WebCenter Team

As we’ve been discussing this week, self-service is all the rage lately. Who would have thought 30 years ago we'd be checking into airlines ourselves? And 50 years ago no-one thought we'd be pumping our own gasoline! But today we are "outsourcing to the customer" whatever and wherever we can - and it makes sense:

• The customer feels more "in control"
• The customer does not have to wait in lines
• The company saves money by reducing reliance on staff

If done right, customer portals can be a huge money saver while simultaneously improving the customer's experience. In case you missed our webcast yesterday with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP), I encourage you to view it on demand, as Matt Lampe, CIO of LADWP, shares how their customers are more in control and they have realized immense results from implementing their self-service customer portal.

Author: Peter Reiser - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter

At Oracle Openworld 2012 the University of Louisville won the prestigious Oracle WebCenter innovation award for their implementation of the LOUI (Louisville Informatics Institute) Initiative, a Statewide Informatics Network, which will improve public healthcare and lower cost through the use of novel technology and next generation analytics, decision support and innovative outcomes-based payment systems.

Solution Summary
The University of Louisville (UofL)  is a state supported research university located in  Louisville, Kentucky, USA. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States.

UofL business objective was to develop tools that improve the acquisition, management, communication, processing, and sharing of healthcare information.

As part of the LOUI (Louisville Informatics Institute) Initiative, they implemented Oracle WebCenter Portal to provide a secure, personalized, and rich user experience and Oracle WebCenter Content  for the management of unstructured content and digital assets (such as streaming video) that  supports the on-going patient education, wellness, and treatment. Using the Oracle WebCenter products, the University of Louisville is now providing the infrastructure for their Facebook for medicine.

This project is anticipated to produce an annualized Return on Investment of 277% based on avoidance of hospitalizations, earlier intervention and improved patient compliance that is matched to an outcomes-based reimbursement model. 

Company OverviewThe University of Louisville (UofL) is a state supported research university located in  Louisville, Kentucky, USA. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States.

Business Challenges
Healthcare is in worldwide crisis, costs are rising, quality is inconsistent, and there is a need to integrate the expanding information upon which healthcare depends. Healthcare informatics is widely recognized as an opportunity to dramatically improve public health, service, and cost.  Since informatics spans the interfaces between medicine, science, and technology, it offers an opportunity to develop tools that improve the acquisition, management, communication, processing, and sharing of healthcare information. 

To address these challenges, UofL created the LOUI (Louisville Informatics Institute) Initiative, a Statewide Informatics Network, with the following objectives:

• Deploying understandable patient specific informatics to underserved patients in order to improve treatment compliance
• Empower Healthcare Knowledge Workers and Health Coaches with access to near time clinical data and engage the patient in their community 
• Evaluating the impact of correlated physiologic data to claims data on risk adjusted reimbursement models that improve healthcare delivery and cost
• Score illness severity in individual patients based on their changing blood chemistry values, and objectively measure treatment outcomes in patients with chronic diseases including kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, congestive heart disease, chronic infections, and hypertension

Solution Deployed

The University of Louisville has implemented Oracle WebCenter Portal to provide a secure, personalised, and rich experience specific for each person using it, regardless of role. To improve proactive management of patient healthcare, Oracle WebCenter Content is used for the management of unstructured content and digital assets (such as streaming video) that  supports the on-going patient education, wellness, and treatment.   This information can be tailored to the individual patient’s needs based on his or her particular treatment or condition. 0 0 1 54 311 Oracle 2 1 364 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Times New Roman";} 0 0 1 16 94 Oracle 1 1 109 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Times New Roman";}

Business Results
This project is anticipated to produce an annualized Return on Investment of 277% based on avoidance of hospitalizations, earlier intervention and improved patient compliance that is matched to an outcomes-based reimbursement model. 

This ROI is achieved by

1) Deploying understandable patient specific informatics to underserved patients in order to improve treatment compliance;

2) Expanding two new healthcare job roles:  Health Knowledge Managers and  “health coaches”

3) Evaluating the impact of correlated physiologic data to claims data on risk adjusted reimbursement models that improve healthcare delivery and cost.

Listen to Priscilla Hancock, CIO and VP  and Russell Bessette, Associated VP for Health Affair University of Louisville on how they use Oracle WebCenter to securely build communities and how they provide their Facebook for medicine.

Additional Information

• Customer Video
• Oracle WebCenter Portal
• Oracle WebCenter Content

Learn How Oracle WebCenter Portal Can Empower Your Customers

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest public utility company in the United States. It provides water and power for more than 1.6 million residential and commercial customers in Southern California. LADWP was looking for an enterprise-class portal to increase customer self-service Web transactions.

Join us for this Webcast and hear about Oracle’s portal- and composite-applications solution, Oracle WebCenter Portal, which is now used to power the Los Angeles utility’s ladwp.com, a multilingual, customer self-service site.

Oracle WebCenter Portal provides LADWP customers a portal that includes:

• Account information such as bills, payments, and rebate processing
• Application and content management integration
• Multichannel access, including mobile devices

Attend this Webcast, the first in a three-part series, and learn how a self-service portal can empower your customers, provide real-time access to data, reduce costs, and increase customer loyalty.

Register now for the Webcast.

REGISTER NOW

Register now for the Webcast.

Thursday, January 31, 2013
10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET

Presented by:

Matt Lampe
CIO, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Oracle WebCenter Series
Self-Service Portals: Increasing Satisfaction for Employees, Customers, and Partners

Webcast

City of Los Angeles Improves Customer Satisfaction with
Self-Service Portal

Whitepaper

Oracle WebCenter Portal:
High-Value Web Experiences Through Self-Service Portals
(Coming Soon)

Webcast

Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety Lowers Customer Service Costs with Oracle WebCenter
(Coming Soon)

Author: Peter Reiser - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter

 Solution Summary

Toyo Engineering Corporation (Toyo) was established in 1961 after the company separated from the engineering and maintenance section of Toyo Koatsu (now known as Mitsui Chemicals). Since then, Toyo has worked on thousands of plant engineering projects in more than 50 countries, and it is a globally recognized leader in its field.

 Toyo needed to improve collaboration between global subsidiaries, external companies, and staff in remote locations. It also wanted to enhance communication between project management teams, and engineering, procurement, construction, and other business process units, so each department had timely access to the latest design, engineering, and project information.

Based on Oracle WebCenter Content with a workflow function in a cloud environment, Toyo established a flexible, scalable, and highly durable document management system that allows global project personnel to use it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Toyo expects to significantly reduce e-mail volume, improve  project efficiency,  enhance user and customer satisfaction and to save an anticipated US$2.4 million (200 million yen) per year on printing, copying, and delivery expenses.

Company Overview
Toyo Engineering Corporation (Toyo) was established in 1961 after the company separated from the engineering and maintenance section of Toyo Koatsu (now known as Mitsui Chemicals). Since then, Toyo has worked on thousands of plant engineering projects in more than 50 countries, and it is a globally recognized leader in its field.

Business ChallengesToyo needed to improve collaboration between global subsidiaries, external companies, and staff in remote locations. It also wanted to enhance communication between project management teams, and engineering, procurement, construction, and other business process units, so each department had timely access to the latest design, engineering, and project information.

Their main business objectives were:

• Reduce e-mail volumes from up to 400 per day for each project manager
• Simplify and enhance communication between globally dispersed project personnel
• Adopt a shared document management model to prevent duplicated & scattered content and deliver relevant documents in timely manner
  
• Change business processes to ensure electronic documents are regarded as valid as hard copies
• Share and deliver knowledge about productive techniques and ideas from Japan with global subsidiaries and external companies

Solution Deployed
Toyo launched a new project document management system called SHOKA, which means ‘bookshelf’ in Japanese.

Based on Oracle WebCenter Content with a workflow function in a cloud environment, Toyo established a flexible, scalable, and highly durable document management system that allows global project personnel to use it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“The strength of SHOKA is that it can be accessed from anywhere through a secure internet connection, whether you are working in Japan or overseas,” said Shuntaro Saito, project IT group, IT management and control unit, Toyo Engineering Corporation. “This enables remote users to continue their project work exactly as if they were at head office.” 

Business Results

• Expected to save an anticipated US$2.4 million (200 million yen) per year on printing, copying, and delivery expenses
• Improved project efficiency by establishing a centralized document management system, standardizing project document structures, file naming rules, and document authorization methods
  
• Enhanced user and client satisfaction by providing  7x24 secure and online access to relevant content
  

Electronic document management is an indispensable way to improve project information flow between our global engineering subsidiaries, construction sites, and external companies in remote locations. Oracle WebCenter Content enabled us to establish a dynamic business information management system that can quickly deliver the latest design information to the relevant project execution offices and show a project’s progress, based on the status of various documents.

Toshio Hayashi, Deputy General Manager—IT Management and Control Unit, Toyo Engineering Corporation

Additional Information

• Toyo Customer Snapshot
• Oracle WebCenter Content

John Brunswick: Five Best Practices for Self-Service Portals

Self-service portals afford organizations an excellent way to reduce costs, increase the quality of customer service, and act as an ongoing touchpoint with customers. Delivering a compelling experience takes effort, but it supplies a powerful opportunity to turn your brand's customers into fans. Here are five best practices for self-service portals.

• Catalog personas and processes. Self-service behavior is purposeful. Catalog types of customers and their objectives. Review current touchpoints via all channels and interview customer service and sales departments to better understand what works and what does not. This catalog can act as your design compass.
• Architect user profiles. Personalized self-service requires an understanding of a user’s relationship with your organization, their demographic, and other profile information. Access to purchase history, social networking activities, and past self-service history can enable you to increase the relevancy of their experience based on their needs. Prioritize user attributes and plan to leverage this data.
• Understand the lifecycle of relationships. Users’ views of information can shift based on their products, services, and the duration for which they have had or are using them. Take the opportunity to correlate value-added offerings given the lifecycle of those items.
• Conduct behavioral analysis and testing. Authenticated users enable richer behavioral analysis than anonymous users. Review analytics on the basis of user segments and profile attributes. Enrich and refine the experience by leveraging A/B design testing strategies to allow personas to more easily meet their objectives.
• Utilize social and community. Self-service portals supply an excellent way to offer value-added services related to your brand. Brainstorm about additional interactions within their experience, such as providing an online community or avenues for social interaction with your brand to drive affinity.

Check out this podcast in John's Best Practices series and learn more about self-service portals.

Unlock the Hidden Business Value of Self-Service Portals 

For a long time, self-service portals were seen as a cost-cutting tool, but a new generation of technologies is turning them into key productivity tools—and even revenue generators. This week, we want to focus on self-service portals, and the business value your organization can realize with the. Here are some frequently asked questions about the growing business value of self-service portals. 

What is the definition of a self-service portal?
A self-service portal is a Website that enables users—whether they are customers, employees, suppliers, or partners—to perform high-value transactions, from simple account updates to paying bills, managing support tickets, and more. 

What is the value proposition of a customer self- service portal?  Besides the value of driving down service costs, self-service portals are a progressively vital element of the customer experience. Customers increasingly prefer to complete transactions themselves via the internet—whenever and wherever they want—rather than having to make a call or travel in person to a business location. And since customer experiences are crucial to achieving competitive advantage, so are self-service customer portals.  
In addition, next-generation technologies are also enabling the delivery of highly personalized content, such as compelling cross-sell/up-sell offers based on customers’ profile, activity, purchase history, etc. As a result, self-service portals are evolving from cost-cutting measures to true profit centers. 

Do you have a favorite example of a customer self-service portal?
We have so many great examples of our customers that are using Oracle WebCenter Portal for self-service portals for their customers. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is a great story about true customer self-service. LADWP is the largest public utility company in the United States with over 1.6 million customers and provides water and power for millions of residential and commercial customers in Southern California. LADWP was looking for an enterprise class portal to surface mission critical applications to increase customer self-service Web transactions. In order to do so, LADWP turned to Oracle WebCenter Portal, and LADWP customers now have a customer self-service portal which includes: account information such as bills, payments and rebate processing, application and content management integration, and multi-channel access, including mobile devices. You can hear from LADWP CIO Matt Lampe in this video, or catch him on this webcast "City of Los Angeles Improves Customer Satisfaction with Self-Service Portal" at 10:00am PST on Thursday!

What about the value proposition of building employee self-service portals? An effective self-service portal helps keep employees engaged and happy by putting key information and business processes at their fingertips—from managing their own benefits to completing mission-critical tasks. 
To achieve this, a portal needs to raise to the surface back-office applications along with relevant content in an extremely simplified user experience—plus enable employees to easily add applications to create composite applications. Done right, composite applications combine functionality from multiple applications into a single, integrated, intuitive business dashboard. 
Finally, next-generation employee self-service portals also integrate social and collaboration technologies that drive increased productivity.  

What are the latest trends and technologies that are driving the next generation of self-service portals? 
Increasingly, users want to access self-service portals via mobile devices. That makes it vital to be able to reuse existing site builds as much as possible across all platforms. Also, more and more, people want Websites to know who they are and present only content and transactions that are relevant to them, so personalization is essential.  

It’s also important to empower business users. Traditionally, portals have required IT intervention. Now, a new generation of technologies is enabling business users to implement changes themselves, speeding business transformation while driving down IT costs.  
Finally, social computing, including wikis and other user-generated content, is transforming self-service sites and enabling people to complete more sophisticated transactions more quickly and efficiently through effective collaboration.
How does Oracle WebCenter Portal help drive business value?  With Oracle WebCenter Portal, you can quickly create dynamic self-service portals, with tools to quickly build composite applications and mashups, out-of-the-box social and collaboration tools, complete enterprise content management capabilities, and a comprehensive and flexible user experience platform for faster development.

Find out more about building self-service portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and don't miss the webcast with LADWP on Thursday!