On Oracle’s week

Every so often, it happens. Most of the workweek (or even two) flies by without word about the “world’s largest enterprise software company,” followed by a blizzard of items in a 24-hour span. It seems today is that day for Oracle and thus for CRMchump.

In no particular order, then…

Oracle today announced the Oracle Management Pack for Identity Management, which promises to provide a single, unified management program for Oracle Identity Management customers as an extension of Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g. The big company is touting the identity management product as a way to centralize the management and monitoring of their identity systems from operating system through application layer to the end-user.

Key features plugged by Oracle in the release include “Discovery,” a one-step discovery and graphic display of Oracle Identity Management components and other applications running identity management servers; “Monitoring,” which tracks metrics such as availability performance and related principles; “Service Level Management,” a service dashboard to monitor the status of key components of the identity system; and “Configuration Management,” which enables tracking of changes made to identity management configuration.

The Oracle Identity Management suite itself serves as security backbone for Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Identity Management and includes Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite, Oracle Identity Federation and Oracle Web Services Manager.

The Oracle folks have also announced that the Philadelphia Housing Authority has implemented Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Customer Relationship Management and PeopleSoft Enterprise Support to “help provide a more positive service experience for housing authority customers and the public.”

The PHA reportedly worked closely with Oracle Consulting to create a unified customer interface and case management system; Oracle product is integrated with telephony gear from Verizon, Nortel and AMC.

Said to be the fourth largest housing authority in the United States and the biggest landlord in Pennsylvania, the PHA develops, acquires, leases and operates affordable housing for city residents with limited incomes. The agency receives more than 4,000 calls per day from tenants, applicants and vendors.

Current PHA plans call for the organization to roll out the PeopleSoft Enterprise Support system to 150 additional agents in 15 locations across the city. In addition, the agency also seeks to extend the functionality of its Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise applications by upgrading PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management; supplementing its PeopleSoft Enterprise Supply Chain Management system with the implementation of the PeopleSoft Enterprise eProcurement module; developing new housing-specific CRM applications including PeopleSoft Enterprise Applicant Waiting List, Eligibility Processing and Tenant Management applications; and adding additional marketing functionality to support event and media planning.

If you’re thinking that such a heavy Oracle presence with a Philadelphia government-related enterprise is strange, you’re not alone. Apparently, the PHA did not consult with Philly waterworks and the mayoral council, who were on the wrong end of Project Ocean, an $18.1 million debacle, an abject embarrassment which muddied the Oracle name more than a bit.

Another displeased Oracle customer, Korea’s LGcard, stepped forward today to announce that the firm would be giving its CRM system a makeover and scrapping the Siebel CRM product it had been using since 2000.

Korea-based online publication The Digital Daily quoted LGcard CIO Heo Joo Byung as stating that “The existing CRM system that we have used was not user friendly so we decided to change the system into a relatively light and user friendly one.”

According to Digital Daily, the new CRM system’s implementation began in the third quarter of 2006 and is being implemented in three phases, culminating in the setting up of a call center. The new CRM system is currently scheduled to go live in June. Obzen’s online analytical processing-based eCube Studio is already in operation now.

Reports Digital Daily: “Oracle Korea seems to be embarrassed since it has been seeking to leap forward in the CRM market with Siebel’s brand power. What’s more, losing LGcard is very disappointing for Oracle Korea who is trying to keep its customers from turning away, with the recent operation of the ‘Application Unlimited program” and, even worse, that “Other financial institutions are likely to follow suit” when choosing to upgrade from Siebel, for which there was a “frenzy” when financial services starting implementing Siebel en masse a few years ago.

An official statement from Oracle Korea, in an interesting show of utter denial, read “We do not know about any full-scale reestablishment of the system in LGcard although there might be partial make up for the existing CRM system.”