Michael D. Lairson - Oracle CRM on Demand Embedded Analytics

ORACLEOracle Press

Michael D. Lairson

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To my loving and patient wife, Susan.

Michael Lairson began his career in 1993 in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a technical writer after earning a BA in English at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Mike moved into the instructional design field in 1995 and prepared training materials that ranged from training manuals to high-end multimedia applications for many companies. During this time, Mike returned to UNC Charlotte to earn an M.Ed. in instructional systems technology. Continuing to broaden his experience and explore professional interest in evaluation and analysis led Mike to Siebel Systems, where he worked as a certification exams developer for several years. In this role he created the certification exams and the study materials for most of the Siebel Certification exams and performed a large amount of reporting of exam data.

In the process of writing the CRM On Demand exam, Mike began to take great interest in the application and moved to the training team as part of the professional services organization. He has since continued to expand his knowledge of the application and has established himself as an expert resource for Oracle CRM On Demand, and in particular the reporting tool.

Mike remained with Oracle after the Siebel merger and played a key role in the development of the Advanced Analytics Workshop training offered by Oracle, as well as many other CRM On Demand training classes.

In September 2008, Mikes first book, Oracle CRM On Demand Reporting, was published and immediately became the definitive source of information on developing reports with Answers On Demand. Also look for his second book, Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards, to add dashboards to your business intelligence skill set. Third in the series is Oracle CRM On Demand Combined Analyses. Currently working for Intelenex, Mike holds the position of manager of business intelligence services and regularly develops analytic reports and dashboards for his customers and offers custom training in Oracle CRM On Demand reporting. When not working, Mike spends time with his wife and two sons, and is an active member of his church, the Knights of Columbus, and Boy Scouts of America.

Elizabeth Osso, CMC, is a principal SaaS Consultant, Lucid Blue Consulting, Inc.

A certified management consultant, since 1995, Elizabeth has consulted with organizations on the selection, implementation, and operations of customer relationship management, human resources, and financial management solutions. During her tenure at Oracle Corporation (previously Siebel Systems), she worked with clients on the implementation of CRM On Demand, assisting them in leveraging CRM On Demand and analytics to support their business processes. She has spoken in both Canada and the United States on various topics, including customer adoption and using Analytics for CRM On Demand at Oracle Open World and various user groups. Recently, her time is focused on getting the most out of the cloud for her clients, including CRM and customer portals.

A graduate of Durham College, Elizabeth is currently working on an advanced degree in information technology at Athabasca University.

With each book, the list of people who have supported and influenced me grows longer. I love this work because I so often learn something during the process of teaching the skills I try to describe in my books. I wish I could remember it all, and wish I could remember everyone who taught me something along the way.