Siebel Reports Statement of Direction

September 2010

Siebel Reports Statement of Direction

Purpose
This document provides an overview of the product roadmap in the upcoming and existing releases of Oracles Siebel Reports product. The sole intent of this document is to help assess the business benefits of the Siebel Report Server.

Disclaimer
This document in any form, software or printed matter, contains proprietary information that is the exclusive property of Oracle. Your access to and use of this confidential material is subject to the terms and conditions of your Oracle Software License and Service Agreement, which has been executed and with you agree to comply. This document and information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied, reproduced, or distributed to anyone outside Oracle without the prior written consent of Oracle. This document in not part of your license agreement nor can it be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in planning for the implementation and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described in this document remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely include all features described in this document without risking significant destabilizations of the code.

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INTRODUCTION

This product roadmap is intended to provide existing and future Oracle Siebel Reports customers with information about the planned direction of this product in the following ways: Short-term deliverables to address key customer concerns and enhancement requests Medium-term plans to provide a second tier of enhancements Long-term plans to ensure alignment with the Oracle BI Publisher product direction.

RELEASE STRATEGY

A series of releases are planned to be provided against the existing 7.7, 7.8, 8.0 and 8.1 code lines and made available to customers in the form of a Fix Pack. Not all changes will be provided on all versions; initially 8.1 will receive all items discussed, the majority of which will be ported to 7.8 and 8.0.

PHASE 1 - SHORT TERM

To address product issues and further enhance the reporting solution, a number of changes need to be merged into a releasable build for wider distribution. These planned changes include:
Enhancements
User Interface

Major enhancements to the user interface and report execution flow include: We are improving the UI flow for immediate and scheduled reports to ensure the look/feel is consistent and easy to use. A more compact and dynamic runtime parameter report applet will only display if the report is marked as Parameters. Runtime parameters (parameter applet) are separated from the report output applets (Output Type, Language). There will also be a custom report output filename for immediate reports. Enhanced My Reports View to include Multi-Select Delete capability and Multi-org template and report sharing. The select records feature to be enhanced to not only allow for parent record selection, but also to allow for child record select, grandchild etc and also multi-select records (Ctrl key selection). The application is clever enough to

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pick up the user context. Improved Selected Records reporting functionality will include: o o o Run from a List View - multi-select parent or child operation, standard list view operation or multiple list applet Run from a Detail View - form applet parent context or child list applet context Drilldown context preserved - becomes parent record selection.

Infrastructure

Major enhancements to infrastructure include: Dynamic Applet Sort Order retained during report generation (unless some other override). Ability to add a Search Spec and Sort Order against an Integration Component(s) in an Integration Object that will override any UI query or Sort. Improved error messaging throughout, including confirmation messages (upload report, schedule report) Mobile synchronization for templates / reports SI mode operation for reporting Performance, no need to check report for parameter input, by specifying parameter flag in Report Templates View.

Scheduling

Major enhancements to scheduling functionality include: Monthly scheduling Use Siebel session timezone for scheduled jobs

Parameterized Reports

Major enhancements to parameterized reports functionality include:

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Parameter flag for a report, determines parameter popup and entry Parameters declaration in template uses same simple syntax for all parameters Define parameter criteria in Siebel UI against a report template o Name (multilingual), Type (Date, LOV, Checkbox, String), defaults, LOV (MLOV), required etc

New parameter input applet, controls displayed in applet per type and criteria Enable from Mobile/Dedicated client, scheduling parameterized reports

Advanced Reports

New advanced reports to include: Calendar reports (Calendar applet query context) and Print button execution of Calendar reports

The approximate timeline for delivery of the fixes described above on the 8.1.1.x release is early 2011.

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PHASE 2 - MEDIUM TERM

To address product issues and further enhance the reporting solution, a number of changes need to be merged into a releasable build for wider distribution. These planned changes include:
Enhancements
User Interface

Major enhancements to the user interface and report execution flow include: Enhanced My Reports View - a new republish button to be added to allow the same report to be generated again with the same criteria so the user does not have to go back to the view and requery, execute etc Other fields added improve usability and add more detail for administrators. More detail for users: Custom name (filename), Description (custom), Tags (keywords), Error message (for Failed report executions). More detail for Administrators: Task id, Query string, Bookmark, Lang/Locale, Start and End time. Advanced system admin reports to be added to this view so you can report on all the information

Infrastructure

Major enhancements to infrastructure include: Add XML, DATA output formats (for developer use) Pass QueryString in XML to report so it can be displayed on report output Complete Siebel Accessibility solution Upgrade MWC to latest BI Publisher libraries to enable PPT format and parameterized reports ForwardOnly mode on EAI QueryPage() Reduce multiple authentication checks Security - authenticate Inbound Web Service calls from BI Publisher and allow report generation over password hashing Multiple enterprise support for a single BI Publisher instance using file system per enterprise and support for multiple enterprises with individual or shared database (requires shared authentication directory)

Scheduling

Major enhancements to scheduling functionality include: Schedule report with parameters

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Remove BI Publisher headers from My Jobs View

Multilingual Reports

Major enhancements to multilingual reports functionality include: All options covered in multilingual solution. Multilingual searchspecs, PDQs recognized. MLOV support, template translation, locale. Multiple options of combining all language possibilities, all from a single language OM, this also includes scheduling multilingual reports from a single OM and multilingual runtime parameters and parameter names.

Reports Business Service

Major enhancements to the reports business service to include: Business Service methods to be enhanced so when running reports via script or WF you can specify many options such as delivery channels (ftp, webdav etc..), email distribution, printers to send a report too, as well as supporting all scheduling methods. This adds the ability to build complex, custom procedures for business reporting. Also enabling MWC operation for the business service and ability to specify custom name, description, tags as report parameters.

Advanced Reports

New advanced reports to include: Execute non-Siebel reports from a Siebel view, Flash, SQL, Web Services etc so a standard BI Publisher report (i.e. using SQL to a database and not integration objects). Administration reports from My Reports View, report usage, per user, statistical analysis

The approximate timeline for delivery of the fixes described above on the 8.1.1.x release is in 2011 calendar year.

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PHASE 3 - LONG TERM

To address product issues and further enhance the reporting solution, a number of changes need to be merged into a releasable build for wider distribution. These planned changes include:
Enhancements

Major enhancements to include: BI Publisher 11g validation on WebLogic and incorporate enhanced features of 11g such as the online template builder. With BI Publisher 11g, WebLogic will be the recommended platform and not OC4J. Document Server - alternative solution using BI Publisher for Proposals and Correspondence. This is being explored and would provide the following benefits: o No platform dependency on Windows o Single server solution preferred reduces TCO, much improved scalability, performance and concurrency o Simple to develop templates, execute from Siebel CRM via script, WF o Easy migration, similar functionality, run in parallel to Document Server o Enhanced multi-lingual solution and multiple output formats Actuate co-existence the ability to run both Actuate and BI Publisher reporting engines in parallel will not be possible in 8.2.x. It is expected that customers will migrate from Actuate to BI Publisher prior to upgrading to this release.

The approximate timeline for delivery of the fixes described above on the 8.1.1.x release is in 2011 calendar year.

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Siebel Reports Statement of Direction September 2010 Author: CRM Applications Strategy Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Fax: +1.650.506.7200 oracle.com Copyright 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Oracle, JD Edwards, Siebel, and PeopleSoft, are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.