OracleAppsBlog

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Blog Links - JD Edwards, Red Hat, Oracle vs SAP growth, Metalink and Release 12i

News on Applications Unlimited - Oracle’s plan to enhance JD Edwards, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications on an on-going basis. New release of JDE announced. Metalink user names changing to e-mail addresses. Oracle Applications License growth exceeds that of SAP and is Oracle looking to create their own Linux distro?

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/31 at 05:47 AM
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Friday, May 26, 2006

Oracle OpenWorld 2006 - OAUG Call for presentations now open

I got a mail from the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) the other day informing me of their call for papers for Oracle OpenWorld, being run at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA USA from October 22-26, 2006. I certainly plan to be at OpenWorld this year whether I’m presenting or not, so let me know if you’re going to be there and hopefully we can meet up.

The e-mail reads as follows:

The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) invites the family of Oracle Applications users to share its ideas, innovations and solutions during Oracle OpenWorld 2006 (OOW 06). All accepted presenters and co-presenters will receive a complimentary full-conference registration to Oracle OpenWorld 2006.

The OAUG call for presentations for OOW 06 is now open and the deadline for submission is June 11, 2006. Presentation abstracts can be submitted on the following topics:

  • Technology
  • Procurement and Advanced Planning
  • Order Management
  • Manufacturing
  • Construction
  • Service/Sales
  • Human Resources and Payroll
  • Financials
  • Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing
  • Public Sector
  • PeopleSoft
  • Siebel
  • Oracle Retail Users Group (ORUG)
  • Oracle HCM Users Group (OHUG)
  • PeopleSoft Distributors’ & Manufacturers’ Users Group (DMUG)

Submit your presentation abstract for consideration today!

For additional information regarding Oracle OpenWorld 2006, visit the OpenWorld 2006 Web site.

Important Paper Submission Dates and Deadlines
June 11, 2006: Presentation abstracts due
June 30, 2006: Accepted presenters notified by the OAUG

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/26 at 02:41 PM
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Manage your Oracle E-Business Suite Setup with ConfigSnapshot

ConfigSnapshot is a product we’ve recently bought and purchased in our organisation and I thought it would be useful to give it a mention on the blog. According to their site:

Effective management of set up data within the Oracle E-Business Suite is an essential requirement for all organizations. In reality, however, doing this can be a monumental task. At all stages of the Oracle E-Business Suite lifecycle (Implement - Support - Upgrade) it can prove to be a major headache.  The process is notoriously prone to human error and carries a significant overhead cost.

ConfigSnapshot, an easy-to-install, easy-to-use product enables organisations to simplify the entire process reducing the effort and cost, increasing accuracy at all stages, solve problems quicker and reduce human configuration error.

What you can do with the product?

  • Automatically generate set up documentation
  • Generate set up documentation for a single application environment
  • Compare operating unit / set of books / inventory organisation / business group set up within an environment
  • Compare set up between two application environments
  • Compare different versions of the applications
  • Identify set up changes that have occurred since a specific date
  • Identify changes made by a specific user
  • Review difficult to manage set up items in an easy to use format

What are the benefits of ConfigSnapshot?

ConfigSnapshot can help organisations at all stages of the E-Business Suite cycle by enabling you to take control of your application set up:

  • Dramatically reduce timeframes
  • Facilitate problem resolution
  • Increase accuracy
  • Reduce risk
  • Increase understanding
  • Simplify important housekeeping tasks
  • Enable time to be focussed on ensuring the set up is optimised for the business needs
  • Ensure both Oracle and internal standards have been followed correctly

We’ve found this product most useful at Thales and of course if you would like to see it in action then drop me a mail or speak to the team at ConfigSnapshot via their website.

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/26 at 02:02 PM
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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Oracle Apps Wiki

I’ve just upgraded to the latest release of ExpressionEngine (the software I use to run this blog) which has a new Wiki module. I’ve decided, therefore, to start up an Oracle Apps Wiki. I’m probably going to use the wiki to post draft articles and presentations so that I can get feedback and contributions from other members. More importantly, I’d like to have comments from readers as to how you think we could use the wiki. I’ve given access to members only as I don’t want too much wiki spam so if you’re a member feel free to play. The wiki help will explain how it should be used and there’s an RSS and Atom feed to subscribe to updates. Enjoy

The ExpressionEngine upgrade announcement reads as follows:

We are pleased to announce the release of ExpressionEngine 1.4.2, the EE Wiki module, and Forum Module 1.3.

ExpressionEngine 1.4.2 is primarily a maintenance release, resolving any bugs reported recently.  It also includes over 20 new features and enhancements.

The Wiki Module is a powerful wiki that integrates seamlessly with ExpressionEngine, providing a great solution for websites centered on community contributed content.  It is included free with the ExpressionEngine Personal and Commercial licenses.

The new Discussion Forum Module adds significant new features such as the ability to “split” or “merge” threads, “Show/Hide” capability, enhanced RSS support, and more.

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/25 at 03:40 PM
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Saturday, May 20, 2006

Oracle Apps Blog - 10 Questions

I got 10 interview questions from Marian Crkon of The Feature blog, which I’ve answered as follows:

1. How did you get involved with Oracle Applications?

My original profession was that of an Accountant and Auditor with Deloitte & Touche in Zimbabwe. I then got involved in developing Executive Information Systems (EIS) with the Microsoft Office Suite of Products with the Business Development Services (BDS) side of Deloittes. After Deloittes I moved to PricewaterhouseCoopers where I joined them as a BaaN consultant. With the collapse of BaaN, PwC decided to turn all BaaN consultants into Oracle consultants and I got sent on an Oracle Bootcamp at RPC Data in Botswana. I did pretty well on the Bootcamp and six months later ended up getting a job offer by the company that trained us. I’ve been implementing Oracle E-Business Suite ever since April 2001, 5 years now.

2. How are you involved with the applications now?

I’m implementing internally for Thales, a large defence company where I head up the Financials Team. We’re rolling out across the group and trying to come up with a standard implementation methodology as well configuration for all companies within the organisation.

3. What applications or functionality have you implemented recently?

All of the Financials modules really and I’m getting the chance to make use of some of the more advanced features which is pretty much why I came to the UK in the first place.

4. What is your favorite application or feature?

Probably Oracle Financial Analyzer which I haven’t touched in some time. It’s being replaced by Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB) but I haven’t had the chance to implement EPB yet or play with it that much.

5. If you could change one thing about the applications, what would it be?

I think it would be standardisation between how the different modules work. When you use the different modules you get the feeling they were all developed by different people who weren’t talking to each other (which is probably the case anyway). For example, lets say your are running the interface to General Ledger in Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable, or maintaining a Customer or Supplier in these modules, they are both done in completely different ways and the interface for performing these operations is different. I think there’s a lot more room to give various components of the application a consistent look and feel. I guess this will happen over time but considering all the acquisitions that Oracle is going through as well as what’s happening with Project Fusion it does make the whole exercise a little difficult.

6. What inspired you to start blogging about Oracle Applications?

Originally I started up RichardByrom.com to share tips and tricks about Oracle as well as just get more exposure as at that time I was working in Africa and considering a move to the United Kingdom or United States. I soon found that my site wasn’t getting as much traffic as expected and through trial and error discovered the secret to having a really good web site and getting more visitors was to have good content that changed on a frequent basis. I discovered Mark Rittman’s blog and realised that this would be a good way to build up some really good content and at the same time document solutions to problems encountered at work. The thing about having a blog is that the site administration side is a lot easier. With my first site I found that I spent more time administering all the pages and trying to optimise it for searches than actually getting around to building content. After investigating all the options of what I could use to blog and trying out a lot of different software and service providers I eventually decided to use ExpressionEngine, which I believe is the best blogging software about.

Blogging has enabled me to share what I am learning through implementation experience with a global audience as well as given me the ability to publicly document these learnings. I try as much as possible to use my blog as a knowledge management tool.

7. What are some of your favorite blogs (Oracle or otherwise)?

I read a couple of the main stream blogs and also have an Oracle Blogroll and Personal Blogroll that I read using FeedDemon, another excellent software product. The main blogs I read, apart from yours are:

8. Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

I like to blog about things I’m learning at work or how I solved a particular problem at work. I also like keeping track of any new products coming out so that I can understand the potential impact this will have on our customers and learn the new product as soon as possible.

9. How does blogging fit into your job or your business?

It’s helped me to connect with more people that I can obtain advice from or ask questions as well as provided an effective way of documenting everything I’m doing.

10. Where do see business blogging in three years from now? How will the Web 2.0 infiltrate the enterprise?

I think we’ll see more internal blogs by large software and IT companies such as Oracle, SAP and Microsoft as a means of documenting employee conversations as well as more blogs aimed at enhancing relationships with customers i.e. bringing in that element of a two way conversation with customers. Essentially organisations are going to have to be more open and engage with customers at earlier stages of product development.

From a consulting point of view they provide a very effective mechanism for sharing knowledge with customers as well as showing them that you have the knowledge in the first place. I’m sure we’re going to see more consultants using these as a medium for demonstrating, managing and sharing their knowledge.

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/20 at 06:27 AM
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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Oracle Appcasts

I talked about Oracle Podcasting in a previous post. They now have a more Applications oriented podcast available called Oracle Appcasts. I’ve been commuting quite a lot recently so stacked up these podcasts on my mp3 player and had a listen. I have to say I’m quite pleased with the offering. According to the Oracle site:

Oracle AppCasts are online audio interviews with Oracle customers, partners, product and industry experts, delivered via RSS podcasting or on your computer at www.oracle.com/appcasts.

A listing of what’s available to listen to now:

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/11 at 06:24 PM
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Mini MRP - Free BOM, Inventory Management and Stock Control Software

Noticed the MiniMRP site showing up in in my Google Ads, you might want to try out this software if you’re looking for a lightweight solution for Bill of Materials, Inventory Management and Stock Control.

According to the site:

miniMRP 2.1 for Windows 95/98/Me/2000 & XP is a new, easy to use inventory manager with some additional features usually only found in larger ERP/MRP systems. If you need more than a basic inventory system but don’t want the bother and associated running costs of an oversized ERP/MRP system then there’s a good chance that miniMrp 2.1 is all the software you’re looking for.

miniMRP may look like a small package but that’s because it doesn’t waste space on rarely used features that nobody uses anyway. Why maintain an overweight, over-complex ERP/MRP system when all you really want is something that will manage an unlimited number of inventory items and when required, build, manage and cost single and multilevel parts lists and Bill of Material of almost any number of levels or complexity.

Would be interested to see comments from anyone that’s used this product.

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/11 at 05:03 PM
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Oracle Workflow Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Came across Workflow Frequently Asked Questions the other day and thought I would give it a mention.

Apparently the objectives of the site are:

  • To provide a “one-stop shop” for Oracle Workflow related queries
  • Provide advice and guidance for best practice with Oracle Workflow development
  • Provide an easy to use area where questions can be asked about Oracle Workflow
  • Provide an area for knowledge sharing, through the use of a Wiki

Site background is as follows:

WorkflowFAQ is the brainchild of Matthew Searle.

Formerly a Principal Consultant for Oracle Corporation UK, Matt is a subject matter expert in Workflow development, particularly within developing custom Workflows within the Integration space. Matt is the author of Developing with Oracle Workflow, and is currently looking for a publisher for the book.

Matt’s online CV can be viewed on LinkedIN.

Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/11 at 02:20 PM
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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Big4Guy ERP Blog

Came across this new ERP blog the other day which is worth a read. Big4Guy is blog which has confessions, thoughts, musings and observations of a Big4Guy. The description of the blog states:

Big4Guy is an online resource where I will share with you the latest news, insights, knowledge and my experiences as a Big 4 consultant. I will discuss some of the important issues which organisations are facing today in the areas of information security, security and controls in SAP R/3, Oracle Applications, J.D.Edwards, Peoplesoft and various other ERP’s. I will also attempt to provide valuable resources for individuals interested in the CISA, CISM, CISSP, and various other security certifications considered essential for entry in any Big 4 accounting, auditing and consulting firms. You are invited to post your comments and viewpoints to my posts. I sincerely hope my online journal will be useful to everyone from a budding student to a professional in the accounting, auditing, management and consultancy professions.

Recent posts:

If you’re an Oracle fan, check out the Oracle Applications section of the blog.

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/10 at 07:56 PM
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New Oracle E-Business Suite Technology Blog

OK it’s not so new but I haven’t mentioned it yet on this blog and wanted to plug it. Steven Chan, Director, Applications Technology Integration has started an Oracle E-Business Suite Technology Blog which is really hot. Loads of interesting news and features and updated on a regular basis.

The about section of the blog states its:

An Oracle insider’s take on technology stack-related topics for the Oracle E-Business Suite, with sneak previews of upcoming releases, new product announcements, glimpses into the inner workings of Oracle Development, in-depth discussions of technology-stack architectures, and the occasional desupport notice.

Some recent posts from the Blog:

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Posted by Richard Byrom on 05/10 at 07:35 PM
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006

The Hurdles of Delivering Oracle Functional Training and How To Overcome Them

One of the most difficult tasks to execute in an implementation is transferring knowledge to users. Simple as it might seem to be, training and optimum knowledge transfer of a totally new system and operational concept is not that straight forward. So what can trainers and trainees do to reap the utmost benefit out of the training room?  This article looks at the hurdles one is likely to face during the training and cut- over stage of an implementation. It also applies to generic oracle training such as Oracle E-business suit boot camps. 

  • PC Skills and competency of users: On a number of implementations, more so government oriented implementations here in Africa, where I come from, a number of users will come for Oracle applications training a few weeks after learning how to use a computer for the first time in their lives. This greatly impedes the training progress and delivery of the course. Navigating the Oracle forms requires one to have adequate hands on and up to the minute PC skills. It’s imperative that a thorough Training Needs Analysis be carried out before, to ensure that all the trainees are well equipped with the required skills set to attend Oracle functional training.
  • For a first timer, the terminology of any ERP system is rather difficult and confusing, making the learning curve even much steeper than it ought to be. To overcome this, trainees must be encouraged to go through the glossary of each manual of the module they are attending, before or even as the training commences to help them demystify Oracle Applications . I find these glossaries very useful even in my day to day work. 
  • Inadequate prior preparation of trainees before the course is a great hindrance to effective and optimum delivery of training. It’s recommended that they read through the manuals at least before and after attending that module. Bear in mind that the trainer cannot give or explain to them everything that they need to know, so they should take their own initiative. More so it is recommended that they practice and play around with the system during their free time, say on weekends.  It helps them discover things on their own and get more comfortable and faster at navigation.
  • Trainees also have a habit of rushing through the labs and exercises without bothering to comprehend what they are doing, and understand the flow of the systems functionality. Usually they’ll just click away at navigation paths, to finish with the exercise and get on with the next topic. This is usually attributed to limited time allocated for the large volumes of course material to cover. It is therefore imperative that they put in extra time on their own, and go over these exercises, slowly referring to the Students guide, and reading over the theory to understand exactly what it is they are clicking and tabbing away at!
  • The different paces at which trainees pick up and learn can prove to be another frustration to the trainer. Some students are very fast and quick learners, whereas some others are slow. The evaluation from the former about the trainer will usually be very good, while from the latter is usually bad and discouraging. For that matter, it’s usually a good idea to sit the good trainees with the slow ones to pick them up when they get lost. This puts less pressure and inconvenience on the trainer having to go around attending to the individual problems of each student.
  • Distractions during training such as trainees reading news papers and magazines, or listening to music can be very frustrating to the trainer. You would be surprised at the number of students playing solitaire while you’re at the front of the class, labouring to explain what accounting flexfield structures are and how they are created. 

The above are the “Achilles’ heels” of the students or trainees. Now how about the trainers?

  • The greatest complaint I have heard from trainees about all the trainers for all the Oracle courses I have attended is that they are too fast! Trainers are usually flying through the material and usually leave the students more perplexed and confused than they came. It’s not entirely their fault though. The time allocated to covering each module is usually extremely limited, as opposed to the material they have to cover. Take an example of the General Ledger students guide, which has 1306 pages with severely brain-racking stuff, and only 8 days are allocated to it. So usually the trainers are forced to hurry through, so that they can cover as much ground as possible. However in my opinion, I think the optimum strategy is for the trainer to give the students a primer to the most important part of that particular module, ensure that they understand the basics thoroughly and then encourage them to read the rest on their own, off course with the trainer’s guidance. After all, experience shows that they usually come to grips with the stuff, after they are in a real work environment and can only at the most grasp about 40% of what they should know in class. It is also impossible for the trainer to teach everything. One trainer during a boot camp I attended decided to start us off slow, and with time increased his pace, and he pulled it off really well. This could be another approach.
  • The trainer’s inadequacy in explaining the system functionality in relation to the generic accounting processes, and the accounting effect of each process or task carried out by the student on the training instance is another hindrance to effective training delivery. Bear in mind that most attendants of these Oracle courses are accountants and therefore want to understand the accounting logic of the system as well. It is common practice for trainers to ask the students to create an invoice, after which they are asked to validate it and then run the payables accounting process without explaining the double entry effect on the accounts involved in the transaction upon completion of the process. Accountants are fanatical about the debit and credit gospel, so rather than only explaining how the system works, go are step further and explain the accounting concepts. It makes learning a lot easier and fun for them.
  • Whereas I overly harped on the string of inadequate preparation of the student’s, the lack of preparation on the trainer’s side can also prove to be disastrous or usually is for that matter. Trainers are usually experienced functional consultants who already know the generic functionality of many Oracle modules, so most of them think why go through the exercises before hand? The relevance of the trainer going through the exercises before delivering the training however experienced he/she is, is to discover any functionality flaws, due to bugs or wrong set-ups of the training instance, and resolve them, or find work arounds before the class. It often looks very awkward when the trainer is fumbling in front of the students, because something is not working the way it should or a concurrent process is completing with an error and he doesn’t know why. Not only does it look like he/she doesn’t know what they are doing, but it casts a darker shadow on the more pessimistic trainee’s belief in the ability of the system to work later on when it goes live.

It’s not all about the Trainer and the Trainees. There are other factors which can hamper a training session and these have to do with the training instance/environment itself.

  • The Oracle system is a web based system or operates on the Three- Tier architecture. If you have a class of 20 or 30 students, they’ll be working on different PC’s but ultimately on the same database at the same time! It’s therefore imperative that you plan the memory resources of the server on which the instance is hosted to avoid any disappointment. Just imagine 30 students creating an invoice and saving at the same time, or running a report at the same time. If you have poor memory resources, then the system will hang in most cases. Another work around is to ask the students to save their work or run concurrent processes in at least groups of 5 at a time, rather than all the 30 at the same time. Takes a bit of time, but at least the ultimate goal is obtained. It is also imperative to watch your concurrent managers. A training environment is different from a production environment due to the fact that many users are all doing the same thing at the same time.
  • A poor network in a training environment is a huge frustration to both the trainer and trainee. It’s very exasperating, when a student has laboured to get so far in performing a transaction on the system, then he or she gets an error that they have “lost the connection with the server”, and have to start again. Training deliverers should therefore plan adequately for consistent networks, and adequate bandwidth to ensure a smooth and reliable traffic flow.
  • Software bugs are another set-back to delivering smooth training. The trainer should have access to Metalink, so that in the event that this should happen, they can download the relevant patches, and fix the bugs. The trainer can later come back and demonstrate that functionality to the students after the issue has been resolved and tested. It’s not good practice for the trainer to keep ignoring the functionality that doesn’t work as it should, without attempting to resolve the issue.

Posted By Timothy Agaba – Uganda (East Africa)
The writer is a 23 year old Junior Functional Consultant with RPC Data Ltd. A premium Oracle partner based in Botswana, Zambia, South Africa and Uganda.

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Posted by Timothy Agaba on 05/09 at 07:42 PM
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Monday, May 08, 2006

ApplTop Solutions Offers 11i Productivity and Compliance Solutions Free of Charge

In a recent announcement, productivity and compliance software developer ApplTop Solutions Limited stated they are making their entire product suite, as well as a majority of the source code, available under their new ApplTop Free & Open Software License:


Under the new AFOS License, any organisation that is an “end user” of Oracle E-Business Suite (AFOS excludes competitors, service companies...etc) can download ApplTop Applications from the ApplTop website (http://www.appltop.com) and install and use all of our products without charge. Furthermore, 99% of our source code is also available so you can help expand and improve our products (or maybe learn from them) by being part of the ApplTop Community Enhancement (ACE) program.

All products offered to e-Business Suite 11i end users by ApplTop Solutions are now available as a single installation, and are collectively referred to as ApplTop Applications. The products within the suite have been designed specifically for the Oracle 11i e-Business Suite, which ensures seamless integration and the same look and feel of the end user interface. Products available within ApplTop Applications include:


Development Products for Oracle 11i 

ASL*Form – enables the rapid creation of application extensions.
ASL*Rapport – provides the ability to create fully-integrated, interactive reports.


Security and Compliance Products for Oracle 11i 

ASL*Secure – allows you to define security policies to ensure critical and sensitive data is fully secured.
ASL*Audit – allows you to define auditing rules to ensure critical and sensitive data is fully audited, maintaining accountability and integrity within the e-Business Suite.
ASL*Comply – enables you to quickly and easily define your Segregation of Duties (SOD) conflict matrix, at both the responsibility and function level, and then implement that matrix to automatically prevent, monitor and report on any SOD conflicts within the system.


Productivity Products for Oracle 11i 

ASL*Enquire – provides the user with a fully integrated and simple interface for executing SQL queries against the database.
ASL*Accelerate – allows you to enhance, personalize, and streamline the e-Business Suite screens without risk.


If you currently use or plan to use any of ApplTop’s current product offering, please share your experiences by posting a comment or opening a topic on the forum.

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Posted by Michael Siebert on 05/08 at 01:52 PM
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