OracleAppsBlog

Monday, February 27, 2006

ERP implementation - Critical Success Factors

I discovered a good blog the other day entitled In Search of Business Value & ROI: Achieving IT Benefits Realization

The blog provides discussion and insights on how to realize measurable IT business benefits and ROI. Topics include performance measurement, process improvement, organizational change management, vendor selection, and project planning for large IT or ERP projects

It’s authored by Eric Kimberling whose bio looks as follows:

Eric Kimberling has over 10 years of experience devoted to the field of IT Benefits Realization, including performance measurement, process improvement, and organizational change management. He is the President and founder of Panorama Consulting Group LLC, a US-based company that provides IT and ERP Benefits Realization consulting to international companies. Panorama Consulting Group also helps clients with ERP vendor selection, project planning, merger integration, third-party quality assurance, and strategy alignment.

Some recent posts from the Blog:

• Establishing ERP and IT Performance Measures
• Pitfalls of the ERP Business Case
• Ready When You Are: Assessing ERP Readiness
• How to Increase ERP Success

In particular I wanted to highlight the post on How to Increase ERP Success. It provides these 7 points:

1. Focus on business processes and requirements first
2. Focus on achieving a healthy ERP ROI (Return on Investment), including post-implementation performance measurement
3. Strong project management and resource commitment
4. Commitment from company executives
5. Take time to plan up front
6. Ensure adequate training and change management
7. Make sure you understand why you’re implementing ERP

All good tips. To make it even simpler I believe that successful ERP implementation is achieved when the people, processes and technology work in harmony to achieve the goals of the organisation.

Related Entries on this blog

• ERP Implementations and Contract Negotiations - Top 12 Tips
• ERP Software Comparison - Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft, Microsoft and Siebel

Tags

del.icio.us: business, ERP, implementation, IT, ROI, success,
technorati: business, ERP, implementation, IT, ROI, success,

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Oracle Internet Expenses Setup Steps

It’s a Feature has a useful How to, for configuring Oracle iExpenses.

According to the Oracle Internet Expenses Site:

Oracle Internet Expenses is a travel and entertainment solution that streamlines and automates travel spend management. The result: a dramatic and immediate return on investment with direct impact on the bottom line.

The Key Steps Mentioned in the It’s a Feature blog entry are:

1. PA: Enable Project Expenditure Types for Expense Report Entry
2. AP: Define Expense Report Templates
3. AP: Define Financials Options > Accounting
4. AP: Establish Multiple Currencies Setup
5. AP: Defining Expense Report Options
6. AP: Assign Signing Limits
7. OIE: Define iExpense Policies
8. OIE: Enable Expense Allocations
9. OIE: Define Receipt Notification Rule Set
10. OIE: Assign Receipt Notification Rule Set
11. OIE: Define Mileage Rate Schedule
12. AP: Complete Mileage Expense Type Definition in Payables
13. SA: Define Profile Options
14. WF: Customize Project Expense Report Account Generator
15. GL: Assign Your Customized Project Expense Report Account Generator to your chart of accounts
16. WF: Customize the Internet Expenses Workflow
17. WF: Define Workflow Notification Performers
18. Change the Find Approver Method
19. Personalize Expense Report Submission Instructions
20. Compile the Expense Types Descriptive flexfield!
21. Enable the Display of Project and Task
22. Other Configuration Considerations

Tags

del.icio.us: expenses, iExpenses, internet, oracle,
technorati: expenses, iExpenses, internet, oracle,

Oracle to buy communications infrastructure software vendor HotSip

According to a recent Press Release:

HotSip is a provider of telecommunications infrastructure software and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) enabled applications for IP telephony, presence, messaging and conferencing on new converged networks. “The addition of HotSip’s technology will allow Oracle to build on its leadership in middleware and in carrier-grade communications infrastructures,” said Thomas Kurian, senior vice president, Oracle Server Technologies.

This is Oracle’s 16th acquisition in just under 14 months. I assume we will see some sort of  “fusion” with Oracle Collaboration Suite.

Tags

del.icio.us: collaboration, Communications, hotsip, Infrastructure, oracle, Software , suite,
technorati: collaboration, Communications, hotsip, Infrastructure, oracle, Software , suite,

Oracle Apps Blog ranked in Top British Blogs

I noticed a couple of inbound links coming from the Top Blogs listing on the British Bloggers Directory. To my surprise I’m listed as number 12 – I’ve taken a screen shot of it as I’m not sure I’ll be there for long. There’s probably a lot of other Oracle and British Blogs that get more traffic than I do but apparently the ranking is based on your Technorati rating and mine is sitting at 53,391 at the moment.

Sitting in the top 10:

1. Girl with a one-track mind.
2. - Take your Medicine
3. little red boat
4. A Welsh View
5. Philobiblon
6. Iain Dale’s Diary
7. boakes.org
8. Pepys’ Diary
9. Europhobia
10. ShaolinTiger - Kung-fu Geekery

A couple of other sites I recognise, having met the authors at various events in the UK:

Perfect Path – Lloyd Davis
A PR Guru’s Musings – Stuart Bruce
NevOn – Neville Hobson

Update at 27th Feb 2005

Obviously the bit of blogging I did over the weekend improved my rankings, I’m now sitting at number 5.

Tags

del.icio.us: apps, blog, blogs, british, oracle, technorati,
technorati: apps, blog, blogs, british, oracle, technorati,

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Tips for a successful Compliance and Governance Initiative

The following seven steps were noted in an article entitled A 4-Step Blueprint for Achieving Sustainable Compliance by Neetin Datar of SAP, published in SAPInsider.

1. Think strategic, not tactical
2. Think processes, not projects
3. Think enterprise wide, not in silos
4. Focus on business value, not just on cost of compliance
5. Think company DNA, and make compliance part of its core
6. Think agility and aim for a flexible compliance architecture. Technology is an imporant enabler of data quality, accountability and efficiency.
7. Make compliance repeatable, scalable and cost-effective

Good points. More on Oracle’s Strategy for Corporate Governance and Compliance stategy here.

Tags

del.icio.us: compliance, governance, oracle,
technorati: compliance, governance, oracle,

Introduction to Project Mendocino

Last night I read an interesting article in the SAPInsider Magazine which described what’s happening with Project Mendocino. 

SAP Insider is the premiere source of information on product and service initiatives coming from SAP and its partners. The magazine provides SAP customers with strategic direction and practical advice to make the most of their investment in SAP technology.

The article by Dennis Moore – General Manager, Emerging Solutions PTU, SAP Labs, LLC is entitled SAP as Easy as Opening E-mail? Introducing Project Mendocino 

It describes how Project Mendocino links mySAP ERP business functions to Microsoft Office Applications and how Desktop applications will trigger transactions in the ERP system.

The paper states that in its first release, Project Mendocino will support four common business scenarios:

1. Time and Billable meetings management – Transferring information from an electronic personal calendar to a company timesheet or accounting form is one of the most cumbersome tasks. With Project Mendocino’s Time Management Capability, information collected in Outlook Calendar can be directly fed into mySAP ERP.

2. Budget Monitoring – Tracking budgets and acting upon changes in status is one of the most powerful features for managers in Project Mendocino. Users can configure Outlook using Project Mendocino to alert them of financial conditions affecting a budget, but instead of getting a text e-mail with a link to another system, the user can get the context they need and access to the actual business processes that will enable them to act upon the alert in the e-mail itself.

3. Team and Organization Management Processes – Team Management, although not a replacement for SAP Manager Self-Service, will make many common HR tasks possible via Microsoft Outlook. Users can use Outlook contacts to retrieve up to date information about employees, open positions and organizational structures.

4. Leave Management Requests – Planning time off from work usually requires users to jump from one calendar to another, creating a paper chain that can leave calendars out of sync. With Project Mendocino’s Leave Management Capability, users can user their Outlook Calendar to schedule leave requests and the approval workflow can all be contained in Exchange.

Tags

del.icio.us: mendocino, mySAP, project, project+mendocino, SAP, SAPInsider,
technorati: mendocino, mySAP, project, project+mendocino, SAP, SAPInsider,

Oracle Workflow Overview

I came across a rather nice Oracle workflow overview recently.

It states how Oracle Workflow delivers a complete workflow management system that supports business process based integration.  Its technology enables modeling, automation, and continuous improvement of business processes, routing information of any type according to user-defined business rules. The following aspects of workflow are discussed:

• Oracle Workflow Enabling E-Business Integration
• Designing Business Processes for Change
• Business Process Based Integration
• Accurate Information to All the Right People
• Web Administration and Review of Business Processes
• Reduced Costs of Change and Ownership With Workflow Processing

Tags

del.icio.us: oracle, workflow,
technorati: oracle, workflow,

Subscribe to IT, Business and Engineering Trade Publications and Magazines for FREE

TradePub offers you free subscriptions and dowloads to a number of computer, business and engineering trade publications, magazines and documents.

Of course, this only really applies to the US. However, the Geography section of their site indicates which subscriptions are available internationally.

A quick Oracle search reveals the following magazines and white papers are available:

• DM Review
• Database Trends and Applications
• Oracle – Strategies for SOA Success
• Oracle Magazine
• Informatica - Putting Metadata to Work to Achieve the Goals of Data Governance
• Informatica - Implementing or Upgrading SAP? Don’t Forget the Data
• Informatica - A Strategic Foundation to Maximizing the Value of Enterprise Data
• Informatica - Data Migration Solution Brief
• Informatica - Addressing Data Quality at the Enterprise Level: Six Questions to Ensure Enterprise High-Quality Data
• Informatica - Enterprise Data Integration in Financial Services: Leveraging the Value of Your Data Assets

TradePub also has a blog which keeps you up to date with any new publications and white papers being released. 

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to Oracle Profit Magazine (a less technically oriented Oracle magazine) for free internationally!

Tags

del.icio.us: blog, informatica, IT, magazine, oracle, profit, publication, technology, tradepub,
technorati: blog, informatica, IT, magazine, oracle, profit, publication, technology, tradepub,

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

More Oracle Execs doing the blogging thing

The list now looks as follows:

1. Jesper Andersen – Senior Vice President of Application Strategy, where he is responsible for the overall product strategy and direction for Oracle’s business applications.
2. John Hall – Senior VP of Oracle University, the education and training division of Oracle.
3. Luiz Meisler – Senior Vice President for Oracle Latin America and serves on Oracle’s Executive Management Committee.
4. Wim Coekaerts – Principal Member of Technical Staff, Linux Kernel Group, Corporate Architecture for Oracle Corporation.
5. Lenley Hensarling – Vice president and General Manager for Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne product line.
6. Scott Rae – VP of Business Assessment and Audit at Oracle, where he is responsible for global internal audit and business assessment services.
7. Don Deutsch – Vice President of Standards Strategy and Architecture for Oracle Corporation.
8. Christophe Job – Vice President of Application Development Tools at Oracle Corporation.
9. John Schiff – Vice President and General Manager of JD Edwards World for Oracle
10. Sergio Giacoletto – Executive Vice President of Oracle Corporation, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and serves as a member of Oracle’s Executive Management Committee.
11. Doug Kennedy – Vice President of Global Alliances and Channels at Oracle Corporation.
12. John Wookey – Senior Vice president of Applications Development, responsible for the strategic direction and development of JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Oracle business applications.

Nice to see some JD Edwards contributions in the mix and that Oracle finally caught up with SAP in this area.

Tags

del.icio.us: blogging, executive, oracle,
technorati: blogging, executive, oracle,

It’s a feature - a new Oracle Applications Blog

I’ve come across a few new Oracle and Peoplesoft blogs recently, check out SmartDB Blog, Extra Hot, The Oracle Fusion Blog, Peoplesoft Corner and CRM Blog

In particular I wanted to mention It’s a Feature, another Oracle Apps Blog, which has some good content and is updated regularly.

Marian Crkon write’s in the About Us section of the blog as follows:

It’s not a bug - it’s a feature!

This is a new web log about implementing and using Oracle ERP Applications. It’s a Feature! is here to provide an alternative platform for independent, in-depth reviews and analysis of current Oracle Applications releases and features; an opportunity to share knowledge and resources, voice opinions and show a little attitude! Where else can you do that?

I plan to seek out a diverse group of Oracle professionals - users, consultants, managers, business analysts with a lot of Oracle expertise and something interesting to say who are passionate about the applications and motivated to share their experiences.

I want this site to be about the functionality (not just technology) of Oracle Applications. The clients keep reminding me they do not care about how it’s done, but rather that it is done right. I want this blog to be useful to other people in the Oracle community. I want to provide a productive feedback to Oracle program managers and developers who design the applications. I want to give a “second opinion” for clients who buy them, a sounding board for consultants and business analysts who implement them, and last but not least, a valuable resource for users who use them every day. I promise no sales pitches, no bragging, no censorship, only practical advice.

A couple of recent entries from the blog:

1. CRMBuyer.com’s Survey of SAP Customers
2. Oracle Applications Day Continues in Select Cities
3. OAUG Releases Skills Marketplace
4. CIO Article About Fusion and SOA
5. Oracle To Lay Off About 2,000 Employees
6. Oracle Has Its Eyes on Open Source Competitors
7. Are You Eligible for Oracle Fusion Upgrade?
8. Conversations with iExpenses Users from Avenue A | Razorfish
9. Do Not Forward Oracle Notifications from Outlook!
10. Oracle Applications Security Is Changing in Project Fusion

Marian is interviewing me over Skype next Tuesday and I’m sure the notes from that conversation will be posted on this blog.

Tags

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

Join the OracleAppsBlog Frappr Group

I recently created an OracleAppsBlog Frappr Group to map readers of the blog and would like to invite you all to add yourself to the map. 

Frappr is a google maps “mashup” which allows groups to be created and mapped. There are a variety of other services attached incorporated into this site such as photos and forums. You can join the group directly or open an individual account and associate it with the group. Enjoy!!

Tags

del.icio.us: apps, blog, frappr, google, maps, mashup, oracle, oracleappsblog,
technorati: apps, blog, frappr, google, maps, mashup, oracle, oracleappsblog,

Saturday, February 18, 2006

ClustrMaps analysis tool tracks Oracle Apps Blog Traffic

I have to rave about this really cool web site traffic analysis tool I’ve just added to the site . ClustrMaps graphically depicts where in the world your traffic is coming from by means of clustered dots on the world map.

If you take a look down the left hand pane of this site you’ll see the OracleAppsBlog ClustrMap which displays up to date traffic information for the blog. Clicking on the map will take you to a bigger picture of this blogs traffic distribution around the planet. Here’s an example of the world wide traffic distribution since I put the cluster map on the blog. It shows a heavy amount of traffic coming from the United States, Europe, United Kingdom and India which doesn’t suprise me at all since these are pretty much the most wired or internet savvy nations in the world.

I’ve subscribed to ClustrMaps Plus which for a small monthly fee provides unlimited archives of old maps and allows you to zoom to continents. Below is an example of a drill down I performed to the United Kingdom traffic information. Talking of Stats, you’ll find further traffic analysis information for this blog at Statcounter, MyBlogLog and Site Meter

Tags

del.icio.us: analysis, cluster, clustr, clustrmaps, maps, mybloglog, site+meter, statcounter, traffic,
technorati: analysis, cluster, clustr, clustrmaps, maps, mybloglog, site+meter, statcounter, traffic,

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Oracle Buys Open Source Software Company Sleepycat

Oracle today announced that it has added Berkeley DB to its embedded database product line which includes Oracle Lite for mobile devices and Oracle TimesTen for high performance in-memory database applications.

In this press release: Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president, Oracle Database Server Technologies stated:

Sleepycat’s products enhance Oracle’s market-leading database product family by offering enterprise-class support to customers who need to embed a fast, reliable database at a lower cost.

In a related blog entry, Mike Olson CEO of SleepyCat also provides some insight into the acquisition.

Tags

del.icio.us: blog, database, lite, mike+olson, open+source, oracle, sleepycat, software, timesten,
technorati: blog, database, lite, mike+olson, open+source, oracle, sleepycat, software, timesten,

Connecticut State Governments integrated Financial, HR and Payroll System

I came across the Core CT site today and found it to be a site with a wealth of information relating to systems implementation.

According to the site:

Core-CT is the system that has replaced Connecticut state government’s core financial and administrative computer systems including central and agency accounting, accounts payable, payroll, time and attendance, worker’s compensation, personnel, and other legacy systems. For years before Core-CT was implemented, these systems were plagued by poor integration, redundant data entry, and time-wasting reconciliation. They were written in a number of different languages, resided on many platforms, and included numerous databases. This older technology was not adaptable to workflow and e-commerce.

The state’s central administrative agencies - the Office of the State Comptroller, the Departments of Administrative Services and Information Technology, and the Office of Policy and Management - banded together to undertake the transition to a new, integrated system encompassing virtually all major administrative functions and all executive-branch state agencies. The system uses enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to tie together all functions, using an integrated suite of software applications, a common database, and a unified technical architecture.

The Core-CT fact sheet outlines what modules and systems were implemented as follows:

Core-CT is Connecticut state government’s central financial and administrative computer system. Using PeopleSoft’s ERP suite, the system encompasses central and agency accounting functions, including modules for general ledger, purchasing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, assets, and inventory, with projects and contracts scheduled to be implemented in 2006; as well as PeopleSoft’s Human Resource Management System, with modules for payroll, time and labor, human resources, and benefits. Core-CT covers all these functions for executive branch agencies, and some of its functions are also used by the Judicial Branch, the General Assembly, and state institutions of higher education. In addition, Core-CT uses PeopleSoft’s EPM ad-hoc reporting function to allow queries on its vast database.

Currently, the system uses PeopleSoft Financials version 8.4 but will be upgrading to version 8.8 around July 2006; HRMS uses PeopleSoft version 8.3 and will be upgrading to 8.9 around May 2006. Some 7,600 state workers use Core-CT. They pay the state’s bills in a $15.3 billion annual budget (fiscal year 2006), including the payroll for all state employees.

Launched in 2003, Core-CT is based at the Department of Information Technology’s East Hartford, CT office; it is managed jointly by the Office of the State Comptroller, the Department of Administrative Services, and DOIT; these agencies hold the statutory authority for the system’s functions.  Approximately 150 people work in the development and maintenance of Core-CT.

Other interesting areas of the site include the Presentation Library, Document Library and Chart of Accounts Documentation. I also thought the catalog of online financial reports provides a good example of how reports should be documented.

Tags

del.icio.us: connecticut, core, ct, financial, government, HR, payroll, peoplesoft, state, system,
technorati: connecticut,