. Make the most of the opportunity. As a Manager, you can always pass it on as something that will improve System Performance by cutting out the crap!
4) Good time to incorporate a few new requirements as well, based on some of the new functionalities supported out of the box
5) Define Team Roles, and set responsibility.
6) Is the application heavily Interfaced with other Applications? Wish you Best of Luck!
7) Check out the links on the Oracle My Oracle Support Portal regarding all the Alerts, etc. beforehand.
Try googling, or getting in touch with Experienced Partners to collate all the proven tools which can help the Upgrade be faster, and more efficient.
9) Data Migration, a point in question.
10) Some of the functionalities may not work EXACTLY the same as they did in the previous version. Plan User Training sessions in advance. Factor in appropriate time and Resources.

Step 3: Upgrade!
Start with the Development Environment. Upgrade and experiment as much as you want.
Practice with the upgrade on the Test Environment.
Okay, so good so far. Let’s now run a flaw-less Upgrade on the Production Environment! Cheers!

Stay tuned for the following posts on the Upgrade Process…

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Siebel – Upgrade Roadmap – Part I

Nitin Jain — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:17:23 +0000

You may find my previous posts on “Why to Upgrade?” interesting. As a follow-up to it, here, I would present a typical Process of Siebel CRM Upgrade.

I’ll cover the steps, and the some of the factors you could possibly keep in mind, while planning and executing an Upgrade. This would be the next step after you have taken the decision, “Yes, I have to upgrade!”.

Step 1: Assess and Analyze existing Siebel Installation
If you have already gone through my previous post on, “Why to Upgrade?”, you are already past this step. In case you haven’t yet, feel free to reach out to it. Hey, you can access it for free here!

Ask yourself the following questions whenever you are pondering over a Software Upgrade:
1) Do I really need an upgrade?
2) What is it in my business that my current implementation is not able to solve?
3) What are the clear Business benefits that the new system brings to the table? Are they relevant to me?
4) If I must upgrade, is my existing IT Infrastructure upto the demands of the new version Installation?
5) How much time do I have before my IT Support for my current version runs out?

Step 2: Plan the Upgrade
An Upgrade is a project in itself. Though most of it is automated, yet, that is no reason to sit cushy assuming things are bight at the other end of the tunnel. As a matter of fact, from my personal point of view, there are more pitfalls in case of an Upgrade, than in the case of a full-fledged implementation. Watch out for my upcoming post, “Siebel – Upgrade or Implement, that is the question!”.

Planning an upgrade is thus, almost as important a consideration than actually carrying it out. Personally I am a big fan of planning and sorting things out, before even hitting the Development Desk, lest you don’t mind messing up things out of ignorance.

But, don’t go by my words. I know quite a big lot of guyz who hit the desk straight away, and produce much better results than what I do..!!

.. to be continued ..

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Siebel – SIS OM PMT Service

Madhvi Arora — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:26:37 +0000

There are lots of vanilla business services available in Siebel which can be used to configure any process and this helps in avoiding scripting.

One of these services I came across is “SIS OM PMT Service”.

People who have worked on Order Mangement module must be aware of this service.

This service is extensively used in Order Management Process. Both its methods as well as its user properties are utilized in Order Creation Process.

But this service can be used in other modules as well.

It has various methods which can be used are:

Get Profile Attribute

Invoke BC Method

Refresh Business Component

Set Profile Attribute

In this post, I will discuss method “Refresh Business Component” of this service.

As clear from its name, it is used to refresh the Business Component.

In most of scenarios if we update some field or insert new record, UI is not refreshed with that data. We explicitly need to fire blank query either in our script or on UI to refresh UI. Instead of doing this we can use this Method to do so.

The required input arguments to this service are:

Business Object Name—> The name of the BO in which this data needs to be refreshed

Business Component Name—>The name of the BC where refresh is required.

This can be used in both script as well as workflow.

I will discuss the example of workflow:

WF_01

This is a sample workflow which is used to update account status.

The detail description is as follows:

Query For Record: Siebel Operation Step with operation Query is used. Here row_id has been passed in Object Id.

Record Found: Decision Box is used to check the record which needs to be updated exists in system or not .Here check is made with the help of Process Property “Siebel Operation Object Id”. If record is present, then Siebel Operation Object Id will not be null.

Update Account Status : Siebel Operation Step with operation Update is used. Here row_id has been passed in Object Id.

Refresh Record: This step uses BS “SIS OM PMT Service” with method “Refresh Business Component”.

Since here I am updating Account Status in Account Screen, the values of input arguments are:

Input Argument Type Value

Business Object Name Literal Account

Business Component Name Literal Account

Try this it will work.

Please share your valuable comments.

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Siebel – Why Upgrade? – Part II

Nitin Jain — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:03:20 +0000

This is a continuation of the post, “Siebel – Why Upgrade? – Part I”.

Here are some more..

3) Talk about Performance and Efficiency. Though I agree that the new software generally runs with a higher efficiency with most of the old bugs closed, the higher performance almost always comes at a cost of higher Hardware Configuration as well.

The new softwares are, however, seen to be efficient to handle larger volumes of data, or to churn out decisions on the basis of the humongous data store. Maybe, the old system didn’t support it in the first place to make it possible, forget about efficiency!

4) With each higher version, I have personally noted that Siebel Data Model becomes more and more complex. This in turn means more and more universally agreed standards now form a part of the Siebel CRM Installation. This helps a Customer become more aware of the global standards that he may introduce in his organization, if not already there, or to align his Business Process accordingly.

Another fall-out of this, is higher Regulatory Compliance. Now, how many times have I heard Customers going in for implementation of packaged Applications owing to requirements to map to the local Regulatory Requirements?!

Ask yourself the following questions whenever you are pondering over a Software Upgrade:
1) Do I really need an upgrade?
2) What is it in my business that my current implementation is not able to solve?
3) What are the clear Business benefits that the new system brings to the table? Are they relevant to me?
4) If I must upgrade, is my existing IT Infrastructure upto the demands of the new version Installation?
5) How much time do I have before my IT Support for my current version runs out?

Plan ahead, to be ahead.

Feel free to add, or suggest. I am leaving the ground open. Cheers!

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Siebel – Why Upgrade? – Part I

Nitin Jain — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:13:39 +0000

Hi all,

I am back to Siebel Technical Stuff after a long time. I recently worked as a part of a Siebel Upgrade Project for one of my clients.

Siebel Upgrade is a version update methodology supported by Oracle. The Customer can easily upgrade from an older version of Siebel to a higher version.

There is generally a very wide range of reasons as to why people may decide to upgrade. These may range from the obvious, to the obscure, and to truly blasphemous to some CRM Consultants. But, I guess this is one very important aspect which keeps the IT Industry rolling!!

Well, amongst many others, following are some of the popular reasons for which Organizations may decide to upgrade their existing Siebel, or other IT Software Installations.

1) This particular customer of ours very serious about the system running as smoothly as possible. Following this methodology, he banks on a lot of support from Microsoft and Oracle to avoid any issues in Production going forward. The issue is, Microsoft is phasing out support for Windows Server 2003 soon. To make matters worse, Siebel 7.5 is not certified to run on MS Windows Server 2008, the next logical step.

Solution: Upgrade to nearest higher version of Siebel which is supported on the new MS OS. The one you are using is on fire right now.

2) Generally, there is a whole lot of new functionality that Oracle introduces with each new version of Siebel CRM. The customers may want to make use of some of these new functionalities. The Business Benefit may imply a case strong enough to justify the extra cost of moving up to the new version.

Who knows, a Customer may just be able to eliminate a buggy Custom Module altogether by making use of some new functionality provided OOB in a higher version!

Wait for the remaining part of the post. What do you think could be the other reasons?

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Siebel : Security Vulnerability !

Nitin Jain — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:17:46 +0000

This post could have far-reaching implications. I am still at crossroads whether I should be covering this or not..

The baseline is that there has been a Security Vulnerability detected, and announced. It is said to have been detected nearly a year ago, and informed to the Parent Organization. However, despite a year passing by, we are not aware of any remedial action having been taken by the Corporation. Since the vulnerability has already been publicly announced over the internet, we feel it’s safe to cover it here as well. We feel morally responsible to apprise Oracle Corp of the issue by building sufficient public opinion to patch it..

This Security Vulnerability has been detected in some of the older versions of Oracle’s very popular Siebel CRM Softwa=re, aka versions 7.7 and 7.8. It has not been tested on the older versions, but, expectedly it would appear there as well.

This Security Loophole has been detected by “Yaniv Miron”, a Security Researcher from Israel. Click here to reach his LinkedIn profile directly.

The vulnerability comes by the name of, “Oracle Siebel CRM ‘start.swe’ Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability”.

It is rated “Low Risk”, and is Remotely Exploitable.

The following is directly from VUPEN :
” ..This vulnerability could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary scripting code. This issue is caused by an input validation error in the “htim_enu/start.swe” script when processing user-supplied data, which could be exploited by attackers to cause arbitrary scripting code to be executed by the user’s browser in the security context of an affected site.. “

SECUNIA says..
” ..Input passed via the URL to htim_enu/start.swe is not properly sanitised before being returned to the user. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary HTML and script code in a user’s browser session in context of an affected site.. “

A simple example could be:

http://example.com/htim_enu/start.swe/?>'">

Jan 2009 – Vulnerability found
Jan 2009 – Vendor Notification
Feb 2010 – Public Disclosure

Complete details about the vulnerability can be found at the following URLs where it was first reported:

http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/0516

http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2010/Mar/6

The original Advisories may be downloaded from the links below:
Siebel Loyalty Advisory
Siebel CRM Advisory

The vulnerability is already popular over Twitter.. try the link below..
Twitter Links for Siebel Advisory

Could there be better reasons to Upgrade to the latest Siebel versions, 8.x ?
Considering Siebel CRM is an expensive product targetted only at the companies with $250K+ revenues, this is all the more important.

Note: This post is for informational purposes only.
The author of this document is not and will not hold any responsibility for any illegal or unauthorized use of the information contained within this document, or that is implied from it.
The author of this document does not encourage in any way whatsoever, attacking any Siebel based System.

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My Oracle Support Non Flash Version

Nitin Jain — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:07:16 +0000

We all need Professional support one time or the other, no matter, what our role is in a Project Implementation.

Professional Support for Siebel from the vendor has gone from..
Siebel Supportweb (god, I loved it!) -> Oracle Metalink3 -> Oracle’s My Oracle Support

My Oracle Support has brought with itself a Pandora’s box of problems, more than the benefits that is offers. The Flash enabled version has a neat UI to look at, and somewhat better navigability. Well, the aesthetics is definitely better.

But, for quite a lot of reasons we may want not to use the Flash enabled version of My Oracle Support. They could range from unfamiliar Interface, to Performance, Flash is not available on my Work Computer!

Flash Enabled Version:

http://support.oracle.com

Non Flash Version:

http://supporthtml.oracle.com

Welcome back, Metalink!

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Siebel – Unable to login to mobile client

Madhvi Arora — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:08:58 +0000

After long time I am writing a blog…

This time related to Siebel Admin
Earlier I used to work with Siebel 7.8 and now 8.1..
So quite a different experience..

In Siebel 8.1, I had successfully initilized my dbf from tool and was able to login into Siebel Tools.
But suprisingly, using same dbf I was not able to login to my mobile client and it was throwing the error,
“user id /password not correct..”

I tried everything..from reinializing my dbf to changing parameters in my client cfg…
But all atempts were in vain..
Finally I looked in to Siebel logs and found the error as “Error connecting to datasource SSD Local Db default instance”

I tool the help from one of my seniors and he recommended the following way out.. I tried, and it worked..

Just followed below mentioned steps and problem got resolved and I was able to successfully login into local client…
1. Open the ODBC Administrator.
2. Select the System DSN tab.
3. Select the local Tools datasource (by default, “SSD Local Db default instance”).
4. Click the Configure button.
5. In the configuration window, select the Database tab.
6. Clear the field labelled “Server name”.
7. Close the configuration window and exit the ODBC Administrator.

I am really happy that the issue finally got resolved, and I would like to thank my mentor for helping me. Please add a comment if this helps you sometime.. I’ll be glad to know..

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Query on the Long Column or Field

Nitin Jain — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:56:13 +0000

A typical problem in any EAI project. Others too!!

One of the most common ways of building custom Error Handling or Logging mechanisms include dumping huge messages and XMLs in the database for future reference. It works as an excellent logging mechanism which can be pulled out in case something in the system fails.

This is generally achieved by using the “Long” column of the Oracle Database, and/or concatening multiple String type of columns.

Now, the typical problem. We dump the XMLs, fair enough. However, we can only pull out specific information from this XML and populate on some other columns, but, definitely not ALL the data in the huge XML that we have. We may pull out the Order Id, Reference Number and a couple of more fields, yet we definitely cannot drill out all the information.

However, the XML contains a lot more data. How do we query on the data in the Long column, in case the information is hidden deep into the XML, and is not saved separately in a String type column? I am assuming the Table based Logging mechanism.

I ran across something similar recently when I realized that I could not query on the Long Database column. Now, I have not discovered a special way of querying on the Long column that I am going to share here. Rather, this is a workaround.

Query for the relevant data in a traditional PL/SQL Editor like the SQL Developer or TOAD. You can still not run a query on the Long data type of column, but, with sufficient filters, you can reach out to a limited RecordSet around the actual record.

Right click -> Export -> TXT / CSV format and open the newly created file in a file editor. Run our favourite “Find..” tool to query for the exact data that you are looking for. And, voila, it could help you get as close to the actual record as possible.

Yeah, I agree if some of you out there are shouting, “Dumb, dumb, dumb tip!!”. But then, worked for me.

I had this typical interface which was just dumping XMLs in the Logs one after the other, without any identifiers. And, it was becoming terribly difficult to dig out the XML with a particular identifier. After all else that I could think of failed, this one worked like a charm.

I thank all my friends who were with me till late night, helping me get this through! Thanks, Madhvi. Thanks, Himanshu. Cheers..

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Input Argument	Type	Value
Business Object Name	Literal	Account
Business Component Name	Literal	Account