OracleAppsBlog

A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Why ITIL implementations fail

Although I’ve been in the IT industry for some time now, ITIL is something I only recently became aware of. The Wiki Encyclopedia provides a really good definition of what ITIL is, as follows:

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a customizable framework of best practices that promote quality computing services in the information technology (IT) sector. ITIL addresses the organisational structure and skill requirements for an IT organisation by presenting a comprehensive set of management procedures with which an organisation can manage its IT operations. These procedures are supplier independent and apply to all aspects of IT infrastructure.

The Wiki Encyclopedia ITIL definition page also provides a really good overview of the ITIL frameworks and the supporting sets.

I recently came across an interesting article by Malcom Fry at CIO Online entitled the The Pitfalls of ITIL. The article outlines the top ten reasons why ITIL implementations fail and discusses IT Service Management (ITSM).

10 reasons for ITIL implementation failure:

1. Lack of Management commitment
2. Spending too much time on complicated process diagrams
3. Not creating work instructions
4. Not assigning process owners
5. Concentrating too much on performance
6. Being too ambitious
7. Failing to maintain momentum
8. Allowing departmental demarcation
9. Ignoring solutions other than ITIL
10. Not reviewing the entire ITIL framework

What grabbed my attention was the 1st point. This is also listed as the main reason why ERP implementations fail in all the books and articles I have read on the subject - something for management to be aware of and to try and rectify!! A case in point is this Rockford Consulting article which provides the following list of the 12 Cardinal Sins of ERP implementation:

1. Lack of Top Management Commitment
2. Inadequate Requirements Definition
3. Poor ERP Package Selection
4. Inadequate Resources
5. Resistance to Change/Lack of Buy-in
6. Miscalculation of Time and Effort
7. Misfit of Application Software with Business Processes
8. Unrealistic Expectation of Benefits and ROI
9. Inadequate Training and Education
10. Poor Project Design and Management
11. Poor Communications
12. Ill-advised Cost Cutting

Useful ITIL Links

I’ve added these links to my link blog as well as referenced them in the del.icio.us tags at the end of the post.

• Dr. ITIL (Blog)
• ITIL wiki
• ITIL definition site
• ITIL Community Forum
• ITIL Service Leadership

Oracle Apps Link Blog powered by del.icio.us

In a post entitled furl and del.icio.us linking and tagging strategy for this Oracle Blog I mentioned that I was now maintaining all the links from this site in del.icio.us. I realised the other day after reading that Steve Rubel was doing the same thing that I have effectively been maintaining a “link blog”.

Hence, I’ve changed the links option on my main pages menu to link blog. So far I’ve managed to accumulate 325 links on my del.icio.us account and it’s growing rapidly each day. If you’re interested in receving updates of the links and text I’m adding on a daily basis relating to Oracle, ERP and IT, then add my del.icio.us RSS feed to your feed reader. You will also find this link to the Oracle Apps Link Blog on the left hand column of my main page under the Syndicate heading.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Confessions of an Oracle Apps Consultant - a new Oracle Applications Blog by Joanne Davis

Jo Davis, an Oracle e-Business Suite Functional Consultant in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia has just started a blog entitled Confessions of an Oracle Applications Consultant.

Jo works for Red Rock Consulting, an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner. Her first post discusses the Report Manager as follows: -

This week’s grand adventure - had to work out what on earth is in the latest release of Report Manager and get a straight answer on “is this really available or just vapourware?” - the answer, for those who care is…. yes, it’s there, it’s a patch on 11.5.10, prereqs include a patch to the framework so not for the fainthearted but it does actually deliver the long promised Request Centre functionality from desktop ADI in the web-enabled format…. now if they can just get around to doing a GL Budget Upload in Web ADI we can throw the client-server ADI install CDs on a ceremonial bonfire!

It’s nice to see another functionally orientated Oracle blog on the scene. Welcome to the Oracle blogging community Joanne!!

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Adding an OracleAppsBlog post to your del.icio.us bookmarks

Thanks to a recent post on the del.icio.us blog I’ve inserted a small snippet of code to this blog which enables readers to bookmark specific posts they may want to add to their existing del.icio.us links.

If you want to bookmark a specific post on OracleAppsBlog to del.icio.us then click on the Bookmark this to del.icio.us option at the bottom of each post. You will subsequently have to log in to del.icio.us (if you are not already) and then you can add an extended description and tags for the post.

For ExpressionEngine users who may be interested, the code I used to enable this option is as follows: -

<a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url={title_permalink=weblog/index}&title={title}">Bookmark this to del.icio.us</a>

You can also find more advanced options for enabling bookmarks on posts at anildigital’s Blog

Happy Bookmarking 😊

Tags

del.icio.us: ExpressionEngine, Bookmark, del.icio.us
Technorati: ExpressionEngine, Bookmark, del.icio.us

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Blogroll added to OracleAppsBlog using EE’s new Link List Module

I finally added a blogroll to the blog. I hadn’t added it before because I was going to add a separate links page but in the end came to the obvious conclusion that having a blogroll combined with del.icio.us links would be the best way to manage my links to blogs and traditional web sites.

Fortunately, at the time of compiling my blogroll a new ExpressionEngine link list module was developed that enables me to run my own blogroll as opposed to generating my blogroll using a third party service. You’ll find the blogroll in the left column towards the bottom of the main page. Immediately under the blogroll heading you will also find links to where I maintain my blogroll online with Bloglines, furl and del.icio.us. This means you can copy my blogroll quite easily depending on which service your are using. In particular, bloglines allows OracleAppsBlog readers to generate an OPML file of the sites public subscriptions. The other nice thing about bloglines is that you can create folders to categorise the different types of blogs you subscribe to. Herewith the list of folders I’ve created for this blog: -

• Blogging
• Business and Corporate
• Conferences and Events
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• ExpressionEngine
• Financial
• Oracle Feeds
• Oracle Functional
• Oracle Technical
• Podcasting
• Project Management
• Social Networking and Folksonomy
• Technology and Professional

The EE Link List module is still in beta so if you notice any problems please point them out. I will at a later stage add a separate listing of links comprised of all the links on this blog but can only do this once the EE Link List module has the ability to import my del.icio.us and furl link lists. Lastly, if you know of any good blogs that you think should be added to my blogroll then please add your comments to this post.

Examples of Other sites using the EE Link List module

• Distant, Early Morning - this site, in particular, is a really good example of how you can use all the features of the link list module.
• Oh ... Really?
• ExpressionEngine Blog

There’s also a really good tutorial compiled by Lisa Jill at the EE wiki. Of course, your votes in the poll below would be appreciated.

 

Tags

del.icio.us: Bloglines, OPML, blogroll, Business and Corporate, Conferences and Events, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, Folksonomy, Oracle Feeds, Oracle Functional, Oracle Technical, Podcasting, Technology and Professional, Project Management, Social Networking and Folksonomy, Link List, Financial, EE, ExpressionEngine, del.icio.us, furl

Technorati: Bloglines, OPML, blogroll, Business and Corporate, Conferences and Events, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, Folksonomy, Oracle Feeds, Oracle Functional, Oracle Technical, Podcasting, Technology and Professional, Project Management, Social Networking and Folksonomy, Link List, Financial, EE, ExpressionEngine, del.icio.us, furl