Google Maps added to Oracle E-Business Suite 12 |
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By Mark Brunelli, News Editor
18 Jul 2007 | SearchOracle.com |
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Oracle has woven Google Maps into the new E-Business Suite 12 in order to help mobile workers get to where they're going.
The database and business applications giant this week announced that the Google Maps for Enterprise mapping service is now fully integrated with Oracle Field Service, a component of Oracle E-Business Suite 12 created to better manage mobile workers and resources. Oracle has been gradually rolling out E-Business Suite 12 since January.
Oracle says the combination will increase the productivity of mobile workers and field service dispatchers by helping them maximize resources while creating highly detailed maps and efficient customer service routes.
CRM vendors have been eager to integrate with Google in recent years. San Francisco-based Saleforce.com Inc. and San Mateo, Calif.-based NetSuite Inc. feature integration with Google's AdWords for marketers, and Salesforce.com has built mash-ups of its own for Google Maps.
"Google Maps is considered to be a Web 2.0 application, so it's an advertising-funded service that is Web-hosted," said Rob Enderle, founder and principal analyst with the Enderle Group, a technical advisory firm. "What [Oracle has] done is they've taken that Web 2.0 service and they've tied it to a more traditional platform with a more traditional fee structure associated with it and created a solution that would not have existed as easily had they gone a different path."
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Enderle said the Google Maps-Oracle Field Service combination could potentially save organizations money, particularly for those planning to build a similar system on their own.
"I think this showcases that it's relatively easy to plug into the Google product. There's no apparent charge for doing so, and the end result is something that probably would have cost you a million dollars to do yourself," he said.
The newly released Oracle Field Service 12 is also offering enhanced capabilities in the areas of mobile resource management, technician schedule optimization and spares management, according to Oracle.
Field Service release 12 also offers spatial coverage for Western Europe and world markets and support for multi-day tasks, policies around site access and customer appointment confirmation tracking.
Additionally, Field Service 12 includes a new Field Service Administrator's Portal that lets administrators manage customer service tasks assigned to both in-house or partner technicians across time zones and regions.
Meanwhile, a new dashboard in Field Service 12 gives users a view of inventory across field service warehouses and, based on pre-set policies, the software can make recomendations related to excess inventory, defective resources and parts processing in general.
Oracle Field Service 12 is available now as part of the Oracle E-Business Suite. The Google Maps for Enterprise integration is also available for Field Service 11.5.10.
"By integrating Google Maps for Enterprise, Oracle Field Service delivers on the promise of an extended service-oriented architecture and Web 2.0 collaboration," Mike Betzer, vice president of Oracle's CRM product strategy, said in a press release. "Oracle CRM users will derive tremendous business value through advanced map views and interactions [while] at the same time receiving a world-class user experience through the Google Maps User Interface."
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