Oracle® Fusion Applications Sales Implementation Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1.4) Part Number E20373-04

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6 Common Applications Configuration: Define Social Networking

This chapter contains the following:

Define Social Networking

Group Spaces: Highlights

FAQs for Define Social Networking

Define Social Networking

Getting Started with Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration: Overview

Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration is a collection of features of the Oracle WebCenter product. Employees in an organization can use these features to collaborate and stay informed of the latest information.

Employees can use Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration features to do the following business tasks:

• Access real-time feeds of business transactions.

• Engage in contextual discussions around key business goals.

• Leverage group spaces to enhance team collaboration.

• Enhance virtual team communication by staying up-to-date on peer activities, deals, connections, and community updates.

• Gain greater visibility into opportunities and best practices.

• Make informed decisions with peer feedback.

• Access critical information to streamline the sales process.

From Oracle WebCenter, Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration leverages the following features.

Activity Streams

Activity streams provide an ongoing view of activities from connections, actions taken in group spaces, and other business activities. Within Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration, activity streams have been enabled for opportunities and customer business events, as displayed in the following Oracle Fusion CRM areas:

• Welcome page

• Sales Dashboard

• Customer Center overview page

Employees can use activity streams to:

• Stay current on relevant business updates or updates from the communities of which the user is a member.

• Stay up-to-date on what others are working on and what is happening in your organization.

• Make timely decisions with real-time contextual insight.

• Overcome organizational and geographical boundaries that make it hard to find help and expertise.

• Increase employee interaction and collaboration.

For more information, see "Tracking Your Connections Activities" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Blogs

Blogs are typically personal records of an individual user's experience and opinions. In Oracle WebCenter Spaces, users can create blogs to group related blog posts, for example to group topics by the same author or otherwise related topics. Each blog contains various blog posts. Although, blogs have not been exposed in Oracle Fusion CRM, users can access blogs by way of Oracle Web Center Spaces. For more information, see "Working with Blogs" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Discussion Forums

You can use a discussion forum to post, respond to, and preserve topical information, and other users can post information relevant to those topics. All of this information is preserved within the discussion forum so that teams of users can collaborate on opportunities and customer records. Everyone who is part of the opportunity or customer team can post and reply to discussions. Within Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration, discussions are enabled for opportunities and customer business objects. For more information, see "Creating a Discussion Forum" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Discussions has been enabled for:

• Opportunity

• Customer

• References

• Competitors

Group Spaces

Teams of employees can use group spaces to collaborate in the context of an opportunity or customer record. Within a group space, employees can collaborate by engaging in existing discussions or creating new ones, and they can create new wikis. They can also create new group spaces and leverage available features, such as discussions, blogs, wikis, announcements, and so on. By using group spaces, employee groups can contend with work blockages, such as:

• Unstructured sales activities that are not captured.

• Information that is locked in silos.

• Hard-to-find successful or useful content.

• Numerous e-mail threads used for collective content authoring.

For more information, see "Understanding Space Basics" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Tags

Tags categorize business objects in Oracle Fusion Applications, for example specific invoices and opportunities, with your own keywords. You can share tags so that anyone searching or browsing for items can find them based on common tags. For more information, see "Working with the Tags Service" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Wikis

Wikis are Web sites of interlinked Web pages that members of a group can create and edit in a Web browser. Members who have the appropriate permissions can add and edit information to share it with their group. For more information, see "Working with Wikis" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Wikis have been enabled for:

• References

• Competitors

Group Spaces: Highlights

Group spaces bring people together in a virtual environment for ongoing interaction and information sharing, enabling the formation and support of social networks. Teams can use group spaces to collaborate through discussions, in the context of an opportunity or customer record, and create new wikis. Users can also create a new group space and leverage available features, such as discussions, blogs, wikis, announcements, and so on. Group spaces support the collaboration of project teams and communities of interest by providing a dedicated and readily accessible area for relevant services, pages, and content, and by supporting the inclusion of specified members. A member can invite you to join a space, in which case you receive a notification. To see all the spaces that you can join, use the Spaces link in the global area or go to the Spaces dashboard, which contains a list of the spaces to which you belong, a list of any recommended spaces, and a tool to search for all public spaces that you can join.

The available features in a group space depend on the template that was selected when the group space was created. Out-of-the-box templates provide a variety of features. Spaces are an Oracle WebCenter feature that is used not only in the Oracle WebCenter Spaces application but also throughout Oracle Fusion Applications.

Accessing Group Spaces

You can access group spaces by the Spaces link in the global navigation area. From there, you can access the existing public group spaces or the group space of which you are a member. From within the Edit Opportunity page of an opportunity record, you can also access an existing group space or create a new group space. Click an icon to display a popup window where you can do the following group space activities:

• Select and add a group space: You can select an existing group space from the list. The application allows all users who have access to the opportunity record to use the features exposed in the selected group spaces.
• Create and link a group space: You can create new group spaces using existing group spaces templates. Users who have access to the opportunity record can use the features that are exposed in the newly created group spaces.

Setting Up Group Spaces

You can associate existing group spaces to an object, or you can create new ones. These associations have no impact on any embedded group spaces within the object, nor do they create a new embedded forum or wiki for that object. You can make associations in the following ways:

• Opportunity management: A default group space is associated with each opportunity record. Drill into the group space to use any of the features available in the default group space (wikis and discussions). You can create and associate new group spaces to the opportunity record. Depending on the template that was selected when the group space was created, you can use any of the features in the group space, such as wikis, discussions, blogs, announcements, and so on.
• Group Spaces link: From the top navigation menu, you can create and access a group space and use any of the features available in the group space.

Security for Enabling or Viewing Group Space Widgets

Users need specific security permissions to enable or view group space widgets, such as forums, wikis, and so on, for the following objects:

• Opportunity: For enabling, the typical role is a sales person or other advanced user. Security is controlled by an opportunity team member with full access plus the functional privilege View Opportunities. For viewing, the typical role is a sales person with regular access. Security is controlled by an opportunity team member with View or Edit access plus the functional privilege View Opportunities.
• Competitor: For enabling, the typical role is a sales administrator. Security is controlled with the functional privilege Manage Sales Competitor. For viewing, the typical role is a sales person with the functional privilege View Sales Reference.
• Reference: For enabling, the typical role is sales administrator. Security is controlled with the functional privilege Manage Sales Reference. For viewing, the typical role is a sales person with the functional privilege View Sales Reference.

Optional Enabling

Deploying organizations have a choice of enabling embedded forums and wikis for sales objects by using two profile options:

• Key: (<Object> Group Space Enabled) Determines whether or not a particular object, such as an opportunity, has support for embedding forums and wikis.
• Key: (<Object> Group Space Template Default) Determines which group space template to use in case the object is to have embed support (if the value for the first option is Y.)
• For an embed-enabled sales object, the edit view for an instance of that object provides an additional check box to show existing embedded forums and wikis (or enable embedding and showing forums and wikis if no embedded widgets exist at that point). Only advanced users of the object instance (with full access for opportunities, sales administrators for competitors and references) can see and interact with this check box. It is not visible to other users.

Embedding Group Space Widgets

To embed group space widgets, use the following actions:

• When embedded forums or wikis already exist, display the Discussions tab and Wikis tab with existing embedded content by checking the Discussions and Wikis check box. Forums and wikis are created for that object instance using the group spaces template that was specified in the first profile option. The Discussions tab and Wikis tab appear in the object instance for the newly-created widgets.
• To hide The Discussions tab and Wikis tab with existing embedded content, uncheck the Discussion and Wikis check box.

Group Spaces and Oracle WebCenter

For more information on group spaces, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter. As you read that guide, note the following points:

• Disregard content that is specific to the Oracle WebCenter Spaces application, for example the home space. Although there is no home space in Oracle Fusion Applications, many of the features within the home space are also available in Oracle Fusion Applications.
• The way to access spaces in Oracle Fusion Applications is different from the instructions in the guide. In Oracle Fusion Applications, you can use the Spaces link in the global area or on pages where available, as well as the Spaces dashboard.
  See: Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

Collaboration Capabilities: Highlights

Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration includes the following features.

Fusion Welcome Page

Across all Fusion applications, the Fusion Welcome page shows all activity stream messages:

• Opportunities and customer records that a user is following.
• Discussion groups of which the user is a member.
• Updates to wikis, blogs, announcements, and so on, from the group space of which the user is a member. The features available in a group space depend on the template that was used when the group space was created.
• Connections updates.
• Status updates.
• Healthcare management activity stream messages.
• Projects.
• All corresponding comments and likes for any of the above activity messages.

Sales Dashboard Page

The Sales Dashboard shows activity stream messages for the following functions:

• Opportunities and customer records that a user is following.
• Discussion groups of which the user is a member.
• Updates to wikis, blogs, announcements, and so on, from the group space of which the user is a member. The features available on a group space depend on the template that was used when the group space was created.
• Connections updates.
• Status updates.
• All corresponding comments and likes for any of the above activity messages.

Customer Center Overview Page

The Customer Center Dashboard shows activity stream messages for the following functions:

• Opportunities and customer records that a user is following.
• Discussion groups of which the user is a member.
• Updates to wikis, blogs, announcements, and so on, from the group space of which the user is a member. The features available on a group space depend on the template used when the group space was created.
• Connections updates.
• Status updates.
• All corresponding comments and Likes for any of the above activity messages.

Posting Messages

You can post a status update message from the Oracle Fusion Welcome page. This message can be posted to Everyone, to members of a specific group space, or to members of a specific opportunity or customer sales team. A user can also post a message from an Oracle WebCenter group space. Within a group space, the same field is available for users to post a status update.

• For more information on Oracle Fusion CRM Collaboration capabilities,
  See: Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Discussion Forums: Highlights

Teams of users can use discussion forums to collaborate on opportunities and customer records. Everyone who is part of an opportunity or customer team can collaborate and take part in discussions by posting and replying to discussions. When someone posts a new discussion entry or replies to an existing discussion, the users who are members of the opportunity or customer team are notified by an activity stream message.

Members can drill into a discussion to read all replies, watch the forum where discussions are created, and view, edit, reply, and create their own discussions by accessing the group space. Members can also create and participate in text-based discussions with other users within the scope of specific business objects, an application, or a space. For example, in Oracle Fusion Applications Help, you can post questions or comments regarding topics covered by a specific help file and view posts from other members regarding the same help.

The Discussions feature is an Oracle WebCenter service used within and outside of spaces in Oracle Fusion Applications. Discussions are fully described in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces. As you read that guide, note the following points:

• In Oracle Fusion Applications, discussions can exist outside of spaces. Content that is specific to spaces applies to spaces within Oracle Fusion Applications, but discussions work similarly outside of spaces.

• Various user interfaces, or task flows, are described in the guide. The interfaces and flows that are available to you depend on the pages that you can access.

Setting Up and Using Discussion Forums

Moderators can create discussion forums in which members can view and participate in topics and threads. Set up and use discussion forums in the following ways:

• Edit Opportunity page: This option is available only to users at the level of someone like an opportunity owner, that is, a member with full access. To enable a discussion forum for an opportunity, click an Opportunity Name. Then in the Edit Opportunity page Summary region, check the Show Discussions and Wiki check box and then Save. This option creates discussions and wikis for the opportunity, and a Discussions tab in the Additional Details region of the Edit Opportunity page. After you enable discussions, you cannot disable them. When a discussion is enabled on the opportunity, anyone with a minimum of view access on the opportunity can contribute to it.
• Customer Center: For each customer record, the Discussion Forums link is displayed in the Customer Center region. A setup is not necessary.
• Opportunity Management: In each opportunity record the Discussions tab is available in the Additional Details region. You can create and associate new group spaces to the opportunity record and the user Discussions feature under the group space.
• Global group space: At the global navigation level, click the Spaces link, then Create. When you create a space choose the Discussion template, then you can navigate to the space, add members, create pages, and upload documents.

See Also

• For more information about discussion groups,
  See: Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Wikis: Highlights

A wiki is a Web site of interlinked Web pages that allows members of a group to create and edit the Web pages in a Web browser. Members of a group who have the appropriate permissions can add and edit information and share it among the group. Wikis are available by way of CRM References and Competitors.

In Oracle WebCenter Spaces, you can create and manage wiki documents by using the Documents service. To support the wiki functionality, the Documents service stores all wiki documents on Oracle Content Server. For this feature to work, the Oracle Content Server needs to be set up.

Setting Up Wikis

This option is available only to users at the level of full access, for example, someone like an opportunity owner.

• In the Edit Opportunity page, to enable a wiki for an opportunity, click an Opportunity Name.
• Then in the Edit Opportunity page Summary region, check the Show Discussions and Wiki check box and then save.
• This option creates wikis for the opportunity and a Wiki tab about competitors. When a wiki is enabled on the opportunity, anyone with a minimum of view access on the opportunity can contribute to it.
• After you enable wikis, you cannot disable them.

See Also

• For more information about wikis, see the following document.
  See: Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Tags: Highlights

Use tags to categorize business objects in Oracle Fusion Applications, for example specific invoices and opportunities, with your own keywords. You can share tags so that anyone searching or browsing for items can find them based on common tags. For example, members collaborating on a project can tag all related work with a particular term. Although tags are available to anyone who has access to the item, when you create tags you can designate them to be private .

The tags feature is an Oracle WebCenter service.

Tags are fully described in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces. As you read that guide, note the following points:

• Disregard discussions specific to the Oracle WebCenter Spaces application, for example the global search in the application.

• Although the guide describes tagging Oracle WebCenter pages and documents, in Oracle Fusion Applications you tag specific business objects.

• Not all tag features are available in Oracle Fusion Applications, for example the Tags and Similarly Tagged Items user interfaces.

Understanding Tags

Aside from the Tags icon and the Tag Center dialog box, tags are available in Oracle Fusion Applications from applicable Oracle Fusion Applications Search results. The search considers tags in finding matching results. The search results do not indicate the number of times a particular tag was applied, and not all searches retrieve private tags. You can access the Tag Center dialog box from the global area or other places in Oracle Fusion Applications, for example in Oracle Fusion Applications Help. The Tag Center shows all tags, not only those relevant to what you are working on. For example, the tag center in Oracle Fusion Applications Help displays all tags, not only the tags for help files. Use tags to do the following actions:

• Use the tag icon to tag specific business objects. Read only about the step that describes the fields you enter to tag an item.
• Browse and search for items using tags in the Tag Center dialog box. Disregard instructions about how to open the tag center.
• For more information about tags,
  See: "Understanding the Tag Center" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces
  See: "Tagging WebCenter Portal Application Pages" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces
  See: "Working with Tags and Tagged Items in the Tag Center" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Activity Streams: Highlights

Activity streams show a continuous view of activities from connections, actions in group spaces, and other business activities. For example, you might see that specific users have created, edited, or deleted specific business objects, such as customers or opportunities, and you can use activity streams to access more information about that user or object. Additionally, similar to social networking Web sites, the activity stream displays messages that other users want to broadcast.

Activity Stream is an Oracle WebCenter feature, available in Oracle Fusion Applications on the Welcome dashboard and various other locations within and without the context of spaces. The types of activities that are tracked vary depending on each Activity Stream region.

Setting Up Activity Streams

You can set up activity streams from the Navigator link by selecting Setup and Maintenance under Tools. In the Search: Tasks field, type "Activity". In the Search Results list select Set Activity Streams Options. Click the icon in the Go to Task column to open the Setup and Maintenance page. Expand Service Categories. In the rows for Customer and Opportunity select the following check boxes:

• Display Activities: When new updates are made, the application displays the corresponding activity messages on the application UI.
• Allow Owner Override: This function allows the end user to override the Display Activities option by going to the Activity Streams Options feature.
• Publish: The system publishes the activity stream messages when new updates are made. These messages are first published or written to the Activity Streams repository, where they are written to the database table but not displayed. To display them, click Display Activities.

Understanding Activity Stream Security

Activity stream messages are only displayed to users who are:

• Following the opportunity or customer record (specific to CRM).
• Members of a discussion group who are involved with a discussion entry that is associated to an opportunity or customer record. In this case, users who have been invited to be part of the discussion receive an activity stream message for create, read, update, and delete operations about the discussion. The events tracked for opportunities are different from the ones tracked for customers.
• Connected to specific users.
  See: "Tracking Your Connections' Activities" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.
• Members of a group space.

Tracking Activity Streams

Users can start receiving activity streams for opportunities or customer records by accessing the Opportunity or Customer Edit page. Under the header, click Follow. The system starts displaying the activity stream for changes to the records that the user is following. When using activity streams, note the following points:

• A user can stop receiving activity stream messages for opportunities or customer records by unfollowing the opportunity or customer record. Hover over the message and click Unfollow.
• You can hide (not display) updates to connections by hiding the person. You can also hide the activity stream messages from the group spaces that are associated to the opportunity or customer record.
• To view or unhide the connection or group space, click the Options link to see a list of connections or group spaces that are hidden. If you choose to unhide them, the system displays the connections or group space activity stream messages again.
• When an activity stream message is displayed, the message contains hyperlinks to the user who updated the record. Clicking that user's name returns the user's Profile page. If the activity stream is for an opportunity record, then the hyperlink is to that opportunity record. If you click an opportunity name, then the application returns the Opportunity Edit page. If the activity stream is for a customer record, then the hyperlink is to that customer record. If the you click a customer name, then the application opens the Customer Edit page.

Liking and Commenting in an Activity Stream

• For information on liking and commenting in an activity stream,
  See: "Liking, Commenting On, and Sharing Objects" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces.

Activity Stream and Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Activity streams are described fully in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces. As you read that guide, note the following points:

• Although the guide describes activity streams only in the context of spaces, in Oracle Fusion Applications activity streams work similarly outside of spaces.
• The scope of what is potentially tracked in activity streams is different from what is described in the guide. Many types of activities are specific to Oracle Fusion Applications.
• The exact navigation or user interface in Oracle Fusion Applications might differ from what is described in the guide. Ignore any subject matter that is specific to Oracle WebCenter Spaces.
  See: Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Using Profiles

In an activity stream message, click a person's name or picture to open the Portrait tab giving general information about that person, such as contact information and areas of expertise. If you click on your own name or picture, then the My Portrait tab opens, showing more detailed, human resources-related information about you, such as your professional development goals.

• For more information about profiles,
  See: "Configuring Profile" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

Blogs: Highlights

Blogs are typically personal records of an individual user's experience and opinions. The word "blog" is a contraction of the term "Web log". In Oracle WebCenter Spaces, you can create blogs to group related blog posts, for example to group topics by the same author or related subjects.

In Oracle WebCenter Spaces, each blog contains various blog posts, with the most recently added blog post displayed at the top. In a Blog page style mode, the Archives pane on the right provides controls for navigating to blog posts. Blog posts are categorized automatically by year and subcategorized by month. Next to the date of a year, the number in parenthesis represents the total number of blog posts created during that year. The number next to a month represents the total number of blog posts created during that month. For example, the designation December (2) shows that two blog posts were created in the month of December. Clicking any month displays all blog posts that were created during that month. You can view all blog posts available in a blog, regardless of the month or year they were created, by clicking the View All link. If there are more blog posts than can be displayed on one page, typically 10 posts, you can use the Next and Previous buttons to navigate through the list of blog posts.

See Also

• For more information on blogs, see the following document.
  See: Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Spaces

FAQs for Define Social Networking

How can I enable social networking features?

Set the Social Networking Features Enabled profile option to "Y" on the Manage Social Networking Profile Option Values page. If you enable this profile option, users can access the following features:

• Kudos

• Message board

• Activity stream

• Connections

• Personal status

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