Oracle Unified Method Webcast

Once upon a time, Oracle ERP project managers had it made. They could stick to their Oracle AIM playbook and count on keeping their E-Business Suite implementation on track.

But the world’s changed. Oracle started buying companies and pretty soon Oracle ERP no longer meant “E-Business Suite” but also included PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Seibel.

This is great for decision makers, but not so great for ERP project managers, who found themselves sorting through myriad methodologies and documentation standards.

To solve this problem, Oracle has released the Oracle Unified Methodology.

What’ is Oracle Unified Methodology?

To get a better feel for OUM, you can watch this short video featuring IT Convergence President Patrick Krause. 

Want to Find Out More?

If you want to find out more, we encourage you to join our webcast on Wednesday May 23, at 8:00 am Pacific/11:00 am Eastern titled “Method Behind the Madness – Understanding Oracle Unified Methodology.”

Gustavo Gonzalez, IT Convergence Chief Technology Officer, and Tom Spitz, Oracle’s Vice President of Global Methodology will be presenting.

Click here now to register for our webcast, “Method Behind the Madness – Understanding Oracle Unified Methodology.”

The Benefits of Oracle Project Accounting

Oracle Project Accounting (PA) is a module that gives you an incredible amount of control over the execution of organizational activities while letting you have the flexibility you need and may not have in other Oracle modules. One of the benefits of Oracle Project Accounting is that it lets you define activities and assign them a fixed amount, designate resources for specific tasks and decentralize their execution and changes so that the people that making up your team are all on the same page. Oracle Project Accounting also gives you the benefit of accessing Oracle Financials online on different, detailed levels that include reports. The real benefit here is that you don’t need to reassign control to both areas where they overlap.

Integration possibilities that Oracle Project Accounting offers are not only limited to standard integration points with other modules but you can also integrate Oracle Project Accounting with other non-Oracle applications like Excel, MSProjects and Primavera.

All of an organization's processes can be controlled by projects: from the generation and construction of an asset that later generates revenue and that later has the possibility of generating contracts with clients. This would then lead to receipt generation that allows you to have control over specific department-specific expenses.

Oracle Project Accounting provides multiple levels of grouping and executive management of bids and transactions like: Organization, Project, Tasks and Resources that allow you to evaluate and show information with greater or less detailed as you desire. This allows you to have a global view but at the same time a specific view of all the activities pertaining to an organization.

If your organization is interested in either using or implementing Oracle Project Accounting and needs help you’ve got a number of options. If you’re looking for on-site Oracle Project Accounting consulting expertise, contact us at 1-800-675-0032 and we’ll be happy to set up an appointment to talk about how to make that happen.

If you’re simply looking to beef up your staff’s Oracle PA skill sets, then IT convergence can offer training on Oracle Project accounting on a limited, on-demand basis. To view curriculums for past Oracle Project Accounting classes, click here, or simply contact us at 1-800-675-0032 and we’ll be happy to set up a time to talk with our Education Services department.

Follow us on Twitter at: @it_Convergence and/or @itcpw


If you are on Linkedin, You may be interested to join this Linkedin Group on Oracle Project Accounting .

OBIEE 11g Briefing Books

Go to Google and type in “Define: Briefing Book” and you’ll get either:

•  A book of information preparing the client for an interview with a journalist or interviews at a tradeshow or conference. Commonly contains bios, articles written by the journalist, schedules, messaging and general information the executive might want to have on hand during an interview.
http://www.webprpro.com/prglossary

or 


•  A collection, often in a loose-leaf binder, of briefing material provided to management or other corporate spokespersons prior to a news conference or other event. It consists of potential questions plus suggested answers and, often, fact sheets, backgrounders, etc.
http://www.mediamiser.com/resources/prglossary/pubtoolstechniques

So does the fact that the term “OBIEE 11g Briefing Book” exists mean that Oracle gives you a big, thick notebook stuffed with papers when we complete our purchase of OBIEE 11g?

http://tipsonobiee.blogspot.in/2010/07/working-with-oracle-bi-briefing-books.html

Oracle Documentation
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E12096_01/books/AnyUser/briefingbook.html

An OBIEE 11g Briefing Book is a collection of static or updatable snapshots of :
an Oracle BI Interactive Dashboard.
an individual analyses (Answer)
and BI Publisher reports (for 11g)


Briefing “books” are virtual offering a number of advantages:

1. It allows that content to be viewed by anyone with Briefing Book reader software.
2. The Briefing Book provides a way to see content off line, or share it with others.
3. Briefing Books have the same look and feel as a dashboard page. Multi-page Briefing Books have paging controls and are well-suited for presenting information to others.
4. Briefing Books provide a way to archive the information in a dashboard and can be saved locally on a users desktop.
5. You can download briefing books in PDF or MHTML format for printing and viewing. You also can update, schedule, and deliver briefing books using agents.

So if you are travelling, going to conference or any place without internet, you can carry your electronic OBI briefing book along. Get all your important reports, charts and analysis handy. You can also schedule your briefing book for email delivery agents. Get them in your inbox right away for every Monday morning status meeting.

Those of you who are interested in taking a deep dive in to OBIEE 11g can join us at our workshops OBIEE for End Users and/or OBIEE for Administrators. IT Convergence is offering these two day workshops in major metropolitan areas around the United States at a cost that is a fraction of what the competition charges.

Click here for more information about OBIEE 11g for End Users and click here for more info about OBIEE for Administrators or simply visit our Oracle Applications Workshops home page.

Follow us on Twitter at: @it_Convergence and/or @itcpw

Oracle Fusion Applications Webcast Q&A Part II

Three weeks ago IT Convergence held its first-ever webcast on Oracle Fusion Applications, titled “Reduce Your Confusion about Oracle Fusion.” Close to 300 people registered, making it our most popular webcast of all time.

The webcast also generated a lot of questions. We answered the first set of questions last week and you can click here to access Part I of the Q&A transcript.

Part II follows below:

Q: Going to 12 requires an investment, as you say. Is it worth it - ROI?

A: The question is very open and should be addresses on a company-by-company basis. But let me share some thoughts on this topic. Most of the organizations are thinking more on the de-support issues of 11i rather than the opportunities that new features and functionalities from R12 are bringing to the table such as Sub Ledger Accounting, MOAC and others. Also new modules can provide companies the ability to decommission customizations decreasing the total cost of ownership (TCO).

So, we recommend taking our Oracle R12 Upgrade Strategy and Planning workshop which will allow you and your organization to evaluate the pros and cons of the upgrade and also assess the complexity of doing and upgrade or reimplementation of your current E-Business Suite implementation to R12.

Q: I am assuming still PL/SQL will be used for mass loading the data into Oracle Fusion applications during Data conversions? Can you guys confirm? Thanks.

A: The database for Fusion Applications will continue to be Oracle, which can be accessed through SQL and PL/SQL for mass loading data. But, as part of the new architecture, Oracle Fusion Applications provides several new tools even APIs (and a new tool call ADF Desktop Integrator that will simplify the massive uploads without having to get into the PL/SQL coding.

Q: Are any significant differences between Oracle GRC on R12 and Oracle Fusion?

A: It is a new product built from scratch using the latest technology.

Oracle Fusion GRC brings Intelligence to discover, ability to manage and Controls to enforce.

It comes with a complete set of controls that you can select to apply to your organization or easily edit for your needs.

Another important feature is that whether you’re using EBS or PSOF or JDE, Fusion Apps GRC is built to work in coexistence with any of these ERPs.

Q: Is the OFA the next product generation for EBS? Is going to replace the EBS R12 and the next versions?

A: It is a good question and I think that the answer is yes. Now let’s get into the details. IT Convergence is a beta tester of R12.2 and there are going to be many new features (mostly technical) on that release, but this means that Oracle will continue to have new releases of EBS.

On the other hand Oracle Fusion Applications is the next generation for any ERP in the market since it was built on standard technology and also taking advantage of the new environment: cloud computing, mobile, social, etc. So it is indeed the next generation of EBS, but it is also of JDE, PSOFT and even SAP.

The path of how to adopt Fusion Applications is clear: continue your current path, adopt a co-existence strategy and embrace the complete suite.

Stay Connected!

Oracle Fusion Applications is the future of ERP and E-Business computing. Get ahead of the curve by attending our Oracle Fusion Applications Workshop and/or by checking out the presentations on Oracle Fusion which IT Convergence delivered at Collaborate 12.

Click here to visit our Oracle Fusion Applications Workshop page or click here to visit our Collaborate 12 page.

Will Oracle Support 11i?

Will Oracle Corporation continue to provide support for Oracle 11i?

Is the answer “yes,” or is the answer “no?”

A quick search of the web might not be useful because the answers circulating out there aren’t always clear and/or accurate.

Luckily, some concrete answers do exist.

It comes down to this.....

First, let’s understand Oracle’s “Phases of Support”

- Premier Support: provides maintenance and software upgrades for customers using Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Applications for five years from the general availability (GA) date.

- Extended Support: provides an extra three years of maintenance and upgrades for select Oracle software releases at an additional fee.

- Sustaining Support: maximizes your investment protection by providing maintenance for as long as you use your Oracle software. Features include access to Oracle online support tools; upgrade rights, pre-existing fixes and assistance from technical support experts.

Oracle’s communication strategy of waiving the extended support fees of E-Business Suite clients running on 11.5.10 added added to the end-user community’s confusion about Oracle’s support plan for 11i.

As explained in the communication from Oracle Corp:
Extended Support fees for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12.0 have been waived. These fee waivers cover the entire three-year Extended Support periods for both of these releases:

EBS 11i Extended Support from November 1, 2010 to November 30, 2013
EBS 12.0 Extended Support from February 1, 2012 - January 31, 2015

Customers with an active Oracle Premier Support for Software contract will automatically be entitled to Extended Support coverage for EBS 11i and 12.0. Also remember that Extended Support fees are waived for the first year of EBS 12.1 Extended Support. This waiver will be valid from June 2014 to May 2015. During this period, customers receive access to Extended Support features at no additional cost other than their fees for Software Update License & Support. For more details see the extended support Frequently Asked Questions at My Oracle Support Note: 1362757.1

By the extended support date, every organization will have to comply with the minimum patching baselines for each of the above E-Business Suite Releases.

• E-Business Suite 11i: Minimum Baseline Patch Requirements for Extended Support on Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10 (Note 883202.1)
• E-Business Suite 12: E-Business Suite Error Correction Support Policy (Note 1195034.1)

And what can I do about it?

Oracle's suggested strategy is to continue on your current path, which means following the path of E-Business Suite roadmap which today goes up to Release 12.1.3 and which will soon include the of Release 12.2, which IT Convergence is supporting Oracle Development as a beta tester of this new release which will be General Available within this calendar year.

R12.2’s main innovations are it’s on-line patching functionality and its new integration points with Oracle Fusion.

What does this mean to you? Well, for one thing upgrading to 12.2 would boost your extended support timeframe to May 2017!

There are a number of ways you can to stay ahead of the count down to 11i Desupport. You can attend IT Convergence’s Oracle R12 workshops and/or contact IT Convergence to request an Oracle R12 Impact Assessment. Put time on your side by making the leap to Oracle R12 now.

For more information on how you can do that quickly and cost-effectively, check out our Oracle R12 Strategy and Planning workshops  and visit or our R12 resources page .

Follow us on Twitter at: @it_Convergence and/or @itcpw

Final Thoughts as Collaborate 12 Ends

I just finished attending my final session for Collaborate 12 and
learned some additional information about how Web Logic and Enterprise
Manager are used in the Discoverer 11g environment.  I also attended
the session on "Maximizing WebADI: Data Management for Human Resources
presented by Parimal Pardikar.  I wish WebADI had been available on an
Oracle HR - ADP Payroll integration project I worked on several years
ago as it would have reduced the amount of custom coding required and
simplified some of the synchronization processes for the users.

Yesterday, I did attend some sessions that provided good information
about BI Publisher 11g RTF Templates and using Oracle's Application
Development Framework (ADF).

I also had several in-depth discussions with current and potential
clients about reporting tools and various strategies to improve their
reporting capabilities by optimizing the tools they have or potential
migrations to new tools.  These are always interesting as they provide
opportunities to match potential solutions to actually meet their
requirements.  Usually everyone in the discussion learns something
new.

At this point, I am heading to the airport but the collaboration
(either virtual or in person) will continue.

This is written by Barry Markovic, Speaker at Collaborate 12. He is a Managing Principal Consultant with 30+ years experience in the IT industry including 7+ years Oracle Financials experience.

Follow us on Twitter at: @it_Convergence and/or @itcpw

Oracle HRMS-WebADI Sessions Wrap Up Collaborate 12

It is hard to believe it, but Collaborate 12 is coming to an end. After well over five days and more than 1,000 sessions everything is about to be over.

But before wrapping up, IT Convergence has one final session to deliver:

“Maximizing WebADI: Data Management for Human Resources” (Session ID: 10071) by Parimal Pardikar from 8:30 am - 9:30 am in Breakers K.

If you weren’t able to make it to Las Vegas for Collaborate 12 and/or if you were in Vegas and had to leave before we held this session, no worries. Check out our Collaborate 12 resources page, you’ll be able to download copies of the white papers supporting these presentations.

Follow us on Twitter at: @it_Convergence and/or @itcpw