OracleAppsBlog

A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Oracle OpenWorld 2017 Keynotes and Presentations

If you missed out on Oracle OpenWorld 2017 or simply want to catch up on the plethora of keynotes and sessions that were available then the session catalog is a good place to start as you can download presentations there. You can search by keyword or apply any of the following filters to view pertinent content: -

• Day
• Emerging Technologies for Business
• IT Infrastructure
• Intelligent Cloud Applications
• Integrated Cloud Platform
• SMB (Small to Medium Business)
• Session Type

Furthermore, there’s a pretty good library of on-demand keynotes where you can watch highlights or full length replays.

Personally, I’m going to start making my way through this content with a view to highlighting some of the best picks here.

Sunday, October 08, 2017

Learn Oracle Fusion through the Help

One of the challenges with learning Oracle Fusion is having access to an environment. I used to have Oracle E-Business Suite installed on a very powerful laptop. However, with cloud based solutions the likelihood of you be able to run such a system on your own hardware is very low. Regardless, the Oracle Fusion Help which is accessible online is very good starting point for persons just getting to know the system.

You’ll find help for each of the following modules

• Financials
• HCM
• Procurement
• Projects
• Risk Management
• Sales
• Service
• Supply Chain

Within each module you can see the help sorted by task and product. Furthermore there is role specific help and numerous videos

Happy Learning…….

Oracle Enterprise Repository for Fusion Applications

A very useful resource I’ve been making good use of for Fusion implementations is the Oracle Enterprise Repository for Fusion Applications. Examples of content provided include: -

• File-Based Data Import Templates
• Report Listings
• Roles
• SOAP Web Services
• Tables and Views
• Business Process Models
• Technology Audit
• Flexfields
• Lookups
• Profile Options
• Schedules Processes

All of this content is available across the following product areas: -

• Sales
• Global Human Resources
• Financials
• Procurement
• Project Portfolio Management
• Supply Chain Management

Furthermore the content provided spans various releases, namely Release 11, Release 12 and Release 13 (update 17b).

I hope you find this a useful resource for your Fusion projects.

Saturday, October 07, 2017

Oracle Fusion Business Process Models

At the inception of any enterprise software implementation one of the activities should be to determine what the new business processes will be. On a recent Oracle Fusion implementation I got the chance to become familiar with the process models that should be adopted. Fortunately, at the outset, Oracle provides standard business process models for the following areas

• Enterprise Planning and Performance Management
• Marketing
• Sales
• Order Fulfilment
• Supply Chain Planning
• Product Management
• Production
• Procurement
• Materials Management and Logistics
• Project Management
• Financial Control and Reporting
• Cash and Treasury Management
• Asset Lifecycle Management
• Enterprise Information Management
• Workforce Deployment
• Workforce Development
• Compensation Management

Starting with a collection of standard business process models allows you to compare with existing processes and then determine what gaps there may be.

According to the Oracle Fusion Help

Business process modelling is one of the driving forces in the design of Oracle Fusion Applications. This modelling carries through to almost every aspect of Oracle Fusion Financials. The Business Process Models (BPMs) manage the deployment, upgrade, integration, and configuration of the product. Oracle Fusion documentation follows the process models very closely. Roles Based Access security is also tied closed to the BPM Model, so that tasks and activities are assigned appropriately. Messaging and online help are arranged along BPM lines. Field support uses the BPM models to organize their efforts to examine and resolve issues.

The Business Process Model has five levels:

• Level zero (L0): A specific industry organized around raising capital, executing a business model, and reporting the resultant income to shareholders. For example, Automotive, Communications, Education, Healthcare, and Utilities, to name a few of the approximately thirty identified industries.
• Level one (L1): A specific business process area.
• Level two (L2): A specific business process
• Level three (L3): A specific activity.
• Level four (L4): Specific tasks involved in an activity.

Having business processes with varying levels means you can start with high level processes and then drill down to lower levels of detail as you require. Furthermore each level will relate back to the hierarchical employee levels in an organisation. An example of how the process levels might look is outlined in Figure 1.

Figure 1: An example of Oracle Fusion Business Process Model Levels

The process flows that Oracle provide can be downloaded at Oracle Support Doc ID 1542019.1. The diagrams are pitched at L3 and are typical swim lane Visio documents as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: An example of an L3 Process Flow Diagram for Ledger Close

I’ve also prepared a process flow listing which you can also download.

Oracle Unified Method (OUM) for Cloud Application Services

Having used many of Oracle’s project management methodologies over the past two decades of implementing it I’m always interested to see what their latest offerings have in store. More recently I’ve been implementing their Fusion applications so have taken a natural interest in Release 6.4 of Oracle Unified Method which has evolved to include an approach for their Cloud Application Services (CAS).

Suzanne Armstrong highlights the key features on the OUM blog as follows

OUM release 6.4 provides support for Application Implementation, Cloud Application Services Implementation, and Software Upgrade projects as well as the complete range of technology projects including Business Intelligence (BI), Enterprise Security, WebCenter, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Application Integration Architecture (AIA), Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Integration, and Custom Software. Detailed techniques and tool guidance are provided, including a supplemental guide related to Oracle Tutor and UPK.

This release features:

• Cloud Home Page – Added to Highlight Cloud Support in OUM
• CAS OUM (Cloud Application Services OUM) [previously OUM Cloud Application Services Implementation Approach] – Updated Task and Activity/Task Group Identifiers, Updated Terminology
• Operate Focus Area – Added to Provide Visibility into Services Offered by Oracle Managed Cloud Services (OMCS)
• Establish Governance Activity [previously Complete Project Management Plan] – Renamed and reframed to place greater emphasis on its main objective, which is to establish project governance by engaging in a dialogue to collaboratively define the processes which will be used to govern and control the project from start to finish. This approach recognizes that the delivery of documentation, while necessary and important, should be the by-product of rather than the driver for conversation.
• Project Management Plan (PMP) template [previously Project Management Framework] – Developed to streamline the process for documenting project governance. The BT.070 task was renamed to Create Project Management Plan and the guidance was updated. All related tasks that contribute to the PMP were revised to refer to the new PMP template eliminating the prior individual templates. The PMP should be used to document the processes that govern the project.  Once defined, the PMP will remain relatively fixed and only require updates if there are material changes to the governance.
• Acceptance Certificate [SM.040] Updated and Delivery Note [SM.040] Added - Clarified that acceptance, agreement, and acknowledgment should be secured using one of these templates.  Removed signature boxes / sign-off pages and project manager countersignature from all templates.
• Risk Management Process, Tasks, and Templates – Streamlined Flow and Clarified Content

Bruce Dehner also has a really good overview presentation which talks about the Cloud Application Services Implementation Approach. It contains a pictorial view of the key activities at each implementation phase which also outlines who is responsible for doing what.

The Oracle OUM Partner Knowledge Zone has an abundance of further information and resources. Here you can download OUM collateral, obtain training and certification and view webcasts. Certainly I’m looking forward to making use of the templates and deliverables in my existing and forthcoming implementations.