Oracle announced this week that they are combining the WebCenter, ECM, OnTrack and Fatwire product lines into a single product family now known as WebCenter. These products come from the Stellent, BEA, Fatwire and native Oracle products.
The focus of the product family is on web engagement management, contextual collaboration and social business.
According to the webcast, the focus and features are borne out in their R&D integration road map and not just a combined marketecture of overlapping capabilities.
The new WebCenter Portfolio Stack has 4 key elements:
Oracle WebCenter Sites – Focus: websites and WEM – aka Fatwire
Oracle looks to move from Web Content Management as a publish and broadcast technology to Web Engagement Management as an engagement via the website capability. Created and laid out by creative types and agencies.
Oracle WebCenter Portal – Focus: portal, composite applications and mobile – aka WebCenter Framework (and spaces?). Enterprise development to integrate back office applications with front-facing WebCenter sites. Focus on enterprise Java developers this is their new (old) home.
Oracle WebCenter Content – Focus: ECM – aka ECM Suite aka ECM, URM, I/PM aka Stellent
Document and content management and governance capabilities serviced up in the portal, web and collaborative streams.
Oracle WebCenter Connect – Focus: social & real-time collaborative capabilities. Stream based conversations. Mobile and Tablet UX. Based on Oracle On Track (point 30:15 in the webinar linked below). Whitepaper here (PDF).
“Oracle WebCenter is about creating a user engagement platform for our enterprise customers.” – Kumar Vora (minute 19 in the webinar linked below)
Webinar Q&A (summary not transcription):
Q. Should I upgrade from 10g to 11g or wait? A. Yes upgrade.
Q. Where can I find information about what I’ve already deployed? A. OPN and Oracle technology network sites will make clear announcements for the rebrading and product suite names. Products and names are the same today as they were.
Q. What about pricing? A. to be announced. The products are available today as are the capabilities and they’re on the price lists and here too (PDF – page 7).
Q. Who is Fatwire and are they already integrated with Oracle technology? A. Fatwire is a leader in Web Experience (also engagement) Management. They are a natural complement to the Oracle platform. It is mature technology with good WEM, WCM, Social and Mobile capabilities.
Q. What is the difference between WCM and WebCenter Sites? A. WCM is focused on publishing info to websites and portals as envisioned by communications and marketing departments. WEM and WebCenter Sites is about engaging customers socially, getting feedback, spurring and enabling user generated content etc. These requirements and features have different infrastructure and tooling requirements than traditional WCM.
Q. Should we wait to build our Portal and Site Studio sites for Fatwire? A. No. Continue on your current path. Let Oracle work to integrate the Fatwire and Portal capabilities so you don’t have to.
Q. I just bought ECM Suite, will I be migrated to WebCenter Content? A. We will work with your account managers to make sure that you keep what you have and have available what you need. More information in subsequent webinars about the Fatwire acquisition.
Q. Where does ATG fit in with WebCenter and Sites? A. Look at http://www.oracle.com/fatwire. Fatwire spans multiple channels of customer experience not just e-commerce. They are complementary technologies. Oracle is unique in that we have the capabilities across all the technologies and verticals. We have the complete and comprehensive set of capabilities. Remember too that commerce sites have non-commerce related content too. ATG and WebCenter Sites (in the future) will make sense together.
Q. How does Fatwire work with ECM? A. Look in the future for possible integration, content publish and migration features between the products.
Q. Will UCM Site Studio continue to exist? A. We will need to continue to have strong web publishing so that content in ECM managed content can be published out to sites and portals. We expect that capability to continue to exist.
Q. What about pricing? A. To be determined. No announcement of pricing or packaging changes at this time. We’re bringing together the portfolio and the banding changes. See the pricelists linked above.
Q. Do search and SES fit together or are they separate things? A. our strategy is to be able to leverage the search tool of your choice as well as to make extensive use of Oracle text and SES.
Q. Do you plan to integrate WebCenter Connect into Fusion Apps like CRM? A. Absolutely. The whole strategy around contextual collaboration applies to apps unlimited products. Today, On Track (aka WebCenter connect) integrates with Seibel. WebCenter plays a key role in providing the foundation to fusion Apps. This is the basis of contextual collaboration. It is about bringing the business context to the people who get the work done.
Q. Is there a planned price increase? A. The price list today is available as are the products. You can find these online. See the pricelists linked above.
Presenting:
Hasan Risvi – SVP Fusion Middleware and Java
Kumar Vora – WebCenter SVP of Development
Andy MacMillan – WebCenter VP Product Management
BloomThink 