The second installment in BizTech's Oracle CRM On Demand Release 19 Readiness Series provides an overview of three of the next generation of mobile technologies for Oracle CRM On Demand. Firstly, the Apple Safari browser running on the iPad will be officially supported in Release 19. Secondly, Oracle Fusion Mobile Sales is the next generation of application for access to CRM information on your Smartphone. Lastly, Oracle iSales is a native application for both Smartphone’s and iPad specifically targeted for the Life Sciences vertical edition of Oracle CRM On Demand.
iPad Safari browser support - Although most functionality already works on the iPad with previous releases, Release 19 resolves several known issues and makes iPad support official. However, because of certain iPad limitations (e.g. no flash support), there are a number of areas which are automatically disabled or which have work-arounds. I have listed a few of the major areas below, but for more details, click the Training and Support link at the top right of the Oracle CRM On Demand application and search for "iPad."
- Message Center and Heads up display disabled
- Cannot add attachments, import files, download WSDLs
- Web Applets have some rendering issues (Safari HTML issues)
- Reports using charts require workaround
- Report designer not fully functional
- Scrolling within pages require 2 finger scrolling
Oracle Fusion Mobile Sales - The future of mobile CRM applications development at Oracle has been consolidated across the CRM On Demand, Siebel On Premise, and Fusion CRM product lines. This single focus will enable faster uptake of new mobile platforms, produce a radically smaller application footprint, and is based on open standards that will be accessible via Public APIs. As the successor to Mobile Sales Assistant, Fusion Mobile Sales will be available for the iPhone and Blackberry initially, with Android and other platforms to follow. Perhaps the most significant advancement is the inclusion of the Application composer application in CRM On Demand. This will provide business users the ability to customize the fields, layouts and objects rendered in Fusion Mobile Sales without using code.
iSales – Targeted towards the Life Sciences vertical, iSales natively supports iPad and Smartphones. Some of the key benefit’s are
- Offline Support - iSales is fully functional when it’s disconnected, data is stored locally and synchronized
- Leverages Device Capabilities - displays appointments and contacts in the native PIM applications, enables click to dial, address lookup and click to email
- Closed Loop Solution - combines call management, sample management (including signature capture) and eDetailing (presentations)
- Configurable - Easy to use browser-based tool enables the application to be tailored with custom fields, objects, layouts and logic.
