Oracle's product strategy and roadmap for WebCenter (and my notes following the webinar)

Today (July, 13, 2011) Oracle announced a product strategy and roadmap for a comprehensive user engagement platform through the use of WebCenter.  Through the following suite of products:

1. Oracle WebCenter sites – Web experience management that helps improve customer loyalty by allowing business users to quickly create, deploy, target and measure multi-channel online marketing; deliver relevant, optimized and content-rich contextual web experiences and extend brand engagement and web presence to mobile and social channels
   
2. Oracle WebCenter portal – portal and composite applications that incorporate technology previously available as Oracle WebCenter Suite and Oracle WebCenter services, to deliver intuitive, personalized and contextual user experiences for enterprise applications through a prebuilt library of components for enhancing existing enterprise applications or creating new composite applications
   
3. Oracle WebCenter content - unified content management that ensures seamless access to the right information in the appropriate business context by helping organizations implement a strategic content infrastructure for managing documents, images, and rich media files while delivering contextual integration with enterprise applications
   
4. Oracle WebCenter connect - social tools that accelerate business processes by allowing users to collaborate on activities and connect with internal experts to address business challenges

I'm trying to wrap my mind around it but am hoping that the webinar: Oracle Online Event "What's Next in User Engagement?" later today will clarify things.


Notes following the webinar

Sites
This is a new capability based on FatWire which will provide an all encompassing web experience management solution. Stay tuned for upcoming webcasts on Sites.


Portal
Continues to be the core of WebCenter. It is made up of the following existing products:

• Oracle WebCenter Suite
• Oracle WebCenter Services
• Oracle WebLogic Portal
• Oracle WebCenter Interaction

Content
The goal here is to making content management part of the WebCenter family, which is a natural fit.
Content is made up of the following existing products:

• Oracle ECM Suite
• Oracle Universal Content Management
• Oracle Universal Records Management
• Oracle Imaging and Process Management

Connect
This is a new capability intended for making a more collaborative environment.  It is made up of the following existing products:

• Oracle On Track Communication
• Oracle WebCenter Intelligent Collaboration
• Oracle WebCenter Real-Time Collaboration

They full suite includes very complimentary products.
A lot of focus going into integrating them which is why they are going under the WebCenter umbrella.


Question/Answer
Q: We are currently running UCM 10gR3 and planning an upgrade, should this announcement impact our upgrade plans?
A: Upgrade plans should not be affected by this announcement

Q: With all the products changing names, how will I be able to find information on earlier products I already use?
A: A concerted effort is going to be made to make it clear on OTN and other content sites. Rebranding at the product level will take place in the next set of releases.

Q: What is the pricing? (I asked this question!)
A: Pricing and the packaging will be communicated over the next few months.  This is more a transition of branding than formal packaging. There isn't a price change currently.

Q: We are planning on building an external site using portal and site studio, with the recent FatWire aquisition should we wait for things to develop further?
A: Continue on your current path, acquisitions take a bit of time. Work with your account rep and look for future webcasts for more details.

Q: I just bought ECM, will I be converted over to WebCenter Content?
A: There won't be much change other than branding

Q: Where does ATG fit in? (I asked this question!)
A: FatWire is a very strong complimentary product to ATG and there will be more detail coming out in the near future.  A future combination of ATG and FatWire makes a lot of sense.

Q: How does FatWire interact with UCM?
A: There is a definite need to have enterprise content be published to that experience management platform.  So there will likely be an integration, can't be said "officially" yet.

Q: Will UCM Site Studio continue to exist?
A: There is a need for web publishing for ECM to be published and consumed by web applications and web portals. We expect to continue to fulfill that need.

Q: Do search and SES fit together?
A: Strategy is based upon leveraging search tool of your choice, but also leveraging SES if you are using that.  In WebCenter Content/Portal SES is the underlying tool.

Q: Do you plan to integrate Connect into CRM and Fusion?
A: Absolutely.  One objective is to provide capabilities from WebCenter to the rest of the Fusion stack.

Q: Would WebCenter help to extend PeopleSoft portal?
A: Fusion strategy is to provide new capabilities to extend other applications including PeopleSoft portal.



Questions I had prior to the webinar:

1. Is WebCenter Sites (Experience Management) the branded name for FatWire (a leading provider of web experience management solutions)?
   If so that was insanely fast. 
   
2. How is WebCenter content different from UCM?
   Is this just a rebranding of the same content mgmt bundle that was previously packed along with WebCenter Suite/Services? or is there more to it?
   
3. I had previously understood that there were social aspects to WebCenter Spaces/framework, is WebCenter Connect a new set of tools?
   or have they just been unbundled from WebCenter Portal and rebranded into Connect?
1. Found this in the Portal data sheet:
   Oracle WebCenter portal delivers ... wikis, blogs, RSS, discussion forums, tags, links, social networking and activity streams.
   Oracle WebCenter connect provides ... instant messaging, presence, web conferencing and brokered connections.
   
4. Are each of these products licensed separately or sold as a complete suite?