General issues faced by Oracle CRM clients

Off late I have seen number of calls from clients who have implemented Oracle iStore, asking iBizSoft to assist them in resolving a lot of issues they are facing with Oracle iStore. After implementing Oracle iStore, the general issues that customers come across is related to Applications errors and general integration issues with the other modules of Oracle Ebusiness Suite.

What the implementors need to understand is that a normal JSP/Java developers will find a bit difficult to comprehend the coding style of any of the i-modules (iStore, iSupport, iReceiveables) developed by Oracle. Reason, they are totally integrated to the back end ERP/CRM modules such as Order Management, Pricing, Inventory, Sales Compensation, iProcurement, Oracle Service and many such modules. It makes it all the more important for them to understand how the back end ERP or CRM is setup to begin with. Normal JSP/Java developers will not be able to grasp this and only if they have the inclination to understand the granular details will they even venture into the rest of the modules. Net result, clients do not get what they are looking for.

With iBizSoft consultants, we have made very sure that they have very good background in Oracle ERP and CRM modules. If some one lacks this knowledge we can go an extra mile to train them so that they know the various integration points. Simple examples are the messages that are displayed. Why only message, even the button labels in iStore or iSupport are setup in the fnd_new_messages table and this is maintained via the Application Developer modules.

How about iSupport ? iSupport had a different product development team and this can be easily seen in the coding style of each of the JSPs. All the fields that show up in iSupport are derived from the database and they are controlled via PL/SQL APIs. Which means any change to the vanilla iSupport pages, will involve change the PL/SQL APIs. Risk involved is very high, because any patch related to this module or any other module could over write these APIs and this would affect the iSupport functionality. Simple example is an instance where the iSupport pages were developed for Oracle Service online in mind, where in metalink.oracle.com would be using iSupport functionalities. And metalink does use iSupport, which mean iSupport was not designed with other businesses in mind, that’s the reason they have fields for Software and Hardware versions and many such things. Customizing them to use it for a manufacturing industry providing Online Service is a nightmare and I have gone through one such implementation.

In a nutshell, implementing modules such as iStore or iSupport is a piece of cake, however customizing these modules is a different ball game and that’s when the game starts. How long does it take ? Depends on the backend customizations in ERP and/or CRM modules and how much of these customizations will need to be implemented in iStore or iSupport.

Contact support@ibizsoftinc.com if you need any help in any of these modules.