The need for Siebel OpenUI

Business Challenges with the current Siebel interface

The main issue we are facing is user adoption related. The Siebel look and feel is completely outdated and offers very rigid User Interface. This leads to the need for more training time and effort. Increased Time for Performing Tasks. Moreover, users at time feel Siebel as a policing tool and not a tool to automate and improve their efficiency. You might have heard many saying "I need to log this SR/Activity because my boss says" or "I manage my work on excel and later in the day dump onto Siebel" etc etc. This is all due to usability of the application. Why users prefer excel over Siebel screen to log info?

The second issue is it's Infrastructure Dependency. As you know, Siebel Hight Interactive version can work only on outdated IE8 and Windows platform. Due to this we can’t use other browser nor have IE upgraded -leading to inability to access other modern HTML5 based applications like MS SharePoint, workday or attask etc.

Modernize with Siebel Open UI

Oracle has done a great job in bringing up this new UI framework for Siebel called "Open UI". As the name suggests - Oracle aims to make Siebel work on any browser and any device! Open UI transforms Siebel into a modern and intuitive CRM platform, with next-generation mobile support for Tablets and Smartphones.Open UI allows Siebel to run in all modern web browsers including IE9, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It removes the need for Active X controls and allows Siebel to present a transformed and richer UI based on modern web technology.

Not only that the UI can be completely tailored based on your organization needs. This is all possible due to the open and modern web architecture that Oracle has adapted. It's HTML5, CSS and Java script based. Using this, organizations can build various themes - which offer different layout and colours to the screens. Open UI greatly enhances user experience and productivity, taking advantage of the latest web innovations with device driven layouts, intuitive navigation, touch optimization and enhanced accessibility support – same URL, different UI.

The best of all - no license cost to use Open UI! But yes Open UI is available only beyond Siebel 8.1.1.9 versions. So, if you are on 7.x or 8.0.x versions then, you need to undergo a painful upgrade process. 



In my company, we upgraded from Siebel 7.8 to Siebel 8.1.1.7 last year. I did it with the help of implementation partners and a small in-house development team. Month 1 for DEV upgrade - Month 2 TEST upgrade - Month 2,3&4 full testing - End of Month 4 go-live. It took 4-5 months from start to finish. 

See my other blog on upgrade assessment that I did and why picked Siebel upgrade as against to moving into cloud based solutions here. One thing for sure, Siebel upgrade is not a big deal as long as you know what you got to do and engage right partners to help. Especially with the IRM (Incremental Repository Merge) utility that Oracle has released, it makes upgrade very simple and easy. 

After that we have patched 8.1.1.10 and 8.1.1.11 as and when they became available to leverage all the enhancements and bug fixes on Open UI. 

Enough of upgrade story, let's continue with Open UI. 




Again! Oracle has done a clever job in designing the default theme. The default theme they have built looks more or less like Siebel HI. This is mainly to avoid huge costs on user trainings. See below screenshots for example,

So, what it takes to have Open UI in your organization? Again, Oracle has made it so simple. You know that behind every Siebel HI application, there is an Object Manager component? For example, Siebel sales has SSEObjMgr_enu object manager. So, what Oracle has done is they have provided a component param called EnableOpenUI for all the Object Managers. So, if you want to have both your current Siebel HI and Open UI then, 
> Clone your current Siebel HI Object Manager
> Update parameter EnableOpenUI to TRUE
> setup a new URL on your webserver to point to this new Object Manager
> Restart everything and see

And see the results! You will be amazed! I will post another blog detailing all technical bits to do above. But for now, it's just the benefits of Open UI that I wanted to discuss today.

   So for a while, until all hidden processes, issues are uncovered and fixed on Open UI you can keep both Siebel HI and Open UI running together. Once all your users are happy with Open UI, you can retire the traditional Siebel HI forever.

By now, you may have realized Open UI is a natural extension to existing Siebel investments. It's like putting a new skin to your existing application. All your customizations, configurations integration investments stay in tact.

Here is the finishing summary to compare HI Vs OUI:

In the subsequent blogs, I will talk about the overall strategy needed to adapt Open UI. Stay tuned!!! See below screenshots for some of the customizations collated from various sources.

Shiv