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Maksym Dovgopolyi
CEO & Co-Founder SynergySoft
Intro
Intro
Here, I want to share our data migration experience from Siebel CRM to Salesforce, some tips we learned, and useful sources.
Why?
Last year was rich in integrating different systems, including Workday, SAP, Oracle, DB2, Hybris, GCP, etc. It wasn't a big issue or challenge in each particular case until we met Siebel CRM. Our experience with Siebel was different from that of other CRMs and unusually required our extra efforts. I’m sharing my practical knowledge about data migration from Siebel to save some hours or even days for others who may face the same challenge.
Data migration from Siebel CRM to Salesforce was a task we identified through the discussion about a potential project with one of the partners.
Siebel Systems has its own long history. At the beginning of 2000th, it was the strongest CRM vendor which peaked at 45% of the market share. In 2006 Siebel Systems was acquired by Oracle. According to enlyft, 5219 companies are using Siebel CRM. The powerful CRM was only available on-premises for a long time. Oracle officially announced the cloud version in April 2016 but wasn’t it late? Probably, yes. We definitely know that there were many cases when enterprises decided to migrate data from Siebel CRM to Salesforce, and we have been asked to assist with the migration.
Data Migration
Data Migration
Actually, there are two main options:
Use premium MuleSoft connector for Siebel.
Create a custom System API to connect Siebel.
I also can assume that in some cases, the data migration can be completed directly from Oracle DB to Salesforce. It shouldn't be a challenge, and if there were no special or business/technical requirements, I would suggest considering the option of direct migration.
Option 1: with a premium connector.
Option 1: with a premium connector.
Oracle Siebel setup
Start from official MuleSoft documentation: Oracle Siebel Connector - Mule 4. All you need to know about the connector is there. The connector should work with any version of Siebel CRM. In our case, we used version 4.0.4, released in November 2019.
The less unpredictable part of this exercise is how easily Siebel CRM can be accessible on the other side. In our case, the easiest way to set up Siebel CRM was in the configuration mentioned below and with such a development environment:
Siebel CRM 15.0 for Linux was developed for the docker container.
Oracle DB 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 developed to another docker container.
Lucky you if you have Siebel CRM available and already configured in the test environment. We had to implement this part of the work by ourselves.
Important: The enterprise Application Integration Adapter should be up and running on the Siebel side. The SSH server and gateway should also be up and running.
The Siebel connector setup
Connector configuration is well described here: Oracle Siebel Connector - Mule 4.
What is important, the Siebel connector requires the following two Siebel JAR files: Siebel.jar and SiebelJI_xxx.
MuleSoft connector for Siebel CRM
After setting up all required configurations and passing the test connections, the business objects and fields should be defined in the General Settings of the Connector.
On the Salesforce side, everything is standard, and should be no surprises. Check the official documentation here: Salesforce Connector - Mule 4.
As a result, you will have an application that includes the required business logic. It uses premium connectors from Anypoint platform Exchange, provided by MuleSoft, to connect Siebel CRM and Salesforce and to transform data between them using Dataweave expression language.
Also, check Anypoint Exchange where the number of templates available for work with Siebel: https://anypoint.mulesoft.com/exchange/?organizationId=68ef9520-24e9-4cf2-b2f5-620025690913&search=siebel&type=template
Option 2: custom System API
Option 2: custom System API
If you have access to Siebel CRM 16.0 (and higher) or can set it up quickly on the test environment - here you have a chance to demonstrate your capabilities in developing a custom System API(s) as a part of the Mule application. The Siebel REST API is provided with the Siebel Application Interface installation.
In our case, we Deployed and configured Siebel CRM 17.0 on Windows for this purpose.
As an option, you can also set up a mock server, implement all API methods according to the guide - Siebel REST API is well described and available by the link (please check if the updated version is available) and enjoy pure MuleSoft development playing with the mock server.
WRAPPING UP
Summing up, I would suggest going with the following options:
Try to migrate directly from Oracle to Salesforce all data or part of it;
Try the premium connector (it should work for all versions of Siebel CRM);
Go with the custom System API (Starting from version 16.0).
I absolutely do not exclude other versions of this task. My intentions were to share our experience, and I will be grateful if you leave comments about your experience.
Many thanks to the SynergySoft team, with whom we gained new experience and added a new system to our portfolio.
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