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• CRM at Oracle Series: Email Marketing

  - by tony.berk

  Anyone doubt that companies are sending more and more emails out to their existing customers and prospects? Effective email marketing requires a scalable platform which integrates with your CRM system. The email marketing system should also have key capabilities to ensure your maximizing your investment such as handling email bounces and click thru, tracking open messages and adhering to customer opt out and other personalization options. As part of the "CRM at Oracle" series, we've discussed other marketing topics including web marketing integration, real-time decisions and marketing business intelligence. Today's "CRM at Oracle" slidecast discusses how Oracle replaced a number of legacy "bulk" email systems with Siebel Email Marketing and is taking advantage of key functionality and integration to other Siebel CRM components. CRM at Oracle: Email Marketing Click here to learn more about Siebel Email Marketing and other Siebel Marketing products. Are you enjoying the CRM at Oracle Series? We are working on more topics for this year, but if there is a particular CRM area or function which you'd like to hear how Oracle implemented it internally, leave us a comment and we'll try to get it on our list.

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• Pie Charts Just Don't Work When Comparing Data - Number 10 of Top 10 Reasons to Never Ever Use a Pie

  - by Tony Wolfram

  When comparing data, which is what a pie chart is for, people have a hard time judging the angles and areas of the multiple pie slices in order to calculate how much bigger one slice is than the others. Pie Charts Don't Work A slice of pie is good for serving up a portion of desert. It's not good for making a judgement about how big the slice is, what percentage of 100 it is, or how it compares to other slices. People have trouble comparing angles and areas to each other. Controlled studies show that people will overestimate the percentage that a pie slice area represents. This is because we have trouble calculating the area based on the space between the two angles that define the slice. This picture shows how a pie chart is useless in determing the largest value when you have to compare pie slices.   You can't compare angles and slice areas to each other. Human perception and cognition is poor when viewing angles and areas and trying to make a mental comparison. Pie charts overload the working memory, forcing the person to make complicated calculations, and at the same time make a decision based on those comparisons. What's the point of showing a pie chart when you want to compare data, except to say, "well, the slices are almost the same, but I'm not really sure which one is bigger, or by how much, or what order they are from largest to smallest. But the colors sure are pretty. Plus, I like round things. Oh,was I suppose to make some important business decision? Sorry." Bad Choices and Bad Decisions Interaction Designers, Graphic Artists, Report Builders, Software Developers, and Executives have all made the decision to use pie charts in their reports, software applications, and dashboards. It was a bad decision. It was a poor choice. There are always better options and choices, yet the designer still made the decision to use a pie chart. I'll expore why people make such poor choices in my upcoming blog entires. (Hint: It has more to do with emotions than with analytical thinking.) I've outlined my opinions and arguments about the evils of using pie charts in "Countdown of Top 10 Reasons to Never Ever Use a Pie Chart." Each of my next 10 blog entries will support these arguments with illustrations, examples, and references to studies. But my goal is not to continuously and endlessly rage against the evils of using pie charts. This blog is not about pie charts. This blog is about understanding why designers choose to use a pie chart. Why, when give better alternatives, and acknowledging the shortcomings of pie charts, do designers over and over again still freely choose to place a pie chart in a report? As an extra treat and parting shot, check out the nice pie chart that Wikipedia uses to illustrate the United States population by state.   Remember, somebody chose to use this pie chart, with all its glorious colors, and post it on Wikipedia for all the world to see. My next blog will give you a better alternative for displaying comparable data - the sorted bar chart.

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• CRM@Oracle Series: Forecasting

  - by tony.berk

  What do you trust more: the weather forecast or your sales forecast? I hope the answer is your sales forecast! Either way, would your sales forecast be more accurate if sales management had visibility into what the sales reps are forecasting and what has changed since the last forecast? What if management could adjust forecasts for accuracy based on analytic tools? Today's slidecast discusses sales forecasting and how Oracle implemented forecasting in our global implementation of Siebel CRM, including the steps involved to roll up the forecast. CRM@Oracle - Forecasting Click here to learn more about Oracle CRM products and here to learn about other customers using Oracle CRM. Are you enjoying the CRM@Oracle Series? If you have a particular CRM area or function which you'd like to hear how Oracle implemented it internally, let us know and we'll get it on our list.

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• Data Governance 2010 Conference in San Diego

  - by Tony Ouk

  The Data Governance Annual Conference is one of the world's most authoritative and vendor neutral event on Data Governance and Data Quality.  The conference will focus on the "how-tos" from starting a data governance and stewardship program to attaining data governance maturity with specific topics on MDM.  This year's event will be hosted June 7 through June 10 in San Diego, California. For more information, including registration details, visit the Data Governance 2010 Conference website.

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• CRM@Oracle Series: Web Marketing Integration

  - by tony.berk

  Who is visiting your website? How did they get there? Was it from a search engine? Email campaign? Are they downloading whitepapers, datasheets, presentations, software? Are they interested in attending one of your marketing events? Are you capturing these leads or which marketing campaign generated the lead? There are a lot of questions related to traffic on a website, and the answers to those questions can be found in your CRM system. Visitors who download marketing collateral are potential leads, so it is important to capture who they are, how they got there, where they went on the website and what they are looking for. Today's CRM@Oracle slidecast discusses how Oracle uses Siebel CRM to plan and execute marketing campaigns on our website, www.oracle.com, and capture the key information about who is downloading content or interested in attending one of our marketing events. The responses are captured, qualified, and if appropriate, a lead is generated. It all happens in Siebel CRM. CRM@Oracle Series: Web Marketing Integration Click here to learn more about Oracle CRM products and here to learn about other customers using Oracle CRM. Are you enjoying the CRM@Oracle Series? If you have a particular CRM area or function which you'd like to hear how Oracle implemented it internally, leave us a comment and we'll try to get it on our list.

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• What’s the use of code reuse?

  - by Tony Davis

  All great developers write reusable code, don’t they? Well, maybe, but as with all statements regarding what “great” developers do or don’t do, it’s probably an over-simplification. A novice programmer, in particular, will encounter in the literature a general assumption of the importance of code reusability. They spend time worrying about DRY (don’t repeat yourself), moving logic into specific “helper” modules that they can then reuse, agonizing about the minutiae of the class structure, inheritance and interface design that will promote easy reuse. Unfortunately, writing code specifically for reuse often leads to complicated object hierarchies and inheritance models that are anything but reusable. If, instead, one strives to write simple code units that are highly maintainable and perform a single function, in a concise, isolated fashion then the potential for reuse simply “drops out” as a natural by-product. Programmers, of course, care about these principles, about encapsulation and clean interfaces that don’t expose inner workings and allow easy pluggability. This is great when it helps with the maintenance and development of code but how often, in practice, do we actually reuse our code? Most DBAs and database developers are familiar with the practical reasons for the limited opportunities to reuse database code and its potential downsides. However, surely elsewhere in our code base, reuse happens often. After all, we can all name examples, such as date/time handling modules, which if we write with enough care we can plug in to many places. I spoke to a developer just yesterday who looked me in the eye and told me that in 30+ years as a developer (a successful one, I’d add), he’d never once reused his own code. As I sat blinking in disbelief, he explained that, of course, he always thought he would reuse it. He’d often agonized over its design, certain that he was creating code of great significance that he and other generations would reuse, with grateful tears misting their eyes. In fact, it never happened. He had in his head, most of the algorithms he needed and would simply write the code from scratch each time, refining the algorithms and tailoring the code to meet the specific requirements. It was, he said, simply quicker to do that than dig out the old code, check it, correct the mistakes, and adapt it. Is this a common experience, or just a strange anomaly? Viewed in a certain light, building code with a focus on reusability seems to hark to a past age where people built cars and music systems with the idea that someone else could and would replace and reuse the parts. Technology advances so rapidly that the next time you need the “same” code, it’s likely a new technique, or a whole new language, has emerged in the meantime, better equipped to tackle the task. Maybe we should be less fearful of the idea that we could write code well suited to the system requirements, but with little regard for reuse potential, and then rewrite a better version from scratch the next time.

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• Ahk script and C++ communication [closed]

  - by Tony

  I wish to use the fuctions of autohotkey within a C++ program. I am currently running my scripts triggered by the c++ program- I just run them as a .bat file. This works well but the problem is that I cannot return values from the script to the c++ program. I wish to be able to read the position of the mouse from the script and make decisions based upon this in my C++ program. My scripts do quite complex things- so doing this in autohotkey is the best solution for me- I have knowledge of C, but little of C++. I have read about the Autohotkey .DLL - I know how to trigger it but not how to read values from it. If anyone could instruct me or even post example code of a .dll being loaded and a value sent to a script and a value returned- I would be eternally grateful!! I have spent hours on this and to no avail!!

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• CRM@Oracle Series: Complete Customer Intelligence

  - by tony.berk

  How do you to get sales folks to use a CRM system? Ah, the age-old question (well, at least the one that has been around for the past 10-15 years). Of course, some combination of "Carrot and Stick" always come up as possible answers. You hear talk about, "WIFM" or "What's in it For Me?" Oracle's internal implementation of Customer 360 consolidates all customer information in one place in Siebel CRM and enables the sales rep to present one-face to the customer. Additionally, Customer 360 provides customer intelligence and prospecting tools making it a darn nice "Carrot" for our sales teams to chew on. Check out today's slidecast for an overview. CRM@Oracle - Customer 360 Click here to learn more about Siebel CRM and other Oracle CRM products and here to learn about customers using Oracle CRM. Are you enjoying the CRM@Oracle Series? If you have a particular CRM area or function which you'd like to hear how Oracle implemented it internally, let us know and we'll get it on our list.

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• Subaru CIO wins SIM Leadership Award

  - by tony.berk

  Congratulations to Brian Simmermon, CIO at Subaru of America, Inc., for winning the Society for Information Management's (SIM) fifth annual SIM Leadership Award. Simmermon joined Subaru of America in 2005 as Chief Information Officer. Simmermon then performed a company-wide technology assessment and determined that the business ran a large collection of applications, many of which duplicated functionality. Establishing the mantra, "Simplicity, Flexibility, and Cost Effectiveness", he reduced the total number of applications, moved to a small core set of systems - including Oracle and Siebel. Tom Doll, COO for Subaru of America said, "We are very pleased Brian has been recognized. He has consistently shown vision and leadership and under his leadership, our technology group's innovations have helped our sales to grow to record levels, regardless of the economic circumstances." Simmermon's technology group's aggressive business deliverables have helped Subaru to become one of the most successful brands in the US with the brand reaching record sales in both 2009 and 2010. Click here to read the full press release. Click here to learn about Subaru's success with Oracle products. Congratulations Brian!

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• CRM@Oracle Series: CRM Analytics

  - by tony.berk

  What is the most important factor that leads to a successful CRM deployment? Is it the overall strategy, strong governance, defined processes or good data quality? Well, it's definitely a combination of all these, but the most important differentiator from our experience is Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence or Analytics is commonly mentioned as a key aspect to successful CRM and other enterprise deployments. The good news is that Oracle provides pre-built analytics dashboards, which provide real-time, actionable insight, and tools to build custom analyses. However, success with analytics, especially in a large enterprise, still requires a strong strategy, clean data for analysis, and performance. Today's CRM@Oracle slidecast covers Oracle's strategy, architecture and key success factors for deploying CRM Analytics internally at Oracle. CRM@Oracle: CRM Analytics Click here to learn more about Oracle CRM products and here to learn about Oracle Business Intelligence Applications. Have you read our other postings in the CRM@Oracle Series? If you have a particular CRM area or function which you'd like to hear how Oracle implemented it internally, post a comment and we'll get it on our list.

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• OpenWorld: Spotlight on Fusion CRM

  - by Tony Berk

  Oracle OpenWorld is less than 2 weeks away, so you need to start figuring out how you are going to maximize your week. I don't want to discourage you, but I'm pretty sure it is impossible to attend all 2000+ sessions. So you need to focus on what's important to you. Many of our CRM customers will be interested in Fusion CRM, since they have already started Fusion implementations or determining when to start. If that's you, or you are just looking for an overview of Fusion CRM, we've got you covered! Let's start at the top! For an overview of what is in Fusion CRM and where it is going, you should attend the general session and roadmap session: General Session: Oracle Fusion CRM—Improving Sales Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Ease of Use (Session ID: GEN9674) - Oct 2, 11:45 AM. Anthony Lye, Senior VP, Oracle leads this general session focused on Oracle Fusion CRM. Oracle Fusion CRM optimizes territories, combines quota management and incentive compensation, integrates sales and marketing, and cleanses and enriches data—all within a single application platform. Oracle Fusion can be configured, changed, and extended at runtime by end users, business managers, IT, and developers. Oracle Fusion CRM can be used from the Web, from a smartphone, from Microsoft Outlook, or from an iPad. Deloitte, sponsor of the CRM Track, will also present key concepts on CRM implementations. Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management: Overview/Strategy/Customer Experiences/Roadmap (CON9407) - Oct 1, 3:15PM. In this session, learn how Oracle Fusion CRM enables companies to create better sales plans, generate more quality leads, and achieve higher win rates and find out why customers are adopting Oracle Fusion CRM. Gain a deeper understanding of the unique capabilities only Oracle Fusion CRM provides, and learn how Oracle’s commitment to CRM innovation is driving a wide range of future enhancements. There is also a General Session for all Fusion Applications providing insight into the current strategy of the full product line and a high-level roadmap for each product area: Oracle Fusion Applications—Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap (GEN9433) - Oct 1, 10:45AM. This session will be repeated on Oct 3, 10:15AM. Now, if you want to drill down into some more detail, there are a lot more sessions with Oracle product management and customers. I'll highlight a few, but suggest you review the Fusion CRM Focus On document, or the search in the Content Catalog or Session Builder.  Driving Sales Performance with Oracle Fusion CRM (CON9744) - Oct 3, 10:15AM. Demonstrates how sales executives can gain instant visibility into their business, deliver pervasive coaching to their reps, maximize their sales pipeline, and drive team alignment. The result is increased sales performance that enables sales executives to deliver more revenue without increasing their resources or expenses. Maximize Your Revenue Potential with Oracle Fusion CRM Sales Planning (CON9751) - Oct 2, 1:15PM. Learn how Oracle Fusion CRM helps companies intelligently optimize sales planning and manage sales performance including the ability to predict their future sales opportunities and use those predictions in conjunction with past sales data to optimally define their sales territories, sales quotas, and incentive compensation plans. Boost Marketing’s Contribution to Revenue with Oracle Fusion CRM Marketing (CON9746) - Oct 3, 11:45AM. Learn how Oracle Fusion CRM can help your organization integrate sales and marketing, using one CRM platform. See how Oracle Fusion CRM can help your organization learn where to invest its precious marketing dollars; drive more revenue with cross-channel marketing and prospecting capabilities, including and not limited to e-mail, Web, and social media; improve lead conversion with integrated lead management functionality; and do more with less by automating many manual tasks. Oracle Fusion CRM: Social Marketing (CON11559) - Oct 1, 3:15PM. Learn how Oracle’s acquisition of Collective Intellect, Vitrue, and Involver extends Oracle Fusion Marketing as a world-class social marketing solution. Oracle Fusion Social CRM Strategy and Roadmap: Future of Collaboration and Social Engagement (CON9750) - Oct 4, 11:15AM. Hear how Oracle can help you know your customers better, encourage brand affinity, and improve collaboration within your ecosystem. This session reviews Oracle's social media solution and shows how you can discover hidden insights buried in your enterprise and social data. Also learn how Oracle Social Network revolutionizes how enterprise users work, collaborate, and share to achieve successful outcomes. Of course, we recommend you hear from the current Fusion CRM customers too. So, don't miss Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management: Customer Adoption and Experiences (CON9415) on Oct 3 at 10:15AM for panel of customers discussing implementation experiences, best practices and benefits.  After listening to all of this great information, you are probably going to have questions. Well, the experts will be on hand to help answer your questions and plan how your organization can get going with Fusion CRM. Be sure to head down to the DEMOgrounds and CRM Pavilion in the Moscone West Exhibit Hall. And finally, there is the always popular Meet the Experts session focused on Fusion CRM (MTE9658) on Oct 2 at 5PM (pre-registration via Schedule Builder is recommended.) In addition, there are more sessions on Mobility, Extensibility, Incentive Compensation, Fusion Customer Hub and other key components of the Fusion Applications infrastructure, Oracle Cloud and much, much more! For a full list, utilize the Fusion CRM Focus On document and Content Catalog. Enjoy!

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• CRM at Oracle Series: Do Not Call & Do Not Email

  - by tony.berk

  Who you gonna call? Or not call! Sorry, just kidding, this isn't a movie blog! Do Not Call is an important topic for all businesses as there are government regulations that can lead to significant fines, and of course, possible damage to your brand. Oracle leverages Siebel CRM to develop an effective solution to address the Do Not Call and Email Permissible Use requirements. The application uses the Contacts functionality to manage communication preferences, which when defined, centrally synchronizes all contact records that share the same phone number and email address. Additionally, the relevant information is masked so Oracle employees cannot accidentally reach out to the contact. Therefore, the solution ensures that we are compliant with regulations, enables us to respect individuals' communication preferences and provides an audit trail of changes to their preferences. Today's CRM at Oracle slidecast discusses the requirements, highlights benefits and provides screen shots of the solution. CRM at Oracle Series: Do Not Call & Do Not Email Click here to learn more about Siebel CRM and other Oracle CRM products. Are you enjoying the CRM at Oracle Series? We are working on more topics for this year, but if there is a particular CRM area or function which you'd like to hear how Oracle implemented it internally, leave us a comment and we'll try to get it on our list.

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• Oracle Customer Experience Summit @ OpenWorld

  - by Tony Berk

  Last week in New York, Mark Hurd and Anthony Lye hosted the Experience Revolution announcing Oracle Customer Experience. Now we are announcing the chance for you to learn more about customer experience. The Oracle Customer Experience Summit @ OpenWorld (October 3-5, separate registration required) is a new conference alongside OpenWorld in San Francisco bringing together leading brands and experts to share their insights, success stories and lessons learned to help you and your organization succeed in the Experience Revolution. You will learn about Oracle’s vision, strategy and complete solutions for customer experience and have access to interactive workshops and extensive networking opportunities. In addition to the knowledge packed CRM sessions at OpenWorld (September 30 - October 4), the Customer Experience Summit provides additional opportunities to learn best practices, strategy and tips and tricks to differentiate your brand. Content tracks will focus on Chief Customer Officers, Marketing and Sales, Service and Support, and Commerce and Loyalty.  It is now a full week of tactical and strategic learning and discussions with Oracle and industry experts. Register for OpenWorld and the Customer Experience Summit now! Register for both together to get the package price. Early bird specials for both conferences expire on July 13th!

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• Alaska Airlines Takes Off with Siebel Loyalty and Marketing

  - by tony.berk

  Who likes junk mail? Not me! But I don't mind targeted messages that are relevant to me. Alaska Airlines greatly improved their ability to be more personal with their customers by replacing a legacy mainframe loyalty system with Siebel Loyalty and Siebel Marketing. Which means, as an Alaska Airlines customer, I get less junk mail! With improved access to customer profile information in Siebel, Alaska Airlines presents targeted, relevant offers on their website and via email. At the same time, Alaska Airlines has reduced their speed-to-market with promotions by 150 percent and can now implement new partner marketing programs twice as fast. Finally, as Steve Jarvis, VP of Marketing, Sales and Customer Experience at Alaska Airlines, points out in the video, Alaska Airlines can now reach all 22 million of their annual passengers, not just the 10% who were in the legacy loyalty system. To see other customer success stories, visit Siebel CRM Success. Click here to learn more about Oracle's CRM products.

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• MDM 2010 Summit in San Francisco

  - by Tony Ouk

  Since 2006, the MDM Global Summit Series has brought master data expertise to more than 5,000 delegates worldwide. The Series is designed to reinforce the importance of data governance as a key factor to your MDM program's success while providing real-world experience and all-in-one access to solutions providers. Come join us June 2-3, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco.  For more information including registration details, visit the MDM Global Summit Series website.

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• Customer Centricity: It's Not Easy, But Worth It

  - by tony.berk

  Defining customer centricity is relatively easy: focusing on the customer and their experiences and interactions with your company. Implementing a customer centric strategy is not so easy. We've highlighted customers who have focused on their customers and experienced great success including SJ, the Swedish rail operator, and Vopak, the world's largest provider of conditioned storage facilities for bulk liquids. In this interview with Stuart Lennie, President, Volvo IT, North America and VP, Volvo's Global Sales to Order Solutions Unit, we get the opportunity to learn from another company that is not just talking about the customer, but actually implementing the significant strategic shifts required to become customer centric. Volvo has developed a vision, a strategy and a methodology to keep existing customers by understanding what is important to them. To see other customer success stories, visit Siebel CRM Success. Click here, to learn more about Oracle's CRM products.

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• Siebel CRM: Alive and Jamming at OpenWorld

  - by Tony Berk

  Yes, a rock 'n roll reference in a CRM/Customer Experience blog entry! Sorry, but we are getting excited about OpenWorld and all of the great CRM and Customer Experience sessions we've been planning for the past 6 months (yes, we really do start planning in March!). I also heard that some band named Pearl Jam is making an appearance. Who's tried the Rock Band guitar solo for Alive? Way too difficult for an amateur like me. Anyhow, we are supposed to be highlighting Siebel CRM at OpenWorld. Yes, Siebel will once again have a major presence at OpenWorld and there is a lot of new things to tell you about. If you search the OpenWorld Content Catalog with the tag "siebel", you'll find over 75 sessions. That's over 75 hours of opportunity to hear from Siebel customers, product managers, and implementers. While I invite you to read through the descriptions of all 75+ sessions or check out the OpenWorld Focus On Siebel document, I'd like to try and help with some highlights. The roadmap and strategy session was mentioned in my previous post, but it is important enough to mention again. Siebel CRM Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap (CON9700) - Oct 1, 12:15PM. Come to this session to learn about the Siebel product roadmap and how Oracle is committed to accelerating the pace of innovation and value for its customers on this platform. Additionally, the session covers how Siebel customers can leverage many Oracle assets such as Oracle WebCenter Sites; InQuira, RightNow, and ATG/Endeca applications, and Oracle Policy Automation in conjunction with their current Siebel investments. This session was FULL last year, so I strongly suggest you pre-register via the OpenWorld Schedule Builder. Every year, my favorites are the customer panels, where you get hear 2, 3 or even 4 customers talk about their implementations and often share best practices and lessons learned. Customer Panel: Business Benefits of Deploying Siebel CRM (Session ID: CON9717) - Oct 1, 10:45AM featuring GlaxoSmithKline, PNC Bank and Southwest Airlines. Maximizing User Adoption Rates for Siebel Sales and Siebel Partner Relationship Management (CON9690) Oct 1, 12:15PM featuring CSL Behring, Intuit and McKesson. Best Practices for Upgrading Your Siebel CRM Implementations: Customer Successes (CON9715) - Oct 1, 3:15PM featuring Citrix, Sunlife Financial and Oracle experts. Driving Great Customer Experiences with Siebel Service Applications (CON9604) - Oct 1, 4:45 featuring Farmers Insurance, US Department of Homeland Security and Waste Management There are also a number of customer case study sessions including: Lowe's (CON9740), American Red Cross (CON6535), Ontario Lottery & Gaming's Siebel Marketing and Loyalty (CON4114), and LexisNexis (CON9551). Also, an interesting session on optimizing Siebel on Oracle with ACCOR (CON4289). Have you heard about the new Open UI for Siebel? If you haven't, you should! There are sessions focused on introducing you to the new functionality and how you can unleash the power of the new user interface: User Interface Innovations with the New Siebel “Open UI” (CON9703) Oct 2, 10:15AM and Unleash the Power of “Open UI” (CON9705) - Oct 3, 11:45AM. Other Siebel-related topics you might want to check out: Knowledge Management: Increasing Return on Your CRM Investments with Knowledge (CON9779) - Oct 1, 3:15PM Mobile: Mobile Solutions for Siebel CRM (CON9697) - Oct 2, 5:00PM Siebel Loyalty: Best Practices for Maximizing the Success of Your Loyalty Program with Siebel Loyalty (CON9588) - Oct 2, 5:00PM  Siebel Marketing: Next-Generation Cross-Channel Insight-Driven Customer Dialogue with Siebel Marketing (CON9600) - Oct 3, 10:15AM Integrating with Oracle Commerce: Administer Once and Deploy Everywhere: Integrating the Siebel, ATG, and Endeca Platforms (CON9761) - Oct 2 5:00PM Finally, don't forget the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) Special Interest Group for Siebel on Sunday, September 30 at 2:15PM. And of course, the Demogrounds in Moscone West will be full of Oracle and partner demos and information on new solutions. Wow! I told you there was a lot! Good luck finding the best sessions for you and have a great time at OpenWorld. Don't forget to sing along with Pearl Jam!

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• Interviews: Going Beyond the Technical Quiz

  - by Tony Davis

  All developers will be familiar with the basic format of a technical interview. After a bout of CV-trawling to gauge basic experience, strengths and weaknesses, the interview turns technical. The whiteboard takes center stage and the challenge is set to design a function or query, or solve what on the face of it might seem a disarmingly simple programming puzzle. Most developers will have experienced those few panic-stricken moments, when one’s mind goes as blank as the whiteboard, before un-popping the marker pen, and hopefully one’s mental functions, to work through the problem. It is a way to probe the candidate’s knowledge of basic programming structures and techniques and to challenge their critical thinking. However, these challenges or puzzles, often devised by some of the smartest brains in the development team, have a tendency to become unnecessarily ‘tricksy’. They often seem somewhat academic in nature. While the candidate straight out of IT school might breeze through the construction of a Markov chain, a candidate with bags of practical experience but less in the way of formal training could become nonplussed. Also, a whiteboard and a marker pen make up only a very small part of the toolkit that a programmer will use in everyday work. I remember vividly my first job interview, for a position as technical editor. It went well, but after the usual CV grilling and technical questions, I was only halfway there. Later, they sat me alongside a team of editors, in front of a computer loaded with MS Word and copy of SQL Server Query Analyzer, and my task was to edit a real chapter for a real SQL Server book that they planned to publish, including validating and testing all the code. It was a tough challenge but I came away with a sound knowledge of the sort of work I’d do, and its context. It makes perfect sense, yet my impression is that many organizations don’t do this. Indeed, it is only relatively recently that Red Gate started to move over to this model for developer interviews. Now, instead of, or perhaps in addition to, the whiteboard challenges, the candidate can expect to sit with their prospective team, in front of Visual Studio, loaded with all the useful tools in the developer’s kit (ReSharper and so on) and asked to, for example, analyze and improve a real piece of software. The same principles should apply when interviewing for a database positon. In addition to the usual questions challenging the candidate’s knowledge of such things as b-trees, object permissions, database recovery models, and so on, sit the candidate down with the other database developers or DBAs. Arm them with a copy of Management Studio, and a few other tools, then challenge them to discover the flaws in a stored procedure, and improve its performance. Or present them with a corrupt database and ask them to get the database back online, and discover the cause of the corruption.

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• Countdown of Top 10 Reasons to Never Ever Use a Pie Chart

  - by Tony Wolfram

    Pie charts are evil. They represent much of what is wrong with the poor design of many websites and software applications. They're also innefective, misleading, and innacurate. Using a pie chart as your graph of choice to visually display important statistics and information demonstrates either a lack of knowledge, laziness, or poor design skills. Figure 1: A floating, tilted, 3D pie chart with shadow trying (poorly)to show usage statistics within a graphics application.   Of course, pie charts in and of themselves are not evil. This blog is really about designers making poor decisions for all the wrong reasons. In order for a pie chart to appear on a web page, somebody chose it over the other alternatives, and probably thought they were doing the right thing. They weren't. Using a pie chart is almost always a bad design decision. Figure 2: Pie Chart from an Oracle Reports User Guide   A pie chart does not do the job of effectively displaying information in an elegant visual form.  Being circular, they use up too much space while not allowing their labels to line up. Bar charts, line charts, and tables do a much better job. Expert designers, statisticians, and business analysts have documented their many failings, and strongly urge software and report designers not to use them. It's obvious to them that the pie chart has too many inherent defects to ever be used effectively. Figure 3: Demonstration of how comparing data between multiple pie charts is difficult.   Yet pie charts are still used frequently in today's software applications, financial reports, and websites, often on the opening page as a symbol of how the data inside is represented. In an attempt to get a flashy colorful graphic to break up boring text, designers will often settle for a pie chart that looks like pac man, a colored spinning wheel, or a 3D floating alien space ship.     Figure 4: Best use of a pie chart I've found yet.   Why is the pie chart so popular? Through its constant use and iconic representation as the classic chart, the idea persists that it must be a good choice, since everyone else is still using it. Like a virus or an urban legend, no amount of vaccine or debunking will slow down the use of pie charts, which seem to be resistant to logic and common sense. Even the new iPad from Apple showcases the pie chart as one of its options.     Figure 5: Screen shot of new iPad showcasing pie charts. Regardless of the futility in trying to rid the planet of this often used poor design choice, I now present to you my top 10 reasons why you should never, ever user a pie chart again.    Number 10 - Pie Charts Just Don't Work When Comparing Data Number 9 - You Have A Better Option: The Sorted Horizontal Bar Chart Number 8 - The Pie Chart is Always Round Number 7 - Some Genius Will Make It 3D Number 6 - Legends and Labels are Hard to Align and Read Number 5 - Nobody Has Ever Made a Critical Decision Using a Pie Chart Number 4 - It Doesn't Scale Well to More Than 2 Items Number 3 - A Pie Chart Causes Distortions and Errors Number 2 - Everyone Else Uses Them: Debunking the "Urban Legend" of Pie Charts Number 1 - Pie Charts Make You Look Stupid and Lazy  

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• Want to be part of the most meaningful Customer Experience conversation today?

  - by Tony Berk

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Today's entry is written by Chris Warner, Director, Product Strategy at Oracle. By now you’ve undoubtedly seen the blogs and announcements about Oracle OpenWorld. And perhaps you’ve also seen the news about OpenWorld’s newest sister event: Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Summit @ OpenWorld. Oracle CX Summit was created to be the most meaningful CX event, to be truly unique, to serve as the place to discover what it takes and what it really means to put the customer at the center of your business success. One long-time Oracle customer, when told about the Oracle CX Summit, put it this way: ‘This makes me rethink how I think about Oracle and Customer Experience’. Listen to what she heard and you be the judge. We believe Customer Experience (‘CX’) is a movement, not just the latest ‘IT’ tech trend. CX isn’t something you can simply ‘install’. CX is one of the most strategic initiatives an organization can undertake. Customer Experience is about connecting with an organization’s most important asset, the customer, and the critical role that connection has to an organization’s success. And there’s never been a bigger gathering of the smartest CX minds, most successful CX companies, and innovative CX examples than Oracle CX Summit. Take Subaru, for example. The company fully embraced the CX opportunity and their CX leadership will be on stage at the Oracle CX Summit to share their CX journey. They radically changed the way they interact with their customers, empower their employees, and differentiate their brand. And this is a story with a phenomenal happy ending: in a stagnant market and shrinking economy, they GREW their business and outpaced their competition. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} At Oracle CX Summit, you will be surrounded by dozens of CX leaders, visionaries and innovators like Subaru. This three-day event brings together the largest collection of thought leaders and practitioners in Customer Experience ever. Notable presenters include: v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Seth Godin - World-renowned blogger and one ‘the World’s Top 21 Speakers’, author of 14 best-selling books like “Permission Marketing”, and founder of dozens of startups such as Squidoo.com (ranked one of the top 125 sites in the US). Kerry Bodine - VP Principal Analyst at Forrester for Customer Experience, author of the just-published book “Outside In - The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business”, and renowned author of “The Customer Experience Ecosystem”. Bruce Temkin - Co-founder and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association, revered blogger of “Customer Experience Matters”, former VP Principal Analyst at Forrester for Customer Experience, Founder and Managing Partner of The Temkin Group, a leading Customer Experience research and consulting firm. George Kembel - Executive Director and Co-founder of the Stanford Design School, an established, recognized thought leader in design thinking and innovation, and a Silicon Valley based-CEO, venture capitalist and educator. Gene Alvarez - VP Research Analyst at Gartner and a recognized authority in the Retail and Consumer Goods industry. Gene has been published, featured and referenced in a variety of trade publications for Customer Experience insights. Senior Executives from innovative Customer Experience brands and agencies like AT&T, Intuit, Southwest Airlines, Marriott, Quiksilver, and Sapient. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} But the CX Summit includes much, much more. There are over 30+ role-driven sessions and rountables as well as one-of-a-kind events including: v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} The Customer Experience Innovation Tent featuring hands-on demonstrations of bleeding-edge customer experiences like the Share Happy Ice Cream Machine A hands-on Customer Journey Mapping Workshop that lets you learn design thinking techniques for innovating differentiated experiences that drive cross-functional alignment Access to the Oracle OpenWorld Exhibition Halls and DEMOgrounds as well as a week-long Live Music Festival and the Oracle Appreciation Event featuring Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} At Oracle, we are quite proud of our award-winning suite of CX products, a suite of solutions that can help an organization greatly accelerate their CX journey. But Oracle CX Summit isn’t about products. It’s about how an organization can succeed in its CX initiative. There’s never been a bigger gathering of the smartest CX minds, most successful CX companies, and innovative CX examples than Oracle CX Summit. Come join the Customer Experience Revolution. Register for Oracle CX Summit @ OpenWorld here. v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} --

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• Making the Coolest 3D Pie Chart Ever in JDeveloper

  - by Tony Wolfram

    Everybody loves a cool 3D pie chart, and nowhere is it easier to create one for your web application than in JDeveloper. Just follow these simple steps. Creating the Pie Chart First, drag a pie chart from the Component Palette onto your page.        

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• Banco Espírito Santo Increases Sales Campaign Success Rate with Siebel CRM

  - by Tony Berk

  Banco Espírito Santo (BES), founded in 1869, is the second-largest private financial institution in Portugal with a 20.3% domestic market share, 2.1 million customers, and more than 700 in-country branches. It also has a strong international presence with operations in 23 countries and four continents. With strong growth in its major markets, BES needed a modern, cost-effective, scalable, and reliable customer relationship management (CRM) solution for its retail operations. The bank wanted to optimize client relationship management and integrate all customer touch points and service channels to improve the success of its sales and marketing initiatives. BES implemented the same CRM solution as many other leading banks: Oracle's Siebel CRM. With Siebel CRM 8.1 and other Oracle solutions, BES significantly increased sales of its new financial products across all channels by up to 25%, and it expects to increase annual revenue by up US$4 million annually. It also improved the success rate of bank branch sales, marketing, and lead generation campaigns by nearly 10%. “We are very happy with Oracle’s Siebel CRM applications. We already knew that this was the best solution available, but it has surpassed our best expectations,” said João Manaças, Customer Relationship Management Manager, Personal Marketing Department, Banco Espírito Santo. Click here to learn more about BES's use of Siebel CRM.

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• Want to be a Speaker at Oracle OpenWorld 2012?

  - by Tony Berk

  Yes, your calendar is correct. It is March. But planning has already started for Oracle OpenWorld 2012. So if you want to be a speaker and propose your own session for this year's event in San Francisco on September 30th - October 4th, starting thinking now!  The annual OpenWorld Call for Papers is now open until April 9th! All of the details to submit a paper are available here. Of course we are interested in sessions around any of the Oracle CRM products, but the Call for Papers is open to all Oracle topics. When submitting your topic, be sure to describe what you plan to discuss and the value of the presentation to other attendees. Sell your session, because there will be a lot of competition to be selected. Bonus News: Speakers for selected sessions receive a complimentary full conference pass! Get your papers in and we'll see in San Francisco! Finally, if there are topics you would like to hear about this year, let us know. Comment on our Facebook page or on Twitter @OracleCRM with hashtag #oow12crm.

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• jWIN JC-AM100 not working

  - by Tony Kilgore

  jWIN JC-AM100 not working in skype, i just see black and the little light that comes on the webcam showing its in use does not come on ether, but it works with cheese but its upside down. =[ lsusb: Bus 002 Device 012: ID 093a:2620 Pixart Imaging, Inc. Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04d9:1702 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Bus 002 Device 005: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse M90 Bus 002 Device 004: ID 058f:9360 Alcor Micro Corp. 8-in-1 Media Card Reader Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub<

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• Spirent Communications Improves Customer Experience with Knowledge Management

  - by Tony Berk

  Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organizations. The world’s leading communications companies rely on Spirent to help design, develop, validate, and deliver world-class network, devices, and services. Spirent’s customers require high levels of support for a diverse and complex product portfolio, and the company is committed to delivering on this requirement. Spirent needed a solution to help its customers get the information they need quickly and at their convenience through its Web site. After evaluating several solutions, Spirent selected and deployed Oracle Knowledge for Web Self Service Enterprise Edition. Oracle Knowledge Management uses natural language processing to understand the true intent of each inquiry logged via the support portal’s search function. The Spirent Knowledge Base on the company’s Customer Support Center (CSC) finds the best possible answer using search enhancement features?such as communications industry-specific libraries and federation to search external sources. Spirent has reduced contact center call volume while better serving its customers. Each time a customer uses the knowledge base, they find answers faster than by calling, and it saves Spirent an average of US$210 per call?which is significant when multiplied across the thousands of calls received monthly. Oracle Knowledge also helps support engineers find answers more quickly, enabling the company to scale without adding additional support engineers. Oracle Knowledge is integrated with Spirent's Siebel Contact Center implementation to provide an integrated desktop for CRM and agent intelligence, avoiding the need for contact center personnel to toggle between various screens to address customer inquiries, thereby accelerating customer service. Click here to learn more about Sprient's use of Siebel CRM and Oracle Knowledge Management.

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