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protecting sensitive student data.

otn.oracle.com/software/products/jdev

According to Gunderson, the new application helps users

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

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B Y M A RTA B R I G H T

KNOW WHO. KNOW HOW.

Oracle CRM On Demand turns customer knowledge into business success.

ustomers are the lifeblood of any busi- cation, or the organizational requirements ness. Finding them—and then keeping don’t justify the need for an on-premises them—is critical. And to do that, companies solution,” says Anthony Lye, senior vice must know who their customers are, what

president of CRM at Oracle. they want, and what will keep them satisfied.

From banking and finance to education Customer relationship management (CRM)

and government agencies, hundreds of software helps companies understand their Oracle customers around the world have customers’ needs, buying patterns, and

examined their requirements for CRM even complaints. Oracle CRM On Demand

and found that Oracle CRM On Demand goes one step further—offering companies a provides the functionality and ease of portfolio of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and use they need. managed applications that reduces risk and lowers the total cost of ownership for the

A LIFETIME OF LEARNING

companies that use them. Established more than 150 years ago and “On-demand software provides a tre-

spread across 16 campuses in New York, mendous amount of value to an organiza- Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin, Bryant & tion that doesn’t have all of the resources

Stratton College is a private career college

required to deploy an on-premises appli- that helps students develop professional

LINDY GROENING

ORACLE MAGAZINE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

based technologies, Grieco says. information technology and

“Oracle CRM On Demand hotel and restaurant manage-

has given us a far better under- ment. A 22-year veteran at

standing of our prospective stu- Bryant & Stratton, IT Director

dents and existing students,” John Grieco led a project to

he says. Oracle CRM On implement Oracle CRM On

Demand enables the college Demand to manage marketing

to track advertising to prospec- and career placement services

tive students and determine for close to 1 million potential

accurate costs for each lead; and existing students.

application; and registered, “The true value of IT is not

attending student. in keeping machines up and

“Being able to figure out how running,” says Grieco. “It’s in

much all of these marketing what you can gain from an IT

programs truly cost has led us to department’s knowledge of the

look at what we did in the past business. To maximize and use

and say, ‘We always thought that that knowledge to its greatest

“Oracle CRM On Demand has given us a far better understanding of our

prospective students and existing students,” says John Grieco, IT director

campaign was very successful, capacity, I think we are well

for Bryant & Stratton College.

but in reality it’s not compared served to let Oracle worry about managing IT, so we can

to this campaign. Maybe next semester we’ll allocate more worry about running the college’s business.”

resources to this campaign and not worry about what we did Grieco completed the integration of Oracle CRM On

last year,’” Grieco says.

Demand with a third-party collegiate administrative suite of Creating an environment that supports independent, as- student, financial aid, finance, human resources, and advance-

needed use by the marketing staff is a great fit for a business ment systems running on Oracle Database. The integrated

like Bryant & Stratton, says Amy Konary, a research director Oracle CRM On Demand environment is especially useful for

with IDC. “If your salespeople are widely distributed and they marketing to Bryant & Stratton’s different student popula-

need to contribute to one system, standardizing them on one tions—recent high school grads, who are usually more tech-

system of record is valuable, and having a single database for savvy, and nontraditional older students, who may not have as

that is especially valuable,” she says.

Oracle On Demand: Delivering Customer Choice

CA THERINE GIBBONS

40 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

GREEN MILES TO SUSTAINABILITY CRM On Demand to make it VicUrban, located in Melbourne,

easier for staff first to access and Australia, demonstrates how an

capture customer information Oracle CRM On Demand solu-

and then to use that information tion can improve the customer

to market to prospective buyers experience. As well, it can unite

more precisely. and simplify IT for a diverse

Indeed, Morton and others sales team that had been using

at the agency are enthusiastic multiple software solutions.

about the benefits that SaaS VicUrban is the state gov-

provides. “It’s much easier for ernment’s sustainable urban

Oracle [rather than VicUrban] development agency; it works

to make sure the availability is with the public and private

appropriate for these applica- sectors to build sustainable

tions,” says Morton. communities and create oppor-

As VicUrban’s business appli- tunities for industry develop-

cation needs grow and change, ment. Created in 2003 after a

Morton has found that turn- merger between Victoria’s Urban

ing to Oracle for answers is Regional Land Corporation

“Oracle CRM On Demand will reduce power consumption even during heat

waves,” says David Morton, information and communications technology

always a great option. “We and the Docklands Authority,

service delivery manager at VicUrban.

always look to Oracle first to VicUrban has focused its projects primarily on developing

see what it can offer,” Morton says.

communities that address the challenges posed by population Morton is very happy to have the SaaS model to serve the growth and climate change.

agency’s business computing needs and as a role model for Because one agency had been based on a Microsoft system

sustainable practices. VicUrban has embraced sustainability as and the other had been based on Oracle technologies, the

a credo, a concept that was reinforced when the agency moved merger required some retooling of the IT infrastructure. “Some

into its new “green” offices in Victoria’s first heritage-listed of the primary considerations involved were cost, unifying on

building during the intense heat of Australia’s summer season

a single platform, and robust industry standards,” says David and achieved the Green Building Council Australia’s 5 Star Morton, information and communications technology (ICT)

Green Star Certified Rating for office design. service delivery manager at VicUrban.

“We want to take a leadership role in the area of sustain- The new organization decided to implement an all-Oracle

ability, so one of the things we’re trying to do with ICT is solution based on Oracle Database, Oracle Application Server,

to ‘green’ it,” Morton says. “One way I’m doing that is by and Oracle E-Business Suite to ensure system longevity,

implementing services like SaaS, including Oracle CRM On compatibility, and integration. The agency also adopted Oracle

Demand, which will reduce power consumption even during heat waves.”

VicUrban is trying to push the green initiative by imple-

SNAP SHOTS

menting services such as Oracle CRM On Demand that will both reduce the power consumption at the VicUrban offices

Bryant & Stratton College www.bryantstratton.edu

and demonstrate that people can follow a similar path with Location: Buffalo, New York

their own lives and business initiatives. “Sustainability,” says Industry: Education and research

Morton, “is not only about the carbon; it’s also about improv- Revenue: US$80 million

ing lifestyles.” O

Employees: 1,800 Oracle products: Oracle CRM On Demand, Oracle Financials, Oracle Database

Marta Bright is a senior editor with Oracle Publishing. VicUrban

www.vicurban.com Location: Melbourne, Australia Industry: Public sector

next STEPS

Revenue: US$186 million

READ more about Oracle CRM On Demand

Employees: 250

oracle.com/applications/feature-oracle-crm-ondemand.html

Oracle products: Oracle CRM On Demand; Oracle E-Business Suite, includ-

VISIT the Oracle Application Integration Architecture

ing Oracle Financials, Oracle Project Management, and fixed assets and project

Best Practice Center

accounting applications; Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition

otn.oracle.com/products/applications/aia

ARDS

Plus; Oracle Discoverer; Oracle Database; Oracle BPEL Process Manager; Oracle

TRY Oracle CRM On Demand

Application Server

www.bit.ly/49W7MJ

ROBERT EDW

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42 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

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ask flows in Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) enable you to define an application’s control flow. In “Developing a Regional Accent” (Oracle Magazine, November/December 2008), you worked with bounded task flows to create reus- able page regions. This column shows how to capture task flow parameter values from the user, invoke model-layer initialization logic when a task flow starts, and perform conditional routing based on method results—all without writing any backing-bean code.

To begin, download the starter workspace at otn.oracle.com/oramag/ oracle/10-jan/o10frame.zip and ensure that you’re using the studio edition of the Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.1 production release, available as a free download at otn.oracle.com/jdev. Start by extracting the contents of the o10frame.zip file and opening the FrameworksJanFeb2010.jws workspace in Oracle JDeveloper. The Model project in the workspace defines a base set of Oracle ADF components for working with the data in the EMP table in the SCOTT schema. The ViewController project includes FindEmployees.jspx and three JavaServer Pages (JSP) page fragments used in the find-employee bounded task flow.

Before proceeding, adjust the prop- erties of the scott connection in the Application Resources zone of the Application Navigator until you can suc- cessfully test a connection to a SCOTT schema. If you need to create the tables, use the provided CreateDeptEmpTables .sql script.

You’ll complete a simple application that enables the user to enter a search value—an employee number, name, or job—and view the resulting employee details. If the search matches a single

employee, the data will appear immedi- ately. If the search identifies two or more matches, the user will be able to pick one of them to view. If no rows match, the user will see a message to that effect.

USING PAGE DEFINITION VARIABLES

Start by selecting the ViewController project in the Application Navigator and pressing Ctrl + Alt + minus (the keyboard shortcut for Navigate -> Go to File). When the Go to File dialog

box appears, type FE in the search field

to narrow the list and then double-click FindEmployees.jspx to open the page in the visual editor. You can see that an inputText field, a Search button, and a decorative box component are already set up on the page.

Select the inputText component, and note in the Property Inspector that the Value property field is empty, indicating that the field is not currently bound to any data value. The value in this field will only be passed along as a parameter to the task flow. You’ll use an Oracle ADF feature called a Page Definition Variable to provide temporary storage for the value, without needing to create a backing-bean class.

Click the Bindings tab of the visual editor to see the page definition. To create a new page definition variable, right-click the variables iterator binding that appears in the Executables box and choose Insert inside variables -> variable. In the Insert variable dialog box, enter SearchStringVar in the Name field and java.lang.String in the Type field and then click OK. Note that the new variable does not appear in the main editing surface of the Bindings tab but that you can see it as a child node of variables in the Structure window.

Next, you’ll create a control binding based on this page definition variable to

give the page access to its value. Click the Create control binding (green plus sign) toolbar button in the header of the Bindings box. When the Insert Item dialog box appears, ensure that the category of components is Generic Bindings, select attributeValues in the list of items, and click OK. In the Create Attribute Binding dialog box, select the variables iterator binding for

Oracle JDeveloper