ORACLE Service Cloud (RightNow) August 2013 Release – Integrate, Customize and Extension Features!!

ORACLE Service Cloud (RightNow) August 2013 Release has some interesting & significant feature additions in the areas of Integration, Customization and Extension. And the key features are listed in this blog.

Integration – Major new features: 

• Agent desktop OPA integration: Oracle Policy Automation (OPA) helps to build dynamic, interactive questionnaires based on business requirements and complex policy documents using its natural-language capabilities. Now we can map data items in OPA onto the RightNow Service data model using data mapping and configuration exercise without having to write any custom development code for integration. Based on my recent experience working on OPA & RightNow integration, the rules for integration can be easily defined by a non-technical user through Data Object Mapping.

  In the earlier releases, OPA integration was made available to Customer Portal for use by customers in self-service mode. From the current release, the integration is extended to the Agents to enable them to provide customers with a consistent, cross-channel experience while navigating policies and determining eligibility for programs and services.

• ATG Commerce Service Center(CSC) integration: Rich & extensive service management functionalities of RightNow can be integrated with CSC to provide comprehensive end to end Service Management solution to the e-com customers.

• CCOM and ROQL: The Configuration and MessageBase primary objects have been added to Connect Common Object Model (CCOM) and RightNow Object Query Language (ROQL) to provide read-only access to configuration and message bases in Oracle RightNow CX.

• Connect Web Services & Knowledge Foundation API: No interesting enhancements to this area of integration except adding new version fields in the WSDL & copyright element update in the WSDL document.

Customization & Extension features:

• Techmail enhancements: This feature can be a real value add for organizations handling large volume of email transactions. The performance, reliability, responsiveness and scalability aspects of emailing module would be improved significantly. And “Incoming Email Filter Details report” can be used to identify & understand the root cause of mail rejections and act on to avoid filtering/rejections of emails which are meaningful to the business.

• Oracle-managed Service mailboxes: The process of setting up incoming Service mailboxes no longer requires customer intervention. Instead, Oracle can now create an Oracle-managed Service mailbox for you, making your mailbox setup easy.

• Referencing/Displaying external images in reports: Uploading of images from external locations to RightNow can be avoided. Instead we can directly “refer” to the required images from the external locations avoiding duplication.

• New Widgets Addition:
  • SmartAssistant for the basic page set: Customer Portal Framework Version 3.1.2 includes the BasicSmartAssistant widget for the basic page set, used when mobile devices and browsers do not support JavaScript. By default, the widget appears on the Email Us page to offer potential answers to your customers’ questions before they submit an incident.
  • In addition to the new BasicSmartAssistant widget, three other new widgets are included in this version of the Customer Portal: SurveyLink, ProactiveSurveyLink, and syndicated ProactiveSurveyLink.

• New SmartAssistant autotuner:The SmartAssistant autotuner reviews the effectiveness of your current configuration and automatically makes adjustments and suggestions to improve results.

• Survey reminders: For broadcast and transactional surveys, you can add up to four automatic reminder messages to create a sense of urgency for customers to complete surveys within a time frame you specify.

Please visit the following link for more details, 

http://documentation.custhelp.com/euf/assets/docs/august2013/pdfs/august2013_release_notes.pdf

Microsoft Skype and Oracle Cloud CRM – Be where your customers are!!

This blog article provides insights about Skype IM, its business benefits & on how to Integrate “ORACLE Cloud CRM” Products with Skype.

Introduction:

Skype started in Europe in 2003, got acquired after 3 years by eBay and currently owned by Microsoft (bought in 2011) in a decade long run since its launch.

Using Skype one can call, see, text & share with others – wherever they are.

Being one of the most popular IM tool, Skype is available on computer, mobile, tablet, TV and even on home phone. Latest stats suggests around 300 million around the globe use Skype to stay in touch with those who are most important in their lives, from friends, to family, to business connections. One in three international voice calls is now made using Skype. Few more stats,

To get started with Skype all we need is – Skype installed device with microphone and speaker/headset, a web cam and an internet connection.

Skype (Microsoft) has been investing in technology improvements, these changes are expected to significantly improve the reliability & performance of Skype to provide users with the best experience possible, across devices and platforms.

When you download & create Skype account, the free and paid services are, 

Skype in business world:

Skype, the low-or-no-cost voice-over-Internet service was first launched for individuals and is now popular with businesses too.

If access to information is democratized by Google, then Idea of communications is democratized by Skype.  If Amazon’s cloud services made it easy for start-ups to get in business, then Skype helped tiny start-ups go global adopting Skype as communication platform.

Skype is a good tool for High-tech technical support services, demonstrations & global meetings.

In cases where customers are having issues using a product, service reps could initiate a Skype call (i.e. Video conference & Screen share) with customers to see what the problem or issue is. This helps the service reps to quickly determine the root cause and show the customer how to solve the problem then and there. This also allows companies to have a kind of “face time” with the customers.

For more business use cases – “10 Cool Ways Companies Use Skype”.

Skype with “ORACLE Cloud CRM” Products:

Skype URIs are the preferred mechanism for integrating with the Skype client, and are supported on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows (8, 7, Vista, XP), and Mac OS X.

Skype URIs enable developers to create innovative mobile, web, and desktop apps that initiate Skype calls and chats, enabling users to reach target group in a convenient yet familiar way.

The below listed Skype features are integrated with “ORACLE Cloud CRM” products using Skype URIs,

Skype Features Integrated with CRM:

1. Click to Audio Call /Audio Call – Conference
2. Click to Video Call /Video Call – Conference
3. Click to Chat/Multi-Chat
4. Group Video Call (GVC)

ORACLE Cloud CRM products:

1. ORACLE Sales (Fusion) Cloud
2. ORALCE Service (RightNow) Cloud
3. ORACLE CRM On Demand

In their pursuit to provide better customer experience companies are identifying suitable channels where thier customers ‘hang-out’ and building processes around them. Skype with “Oracle Cloud CRM” enables businesses to be more customer driven and deliver defined customer experience at the same time reducing transactional costs making the combo the preferred solution 🙂

Special thanks to my good friend & colleague Mohammed Chand Ahmed for his contribution to this article.

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Note: The other means to integrate Skype is to use Desktop API’s and these API’s were launched nearly 10 years ago. Microsoft has decided to decommission these API’s by the end of 2013 to improve the overall Skype Experience. Also, URIs based Integration approach is  much easier & simpler compared to desktop API’s for integration.

Information sources on decommissioning API’s: Skype Developer, Skype to retire Desktop API support by end of 2013 & Skype says it will kill its Desktop API by end of 2013

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