OracleAppsBlog

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Oracle Press Releases and Statements

A good place to visit to stay up to date on Oracle News and Events is the Oracle Press Releases page (pity it doesn’t have an RSS feed). Over the last couple of days there’s been lots of Press statements coming out - 11 stories in the last 3 days, more than usual. It’s Oracle’s year end and there’s lots of good news coming out of the Oracle camp. Bottom line: Oracle’s revenues are looking good, they’ve signed a number of new customers within a variety of industries and they say more organisations are migrating from IBM databases to 10g. Being an Oracle Consultant, this news brings a smile to my face, of course, it’s probably best to listen to the other side of the story. I’ve linked up to some of the statements on the link blog.

Tags

del.icio.us: 10g, IBM, oracle, oracle+press, oracle+press+release, press,
technorati: 10g, IBM, oracle, oracle+press, oracle+press+release, press,

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Installing, Upgrading And Maintaining Oracle Applications 11i

Installing, Upgrading And Maintaining Oracle Applications 11i is a book I came across on Amazon written by Barbara Matthews, John Stouffer, and Karen Brownfield. It seems to be a fairly new listing. These three authors are all very well known within the Oracle Applications world so I’m sure this book will make interesting reading. All three authors work/worked for Solution Beacon, an Oracle Partner in the States. Definitely something to add to the cart/wish list. If you’ve read this book please add your comments and let us know what you thought of it.

I was asked some time ago by one of the readers if I could come up with a listing of Oracle Applications Books to read. I’m now using the Link Blog to maintain a listing of books I come across relating to blogging as well as the implementation of Oracle Applications and Enterprise systems. Check out the listing here or subscribe to the RSS feed. At the moment I only have about 11 links listed but it will grow as I get more time to update it. The listing will be updated regularly and If you know of any books that you think should be added to the listing please add your comments and include the URL or ISBN/ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). BTW, just because the book is on the listing doesn’t mean you should buy it - obviously you should check it out before making your purchase!

Tags

del.icio.us: amazon, amazon+books, Barbara+Matthews, books, John+Stouffer, Karen+Brownfield, solution+beacon,
technorati: amazon, amazon+books, Barbara+Matthews, books, John+Stouffer, Karen+Brownfield, solution+beacon,

Oracle Headquarters as seen from Google Earth

Last week I linked to a Google Satellite Map of Oracle Headquarters in Redwood Shores. With the release of Google Earth yesterday I’ve been taking a look at Oracle HQ through the eyes of this really cool application. 

To view Oracle HQ using Google Earth simply perform the following steps in the application: -

1. Type in the Postcode 94065 and click search - at this point watching the application zoom from the global view to the location being queried is quite exhilarating.
2. Use the directional buttons to move slightly to the left (or simply drag the map to the left) and you should be able to see the Oracle Buildings.
3. Drill down using the zoom in buttons (to the left of the directional buttons).
4. Use the tilt feature (on the right hand side of the directional buttons) to change perspective so that you can see the surrounding buildings.
5. Rotate your view left or right depending on which direction you want to view the buildings from.

Here’s a look at what I managed to produce:

Oracle Headquarters - North Facing

Oracle Headquarters - South Facing

At this point in time the majority of the map coverage is in the States although most major cities around the world seem to be mapped.

Tags

del.icio.us: earth, google, google+earth,
technorati: earth, google, google+earth,

Advertising and Stats on OracleAppsBlog

I recently signed a contract with Creative Weblogging to place ads on the blog. To advertise on the blog follow the instructions under the Adsales heading in the left pane of the main site. Until now I’ve been using Google ads which provides me with enough income to easily cover my monthly hosting costs. In order to provide potential advertisers with statistical information on the site I’ve subscribed to a couple of services which provide up to date real time statistical information on my web site traffic. 

I’m using three services to provide public blog stats:

1. Sitemeter - a free, fast, and easy way to add a web counter to your web page. Not only does it display the number of visitors to your web site, it also keeps statistics on the number of visits each hour and each day
2. Statcounter - A reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter and real-time detailed web stats
3. MyBlogLog - Know what makes your readers click

If you go to the very bottom of this site you will notice the logos for all three services. Clicking on a logo will take you to the publicly available stats on my site for that particular service. The service I use the most is MyBlogLog as it provides you with information on what links are being clicked on on the site, something that Sitemeter and Statcounter don’t do. Unfortunately the publicly available stats only give you the top 5 links clicked on but when I’m logged in I get to see all the links clicked on for the site. If you want to take a look at what I get to see through the back end, check out this mybloglog pic I uploaded to my flickr account (to see the picture properly you will have to choose ALL SIZES on the picture menu and then view the Original picture uploaded).

Some interesting information provided by Statcounter is the Visitor Paths which shows you who entered your site, where they went and how they exited. On Sitemeter they provide some very interesting demographics relating to which time zone your visitors come from. The diagram for this site, which is shown below, indicates that most of my traffic comes from the States.

Tags

del.icio.us: adsense, creative+weblogging, flickr, google, mybloglog, sitemeter, statcounter,
technorati: adsense, creative+weblogging, flickr, google, mybloglog, sitemeter, statcounter,

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Pics of Oracle Headquarter’s in Redwood shores on the link blog

I just linked up to some cool pics of Oracle Headquarters in Redwood shores on the link blog.

Check out the google satellite map and some of the flickr pics I came across. Hopefully I will get to see these impressive buildings with my own eyes some day. Add your comments and links if you know of any other interesting Oracle pictures available online.

If you want to keep track of any Oracle pictures on flickr add this URL to your RSS reader or RSS e-mail subscription list or visit this page

Tags

del.icio.us: flickr, oracle, redwood+shores,
technorati: flickr, oracle, redwood+shores,

Magpie RSS/Atom parser powers Oracle Apps link blog listing

I’ve just installed the magpie plugin for Expression Engine which retrieves and parses RSS/Atom feeds. In lay man’s terms it gives you the ability to syndicate/copy the content of an RSS feed. 

For this blog I’m using it to produce a listing of the latest entries added to the Oracle Apps Link Blog.

If you take a look at the left hand column of the main page you will see a new heading entitled Recent del.icio.us bookmarks & links. Underneath the heading there’s a listing of all the most recent links added to the link blog.

Tags

del.icio.us: Atom, ExpressionEngine, magpie, plugin, RSS,
technorati: Atom, ExpressionEngine, magpie, plugin, RSS,

Friday, June 24, 2005

Join the OracleAppsBlog mailing list - powered by Bloglet

I’ve recently signed up for a service which will send reader’s an e-mail notifying them of any updates to my site. At the moment I have a mailing list but it is in no way automated i.e. I have to manually send everyone in my mailing list a notification of any updates to the blog. You will notice that on the left hand pane of the blog under Join our mailing list there is now a new Bloglet form. If you’re interested in receiving e-mail notifications of updates to this site then add your e-mail address in to the bloglet form. This service is ideal for persons who don’t necessarily read my site using an RSS feed reader.

Please note, if you had added yourself to the previous mailing list, you will have to resubscribe. Existing members will also have to sign up for the service as well.

Once you have signed up for Bloglet, not only will you receive an e-mail notification of updates to my site, you can also add other sites that have RSS feeds to your Bloglet subscription as well. Should you wish to remove an RSS feed from your daily Bloglet e-mail digest simply sign in to your Bloglet account and remove the feed URL.

I’m also regularly updating my del.icio.us Link Blog with interesting and useful sites I come across so you may also find it worthwhile adding it’s RSS feed to your Bloglet e-mail RSS subscription list.

Tags

del.icio.us: bloglet, del.icio.us,
technorati: bloglet, del.icio.us,

Thursday, June 23, 2005

San Diego Oracle User Group has an RSS feed!

This is the first Oracle User Group I’ve seen that has implemented RSS (apart from some of the OAUG SIG’s that run blogs - see my blogroll). Most of the Oracle User Group site’s I’ve come across don’t have this feature which means that to find out if the site has been updated you have to actually visit it - something you don’t really want to do if you’re tracking hundreds of sites a day. Hopefully other User Groups will follow suit. To me, the very fact that that the SDOUG has implemented RSS also means that they are intending to update their site frequently.

Anyone know of any other User Groups that have RSS support?

Incidentally, I’m building up a listing of User Groups in my del.icio.us Link Blog so all you have to do is bookmark that URL or subscribe to the RSS feed for the URL in question and each and every time I add a User Group to the list you will be notified.

Tags

del.icio.us: oracle+user+group,
technorati: oracle+user+group,

Oracle Applications forum coming to this blog soon

I read with excitement the other day that ExpressionEngine v1.3 is due to be released quite soon. One of the new modules they will be introducing provides the ability to run a forum. I’ve been toying with the idea of running a forum on this site as I’ve suspected for quite some time that they might introduce this module. 

Certainly there are already a number of other forums out there right now which I discussed in a post entitled Oracle Applications and E-Business Suite Forum Listing. The key to a forum being successful would be to differentiate it from the others that are out there as well as build an audience that would use it.

The first way I would do this is keep the forum aligned with the content on this site i.e. it would be focused on Oracle Applications.

Secondly, I believe the forum would immediately be different to the others out there as the software running it is feature rich and would provide users with a lot of options. To get an idea of what I’m talking about go and visit the pmachine forums which are now being run using EE1.3. The forum has a lot of features which I think the readers of this blog would appreciate. For example, you can run a poll on a post that you’ve created as well as upload file attachments.

Lastly, the forum would enable members and readers of the blog to initiate conversations rather than relying on blog authors to do this.

I would be grateful to receive comments and feedback from readers on my decision to run a forum on this site. In addition to this, any ideas you have for the forum would be much appreciated.

Tags

del.icio.us: ExpressionEngine, forum, oracle,
technorati: ExpressionEngine, forum, oracle,

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Rating a post on this blog

For each post on this blog I’ve now added the ability to give a rating. This service is provided by Newsgator and you will need a Newsgator Online account to cast your vote.

At the bottom of each post you will notice 5 grey stars. Rate a post by clicking on the appropriate star, 1 star means poor whilst 5 is excellent. If you don’t have a Newsgator Account you will be given the option to sign up for one.

If you’re interested in how to include such a rating system on your blog, read Tools for Blogging. More information on using Newsgator ratings can be found on Greg Reinacker’s blog, here and here

Although I’ve given the ability to rate any post, not all posts need to be rated. A case in point is this post, it’s merely an update on a feature I’ve added to the blog so it’s not really worthwhile rating it. I’ll leave it up to individual readers to determine if a blog post needs to be rated or not. As always, I appreciate your feedback and comments on this feature. I hope to use the feedback given in the ratings to help improve the quality of the content that is being delivered. 

Tags

del.icio.us: Greg+Reinacker, newsgator,
technorati: Greg+Reinacker, newsgator,

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

UKOUG Conference Presentations - Oracle Tutor and 11.5.10

I’ve been accepted to present two papers at the upcoming UKOUG conference being held from the 31st of October - 2nd November 2005. Details are as follows: -

My first presentation is entitled Maximise your Return on Implementation Investment with Oracle Tutor
Date: Monday 31 October 2005
Time: 17:20 for 45 minutes
Topic: General - Applications
Stream: Oracle Applications
Abstract
The corporate functions of any business consist of Commerce, Knowledge Management and Business Operations. This presentation will identify how implementing Oracle Tutor adds value to each of the functions mentioned, hence increasing the Return on Investment for your implementation.

Firstly, the standard Tutor procedure documents and business forms will be analysed and discussed. Secondly, the ability to customise procedure documentation and to create personalised training material will be shown. Lastly, the use of the Authoring tool to create customised help will be discussed and demonstrated. At each stage of the analysis the presenter will highlight new functionality that has been introduced to the product as well as provide advice based on implementation experiences.

I’ve got a particularly good slot for my second presentation which is entitled Oracle Financials 11.5.10 - new features and upgrade considerations

Date: Tuesday 1 November 2005
Time: 9:00 for 60 minutes
Topic: Oracle Financials
Stream: Oracle Applications
Abstract
This presentation will discuss new features released in Oracle Financials 11.5.10. The modules under discussion will be Payables, Receivables, Cash Management, Fixed Assets, General Ledger, Internet Expenses and Property Manager. The presenter will provide a high level overview of the new features and then discuss the various considerations organisations should make when upgrading to this new release.

Hope to meet you there!!

Tags

del.icio.us: UKOUG,
technorati: UKOUG,

Monday, June 20, 2005

Oracle Fusion for SAP R/3 Customers

An eye for an eye. Oracle recently announced an initiative named OFF SAP, the objective of which is to try and win over SAP R/3 customers who have to pay to upgrade to mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite. This seems to be in response to the SAP Safe Passage Programme, which is designed to lure PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Retek users away from Oracle.

Details of the programme are contained in an Oracle press statement, an excerpt of which states:

Under the new program, Oracle Fusion for SAP or “OFF SAP,” Oracle will offer SAP R/3 customers up to a 100% license credit, to switch from SAP to Oracle applications. Additionally, as part of “OFF SAP,” Oracle Consulting is announcing a new, free INSIGHT for SAP Migration offer, which includes a discovery workshop for R/3 customers that results in an assessment of the customers’ specific migration plan. With INSIGHT for SAP Migration, Oracle Consulting will provide customers with a clear understanding of the migration process and benefits. Oracle Financing will offer a two-year payment plan for the application license and support fees, with no interest and no payments for six months, followed by six installments. Together, these programs will allow customers to quickly begin receiving value from their Oracle applications, mapping payments to benefits over two years.

SAP requires customers who choose to upgrade from SAP R/3 to mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite to re-license and re-implement the applications, which can cost customers significant amounts of time and money. “Oracle has evolved customers with us for nearly three decades across multiple generations of technology,” said Charles Phillips, president, Oracle. “94% of Oracle E-Business Suite customers are running on the latest applications - Release 11i. SAP, however, seems to be requiring customers to re-license their applications to upgrade to SAP’s latest technology. Only 6% of SAP’s customers have upgraded to mySAP ERP, according to a leading analyst firm. Now they have a low cost alternative to stop paying for upgrades and get OFF SAP.”

Mmm.... I’m not convinced this will be enough to lure SAP customers away. Whatever the case, if you’re considering migrating either way, now would probably be a good time to do it.

Tags

del.icio.us: fusion, migration, mySAP, OFF+SAP, oracle, press+statement, project+fusion, R/3, safe+passage, SAP,
technorati: fusion, migration, mySAP, OFF+SAP, oracle, press+statement, project+fusion, R/3, safe+passage, SAP,

Friday, June 17, 2005

New author in the areas of Oracle Applications Manager, Dataguard, RAC and Oracle Apps Framework

This post contains details of a new author that has joined OracleAppsBlog who will be contributing in the areas of Oracle Applications Manager, Dataguard, RAC and Oracle Applications Framework.

Michael Siebert, an ERP Technical Consultant, has just become an author for OracleAppsBlog. Currently, he works as an internal consultant for a global Fortune 200 manufacturing firm. He has experience in the US, as well as a stint abroad working in the Channel Islands. Michael has over fourteen years of experience in the development and implementation of custom data processing applications and of packaged Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications, including the Oracle e-Business Suite of ERP Applications.  He has extensive technical expertise in all aspects of the application development and integration life cycle, ranging from initial analysis and design, through to development, installation, implementation, and post-production support.

I wanted to welcome Michael to the Blog and introduce him to all the other members, he is highly experienced and I’m sure his contributions will be very useful to readers. You can read Michael’s membership profile here or if you’re a member you can e-mail Michael via the profile e-mail console.

Tags

del.icio.us: author, Dataguard, michael+siebert, Oracle+Applications+Framework, Oracle+Applications+Manager, OracleAppsBlog, RAC,
technorati: author, Dataguard, michael+siebert, Oracle+Applications+Framework, Oracle+Applications+Manager, OracleAppsBlog, RAC,

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

OracleAppsBlog celebrates one year of existence

I had one of our readers remind me the other day that the blog has now been in existence for a year. Running the blog has proved to be very rewarding despite the time commitment required to keep it updated. Now that I’m settled in the UK (having moved from Botswana last year) and have broadband Internet access, I should be able to keep the blog more regularly updated. I’m hoping to write at least one post every week day i.e. five posts a week. Achieving this will easily be possible if I can find more blog authors. If you’re interested in becoming an author for this blog or know of anyone who could contribute then drop me a mail.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading the blog and participating in the discussions. Thanks also to the blog authors for their contributions. The blog now boasts a membership of just more than 1,000 and has had over 800,000 page views in the year. I have many plans for improvement over the next year including a complete site redesign - more on that in due course. Hopefully I will find the time to implement my list of enhancements. I’m really keen on obtaining feedback as to how you think the blog can improve so please add your comments to this post if you have any ideas or suggestions.

Tags

del.icio.us: applications, apps, blog,