OracleAppsBlog

A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

Applications 11.5.9

Monday, January 29, 2007

Oracle EBS Release 11.5.10.2 Vision Instance

I noticed that Solution Beacon now has a Vision Instance of the latest release before R12, namely 11.5.10.2

You can now access any of these three Vision Instances:

Release 11.5.10.2 (a510vis5)
(11.5.10.2 Installation from Media Pack/9.2.0.7. ATG RUP#3 applied. Family Pack applied current except for HR and BIS)
Output listing from patchsets.sh for 11.5.10.2 from 10/15/2006

Release 11.5.10 (a510vis1)
(11.5.10.0 Installation from Media Pack/9.2.0.5. No ATG RUPs applied. No additional Consolidated Updates or Family Pack patches applied)
Output listing from patchsets.sh for 11.5.10.0 from 3/27/06

Release 11.5.9 (a159vis2)
(11.5.9.0 Installation from Media Pack/9.2.0.3. No ATG RUPs applied. No additional Consolidated Updates or Family Pack patches applied)
Output listing from patchsets.sh for 11.5.9 from 3/27/06

Although these environments are all publicly accessible I noticed that when registering for the 11.5.10.2 instance I had to supply them with a CSI (Customer Support Identifier). According to the registration form:-

*NEW - 12/21/2006 - In order for Solution Beacon to be able to continue to provide Vision environments for public use, Oracle now requires us to ask for a Customer Support Identifier (CSI) number which can be obtained through Oracle Support.

Hopefully they’ll have an R12 Vision Instance ready to look at shortly!!

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10 - Vision Instance

This post contains details of a publicly accessible Oracle Application 11.5.10 Vision instance.

When I met Karen Brownfield at an Atlanta Oracle User Group  meeting two weeks ago she mentioned that Solution Beacon  (who currently host a freely accessible 11.5.8 and 11.5.9 Vision Instance) would shortly be hosting a publicly accessible 11.5.10 instance. I noticed over the weekend that this instance is now available. I think providing this type of facility for public access is extremely cool. All you have to do is fill out the free registration and you are allocated a user name and password.

I’ve noticed there’s quite a few new modules and a slightly new look and I hope to be writing on these over the next couple of months. You can access this instance here and you will need to run through the installation of the new version of Jinitiator (1.3.1.18). I would advise you to de-install any existing Jinitiator versions you have. I performed the install on my new IBM X40 laptop (which came with my new job) and since there were no prior versions of Jinitiator I haven’t run into any issues. Also remember that if you have any pop up blocking software installed, you should allow pop ups for the Vision Instance URL as the Jinitiator software install will not start with popup blocking on the URL.

Well done to Solution Beacon for providing this instance and I hope readers enjoy accessing this system and taking a look at what’s new.

Friday, August 20, 2004

Oracle ERP implementation - the Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource System 〈DOERS〉

This post contains a review of the Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource System (DOERS) site and highlights useful documentation which can be downloaded. 

Last week I came across a really good site documenting an Oracle ERP implementation at the City of Omaha which has been named the Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource Systems (DOERS). According to their site and related documentation: -

The City of Omaha, Douglas County, and the Omaha Douglas Public Building Commission are participants in a joint implementation of Oracle HRMS application suite, a project called DOERS (Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource System). The DOERS project is a phased implementation and Oracle HRMS is Phase 3 of the total project.Phase 2, which includes Inventory, Grants Management, Projects and Public Sector Budgeting, began in early 2002. Phase 1, involving the Oracle Core Financials, began in early 2001 and includes General Ledger, Receivables, Payables, Fixed Assets, Cash Management, Purchasing and iProcurement.

Following is a summary and analysis of key areas of the site: -

HRMS

According to this section of the site: -

The City/County DOERS project continues building an Oracle Solution to integrate HR, Payroll, and Benefit functions with the new Oracle Financial modules. This initiative falls under the DOERS project umbrella specifically called Phase 3. This Phase of the Oracle implementation also named HRMS for Oracle’s Human Resource Management System has been made significant progress. Douglas County and the Omaha Building Commission went live on version 11.5.5 in January of 2004. Due to the complexity of this phase and limited resource availability the Go Live date for the City has been pushed back.

Here you will find two very good documents to download, namely the RD.020 documents for Human Resources and Benefits. The RD.020 Current Business Requirements is an Oracle AIM (Applications Implementation Methodology) document which is designed to identify and document current business processes and requirements. This document often incorporates a questionairre and is completed during the Definition phase of a project.

Inquiry and Reports

Contains business forms, chart of accounts and end user documentation and training material for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and General Ledger.

Chart of Accounts

Here you can download the latest Chart of Accounts which is structured according to the following segments: -

• Funds
• Orgs
• Activities
• Assets
• Liabilities
• Fund Balance
• Expense
• Revenues

Current Practices

Here you will find the RD.020 documents for the various modules implemented in each phase of the project.

Future Processes

Contains the RD.030 documents for the following future processes: -

• Payables
• Purchasing
• General Ledger
• Fixed Assets
• Accounts Receivable
• Grants and Projects

The RD.030 document is an Oracle AIM document which is used to establish a process and mapping summary for your organisation. It is normally completed within the Operations Analysis phase of the project lifecycle. In this task, you create the repository for key project findings and decisions that occur during the process and functional requirements gathering activities.

Monday, August 16, 2004

11i Upgrade Project - a move from 11.0.3 to 11.5.9

This post contains a link to the Financial Information Systems Upgrade site at University College London (UCT) and also gives an overview of the upgrade documentation prepared for this organisation.

In a previous post I discussed the Financials Systems Project site at the University College London (UCT). One portion of this site that I think is particularly useful is the section that talks about Upgrading to Version 11i. It provides the following documentation relating to upgrades: -

Business Case

I’m a personal advocate of making sure that a value proposition is prepared for any major IT projects you are going to perfom in your business. This business case contains a summary according to the following points: -

• Fit with UCL Strategy
• Demand for change
• Alternative Options
• Reasons for the Upgrade
• Costs
• Expected Benefits
• Investment Appraisal

It then provides more detail for the business case and then outlines what Functional and Other improvements will be made. Lastly it speculates as to when Future Upgrades will need to take place.

11i Communications Plan

According to this document: -

The aim of this plan is to identify the stakeholders of the 11i upgrade project, to identify the information needs they have, and to provide a plan to provide up to date and accurate information in the most effective format and medium and in the most timely way.

Clear, timely and effective communications will enable the project team to:

• Ensure that all principal stakeholders are aware of and in support of the reasons for undertaking the project, have realistic expectations of it and are prepared for it.
• Communicate information needed by other departments or organisations who are affected by or need to know about the project’s progress towards its outcomes, enable them to prepare (e.g. with appropriate training and equipment) and enlist their support.
• Communicate to users the direct requirements for using the system.
• Keep up to date at all times with users’ requirements and make sure the project aims continue to meet these right from the beginning and continue to do so in the light both changes to users’ needs and new information apparent as the project develops.
• Inform advisors and consultants of the project of all progress and developments so that the best available help can be received when required.
• Enable appropriate action to be taken on an informed basis by those responsible for managing the project so that appropriate decisions can be made and the best level of support can be offered to the project at the right time and in the right way.

11i Project Initiation Document

This is a fairly comprehensive document and according to the site, it’s purpose is to: -

Define the 11i Upgrade project, to form the basis for its management and to help with the assessment of the project’s overall success. The two primary uses of the PID are:

• To provide a baseline document against which the Project Board and Project Manager can assess progress, project issues and on-going viability
• To ensure that the project has a sound basis before asking the Project Board to make any major commitment to this project

The document is structured as follows: -

1. Background
2. Business Case
• Business Case Summary
• Budget
3. Project Definition
• Objectives
• Scope and Exclusions
• Project Deliverables
• Approach
• Constraints
• Dependencies
• Assumptions
4. Project Plan
• Project Plan Summary
5. Project Structure
• Project Organisation
• Outline of Roles
• Project Meeting Structure
6. Communication Plan
7. Issue and Risk Logs
8. Change Control

PC Specification for Version 11i

This document lists the hardware and software requirements for PC’s being used to access Oracle 11i.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

The Oracle Financial Information Systems (FIS) Project at University College London (UCT)

This post contains a link to the Oracle Financial Information Systems (FIS) website at University College London (UCT) and also mentions the key features of the site.

The Financials Systems Project site at the University College London (UCT) provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to implement an Oracle Applications System. The site gives readers a holistic view of all the aspects of Enterprise Systems Implementations. UCT initially implemented the following modules of Oracle Application 11.0.3 and later upgraded to 11i : -

• General Ledger
• Accounts Payable
• Purchase Ordering
• Accounts Receivable
• Grants ( including Project Costing and Project Billing)
• Fixed Assets
• Inventory

Following is a review of the key areas of the site:

FIS Project

This section of the site provides an overview of what the FIS project and has related information categorised as follows: -

• Information on the use of the site
• What is the FIS Project?
• FIS Team Members
• Useful Contact Information
• Migration Plan
• FIS Service Times
• FIS Users Group
• 11.0.3 Enhancement Stage Plan
• FIS Technical and Business Consultancy 2003
• Upgrade to Version 11i
• FIS Newsletters
• FIS Training Dates

Procedures, User Guides and General Reference

This particular section of the site is probably one of the most useful areas as it contains project documentation which has been categorised in to the following areas: -

• General Reference and Procedural Notes
• User Guides for the following modules: -
• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Fixed Assets
• General Ledger
• Grants
• Inventory
• Purchase Ordering
• Other User Guides
• Technical Guidance
• How To…?