CRM in India

Interesting article about Oracle CRM in india, noting that Oracle has done well in the wireless sector there.

Sugar CRM replaces Siebel?

Interesting article from CNET about a SugarCRM deal at BT . BT has downloaded and installed VA2 for Siebel, so I know they were a fairly large Siebel customer. I would be surprised if a new deal in purchasing SugarCRM is a rip-and-replace deal. More likely it is an augmentation of existing systems? It would be nice to see some comments from BT or others familar with deal.

I have heard from othe SugarCRM customers that they really like the software, compared to Siebel particularily.

OAUG Knowledge Factory

I recieved an email from the Oracle Application User group, touting the "the ultimate collaborative knowledge resource" for users. The Knowldege Factory "Using Web 2.0 technology, an online forum that facilitates information sharing and networking among users, the user-driven Web content management experience" including:

-Blogs and Discussions
-Profiles
-OAUG Conference Paper Database

It is so hard for creaky old Enterprsie Software behmoths who are used to closing off everything, restricting access, and walling off users from each other. This is a good move, but it really is only open to paying members OAUG. Really more in the model of enterprise/closed/walled garden than Web 2.0 approach.

Customizing Events messages from VA2

So, you have gone through the steps of configuring a VA2 analysis rule, an Error Definition, and Notification rule. The steps can be seen in more detail in the Event Routing Tutorial. So, what are the options for customization, so you receive an Event Message that means something to you?

SISNAPI

Pretty cool article from Wikipedia about Siebel SISNAPI. Not the level of documentation you would see on an open source project, but better than the past.

Collaborate 08 and Siebel?

I could hardly find any blog or updates about Collaborate08 and Siebel. And so far no blogs that mention any Siebel activities about Collaborate 08. Anybody know of any, please post a comment. Here is one users account of some activity at the conference.

Install Ruby vs Install Catalyst

I've been researching Ruby on Rails vs Catalyst. I liked the looks of Catalyst because it is written in Perl, and has produced some pretty amazing sites such as EditGrid. Can that be really due to Catalyst?
What is that front end?? Menu's, etc.

Ruby on Rails, on the other hand, seems much more popular. At least judged by Dice job postings. 16 vs 360 in Ruby's favor. Another few things about it: I'm not a Perl novice but Catalyst was pretty hard to install. Downloaded 1/2 of CPAN seems like. At the end I was kind of left looking around... where to start? Ruby on Rails, I started with Instant Rails. I have an Appache Server now running, all in one directory with no installs. True, I am also now at the... where to start? stage too.

Rimini street profile

Interesting article about Rimini Street and the founder Seth Ravin. The huge question as Seth notes:

"Could a software company be in both the discount market and the full service market? Could you live in both worlds of charging customers full rates for your own service and discounts for other customers using your competitor's products?"

In SAP's case it is a clear "No". A more agile Rimini Street seems to be doing great, and do not have a built in conflict of interest that SAP suffered from. Third party maintenance is clearly important, introducing competitive pressures and providing a better value for customers. The resistance of software companies is understandable but antiquated. Would it be better if IBM followed this model with the PC? Do you want to buy a car or a house you can only go to one repairman for? Software is just newer, and stuck with a 1950s business model in support right now.

Oracle buys Empirix e-Test

Oracle has bought Empirix e-Test. Another move to strengthen the portfolio of Oracle Enterprise Manager capabilities. Interesting for a few reasons:

- Empirix did not (or could not?) sell the Empirix Onesight monitoring solution to Oracle. OneSight directly competes with OEM product line

-It also follows an Oracle acquisition of end user monitoring application vendor Moniforce from the Netherlands in December.

Detecting multiple Siebel log file events

A customer query involved the following question:

" If your log monitoring routine generates 1 event, and another log monitoring routine generates another event, you could use a VA2 analysis rule to provide the IF capability?"

The basic functionality that was needed was to monitor for multiple events in Siebel log files, that cover multiple lines. The standard VA2 log file monitoring capabilities cover regular expressions, but only a single line at a time.

And was nicely illustrated by this .PPT. The answer, of how to make a VA2 rule that detects seperate Siebel events in the log file is posted below.